Phoenix Snow Park, Gangwon-do, South Korea

4ngsosu 5:00 PM Dec 29, 2021

Not bad for Korean skiing - not many choices or options if not skiing
We had a good time skiing here. The slopes are very intermediate and the lines can be long on the weekends when we went. If you’re not skiing their are very minimal options to sit or find a lounge with Wi-Fi unless you want to pay a lot of money. The staff was nice in the ski equipment and return process went smoothly. Only a couple of the slopes were open in December hopefully they get the other half open in January and February. For Korea skiing this is t bad and the prices are reasonable even if the slopes aren’t the most challenging.

3MickeySerbia 5:00 PM Mar 23, 2010

Phoenix Park: Nothing special but an excellent ski center
Phoenix Park seems to be one of the most popular ski resorts in South Korea. It is located in PyeongChang county, Gangwon-do province. By the way, PyeongChang County has been repeatedly pushing its candidacy for one of the next Winter Olympics. You need less than 2 hours by bus from Seoul to Phoenix Park (the road distance is approximately 180 km). If you do not mind traveling by bus, there are several bus lines starting from Seoul to Phoenix Park and vice-versa, and I found the 'Good Bus' as a reliable and non-expensive operator (16,000 won per 1-way ride ticket). If unsure related to the bus lines, just ask your hotel receptionists. Besides several ski slopes that range from those for beginners to those for advanced skiers and semi-professionals, Phoenix Park is also equipped with 'Blue Canyon', which is a family-oriented swimming & fun summer sub-resort with both indoor and outdoor zones, as well as the 'Center Plaza' house with a nearby indoor pool. There are also internationally recognized, excellent golf facilities available. (While swimming is possible during the winter months in the Center Plaza's pool, the nearby golf terrains are closed, as expected.) Tickets for the Center Plaza pool are sold per day and I was not sure if repetitive going outside and inside was allowed with the same ticket. To be honest, I was looking for just an ordinary swimming pool that, as a hotel guest, I could use for some half an hour in the evenings - before going to bed, but it looked like that the swimming pool in Center Plaza was intended to serve as 'one size fits all'. I mean, you pay the full price ticket regardless you want to spend one hour or six hours there. For those of you who are ski or snowboarding fans, Phoenix Park is a right place for you. It is very well equipped with various winter sport facilities, including ski & boots rentals, as well as related services. You can perform winter sports both during the days and during the nights, though the tickets for night skiing are more expensive. Hotels in Phoenix Park are located just 1-3 minute walk from the nearest ski slopes, so you will not need any additional transportation to and from your hotel room. There is also an excellent restaurant called 'cafeteria', which is near the slopes too. It will satisfy your hunger at any time because it is open almost the whole day. The cafeteria offers traditional Korean cooked meals, based on rice and vegetables, including well-known Kimchi in different flavors, as well as some western-style meals. You can also order fast food in several outlets, etcetera. Besides the cafeteria, which was cheap and mostly crowded by young people this February, there were a couple of fashionable restaurants for those with deeper wallets. Finally, there are a couple of shops offering various snacks, drinks and accessories. If somebody expects to find an extraordinary fun in Phoenix Park, or some interesting cultural activity, or some sightseeing of historical value, there is not much of that – if any. Actually, you are on your own. For example, I tried to get some information about how to reach some Buddhist temples or shrines in the local area within the same Gangwon-do province, but to be near to Phoenix Park. It appeared that during the winter seasons the only way to go to the nearest site of that kind is to order a single-direction (and rather expensive) taxi to the area of your interest and hope to find similar way to go back, after your visit. That means the first cab would not wait an hour or so for you to visit the site, so you should negotiate your ride back well in advance, with another cab or so. Although I proposed them as a solution, they seemed not to think about eventual organizing local half-day tours for the hotel guests, by mini-vans or so. (Maybe they have something like that during summer season, I do not know.) Therefore, during the wintertime you will not learn much about Korean history, art and culture while in Phoenix Park. The only thing you will learn about is the Korean cuisine, which I really liked. My suggestion for you is to try them all, by starting your meal with a cup of green tea and finish your lunch or dinner with a big 'green tea latte to-go', or something similar. If possible, try to avoid 'hamburgers' and other western-like fast food and drinks, as well as the black coffee. As a passionate walker and a non-ski person (I was there for business reasons), I would like if Phoenix Park offered some cultivated pedestrian areas. I mean, it would be nice to have an option of easy walks, while it snows outside, but not to get into danger by colliding with the skiers so easily. In fact, it looked to me that they constructed everything there to satisfy only those performing winter sports. In addition, it would be also nice if they could add some, say, theatrical events in the evenings or some musical performance for … well, a little bit older guests (but not a discothèque for teenagers or so). Besides the 'main' hotel in Phoenix Park, called simply The Hotel, which is an 11-floor building, there are three separate condominiums, the 'orange', the 'green' and the 'blue' (the 'blue' one is an approximately 25-floor tall 'skyscraper'). All four sleeping buildings are interconnected in between by underground corridors, and are linked to the 'Center Plaza' facility. The Center Plaza building also includes bowling tracks, kids & moms playing ground, coffee shop and winter sport clothing store. As a guest of The Hotel, I found it in a real need of renovation: its rooms' walls screamed for repainting while some furniture needed fixing or replacement; the refrigerators in the rooms were noisy, etc. (Eg. the refrigerators/bars in my rooms tended to switch on/off loudly during the nights.) Although the hotel's staff was young and responsive, their level of speaking English might be increased. In fact, it was obvious they did not have much experience with non-Korean guests. [By the way, it is a remark, if not a warning for both Phoenix Park and PyeongChang county officials, as well as for other Gangwon-do province authorities – should they really want to accommodate one of the next Winter Olympics.] In addition to The Hotel group, there are some other hotels and/or hostels in the local area of Phoenix Park, some of which looked to me as being reserved for some special club-members only. Moreover, the other hotels are not so close to the ski slopes as The Hotel and its condominiums, but are not too far away either (some 10-15 minute walk max). Because of the low level in tourist information, related to the accommodation in Phoenix Park, I can say nothing about price tags and quality of service in the nearby hotels and hostels. However, some people I discussed with on the venue claimed that The Hotel was too expensive for its QoS. On a central plateau in front of The Hotel, a large TV screen displays video clips as well as outdoor temperatures and time. Korean pop music plays during the ski hours and it stops only during servicing hours and late in the nights.