The sharper edge to traveling in Asia

WoWasis hotel review: why we’re raving about the Icarus Motel in Gyeongju, Korea

Written By: herbrunbridge - Oct• 05•12

To put it frankly, we here at WoWasis, make our money on people who book tours and hotels on our site (please continue to do it, as we’re always really objective about what we discuss and review, and the revenue keeps us traveling and posting). And that’s why today’s post is so wild: we’re raving about a hotel that we can’t even book!

We’ve just gotten out of a Jacuzzi bubble bath in our motel room, put on the robe that was supplied, connected our notebook computer to the LAN in the room and uploaded two WoWasis blog posts. Earlier, we sat on the toilet that was equipped with one of those automatic butt-washing gizmos. And all of this is costing us just $60 USD a night!

It’s all happening at the Icarus Motel, which abuts the Gyeongju’s intercity bus terminal on the northern side. We tried two other nearby hotels when we got into town. We need an internet connection, but after trying four rooms at two hotels that advertised internet connectivity, we were not pleased. One hotel’s computers had a virus. They didn’t know, and didn’t care when we told them. At the other hotel, they were using version 6.0 of Internet Explorer, so nothing would load. They hadn’t loaded Mozilla, either. Scratch them off, as well. Both of them, incidentally, were recommended by the latest  Lonely Planet Guide (Hotel Cherbourg, and Show Motel).

All these hotels/motels can be classified as “love hotels.” Sometimes they’re booked by the hour, and the parking spaces have curtains, so prying eyes can’t see who’s parked there. But these hotels are also clean, neat, and inexpensive. They’re high value for a good price (we really don’t care what’s happening next door, we’re too busy taking Jacuzzis and uploading WoWasis posts).

What differentiates Icarus is the staff. Yes, we had an internet problem, but the woman at the desk checked it out and made a call. Someone arrived who tried to fix it. The LAN cable worked just fine. At the other hotels, frankly, no one gave a crap. The room is well-appointed, too (we’ve stayed in 4 star hotels that were barely this good).

The Icarus is the nicest hotel we’ve stayed at in our entire 3 weeks in Korea. We wish we could replicate this bit of paradise right into Seoul, or Jeju-si, but it ain’t gonna happen. What we’ll say is this. Occasionally, you find a small hotel that’s unbelievably amazing. You know it’s probably not going to stay that way forever. So you stay and enjoy it, take a bunch of pictures for the memories, and realize you got real lucky.  

Again, we always want you to book hotels with WoWasis. Except when you’re in Gyeongju, Korea. This nice lady that took care of us deserves your business, and you’ll never beat the value at this price point. We’ve copied the name card below to you can call and make a reservation (sorry, not much English spoken here, so ask a Korean friend to make the call) and print it out so you can give it to a taxi driver if you need to. For WoWasis in Gyeongju, it’s the Icarus Motel or bust!

Print this and carry it with you when you’re going to Gyeongju

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One Comment

  1. lovey says:

    Wow, this post is pleasant, my younger sister is analyzing these kinds of things, thus I am going to let her know.

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