My Hotel, its Scenic Views, and.....the Eerie Connection to Toto! :-)
Holy Crap! We got to the hotel and I was stunned at how gorgeous it was. We stayed at the Grand Hyatt in Seoul which has an incredible view of the Seoul Tower as well as back into the city area. The front desk told me the rooms had just been renovated a couple days prior and wow.....what an awesome job they did. The views were the most breathtaking - I slept with the shades open every night just to see the Seoul Tower and watch the lights change. The only disappointment with the view though is the skies in Seoul are incredibly hazy and it was incredibly difficult to see too far off in the distance. Apparently there is this yellow dust that blows in this time of year from the Mongolian desert - it was very remisicent of the Los Angeles smog I grew up with!
So, I had to check out the whole room and take photos of everything because I figured I would write a review at some point!!! :-) As I am snapping photos around the bathroom of their fancy new modern counters and fixtures, something catches my eye.
Since it was Friday evening by this time and I was a bit tired, we opted to wander around the hotel a bit and check out one of the restaurants before calling it a night. Since it was almost 10pm, our dining options were somewhat limited. We opted to try their cafe which was open until 2am. I guess I am used to a different type of cafe in the states! We walked in and everyone there was dressed in suits and here I was in jeans and tennis shoes!!! Ooops! Well, once I saw the menu and accompanying prices, I understood why! Club sandwich was $20, sodas were $8, and beer such as a bud light were $9.
After dinner, we wandered around the hotel a bit and checked out their shopping arcade which was all very high end stores. There was a karoake bar downstairs but after our experience at dinner, I figured we would most certainly be underdressed! We ended up watching the live music in the piano lounge for a bit before calling it a night so we could be up early for a long morning of sightseeing and be refreshed for the concert Saturday night!
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Floor to ceiling windows and the room was the lesser of the views (supposedly) but my room had a straight on view to the Seoul Tower and part of the city. It was perfect - what a treat to sleep with all the blinds open and watch the lights change color on the tower.
As rooms go, it may seem on the expensive side but compared to other hotels in Seoul in the same category (super deluxe) it was reasonable at $160 a night plus all their service charges/taxes.
The hotel has multiple restaurants, from a cafe (which is still expensive) to a high end Japanese restaurant and a Steakhouse. There is a piano lounge in the main lobby and a Karoake club downstairs that is rather popular with locals.
The staff was very professional, super friendly, and took very good care of the guests. One important thing to note - they exchange money there for no transaction fee and often better rates than you can get at the airport or other banks.
Another plus was they converters available for plugs. The ones we had did not work in the outlets to convert high wattage things like my curling iron! One call to the front desk and I had one within minutes that worked for my curling iron and laptop! Sweet!
Their concierge service offers a variety of tours and can help you set up pretty much anything you want to do. They really helped me out with getting the concert tickets to Toto since that was the main reason for my visit.
One drawback is the price of Internet though - it's about $1 a minute up to a max of $25 a day which is a bit pricey. Of course, most people are not there to be in their room and on the computer all day (hence why it took so long for me to finish my blog!) :-)
If you are looking for a very classy hotel with all the high end amenities and don't want to pay the $300 rate like other hotels - definitely check them out. I was told that some lower level dignitaries regularly stay at this hotel so it definitely isn't a shabby place!
