Review : Cooool Guesthouse Busan (South Korea)
12:16:00 AM
Hey ho!
Like i promised in the last Korea Trip post, i am dedicating a whole blog post for this awesome guesthouse in Busan, Cooool (with four O's hahaha) Guesthouse-because they deserve it!
Like i promised in the last Korea Trip post, i am dedicating a whole blog post for this awesome guesthouse in Busan, Cooool (with four O's hahaha) Guesthouse-because they deserve it!
I know, i know. Doesn't look all that impressive from the outside. Hunny, Baby Boy and i arrived very late at night after getting so desperately lost in the neighborhood, i was honestly super shocked when i saw how the guesthouse looked from the front : dodgy and not appealing at all *LOL*. It is located in a store house building, seemingly very narrow and tiny! It shares the building with a few other businesses (including a Thai restaurant) too.
The only indicating thing to the guesthouse from the side of the road. No wonder we never found it before the kind Korean helped us with Waze *LOL*. The first two pictures were obviously taken the morning after, but some of the guesthouse's pictures below were taken right after we arrived.
This is the sight that greeted us once we stepped inside the cozy and warm guesthouse :
Errr. Yea. Got lockers but we saw shoes strewn around like that so we followed suit :P |
Hallway leading to the dining room. That's Chris, the owner of Cooool Guesthouse, a very friendly lady ^^ |
Egh, i guess Marshmallow was as rattled as me after the traumatizing time getting lost, it got so blurry zzz |
Directly in front of the dining table's our room! It's actually a dorm but since we're traveling in a huge group (6 adults, 2 teenagers and 2 lil' kids!) we got the room all to ourselves |
Ever since i learned about Airbnb.com from some of my fave bloggers, i've been obsessed about booking a house/room/stay in cool guesthouses. It'd be easier when i travel with hunny and Baby Boy only because they'd follow my lead hahaha, but it's a big group so a lot of (annoying) compromises must be made. Especially because KC is a big baby and don't really adapt, he'd stay in 5 stars hotels the whole time if it's up to him (i seriously don't care about paying a fortune for a room we're only going to sleep in). We're (not KC) interested to stay in ondol (which we did in Sorak), since we've done it already when CL found a cool guesthouse we decided to give it a try.
To be honest with you, Cooool Guesthouse is not even that cheap, what we paid for two people is almost the same as a (good) hotel's room *LOL*, but the experience is totally worth it (and if you're traveling solo it'd always be cheaper to pay for one person instead of one room)! I don't remember how much, and how CL booked it (pretty sure via Airbnb.com ) but i've already linked the website (it's in Korean though...) and i'm sure you can find a way to book it online.
To be honest with you, Cooool Guesthouse is not even that cheap, what we paid for two people is almost the same as a (good) hotel's room *LOL*, but the experience is totally worth it (and if you're traveling solo it'd always be cheaper to pay for one person instead of one room)! I don't remember how much, and how CL booked it (pretty sure via Airbnb.com ) but i've already linked the website (it's in Korean though...) and i'm sure you can find a way to book it online.
This is our room! There are cupboards with locks to store our belongings, but we're one big family in that room so we didn't bother with locks haha |
The room has four bunk beds, each bed is big enough for two adults that two of the beds ended up being empty (coz hunny bunked up with me and KC with CL!). They also rolled out futons for the little kids. I love the wooden flooring (like i said many times already, a huge fan of wooden flooring! So cozy and homey!), the comfortable beds, and especially how spotless the entire place (not just the room!) is with only Chris and Tom running the place!
I dunno if it's a low season in Busan or because we already booked this whole dorm (i have no idea how many dorms are available) but the place's not too crowded. I don't remember exactly, but i only bumped into two other guests (i think there were some female guests too but i didn't see them) who are long-term guests during our stay.
One guy's so funny, i guess he's learning English so he kept on coming to us randomly and speak while opening his dictionary. He came up to me to introduce himself and asked my name and where i came from-after i answered he then tried talking to me in Indonesian after getting another dictionary from his room LOLOLOL. The quietness totally added to the comfortability of my stay-i'm not too good around strangers hahaha most people think i'm snobbish and standoffish when they first met me but in all honestly, i 'm just shy).
Since it's during winter time, the heater was on full blast and us fussy Indonesian felt very stuffy and hot inside our warm room! Chris and Tom were totally in awe and amused by out antics, they thought we were half mad when we tried turning on the AC (i repeat, in the middle of winter) LOLOLOL. In the end we settled with letting the door open so some air can come in >.<.
Since it's during winter time, the heater was on full blast and us fussy Indonesian felt very stuffy and hot inside our warm room! Chris and Tom were totally in awe and amused by out antics, they thought we were half mad when we tried turning on the AC (i repeat, in the middle of winter) LOLOLOL. In the end we settled with letting the door open so some air can come in >.<.
Excuse my cray hunny *LOL*. We're back to the hallway! From the front door, if you go to the right you'd go to the dining room area while to the left it's the bathroom area |
One thing that shocked me about the guesthouse is their collective bathroom! Male and female bathrooms are separated (obviously) but... I expect it to have like at least shower curtains so that we can be naked and alone *LOL* but that's not the case!
The front area of the female bathroom for guests to doll up |
They provided a lot of stuffs for the guests to use |
Even makeups! We talked about how it'll be gone in a sec if it's in Indonesia -___- first guest would already swipe them all *LOL* |
Collective sink hehe |
The female toilet |
Cute toilet papers never cease to fascinate me *LOL* |
Hallway leading to the other rooms. You can simply discard your used towel in the basket |
I also think that the cleanliness of the place, other than the keepers' hard work, is also due to the way the guests act. We also run hotels and guesthouse in Indonesia and we have loads of employees who keep on cleaning, but it's hard to make the place spotless because the way the guests behave. You know, especially Indonesian (and some foreigners too) mentality, we already paid so we might as well make the hotel's employee bust their asses *sigh*.
Tom's specialty, really yum! And i ate a tomato! How crazy is that. Didn't taste too tomatoey (if you know what i mean) so i swallowed hahahaha |
The other two guests-the guy in grey jumper's the guy i was talking about! This sitting area i never got the time to even see *LOL* |
Nor this balcony area! Oh... Those two are probably the other guests that i didn't see |
In short, we loved our stay there! The place's super nice, homey and far cozier (and cleaner) than any of the hotels that we stayed at during our stay in South Korea! Chris and Tom also made us felt super welcomed and well-taken care of, thank you for the hospitality! Highly recommended! Oh, i just found their Facebook Page, you can book via that page!
yberman smoking a cigarette
Happy guests with Chris and Tom! Excuse the pale face, i literally just woke up! |
PS : They just won The Best Hostel in South Korea award!!!! So well deserved!
2 comments
I love how the guesthouse looked so cozy and there's the ambiance which can make me feel like home even when in a different country. Staying in a hotel is much different of course. I just am not sure whether my family would prefer to experience having a coool guesthouse as accommodation as they are used to hotel rooms plus the service. The food looked so good!
ReplyDeleteHahaha i totally understand what you mean, my mum wouldn't want to stay in a guesthouse like this in a 1000 years!
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