Skiing in South Korea: A Cultural Look at YongPyong Amenities

(Last Updated On: March 28, 2015)

In our last two posts about skiing in South Korea, we described skiing at YongPyong as well as our visit to Alpensia, both of which will be venues for the next Winter Olympics in 2018. In this post, I want to talk about the things that sometimes get overlooked in a skiing trip report – what’s there beside the ski slopes. We will take a cultural look at some of the YongPyong ski resort amenities.

We arrived by plane to Seoul, Korea. Seoul (Incheon) has one of the nicest airports I have ever visited.
Incheon Airport in South Korea.

In order to get to the ski slopes quickly (and avoid the chaos of public transportation while we hadn’t slept in 30 hours and were extremely jet-lagged), we arranged through ski-korea.com for a driver to take us from the Incheon Airport directly to our accommodations at YongPyong. We tied our skis to the minivan.
tying skis to minivan in South Korea!

And off we went, whisking by the city of more-skyscrapers-than-I-have-ever-seen, and into the mountains of Korea. We headed eastward on a highway which was well-built and crossed through many mountains via tunnels. About 3 hours later, we arrived in YongPyong.

During our time in YongPyong, we stayed in a very large hotel called Greenpia.
Hotel Greenpia in YongPyong.
While this hotel is definitely large, it is not a monstrosity. The Koreans took time to build this, and the architecture even has a slight Bavarian feel to it.

The slope-side access was fantastic.
View from Greenpia in YongPyong, South Korea.

The rooms at Greenpia are more like condos, complete with two-bedrooms, a decent-sized living room, a kitchen, and wonderful in-floor heating.
Room at Greenpia in South Korea.

This is what our bedroom looked like:
bedroom in South Korea, YongPyong.

You might be asking, “Where’s the bed?” Well, there wasn’t one. Not as we know it anyway. This was our bedding:
Bedding in a room in YongPyong, South Korea.

Yep, you got it. We slept on the floor. When in Korea, do as Koreans do! It wasn’t so bad, actually – quite comfortable for a person who has a bad back! Besides, the fancy toilet will all the extra bells and whistles made up for it:
toilet at Greenpia in YongPyong, South Korea.

Crested Butte doesn’t even have a base lodge, something I personally see as a big thing we are lacking. But, YongPyong has one of the nicest base lodges I have ever seen, called Dragon Plaza.
Dragon Plaza in YongPyong.

Another example of architecture with a Bavarian flare, Dragon Plaza was large, but beautiful.
Dragon Plaza in YongPyong, South Korea.

Dragon Plaza in YongPyong, South Korea.

I could not get over the details that went into this place.
Details at the Dragon Plaza in YongPyong ski resort, South Korea.

Dragon Plaza at YongPyong ski resort in South Korea.

YongPyong has good night-skiing – capturing a sign that promotes it.
night skiing at YongPyong ski resort in South Korea.

Most restaurants were located in large mall areas inside large buildings like the Dragon Plaza and hotels.
restaurant at YongPyong ski area in South Korea.

South Koreans love their coffee like we do. They’ve adapted a more American model of coffee shops, as opposed to the European cafes. Walk into this coffee shop or any other and you feel like you’re in a Starbucks or a Caribou.
Angel in us Coffee shop in YongPyong, South Korea.

The base area had a wonderful river walk.
River walk at YongPyong ski resort in South Korea.

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Skiing in South Korea Series

If you liked this post, please take a look at the other posts in this series:
YongPyong Part 1
2018 Winter Olympics Preview
A Cultural Look at YongPyong Amenities
Korean Food
Night Skiing and a Night on the Town
Enjoying Sunny Days at YongPyong

Brittany Walker Konsella

Aside from skiing, biking, and all outdoorsy things,Brittany Walker Konsella also loves smiles and chocolate 🙂 Even though she excels at higher level math and chemistry, she still confuses left from right. Find out more about Brittany!

Brittany Walker Konsella

Aside from skiing, biking, and all outdoorsy things, Brittany Walker Konsella also loves smiles and chocolate :) Even though she excels at higher level math and chemistry, she still confuses left from right. Find out more about Brittany!

2 thoughts on “Skiing in South Korea: A Cultural Look at YongPyong Amenities

  • March 17, 2015 at 9:36 pm
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    Great articles about Korea, Frank & Brittany! Really fascinating!!

  • August 18, 2015 at 7:07 pm
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    Fantastic information, very informative and so helpful, will be there next January.

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