Japan in a Week!
Get a JR Railpass http://www.japanrailpass.net/en/ at least a week before you leave for your trip. It…
Skiing in Korea – Yongpyeong
Just come back from a Xmas ski trip to Korea and thought I would document the visit for anyone else thinking of doing the same. We wanted to do the main resort on Korea which we settled was Yongpyeong Ski Resort, it’s also going to be used for the Winter Ski Olympics in 2018!
We ( 3 people ) were going for 4 – 5 night over Christmas , I did some rough calculations of the price via the Yongpyeong Ski Resort Website in UK pounds which was per person :
- £45 Day Pass Inc Gonalonda
- £20 Snowboard Rental a day
- £15 a Day Ski Rental
- £15 a day Clothes Rental
- Dragon Valley Hotel ( Main Restort Hotel ) : £150 / Night
- Total for 4 nights : £920 ( 1.6 Million Won )
Upon some research through Trip Advisor , a few people where recommending the package company http://www.winterfriend.com/ so I got a quote from them. I asked for 2 different accomodations as I knew Dragon Valley Hotel was quite expensive.
Package condition
- 5nights accommodation (inside ski resort) : 2options as following.
- 4days ski pass with all rentals (gear only)
- Peak island ( water park on the last day ) entrance ticket
- Transportation * (Seoul hotel pick up + Return trip of ski bus.)
- All taxes and service charges
Dragon Valley Hotel – 1,250,000 Won Per Person
Pyeongchang Fourseasons ( 5 Minute Drive From Resort offered Twice ) – 805,000won per person
In the end we choose to use WinterFriend and Dragon Valley hotel as we knew nightlife was going to be extermely quite unless we where central resort. I would highly recommend WinterFriend , they helped with the whole trip, on Christmas the Hotel Restaurant was not open for dinner so they helped organise another place!
How did Skiing in Korea differ from Europe?
Snow – It only snowed once we were there out of the 4 days about 4 cm , not really enough to have an impact. The benefit of Korea’s cold tempuratures is they could use multiple snow machines around the resort to produce snow for the runs. The downside is there was little to no off piecing! I was impressed by the amount of ski patrol units there were skiing around checking snow levels , blocking off icey runs!
Runs – The queues for the runs where reasonable , lots more university groups and ski school , but could of been the time of year as it was Xmas! The ski and snowboarding lessons looks pretty overcrowded so I would recommend getting private tutition if there is a big enough group for you. The piece bashers came out as soon as the lifts closed at 4.30pm. This was to get the slopes ready for nighttime skiing which opened at 9pm till midnight.
Nightlife – The resort had a bowling alley , arcade and multiple karaoke rooms , but nothing like the Nederhutte in Obergurgl!! There were lots of different restaurants to choose from with varying cuisines, the Dragon Valley Hotel had a bar , but again was quiet!