RAMADA HOTEL SEOUL

According to its web, the Ramada Hotel Seoul was renovated in February 2004, although the bellboy who brought my suitcase to the room, told me the room had been recently refurbished, so... everything was new.

The hotel is in the heart of Kangnam business area, Samsung-dong, within a short walk of COEX. Location is good for business, but far away from the city centre. It is close, however, to a main road where there are plenty of shops...

My first experience was not positive. I arrived at 2.30 pm, and was told the room was STILL not ready. But they sent me to the Executive Room to have a complementary drink and some nibbles... which made my wait really short and bearable.

Staff was extremely helpful and all spoke good English. If you go to Seoul and you need to get a taxi, you need to have as much information in the local language as possible. So the extremely helpful lady in the Executive Room wrote for me the addresses I needed to visit for work.

I wanted to be adventurous and catch the Underground, but I though that with so little people speaking English, and the underground being a bit confusing to get to, (7 minute walk from Seolleung Station, Subway Line 2 or 10 minute walk from Gangnam-gu Office Station, Subway Line 7) I would probably have some problems... So opted for taxi.

The bellboy told me the room had been recently renovated, therefore everything was new. The bed was comfortable, flat TV, the bathroom well equipped. Big towels, soaps, tissues, complementary water... Even the reservation I had included free broadband Internet connection. The room was really quiet, despite the fact that there were construction works just opposite the hotel. It even had a PC available in the room, so you need not take your laptop... (but I used my own...), specially having no mobile phone. The band used in the country is still not compatible with our system...

Like with many hotels in Seoul, the Ramada has a Limousine KAL Bus shuttle (3B) that takes you from the Airport to the hotel in about 75 minutes, and drops you just outside the hotel. It costs 14000 one way and on the way back to the airport, you can get it in the same place, although it takes you to the Intercontinental hotels (COEX) prior to heading to the airport.

I would go back, without any doubt.

RAMADA HOTEL SEOUL
112-5 Samsung-dong,
Kangnam-ku,
135-090 Seoul,
South Korea
Tel: 82-2-6202-2000 Fax: 82-2-6202-2001