2014 Our 5-night accommodation in Jeonju, South Korea

At Benikea Hansung Hotel (43-3, Jeonjugaeksa 5-gil, Wansan-gu, Jeonju, Jeollabuk-do 560-802, South Korea, tel. 063-288-0014, e-mail: hs_hotel@naver.com, www.hotelhansung.kr), our Suite Room 301 cost KRW120,000 for Thursday, KRW 140,000 for Friday and Saturday and KRW 120,000 for Sunday and Monday. The exchange rate was US$1 = Korean won .00098 on September 4. Our room had an entry hall for shoes. Then a sitting room with a desk and stool, a large rosewood sofa and two huge rosewood side chairs. There was a coffee table and a flat screen TV on the wall. There was also a mini fridg in that room. We actually missed having a microwave.

The bedroom was long and had two beds, one at each end of the room. There was a closet and also a piece of furniture to put clothes into. There was an area for our water boiler and snacks too. Audre used a round table in the bedroom and a chair for her desk. The bed only had a cotton bed skirt/dust ruffle on top with a quilt. Audre went into the laundry storeroom and found a fitted bottom sheet and put that on the bed. There were no flat sheets so we used the bed skirt/dust ruffle as our top sheet with the quilt. It worked okay. The windows in both the sitting room and the bedroom were frosted over. There was no view anyway with the shopping street below and similar height buildings across the way. There was an air conditioner in both the sitting room and the bedroom.

The bathroom was large and had a Jacuzzi tub in it (that did not work), a pedestal sink, a toilet with full a spraying system, and a (non-enclosed) giant-head shower in the corner which drained into the floor of the bathroom. The room was comfortable and with air conditioning fairly quiet during the day and very quiet at night.

The hotel lobby was nice and bright with many pieces of art. Art was on all of the walls and in all of the halls (some was glass encased). It gave the hotel a nice look and feel. Every time we walked into the hotel, the person behind the reception desk would rise and bow to us. Now that is something the Four Seasons Vail could adopt!

Breakfast was included in the price of the room in a (former) restaurant on the second floor. It was the same every day. There was rice of course. One cream of chicken soup and one Korean soup, salad with dressing, gimbap (like a sushi roll), banana pieces and cherry tomatoes. There was dry cereal and milk too. The hot breakfast was Korean French toast, French fries, and toast and butter. There was also a drink like juice, coffee, tea and milk.

Outside our hotel was a hubbub of activity on a limited car-use street. There were zillions of shops with blaring music and zillions of young people strolling and smooching. The Starbucks on the corner was packed. Interesting. We found lunch places galore around our hotel. For dinner we typically went to the Hanok Village, which was in convenient walking distance.