I recently visited Phoenix Park, Pyeongchang, South Korea for a long weekend of skiing with a fairly large group of friends over the Lunar New Year Holiday. Understandably, the resort was quite crowded during this national holiday, but I found all facilities to be adequate.
Accommodations:
We stayed in the youth hostel with eight bunkbeds per room (see photo). Linens were provided and the room was spacious and clean with an excellent view of the slopes. (Rooms on the other side of the hall had a view of the parking lot). There were two problems with the room: a) we could hear the music and announcements blaring from the loudspeakers all day and well into the night (but as most of us were on the slopes during this time, it was not a huge problem), and b) the ondol (floor heat) was turned up very high and we could not adjust the temperature. We ended up sleeping with a window open just to make the room temperature tolerable and it was about -15 C outside!
Rental Facilities:
The resort had a wide array of rental facilities, but a limited number of sizes. The majority of our group were westerners and many of the men had trouble renting boots large enough. I am a fairly tall woman and very experienced skiier, but was given very short skis. No questions were asked regarding my height or my skiing ability, both important factors when sizing skis. It seems they "eyeballed" my height and assumed my ability, as a result, my skis were much too short.
Slopes:
The slopes were decent, but nothing overly special. I was expecting more, given that this resort will host some of the 2018 Olympic Skiing events, but was disappointed. They had a wide variety of beginner slopes, which I tried out with a less experienced friend and a fair number of intermediate and advanced slopes, including a ski/snowboard jump run and an extreme park with a halfpipe for snowboarders. I was hoping for more varied runs on advanced slopes, but found most of them to simply be of a steep grade. There are plenty of lifts though and the gondola (included in the lift ticket price) provides a beautiful view of the mountain and resort. LIft tickets prices were quite reasonable and the hours were wonderful. You could ski all night, with the slopes only closing at 4 am for grooming and reopening at 8 am. They did overgroom (in my opinion), grooming 3 times a day. The grooming left the slopes a little icy in the immediate after grooming time but the quality of the powder soon remedied that situation. There was very little blown snow from what I could tell. One thing I didn't like was they only had pay ski storage on the resort. To keep your skis while you ate or stepped off the slopes, it cost 1,000 won. The storage is unlocked, however, so many people just put their skis there without locking/paying, especially if they were only going to be leaving them for a little while.
Dining:
The on site Cafeteria is delicious and there are many restaurants and snack shops within the facility. Because all parts of the facility are connected by a series of underground tunnels, it is very easy to travel within the resort. One of my favorite features was a series of snack shops immediately at the bottom of the slopes with picnic tables. That way you could grab a quick snack or hot drink and get back on the slopes without having to remove your gear! The Cafeteria serves a variety of Korean dishes and provides several varieties of kimchi. There is also a delicious Asian restaurant on the first floor of the Hotel...if you go there, definitely try the salmon sushi, it was some of the best I've ever eaten! There are also a number of restaurants across the street from the resort, including a delicious galbi/bulgogi restaurant.
Entertainment:
Phoenix Park is very much a "family oriented" park and you can have trouble finding alcohol on the resort. There is only one convenience store on site that sells it (beer and soju only) and many of the entertainment facilities do not serve it. In the Center Plaza area, there are many attractions including bowling, a games arcade, shopping, ice cream, and noraebong (karaoke). The attractions were very crowded and there was about a 3 hour wait for bowling, but we were there on a holiday weekend.
Water Park:
The Blue Canyon Water Park was disappointing by Western standards and overpriced. We did get a significant discount (regular price is 65,000 won, I think) because of our group size, our Korean translator guide, and the fact we only planned to be there for a few hours so it made it worth it. There are only two waterslides open in the winter and they are very simple slides. There is a wave pool for kids and several hot tubs, along with an indoor/outdoor lazy river section and spa like tubs. The best part of this experience was using the VERY strong jets in the spa tubs to relax the muscles after three days of skiing. Some of them were strong to the point of almost painful, but they did work out the kinks! The main part of the park is co-ed and bathing suits are required, but within each same-sex locker area was a jimjabong section (nude) that included a traditional hot tub, three dipping pools of varying temperatures with infusions (rose, chrysanthimum, and iris), a steam room, and sauna. Ample lockers, dressing space, and vanity mirrors are provided, as are blow dryers and towels. If you can get a discount, I highly recommend Blue Canyon.
Overall, we had a great trip! The travel time from BuPyeong (near Incheon) was reasonable and the experience was worth the trip. I will be back soon!
