Busan Business Hotel Review - Accommodation Near Seomyeon Station in Busanjin-Gu!

Our home in Busan for 2 nights during the Asiana tour was the newly opened Busan Business Hotel in Busanjin-gu. If you have an extra half day before you leave then you might just love the Seomyeon area where this hotel is located. Seomyeon has an underground shopping mall (like Seoul's Gangnam Underground Shopping Mall) with a lot of restaurants and stores like a big H&M store and Lotte Department Store with Duty Free above ground. Many thanks to the Busan Tourism Organization, Korea Tourism Organization and USTravel for introducing us to this hotel. Let me show you around in case you want to consider this establishment for your tour group or business trip. You can book this hotel here through Agoda.

The gang at the Busan Business Hotel lobby.

Busan Seaside and Coastline: Checking Out the Oryukdo Skywalk, Haeundae Beach and Busan Sea Life Aquarium!

I heard someone say that maybe because we have so many beaches in the Philippines, going to Korea in summer for the famed Haeundae Beach wouldn't be as exciting. Busan is so close to the open sea and the cliffside views are a sight to see starting with the Oryukdo Skywalk. As for the beach, I liked it because it's in the city unlike ours (where the closest is around 3 to 4 hours from Manila), it's summer there when it's rainy here and there's an underground aquarium if it gets too hot.

Busan Food Guide and Unique Eats: Centumcity Recommendations, Goresa Fishcake Making Workshop and Crab Town Dinner in Gijang!

I left you with Shinsegae's Centumcity in my last post. Today, I'm going to tell you some of the recommended restaurants so that you know exactly where to find them in this huge mall (and the other two below somewhere in Busan as well). Hehe. We spent the rest of the afternoon making fishcakes (and eating them too!) in a store that's been around since 1963! And later on, I had the honor of dining with folks over at the Busan Tourism Organization in a lesser known crab town in this port city of Korea! It was such a wonderful experience just slowing things down and not eating regular tour food. I would gladly advise you to include this to your itinerary and specifically ask your travel agency to arrange this for you on your next trip ;)

Spa Land at Shinsegae Centum City - Recommended Korean Jjimjilbang Spa Experience in Busan!

When you go to Busan, one of the things I'd like to recommend is spending at least half a day at Shinsegae's Spa Land. Inspired by the Koreanovelas I used to watch, I've dreamed of experiencing jjimjilbang (Korean style spa) like the locals in Korea. Sadly, I can't speak fluent Korean yet and so it's very hard to just walk-in into an authentic traditional one with the bowl with steam sign (you see them everywhere) by myself without a local guide or friend. I've heard you can even stay for the night or do all your showering in this type of Korean spa if you don't have anywhere to go instead of a hotel or your home. SpaLand is not 24 hours but it is unique to Busan. It's a more high-end jjimjilbang and hot spring resort because they incorporated Western comforts and concepts from all over the world like the urban baths of Japan. It appears more expensive (it's located in Centum City which is one of the, if not THE, world's largest department store as of 2009) but maybe you'll say it's worth the penny when you experience it for yourself starting with none of that awkwardness because you're a foreigner. I've been here a few years ago and just came back this month. I must say that they've upgraded this place with more amenities and choices for their guests, esp. the topmost floor. You can definitely go here, armed with just enough Korean won and English only as they will take care of the rest ;)