We spent a week in beautiful Seoul in South Korea and our most memorable stay in the city was at Holiday Inn Express in Hongdae. The hotel is not only everything you’d want – comfortable, with incredibly kind staff and good breakfast – but its main selling point was its prime location. There are almost no other hotels offering such a great spot in the city and if you want to live comfortably and still be in the center of the happening – this will be your best choice in Seoul!
View of Hongdae
The first thing we did when entering the room was opening the curtains and looking at the view the hotel is famous for. A beautiful Seoul cityscape from the comfort of your room is definitely a big plus for me! And look at this view – wow!
Reception
The hotel staff will make your stay as smart and as simple as possible. If you are early you can store luggage by the reception desk, as well as clever locked safe (this was so useful for my gear – I always fear leaving it out in the open). The good thing about the hotel is also that it begins on the 7th floor and the first floors are a shopping mall! So if you arrived early you won’t have any problems waiting for your room to be ready. Just take the elevator down, have some lunch and shop for some Korean beauty and cool clothes – and there are many!
Breakfast
A great selection of warm and cold food as well as something we missed so dearly travelling around Asia – YOGURT! Ah, it was delicious. Bear in mind that this hotel is very popular and sometimes you might need to queue to get your breakfast here. We have never seen anything like it but we took the advice from the kind receptionists and arrived before 9 am to avoid standing in line.
Amenities
If you’re like us and have been on the road a while, then you really appreciate having someplace to do your laundry and train. Lucky for us we had the luxury of doing both here! Have you ever seen a hotel providing a laundry room? We haven’t and really liked it – so smart.