Our 9D8N stay in Seoul has been the longest continuous stretch we’ve ever stayed in a property – whether Airbnb or rental – while on family vacation. During our itinerary planning months ago, we read discussions debating on the best area to stay in Seoul, and the consensus for tourists seems to be either Myeongdong or Hongdae. Maybe it’s because it’s only been our second time to South Korea – our first was 18 years ago – we played it safe and opted to stay near Seoul Station instead. The rates for Airbnb apartments were also attractive around this area, and we were also able to find comfortably sized apartment units for our family of four. Like the Busan Airbnb, we won’t be posting location specifics, so do message us if you’d like to find where we stayed.
Our comments!
Our Seoul Airbnb stay is located at an easy 4 minute walk from Seoul Station, though it’s closer to the Airport Rail line and Seoul KTX Station, rather than the Seoul subway. This had implications, because apart from arriving and departing from Seoul days, we had to walk a fair bit to get to the subway gates for our daily activities. The closest convenience stores to our Seoul Airbnb was about 2 minutes walk away – easily doable when not in subzero temperatures – and also in Seoul Station itself of course too. We certainly missed the convenience of having a 24 hour convenience store right downstairs though, as we had at our Busan Airbnb.
We arrived at Seoul Station fairly early in the morning on Day 09 at 8:30AM, and our host was happy to hold onto our luggage while we explored the city. He had access to a private storage room near to the apartment unit, so kept our large luggage cases there and passed us the key to the locker there too.
Unlike our Busan Airbnb, our Seoul Airbnb was a fairly large unit. It had a living room, a fully equipped kitchen with a dining table, and two bedrooms: one bedroom could sleep two on a queen-sized bed, and the other slightly larger bedroom could sleep three, as the room was large enough for a super-single, and a queen-sized bed. The home though is on the second floor of a corner house and there is no elevator, so we had to lug our luggage up stairs to access the unit on arrival day. The unit also looked like it’d been recently renovated: it was clean, modern and also had all the appliances we need: a large TV for the kids, a washer and dryer, a large refrigerator, and sufficient space for all of us.
Like our Busan Airbnb, the flooring in the unit was heated which also provided central heating to the home. There were also air-conditioning units in both bedrooms, and a large air circulation and air-conditioning tower in the living room. Our host had also provided several welcome amenities, including several packs of ramyeon of the spicy variety, bottles of drinking water, and also 3-in-1 instant coffee satchels. Toiletries and bath towels were also provided, and the latter were the correct large sizes: compared to the smaller variants that we had in the Busan and Suncheon properties.
Small detail too that helped a lot: there was a shower curtain in the bathing stall. I wonder why our Busan and Suncheon stays didn’t have such: maybe it’s a Korean thing? But the absence of a shower curtain in the latter two places meant that it was near impossible to stop water from making the adjacent toilet area wet.
Of the three properties we stayed in this trip, we found the Seoul one the most comfortable and best of the the lot. While it wasn’t literally just next door to the subway station – like our Busan stay – Seoul station is a main station interchange, which made arriving and departure days easy. The absence of a convenience store at our door step was manageable: we just had to plan ahead what the immediate things we needed – i.e. snack and comfort food LOL – and pick them up when we went past any one of the gazillion convenience stores in a city like Seoul. If you’re traveling to Seoul in a family, and are OK staying in the Seoul Station area, this property is one we’d recommend too!