Hotel Amaranth

The staff were so friendly and went out of their way to help. It’s extremely good value, with clean rooms, good heating and AC, and lots of parking. There are Western-style and Korean-style rooms across six floors. The rooms are spacious, though the bathrooms badly need refurbishment. Breakfast is available, oddly starting only at 9am. Bus number 3 takes about 15 minutes to reach the town’s tourist sights. Seoraksan National Park is around ten minutes away by taxi, costing approximately 7000krw/$7usd.

The staff were pleasant, and the hotel has a nice look, attractive decor, and clean rooms. The coffee was good. Breakfast was reasonably priced, but I wouldn’t order it again: the sausage was basically a hot dog.

I booked after seeing all the glowing reviews while looking up hot springs in Sokcho, then found out there aren’t any hot springs here. The place is just on a road with “onsen” in its name. I’m writing this down so I remember and don’t make the same mistake again. Seriously, the whole room smelled moldy, especially the air conditioner, and there was an occasional smoke smell in the bathroom, probably drifting in from another room. The owner really needs to make this a non-smoking building. There were barely any outlets, which is hard to believe when you’re traveling these days. When I first stepped into the room, there were lots of body hairs on the white duvet. It also hadn’t been vacuumed properly. I was speechless. The owner should focus on training the staff. This was nonsense. Darn it. x(

The views are great, and it’s close to the National Park. The room was fairly spacious and very comfortable, and there’s a full service as well as a coffee bar. Parking is right out front, with more spaces around back. It’s quite a nice hotel and not too expensive.