This is our family’s first stay at a ski resort. Though there are other resorts nearer Seoul, we chose Holiday Inn Suites at Alpensia Resort over them after reading many good reviews on the resort and concern over the lack of English speaking staff at the other resorts. With 3 IHG hotels at Alpensia, English speaking staff should be a given.
We arrived on a rainy and gloomy day, via the purple ski bus (advance reservations required). The bus stopped us right outside the Welcome Center of the resort where the checked in counters are located. Check in was a breeze, with fluent English speaking staff at the reception. We had reserved a 2 bedroom apartment, but unfortunately, our apartment was situated at block 302, which was located furthest from the amenities and required quite a walk up the slope.
The apartment was spacious, with a fully functional kitchen and 2 bedrooms, one with a king bed and an ondol room. I found the Korean futon beds a little too thin for my liking and uncomfortable unlike the Japanese ones. The futons came with a small block pillow, and we had to ask for normal pillows. Extra futons are chargeable.
As the weather wasn’t suitable for going out to the slopes, we decided to spend the afternoon at Ocean 700, which was quite an underwhelming experience. The water park is small, entrance fees are high and we even had to pay extra for life jackets. There was a wave pool, lazy river, about 2 thrill slides and a kids playground. There were also gender segregated hot spring pools in the toilets (similar to the Japanese onsens, where one has to go in naked). Not surprisingly, there was hardly any visitors around.
It started to snow in the evening and we woke up the next morning to a very different view from our room. A thick blanket of snow coated the slopes unlike the day before. The kids had a good time playing in the soft powdery snow making snow balls and sledding. We did not try skiing but there were many people skiing and ski equipment and ski wear were available for rental.
There is a small village center with several restaurants, a Lotteria, Angel-in-us cafe and several convenience stores. Over the next few days at the resort, Angel-in-us became one of our favourite rest areas. We liked their sweet potato latte, black cereal latte, hot chocolate & yummy waffles. The cafe was a short 2 min walk from the skiing area.
She who travels 