Our plan this 9 day trip to Jeju was to organize the various places of interest around regions. While the island itself isn’t that big – I reckon you could traverse the breadth of it in an hour – we would still be saving a significant amount of travel time. Since we would be staying 8 nights and worked out early on that a number of places we’d be checking out were located on the southern and central part of the island, we worked out a plan to stay 4 nights in the southern coastal town of Seogwipo, 1 night near Seongsan on the eastern side, and 3 nights in Jeju city itself.
Our first place of stay was The Island Blue Hotel. This is a small-lish hotel of about 11 floors, and easy for drivers to get in. Our comments from our four night stay!
We stayed in a large room called Premier Family Suite located on the 10th floor, and there was a queen-sized bed, and two single sized beds: sufficient to accommodate all four of us. The room also had a mid-sized dining table which seats four. The room had a small kitchenette with an induction cooker stove but oddly with no utensils or cookery, and a medium-sized fridge with freezer compartment. The toilet and shower area were separate compartments – convenient – and there was plenty of wardrobe space.
The room while very clean was also showing very visible age from wear and tear. The parquet flooring was badly scratched with very observable damage lines, carpeting stained in several places, and a floor cabinet was badly chipped. And one air-conditioning vent at the ceiling was dripping, possibly from condensation.
The room’s power-point placements were a little challenging though: they were placed near beds, but I couldn’t find any where our work area was: that necessitated use of a power plug extension board – I always carry one on vacation – and plugged in from behind the TV. So, not unsolvable, but not really convenient either.
The reception was manned day hours till midnight, and spoke some English, and there’s also a cafeteria on the ground floor where breakfast is available if opt for it. There’s also a small convenience store inside the hotel itself which provided a small range of comfort beverages and snacks.
The hotel is located about 5 mins walk from the Seogwipo Maeil Olie Market – and that stretch itself has a Starbucks, and Compose Coffee – so there’s no lack of F&B options as well.
All in, this was an OK stay. The room was large, comfortable and had the basic amenities all covered. We weren’t thrilled with the worn cabinetry in the room, but they were mostly out of sight and mind.