IP Boutique Hotel

We stayed at IP Boutique for 4 days during July 2012.

Pros:

- Hotel located on the same street as the Itaewon subway line, very easy to get around the city using "T-money" card which is essentially a credit card for trains where you pre-load money, and it deducts from the card on when you leave a station, calculating the fee you owe automatically. Easy to get to the city and shopping districts.

- On the Incheon Limousine Bus line from the airport

- Great coffee across the road "Zoo Coffee" and a very comfortable, hipster, western restaurant a few doors up that serves my favourite drink in Korea "Bellini".

- Close to the USO Army base where the DMZ Tour departs.

- A $5 US cab fare to Insa-Dong, a great little uni town with cobbled streets of trinket-shops.

Cons

- Was hard to get to Namsan mountain from Itaewon, had to go to the city first.

- Phone in my room wouldn't work, hotel couldn't fix it, had to use reception phone.

- 6-8 doors up there is a Korean restaurant that claims it is "tourist friendly!". Not only were the rude to us, they overcharged us by pretended not to understand us asking for plain rice and bringing us bimimbap. The bill was really expensive, and the food was horrible. Avoid eating at the korean places on this strip, much better can be had in the inner city area near the main subway exits.

Could be Pro/Con depending on the person

- Not good for someone who wants to immerse themselves in culture or language, english widely spoken and there's western food everywhere.

- restaurnt in hotel have the Adele record stuck on repeat. I read this on expedia before i went and giggled, but it was less funny when it was literally all i heard whilst staying there.

- Bathroom lacking privacy... ok for couples, might be an issue for friends/room share.

I stayed at the IP Boutique Hotel Itaewon for 1 week in March 2011. It is a good hotel, particularly for English speaking visitors as the staff speak English fine & you're in what's considered the most foreign part of Seoul, right near the US Base.

Location wise it's about a 10 minute walk to the closed subway - Itaewon station - it's on the same street as the hotel. I saw some maps on some travel websites that had the location listed incorrectly though so best to check the hotel's official website.

Getting there is easy, you can take the limousine airport bus from Incheon - it's number 6030. The IP hotel is the last stop.

Room wise I had a room with a double bed. The rooms are small by Western standards but for Korea I think it's an average size. There was enough room for 1 person but 2 people might be a little cramped. There was a nice view & being a boutique hotel, lots of nice touches.

Bathroom was nice but the shower was a real headache, the shower head was too low for me even when I adjusted it to the top.

There's a restaurant on the ground floor which has a mainly western menu & gym as well.

Overall I would reccomend this hotel to visitors to Seoul - but next time I will probably look for a hotel in a less 'western' area & somewhere closer to the loop subway line.