Hotel Almond Busan - Review of our Busan Hotel Stay

During our Busan trip, we stayed four nights at a pretty new hotel called Hotel Almond. The hotel location is simply superb especially if you are coming into the city by the KTX. Exiting the main entrance of Busan station, you will see a huge open-air plaza (see picture below). On the left hand side of the plaza where the taxi stands are, you will see several hotels such as Toyoko Inn and Arirang Hotel as well as a convenience store CU. Hotel Almond is located just 5 metres down the small alley between Toyoko Inn and CU. In fact, even with our huge luggage, it only took us 5 minutes to get from the station to the hotel.

Busan Station

The hotel entrance is quite small, so pay attention to the large signboards above the hotel and you should have no problem finding it.

Check-in was a tad challenging for the front-desk folks and they seemed initially flummoxed at the Agoda confirmation slip which was printed in English. To make things easier for the staff in the future, I think it would be wise to circle or highlight your name so that they can find it more easily! After the check-in was finally completed, the front desk staff also handed us a small packet of amenities for us ladies such as moisturizers, hair ties, facial wipes etc. 

The hotel lobby itself is small but compact. There is a water dispenser and microwave if you need to heat up your food, as well as a couple of lounge chairs and an area to store luggage. From the lobby area, there is also a side gate that opens out to the garage. I saw several cars parked in the garage so I suppose this hotel must be more frequented by the locals.

We were assigned a Deluxe room on the third floor. The design of the room was modern and sleek and exactly the same as the pictures from the hotel website. The room is also humongous - this is the first time I have stayed in such a huge room in Korea! Even with the king size bed, there was plenty of space to open up two gigantic luggage bags and walk around. There is even a desktop computer (!) as well as a table and an armchair in the room. Though we were out most days, we enjoyed watching K-dramas and variety shows every night on the brand new LG TV which was at least 50 inches wide!

The bathroom was also very huge with a bathtub big enough to fit two adults and a separate shower area. I liked that the floor of the toilet had a gentle slope which allowed water to flow into the drain very quickly. By the next morning, the floor is usually already dry. Another nice design feature was that the wash basin is placed outside the bathroom, which made it convenient for one person to wash up while the other is showering. Some people might find this annoying though, if you’re the type who likes to splash water all over the room.

While we had a pretty comfortable stay throughout and I really can’t complain given the price we paid for the room (about $110 a night), the experience could be improved with small touches such as a decent sized mirror and more power plugs. I also had some trouble closing the window of the room properly and one night we were especially bugged by the sight of an insect stuck on the ceiling (no wonder free bug spray is provided in the room). The room that we stayed in faced the railway track and there is small line of pojangmachas in the alley below us. It can get a little noisy in the morning when the trains start to rumble and also at night when people would come for soju and toppoki.

However, all in all, I would say that the pros far outweigh the cons and would recommend staying here over the nearby hotels, which are in the similar price range.

Wanna see what the surroundings of Hotel Almond is like? Check out my next blog entry!

아몬드 호텔 부산역 (Almond Hotel Busan Station)

Address:              (601-010) 부산 동구 중앙대로196번길 12-5(초량동 1203-3)

Telephone:         051-469-1919

Website               http://almondhotel.fortour.kr/