Suwon, South Korea Hotel Rooms at the Independent

We loved our stay. It was a small apartment, with bedroom, office, living/kitchen, couch,a great TV, free internet, overhead lights and lamps for any lighting level, and windows that open. The kitchen had full cooking facilities, a hot pot, big refrigerator, and a small laundry machine. There were a skillet, saucepans, dishes, cutlery, and glassware. They even had dish soap and laundry soap in the kitchen. A really nice feature is the built-in water filtration system that gives you good water without buying bottled. It had a small dining table and two chairs as well. The bathroom was a reasonable size, with a great shower and full size towels, along with big bottles of shampoo and shower gel, and a hair dryer--also multiple lighting options. The bedroom had a lot of storage space, windows that open, good room-darkening drapes, and a wall mounted alarm clock/lighting system that we didn't have time to figure out. The air conditioner was excellent, with wall or remote control options. The bed was very comfortable, with nice bedding and good pillows. Even though the street below was fairly busy , once we closed the windows noise was minimal--we didn't hear any from within the building. The price included a small but good breakfast buffet; it had coffee, juice, cereals, bread, scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, ham, bacon, yogurt, fresh and canned fruits...soup, rice, seaweed, etc. The checkin and checkout were a snap, and they had a secure parking facility.

It's a short walk from Suwon station in the nightlife district. A number of saunas (jjimjilbangs), restaurants, convenience stores and PC rooms are also nearby. The front desk clerk spoke no English, and asked for a voucher that I was never issued, but this was not a problem. They handed me my key anyway and I found my room. The room was quite clean. There was free tea, instant coffee and juice in the mini-fridge. A nice heated mattress, huge TV, and garish pink and red sheets. There was a Korean style bathroom with a shower fixture but no stall and a bidet toilet that I couldn't quickly figure out how to work. This is a Korean love hotel. For those of you who are not familiar this is not a disparaging comment. Korea is a somewhat conservative country socially and many young people live with their parents until they are married. This creates an industry for clean and discrete hotels which are also a great bargain for travelers who want affordable comfort and privacy. They are some of the only private accommodations available in some areas. It is actually a real treat to be able to book one on Expedia.

Apparently a converted "love hotel" but overall an excellent choice. Room was spacious with great AC (beware other hotels with shared AC in the summer). Free water, and other non-alcoholic beverages, were provided at checkin as well as with every room servicing. Laundry service made a week long stay much easier. From ICN take bus to ibis hotel and walk 12,000 KRW). The mattresses were too firm by European or American standards but that is to be expected in all of Asia. Breakfast was not great, but not bad (not comparable to Scandinavian hotels for example); it was on par with any standard US hotel chain breakfast. Free scheduled shuttle to Samsung (~4000 KRW taxi if you skip the shuttle). ~5400 KRW taxi to Suwon station (~2000 KRW train ticket to Seoul station, but 45m). When staying in this area I will book here again. Related: rent a phone with unlimited data for ~5000 KRW per day at ICN (guaranteed you will not regret it).

We stayed at Hotel Central for two week while visiting relatives and seeing the sights of Suwon. We set out each day for a new adventure. Hotel Central is the perfect location to set out for exploring and discovering "off the beaten path" treasures of the beautiful city. the location is walking distance to the Hwaseong Fortress, Haenggung Palace, and the Suwon Cultural Center. Each morning we had breakfast and enjoyed conversation with staff about our days plans, Korean cultural, and of course baseball. The breakfast was wonderful and included fresh fruit from local markets as well as delightful "breakfast" kimchi, rice, vegetables, and healthy broth. The manager check with us on our way out to ensure we had good information regarding transportation and connections. Our room was made up fresh each day and included fresh water bottles, tea pot, and comfortable beds.

Royal Suite was a good price, so used that instead of going to other international chains (like Ramada or Ibis) where the costs are more like $200. Very good. Two bad things : no bus stop from Incheon or Gimpo; and breakfast is subpar. Other than that, pretty nice. Staff speak good Japanese and good English. The best part is the wired internet available in the room.

Our choice to stay in Suwon instead of Seoul enabled us to see more places and experience a place with more local flare and less foreigners. The Hotel staff were very accommodating, even with the language barrier they did their best to make our stay very pleasant. They offered us another room on the quieter side of the hotel even though the room we were in was just fine.