Hotel: Grand Hyatt Jeju / Location: Jeju Island, South Korea / Stay: November 2023 / Program: Hyatt Privé
So you know when you go to a new city and look across the city and each time you do that, you spot your hotel? Jeju City is one of those places and Grand Hyatt Jeju is THE hotel in town. Set in the Grand Tower, it occupies all of 38 floors across both towers, with a beautiful water feature by the entrance. No matter where you look from, you will spot the Grand Hyatt Jeju. It is only overshadowed by the Hallasan Mountain range. But then again, I don’t think it ever intended to compete with a mountain…
Location: Grand Hyatt Jeju
Jeju Island is a relatively small island. In fact, you can drive around the entire perimeter of the island in a day. This is what makes the Grand Hyatt’s location perfect. It is quite close to the airport on the North side of the island. Only a 10 mins drive from Jeju Airport, which allowed us to check-out quite late on the last day, and probably a 20 mins drive from the entrance of Hallasan National Park. All other attractions are easily reachable.
Whilst there are other resorts on the South and West side of the island, we much preferred this location due to the great accessibility to tourist sites, the airport and close proximity to the city fir late night shopping and dining options
Check-in
We arrived at Grand Hyatt Jeju from Jeju International Airport, which was only about a 10 mins ride and costed £4/$5 in a local taxi. We had just flown over from Seoul Gimpo airport from a relatively short domestic hop of about 1 hour. The flight cost us $7/£5 each as we used credit card points. If you want us to reveal the secrets, get in touch!
Fun fact: The Seoul Gimpo(GMP) to Jeju International (CJU) route is the world’s busiest domestic air-traffic route! It was quite obvious when we were at the airport as there was a flight between GMP-CJU literally every hour.
The Grand Hyatt has a majestic lobby with multiple reservation desks to help ease out the crowds. The foyer and lobby was buzzing throughout our stay as the hotel also houses a casino, which seemed like a major tourist attraction for all the locals and visitors from the mainland. The luggage storage area was particularly busy, although I could not understand why.
The bellman took our luggage away as soon as we stepped off the cab and it was later delivered to our room.
The front desk didn’t have a queue thankfully. We received a complimentary upgrade from a King Room to a King City View Room with impressive views of the city and Hallasan Mountain. We were provided with an explanation of all the facilities, amenities and the (extensive) food & beverage options.
King City View Room: Grand Hyatt Jeju
The King Room City View room was absolutely stunning. At 65 sqm, there was plenty of space and no complaints about the room layout. The best bit of course was the unobstructed view of the Hallasan mountain. Throughout our 2 night stay, I gazed across the view right at the start of the day and before bed. Stunning.
The entrance hallway had a dark-wood panelling and split the room into two. The left contained the washroom, cupboards and the bed. The right led you to the superb bathroom.
The cupboards included two bathrooms, locker and a luggage rack. The Nespresso set was further along in the bedroom.
Bathroom
The right of the hallway led to the bathroom which was absolutely stunning, laid in marble with wooden trays and plush carpet. The bath tub was a feature piece of the bathroom (and the bedroom) and looked rather impressive. The clear glass between the bathroom and bedroom just opened up the whole room and made it look even more spacious.
Balmain toiletries were provided. I was a bit skeptical about these but by the end of the stay I was converted! In fact, I surprisingly liked it more than the Byredo products provided by Conrad Seoul
The washroom was separate to the bathroom and included Toto heated seats, as is the norm in South Korea, and Balmain toiletries.
The bedroom was bright and airy thanks to the large floor-to-ceiling windows and air vents to allow ‘fresh Jeju air (not seen that in a hotel before!). The bed area was minimalistic with lamps hanging from the ceiling on either side and not much clutter around the bed. It definitely was very comfortable and the electric black-out blinds worked like a treat.
Bedroom
There was ample space for lounging, aided by the comfy sofas. There was also a handy desk for working and/or dining, although we probably used it to keep our bags 🙂
A link to the virtual tour of the room (courtesy Grand Hyatt Jeju) is provided here.
Breakfast / F&B Options at Grand Hyatt Jeju
The hotel has a total of 14 food & beverage options. Yes, 14! I am not going to even attempt to list them out, so here is a link to the hotel website for more details.
Most importantly though, breakfast was served in a number of restaurants but on both days we chose to eat at the buffet restaurant. Breakfast or two persons is included as part of the Hyatt Prive benefits.
It was a grand affair to say the least with a vast number of dishes, both local and continental. Quite a few hot options too. My favourite section? The ice-cream corner!! I definitely cannot resist ice-cream for breakfast!!
My one big gripe about the breakfast was that, although the allergens were labelled, there was no indication of whether the dish is vegetarian or vegan. OK, I know there aren’t any veggies in Korea, but at an international hotel chain such as Hyatt I would have expected this. The servers obviously didn’t understand English well, so I had to call a F&B Manager to help translate to a chef who put together a vegetarian noodle dish.
I thought my expectations were unreasonable. However, a few days later we stayed at the JW Marriott Dongdaemun Square Seoul, and each breakfast item was labelled well. They had a plethora of vegetarian options even though their buffet was probably half the size of Grand Hyatt Jeju.
OK rant over.
Apart from breakfast, we had dinner one evening in Cafe 8, which has the usual pizza and sandwich options. We had a plate of pasta and pizza. It was comforting and tasty. No complaints there.
We were so hungry.. I managed just one photo of the pizza..
Service and Amenities: Grand Hyatt Jeju
On the day of check-out, we did have a quick dip in the Jacuzzi followed by a very short (but effective in my opinion..) workout in the gym. The gym had all the machines you could ask for; it was very well equipped.
The hotel also had a few floors dedicated to retail shops selling all sort of clothes by local Korean designers. We had a browse through and tried a few items. Amongst this… a 24 hours Seven Eleven shop. Odd!
Check-out
We asked and received a late check-out as our flight was in the afternoon. After returning from a quick hike up the Hallasan Mountain, we went for a quick dip in the pool and a 20 mins gym session. Check-out was quite smooth and we promptly took a cab for the 10min ride to the airport.
Conclusion
I would definitely return to this hotel and would recommend our clients to pick this hotel over the others on the island. It’s convenient, it has superb rooms and plenty of F&B options. All round great hotel. Of course, if booked with Hyatt Prive perks, it makes the stay even more pleasant.
Hit us up if you’re planning a visit to Korea and considering a short trip to Jeju island. We got you covered.
