To be fair to South Korea they do airports bloody well and this extends to the cheap hotel options, as well as the fact you can pretty much get a free shuttle from almost anywhere to Incheon Airport.
And this was how I discovered Sky Guestel, one of the weirdest, but also best value “hotels” I have ever stayed in. In fact in reality it was more a serviced apartment, but Muggles this matters not for it did deliver.
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What the Sky Guestel?
Basically Sky Guestel is a bunch of apartments that have been rented out to airport goers that are located primarily in the “mall” Paradise City in the Jung-gu district of Incheon. We will talk about this “mall” later, but basically this is far from downtown Incheon and is rather quite literally walking distance to the airport.
There’s a few other hotels in the same building and it is geared towards the simple traveler who pretty much just wants a bed. And well that quite frankly was me!
And the rooms at Sky Guestel?
It is essentially a bedsit studio type apartment with a nice big bed, toilet and a view of planes taking off and landing at the airport. There’s cable TV, wifi and all mod cons. There was also a couple of weird bits here! Firstly there is bloody speaker on the wall which at a random time decided to go off with guy talking. I had no idea what he was saying, at least until later on.
I learned what he said when the caretaker knocked on the door and said “Johnson cold” I am the Johnson. She then came in, put an electric blanket on for me and explained in broken English that it was a bunch of blah blah, mainly saying don’t smoke. I still honestly have bugger all idea what the real purpose of this was save for warning if and when North Korea invade…..
The rooms cost about $45, or so a night which for South Korea and indeed the planet particularly compared to London was bloody good.
Around the Sky Guestel
OK, so officially it is not just in a mall, but also next to another one. Now when they say mall in my mind they are very much stretching the use of this word a bit too much. Basically these are tower blocks with shops and bars on the ground floor.
On the ground level you have the usual suspects like a 7 11 for beers, snacks and late night regret purchases, as well as a few Korean restaurants doing decent enough barbecue, fried chicken and noodle dishes. There are also a couple of coffee shops and convenience eateries aimed at airport staff and transit passengers. It is not exactly a buzzing nightlife hub, but you can eat, drink and survive without leaving the immediate area.
There was also the amazing Cinder Bar where I spent a decent amount of time and indeed money. You can see my review of there here.
Address and location
Sky Guestel
Unit within Paradise City area
186 Yeongjonghaeannam-ro 321beon-gil
Jung-gu
Incheon
South Korea
In Korean:
인천광역시 중구 영종해안남로321번길 186
The location is about 1.5 to 2 km from Incheon International Airport depending on exactly which tower you are in. Walking will take you roughly 20 to 30 minutes if you can be bothered, while a taxi is about 5 to 10 minutes and cheap as chips.
There is also a free shuttle bus that runs between the airport terminals and the Paradise City complex which makes getting there and back an absolute doddle even with bags.
Click to see my South Korea tours with YPT.