Where to Stay in Gwangalli, Busan: Why I Chose It Over Haeundae | South Korea

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When it came to booking the accommodation for my trip to Busan, I was mostly tied between Gwangalli Beach and Haeundae Beach (with one of my short list being in Songjeong!). My visit fell during the Busan International Film Festival, so a lot of choices had already sold out at the time of booking, and prices were also higher. Ultimately I chose Gwangalli because I could get a ‘better’ location (sea view!) for my budget.

I stayed at Hotel 1*, right on Gwangalli Beach front. You can find my full hotel review based on my experience, after sharing my pros and cons for why I chose to stay at Gwangalli Beach while in Busan!

Is Gwangalli a Good Place to Stay in Busan?

So would I recommend staying at Gwangalli Beach? Yes, I was happy with my choice, I liked my accommodation and the area was a convenient size for what I needed.

Busan is absolutely massive and it’s quite spread out in a pretty awkward way. For my 7 day itinerary, Gwangalli Beach felt the most central to the things I wanted to do. (Geographically Seomyeon is the most central but it’s inland, not on the coast).

✅It was ‘closer’ to the Busan KTX station, and there were an equal amount of things that I wanted to do heading East and West either side of Gwangalli. If I had stayed in Haeundae, it looked like I would be spending most of my time constantly heading quite far westbound to do the things I wanted to see.

✅Another major factor is that being a solo traveller I prefer not to wander around too late at night by myself. I knew I wanted to see the free drone show on a Friday night. From March – September it takes place at 8pm and 10pm and during the off-season (October – February) it’s 7pm and 9pm. My logic was that staying at Gwangalli I would be close to the drone show and wouldn’t have to travel across the city to get back to my accommodation.

✅Like I said above, Gwangalli also had cheaper accommodation options, with more sea view/beachfront options. Because I had spent 4 nights in Seoul, I wanted Busan to feel like the ‘holiday’ part of my trip. And having a sea view room for a lower price, seemed like a no-brainer. In comparison, my budget in Haeundae would have got me a windowless room that was a 20 minute walk away from the beach. (Although this does seem to be different outside of BIFF).

For me Gwangalli had everything I needed, the beachfront location, restaurants and convenience stores.

The Downsides of Staying in Gwangalli

❌The only downsides that I really came across, is that the subway stations felt quite far away from my accommodation, it was around a 10-15 minute walk in each direction. The bus stops were often closer.

Especially when travelling with my luggage I had to decide whether it was worth squishing onto a potentially busy bus, or, have a train with more space, but then have the walk to and from my hotel. In hindsight I probably should have just risked the bus for the KTX days.

Naver maps is well worth downloading if you plan on using the public transport, it shows you all the different options for getting from A to B, including walking and transfers.

❌I did find the beachfront area to be particularly busy at the weekends, and of course when the drone show was on. There was also a Fall Festival on during my stay which made the area more lively.

❌If you were only visiting Busan for a few days, attractions like the Sky Capsule and Haedong Yonggungsa temple are some of the most popular things to do. However, these are all closer to Haeundae, so that then may work better as a central base, depending on your itinerary.

Where I Stayed in Gwangalli: Hotel 1

I LOVED my accommodation. I stayed at Hotel 1*, right on Gwangalli Beach front. They have several different room types, including typical style hotel rooms on the higher levels, but predominantly they have 3 floors of ‘women only’ capsule rooms. As a solo female traveller, this worked PERFECTLY for me.

Capsules

What made these capsules unique in comparison to other capsule hotels that I’ve stay in, is that you could pay a minuscule amount extra to upgrade to a sea view window capsule. I would 100% recommend doing this! (You can also choose an upper or lower capsule…I always choose upper, they feel more private).

Often in the evenings I like to relax in my room, and having the window meant I could watch the light show on Gwangalli Bridge and I could even see the drone show from my bed too!

The only downside is that the capsules only had curtain ‘doors’, so it didn’t feel completely secure and obviously a curtain isn’t soundproof. Considering I stayed for 7 nights, other than the busy, fully booked Saturday night, I was impressed with how considerate and respectful most guests were. Most of the time it was very quiet and everyone kept themselves to themselves and kept the noise levels down.

I openly admit I don’t like hostels and dorm rooms. However it feels like a capsule is a nice compromise, especially when you have a window too! The capsules have:

• mood lighting
• a shelf (the window ledge in my capsule was great for keeping my clothes & day bag)
• hooks to hang things
• a small mirror
• 2 plug sockets and 2 USB outlets
• a mini number combination safe
• and a fan.

Amenities

You do have to remove your shoes when you enter the hotel, and everyone has a shoe locker in the reception area and is given slippers.

Guests are also provided with:

• one-size-fits-all pyjamas (great as a hand luggage only traveller, but of course, are optional!)
• a welcome orange juice carton and a bottle of water
• 2 towels (typical smaller Korean sized towels…not ‘bath’ towels)
• and ear plugs.
• If you stay for multiple nights, the water and towels are replaced daily.
• On check-out I was given 2 Vitamin C sweets which I thought was cute!

I always kept my day bag in my capsule, but everyone is assigned a larger locker in the hallway too. It was big enough for my backpack, however if you were in an upper capsule you’d then need to lift your luggage into the higher locker. I quite liked having it a more normal height, rather than having to keep bending down to access a lower one.

A word of warning, if you travel with a larger ‘check-in’ style suitcase, many people couldn’t fit their cases in the locker. Instead, you just have to leave them along the wall. You may want to make sure you can lock your luggage, or store valuables within the locker (accessed with a key card) or the combo safe within the capsule.

Shared Bathrooms

On the capsule floors, bathrooms were shared (and still women only). There is a large sink and mirror area with hair dryers, showers with shampoo, conditioner and body wash, of course toilets, and even a free washing machine (30 minute or 15 minute wash).

I never had to wait to use the facilities, and they were kept very clean. I preferred using the showers around 5pm when they were freshly cleaned though! Showers are also rain head showers, so it was quite hard to avoid the water once the middle shower door was closed. (I like them, but I know some travellers that only want body showers don’t always like the water flow!).

For the sake of other guests PLEASE have some consideration if you do like to shower late at night. There are signs EVERYWHERE asking for hairdryers not to be used after 11pm (but of course you always get the entitled ones that decide to fire them up at 1am for 30 minutes, regardless of other people trying to sleep…).

Free Breakfast

A simple breakfast is also included in the room rate. Service starts at 8am. You get a bowl with cornflakes, with a blob of really yummy thick yoghurt, various fruits (such as kiwi, banana, dragon fruit, orange), honey, blueberry or peach compote and a little biscuit.

For a drink, it was either milk, or what I believe was called ‘Misugaru’, a roasted grain drink (that I originally thought was milk tea before I discovered that it tasted kind of sweet)! Coffee cost extra (5000 won), although I used to just nip next door to 7eleven.

Common Area

I’m not sure what the rules were for the regular rooms, I’m guessing it was more relaxed than the capsules, but food was not allowed in the rooms and if you wanted to make voice calls, you were asked to either take them on the common area next to reception, or on the second floor.

I did quite like the common area, it was stepped seating face the beach with little tables, teddy bears, plug sockets and USB ports. I would have preferred to have somewhere more private to make calls, but that was my fault for choosing the ‘shared’ accommodation option, rather than the private rooms. I will say though that was WiFi was extremely fast. I had no problems with video calls, watching YouTube or uploading TikTok’s.

Rooftop

From reading reviews online, I believe Hotel 1* in its current capacity is a fairly new accommodation. They have a rooftop that could honestly be AMAZING but it felt a little bit unloved and forgotten, despite being featured on a lot of the promo materials.

It was open between 3pm-10pm but it felt a bit like I shouldn’t have been there! There were a couple of empty, dirty hot tubs, seat areas, and a photo spot with a (rusty) stairway going up into the sky. The views of the beach, bridge and city are awesome though, and I do like the photos that I got using the stairs (I just had to get clever with the angles to try and hide the rust)…

Check current rates and availability for Hotel 1 here*

Things to Do Near Hotel 1

• Gwangalli Beach & Bridge (the beach has free benches & umbrellas even in the off-season!)
• Friday night Drone Show
• 153구포국수 광안점 – budget friendly beachfront Korean restaurant
• 7eleven right next door
• Gwangan Beach Park
• Millac The Market
• Stand Up Paddle Board rentals
• There are also lots of photo booth studios and gacha arcades but I personally didn’t go to these.

Getting Around Busan From Gwangalli

I stayed in Busan for 1 week and here’s a rough idea on how to get to other places in Busan from Gwangalli Beach and how long travel time is from Hotel 1:

Haeundae Beach & the Sky Capsule	🚶🏻‍♀️🚇🚶🏻‍♀️Approx 45 minutes 15 min walk – 15 min subway – 10 to 15 min walk
Haedong Yonggungsa temple & Skyline Luge	🚶🏻‍♀️🚌🚶🏻‍♀️Approx 1hr 20 10 min walk – 50 min bus – 15 min walk
Gamcheon Culture Village & Huinnyeoul Culture Village	🚶🏻‍♀️🚌🚌🚶🏻‍♀️Approx 1hr 5 3 min walk – 2x buses (total 1hr) – 1 min walk I went to Gamcheon first for a few hours, then it took 35 minutes to get from there to Huinnyeoul and then another hour back to Gwangalli. I originally planned to do these on 2 separate days, but ended up combining them.
Igidae Coastal Trail	🚶🏻‍♀️🚌🚌🚶🏻‍♀️Approx 45 mins to Oryukdo Skywalk 3 min walk – 2x buses (total 30 minutes) – 4 min walk. Igidae Coastal Trail took 2hrs and then walked back to Gwangalli Beach along the seawall which took around another hour.
Centum Spa Land	🚶🏻‍♀️🚇🚶🏻‍♀️Approx 25 minutes 15 min walk – 7 min subway – 2 min walk (I almost walked to Spa Land on a different day via the waterfront path, it would have taken around 1 hour).
Busan KTX station	🚶🏻‍♀️🚌🚶🏻‍♀️Approx 35 minutes 3 min walk – 28 min bus – 3 min walk OR 🚶🏻‍♀️🚇🚇🚶🏻‍♀️Approx 47 minutes 14 min walk – 2x subway (total 25 minutes) – 3 min walk

Gwangalli vs Haeundae

In all honesty, if I wasn’t planning on travelling all over the city, I think I liked Haeundae more as a beach area compared to Gwangalli Beach.

HOWEVER it was great that Gwangalli had the benches and umbrellas on the sand, Haeundae didn’t do this during my visit (although I believe they do in the summer).

On the other hand, Haeundae was close to the Sky Capsule and green railway, I liked the beachfront park at the opposite end with a clay barefoot walking trail, the free hot springs foot spa, and Haeundae Market were all within a short walking distance from each other. If you’re only in the area for a short time, Haeundae may be more convenient.

BUT I also know I wouldn’t have been able to get my sea view accommodation for the same budget.

Stay in Gwangalli if…	Stay in Haeundae if…
You want views of Gwangan Bridge	You want to focus on the eastern coastal attractions
You’re interested in the drone show	The Sky Capsule and Beach Train are priorities
You want a beach base for a varied Busan itinerary	You want to stay near Haeundae’s main tourist area
Cheaper beachfront sea view accommodation	You are only visiting Busan for a short time

Final Verdict: Would I Stay in Gwangalli Again?

If I was to stay in Busan again, especially for a week, then yes, I would have be happy to base myself at Gwangalli Beach again. Hotel 1 worked perfectly for my budget and requirements, during a time when accommodation in Busan was limited and expensive. If a sea view private room could be found for around the same price, this would be the only thing that would make me choose a different hotel. Otherwise I was happy with my choice.

Alternatively, if I only had a few days in Busan and was mostly looking for somewhere to relax, with lots of things to do within a walking distance, then I would be more inclined to sway more towards staying at Haeundae Beach. I think it does depend on what your Busan itinerary looks like!