Nice Hanbok experience, thanks to the friendly staff who even sent our forgotten earrings by post to a next hotel. Location is walking distance from the sights located near the center, while others are accessible via nearby bus-stop. We took a Korean room/bed and that might have been a step to far for us, classic bed may be safer (and softer)!
Booking.com
Expedia.com
Priceline
If you are looking for a unique and cozy guest house and want to experience the true beauty of Gyeongju, I strongly recommend this place. The owner was very kind, joyful, and thoughtful. It is a traditional local style house with a lovely garden.
Dorandoran Guesthouse is such a beautiful place with a lovely garden. If you're a cat lover, the owners have 3 generations of kitties. The rooms are comfortable and the location is within walking distance to the park and restaurants. The breakfast are healthy with freshly fruits and vegetables, eggs to order with ham/cheese sandwiches, juices and coffee. Breakfast is also communal and lively, which made staying more enjoying and memorable.
The owners are humble, extremely patient and really helpful. We were escorted to a really great pork belly BBQ with reasonable price (near 7-Eleven & bus top to Bulguksa/Seokguram). If you're planning to see the Bulguksa Temples and Seokguram Grotto, the bus stop is very close by. Bring Won because they only accept cash, however, there are ATMs in the area. The owners can speak English and the guesthouse is popular to English-speaking travelers. The owners called the taxi for us, and they walked with us to the taxi and made our goodbyes.
If you love staying in small and intimate guesthouse/hotels and wouldn't mind mingling with your hosts, this is the place to be in.
Positives:
- it's a building in a traditional local style with a lovely garden where you can drink beer after the whole day full of sightseeing.
- hosts do care about you and you may see they want you to feel comfortable
- rooms are basic but exactly as you would expect them to be in such an environment. Everything is spotlessly clean. And it's definitely not expensive (but beware, it's cash only).
Negatives:
- unfortunately, breakfast has nothing to do with anything traditional. When I was in Japan in a traditional accommodation, breakfast was also in Japanese style, but here it was just toasts, ham, eggs etc., it wasn't bad per se but if they served sth. Korean, it'd create a much better impression.
I stayed at the Doran Doran Guest House at the peak of the leaf color change season. The guesthouse was perfect. The owner was very attentive, even though there was a language barrier (I speak no Korean and she spoke only a small amount of English).
The room was clean and cosy, albeit small. Breakfast was simple, but included lots of vegetables and fruits. I would stay here again.
Lovely guesthouse with charming and friendly hosts. Particularly loved the garden with its well, stone sculptures and plants. Great and very sociable breakfast sharing tables. Hosts went beyond the call of duty, with their helpful town map and recommendations, free laundry service, and they even helped with wrapping for a parcel of books I had to send back.
