MelBen Honeymoon - Accommodation in Seoul, Korea
5:35:00 PMDay 3 (cont'd) - 27 Oct 2016
We arrived at Seoul Gimpo Airport from our 3D2N Jeju trip via Jeju Air at about 8:00pm due to our flight delay. Thankfully it did not take long to clear customs and collect our luggage bags.
Because we were staying in Seoul for 11 nights, the main factors when researching for our accommodation in Seoul would be: price and proximity to a subway station. Our budget was at max SGD150 per night and we were alright with staying in a 3 or 4 star hotel.
Then we also explored the idea of checking out AirBnb as well and Ben's korean friend recommended a listing to us, which we highly recommend if:
1) it's your first time visiting Seoul
2) Busan is part of your itinerary
3) you are a couple or in a group of 3-4 people
4) you are staying for more than a week...
Ok our reasons will be endless and read on to find out why!
As it was our first time booking our accommodation via Airbnb, we were a little skeptical if the place looked like what was shown in the pictures but we assure you that it did! When we got to the apartment, it was 9:45pm (our flight got delayed), past our allowed check in time. But the owner, Mijin, still received us from the ground floor and guided us through our room.
We didn't have any trouble getting to the unit from the airport because of the detailed instructions she provided us (pictures and words) prior to arriving in Seoul. We were given 2 ways to get there, either by subway (approx. SGD2 per pax and 25min duration) or taxi (approx. SGD40 for the ride and 35 - 45min duration) and we chose the first option since it was so much cheaper and took a shorter time!
Getting from Gimpo Airport to our Accommodation:
Purchase T money card to take subway
1. Airport Railroad Station
2. Go down to B3
3. Take train (all stops) to Seoul Station
4.Use stairs or lift at Exit 12 to ground floor and
walk straight for 2min (about 150m)
5. Text the number provided once we've reached entrance of Twincity arcade beside CU Convenience store using the free wifi from the cafe at the ground floor.
When we were in Korea, we didn't want to get a local phone line so we resorted to emailing Mijin instead since we had wifi 24/7 and she communicated with us via email every time. She replies super quickly!
Viewpoints Studio @ Seoul Station (Yongsan-gu)
Link to listing: https://www.airbnb.com.sg/rooms/9659315
1. Super convenient
The location was perfectly located near Seoul station, which was connected to the Airport Line, Line 1 and Line 4. Even if we had to take Lines 2 or 3, we only needed to make 1 transfer and at most 3 stops away from Seoul station.
Subway line 1
Royal palace (Kyoungbokgung) 1 STOP
Cityhall 1 STOP
Gwangwahmun 1 STOP
Cheonggyecheon Stream 1 STOP
Insa-dong 2 Stops
Dongdaemun (DDP) 5 Stops
Subway line 4
Myeong-dong 2 Stops
Dongdaemun 4 Stops
Gangnam Area(Apgujung&Garosu-gil) 7 Stops
Grand park 11 Stops
COEX 14 Stops
Lotte World 15 Stops
Just 20 min away,
Bukchon Hanok Village
Itaewon
N Seoul Tower
Han river
Not only that, you can also travel to other cities from Seoul station via the KTX (Korea train express) and as mentioned above, if you are intending to include Busan into your itinerary, it would take just 2.5h to get there from Seoul station!
We also found out that there is a shuttle bus to Everland Theme Park that you can take outside the AirBNB (Seoul Exit No.10), which you must call and reserve in advance!
As such, if it's your first time to Seoul, we would definitely recommend the viewpoints studio!
Not forgetting what is located at Seoul station as well....
An underground passage also connected the station to the apartment we stayed at, which was beneficial on rainy or cold days!
2. High Speed WIFI and Free Portable wifi router (egg)
The Wifi speed in the room was so fast that we were able to stream episodes of the K-drama we were following (Love in the Moonlight) every night before going to bed!
The owners also provided a Free Portable Wifi router, which would have been really beneficial for us if we had not also rented one from ChangiWiFi (we had to because we needed it for Jeju as well). Nevertheless, we brought the one provided out on most days in case we separated and couldn't find each other at an attraction or while shopping.
3. So many appliances provided!!!
Apart from having a TV, electronic kettle and mini fridge that most hotel rooms would come with, we were also provided with a
Washing Machine - which is so so so so vital when you're on a long trip because you can do your laundry every alternate day and won't have a huge batch of clothes to wash when you're back in SG. And that's exactly what we did!
Big Refrigerator + pots to cook + plates and cutleries to dine with + a stove to cook -
which saved us on day 4 of our Honeymoon trip because it was difficult to find non spicy soupy food to nurse Ben's bad cough, flu and sore throat so we bought groceries from Lotte Mart and made some comfort food (Pork, Tofu, Egg drop soup) that day for lunch before going to see a Doctor!
Not forgetting cleaning tools since you will be staying there for a longer period of time and there isn't room service.
Not to worry if you have big luggages like we did (we had 2 big ones and 2 small ones)! One trick is to fit a luggage into the cupboard. It could fit! You can view from our vlog at the end of this entry :)
4. Spectacular view
which we doubt we would be able to enjoy if we had booked a hotel instead!
Staying on the 13th floor, we had an amazing view of the city and enjoyed several sunsets from our bedside. Just judge from the following photos we had taken! Don't they really match the ones provided in the listing?
5. Amenities
GYM / Massage Chair / Open Terrace / Cafe Lounge (Free of Charge)
We didn't head to the gym on any of the days of our stay there since we were both ill (and we definitely burnt a lot of calories from our hiking trips in Jeju plus the crazy amount of walking in Seoul) but we went up to the 29th floor to check the amenities out one day and caught the beautiful sunset from the Open Terrace!
6. City Airport Terminal
Also, while planning our itinerary, Mel found out that there was a city airport terminal in Seoul station itself and we could check in our luggages there and it will be transported to the airport for us. How convenient! We could enjoy the rest of our day without lugging our luggages around (it was difficult to find a locker that could fit them as well).
But only available for several airlines so do research first! We took Korean Air back to SG so we could do so. Nevertheless, they have services to help you transport your luggages (but not check in or immigration) to the airport at Seoul station too.
First, you will need to buy the express train tickets at the booth and if you show the boarding pass, you get discounts for the tickets.
Then we proceeded to check in our luggages. We had 46kg in total of check in allowance and 24kg of hand carry allowance. We even cleared immigration at the station itself!
When it's close to your train departure time, this is the gantry to take the express train which took us just 43 min to get to Incheon Airport. Speedy and had free wifi on board! We used that to catch up on the last few episodes of our K-Drama. Haha!
By clearing immigration at Seoul station itself, we could use the cabin crew aisle at the airport. So fast and no queue at all! Highly recommend this and will definitely do this again in future!
7. Awesome coffee at Ground floor of apartment
With every country that we visit, Mel would always do some research on good artisanal coffee places as Ben is a coffeeholic and loves good and strong coffee!
We were super happy when Mijin recommended the coffee served at the cafe just at the first level of where we stayed at! Needless to say, that's where we grabbed every morning's coffee from!
And this was our last breakfast at Coffee@works after we checked out of our room :(
8. Cheaper than hotel!
We shared above that our budget would be at max SGD150 per night for an 11 night stay and guess what?!? We only spent about SGD110 per night! For such an awesome location and a place with all that we needed, it was so worth it!
We loved every part of our accommodation in Seoul Viewpoints studio and would definitely recommend it to our family and friends! Don't worry if it looks like it's fully booked because the owners have a few rooms available at this building, not just this one.
Some people prefer to live in Myeongdong / Itaewon / Hongdae area because there are more food and shopping options there. But it was our first trip to Seoul so we wanted a place more convenient to travel to various parts, which is why we chose to stay in Seoul station itself since there were a few subway lines connected to this station.
We didn't have to spend a long time traveling every day and hardly changed subway lines more than once.
For booking and enquiries, you can email them directly at: mijinmimi@gmail.com
Do leave a comment or email us at melbengets@gmail.com if you have any questions :) Stay tuned for more posts about the attractions we visited in Seoul!!!
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