A motel in Busan, near the station?

Greg, one of Goseong's resident English teachers is sadly departing to sunnier climes and leaving us to struggle through the chilly Korean winter without him. However, Greg needs somewhere to stay in Busan for a few nights next week before he heads to the airport in Gimhae and I offered to give him a hand finding somewhere to stay, or at least make a few suggestions...

Greg has a few simple criteria:

• The hotel/motel must be near Busan train station
• No more than 40-50,000 Won per night

This should be simple as motel prices are generally much cheaper during the week and motels tend to cluster around stations and bus terminals.

However, sometimes I love hotel365 and sometimes I feel that it's a bit too Seoul-centric for my liking so I may have to get a bit creative with Google Translate and Naver to find some gems. If you can't stay somewhere fabulous on your last night in Korea, then when can you?

First up though, I have my trusty Busan fall-back, The Arirang Hotel. Granted, the photos don't look all that nice and the site is mostly in Korean, I have stayed at this Hotel a few times though and it's clean and comfortable. I also recall them giving me a morning wake-up call which is always welcome when you have to be somewhere.

Yes, the photo's tiny and I am cheating a little as it's not a Love Motel, but sometimes, when you've a plane to catch you just need reliability and you can't get much more certain that the Airirang.

Simply exit Busan Station and look to your left and you will see this sight:

This is the Arirang Hotel, it doesn't say so in English but you will see 아리랑 호텔 written across the top of the building.

From what I remember, the Arirang has English speaking staff at their front desk and is contactable on this number: (051) 463-5001 ~ 8

I should add that the Arirang doesn't quote any prices on it's website, but I don't remember having a heart attack when I stayed there last, so it can't be expensive.

After a bit of Navering (if you can Google then you can Naver, surely?) I found what appears to be a pretty classy joint, right in the neighborhood which Busan Station in located.

Hotel Fashion, no less.

For 60,000 Won you can get yourself a VIP room like this...

But the standard rooms appear pretty nice too.

And a decent looking bathroom...

A room like the one pictured above will set you back 50,000 Won, or perhaps 45,000, my Korean isn't good enough to work out the finer details I'm afraid!

So, Hotel Fashion is located about 5-10mins walk from the station. Personally, if I had a lot of stuff I'd get a taxi and simply give them this address: 부산 동구 초량3동 1162-3번지 but I'd say it's walkable as this motel is actually listed as being near the station.

View Larger Map

If you use 부산 역 (Busan Station) as your starting point then you should see the motel is pretty damn close.

You can also contact Hotel Fashion on 051-463-6171~2, though whether they'll speak English is another story.

I have checked on Google and there are at least twenty love motels clustered around Busan Station so you should be covered for all contingencies, whatever they may be.

I hope you enjoy whichever you end up staying in; keep in touch and let me know how it all went!