Ibis Styles Bandung Braga Hotel Review (Indonesia)

It's a lovely hotel with modern and funky decor from the lobby, to the dining area, corridors and of course the rooms. The rooms were spacious enough for you to open your luggages and you get a nice view of the city if you're on the higher floors. I love the design of the room with the glass separator for the toilet.

The staff were really friendly and helpful and always greeted and conversed with smiles on their faces. There are pubs around the area and a nice spa place nearby too. Great place and will definitely consider coming back again!

Our room

View from our room

Date of stay: Nov 2014

Address:
Jalan Braga No 8, Bandung City Center, Bandung, Indonesia 40111

Links:
Tripadvisor listing
Agoda listing

P-Hotels Brattøra Review (Trondheim Norway)

Considering that Norway is such an expensive country, this hotel is very value for money and is within walking distance to the city. It's conveniently located near the train station (just beside the hotel), ferry terminal and airport bus station. So this is a good location if you have an early morning flight/ferry/train to catch as you could easily make your way there from the hotel.

Simple and nice rooms with enough space to open up your luggages. The toilets were rather spacious too.

Wifi is accessible from the lobby. So request for the rooms nearer to the lobby if you want the wifi in your room. Mine was the last room, so we couldn't really access it.

Rough walking time without luggage:
Trains - 1 minute
Bus - 1 minute
Ferry - 10-15 min

Hotel entrance

(Credits: Agoda)

Hotel room

(Credits: Agoda)

Date of stay: July 2014

Address:
Fosenkaia, Trondheim, Norway

Links:
Tripadvisor listing
Agoda listing

Guesthouse Anita Review (Mljet, Croatia)

Anita and her husband were really helpful and ensured that we got everything we needed. The weren't working on site at the guest house but they arrived to greet and welcomed us when we arrived. During the times there weren't around, their neighbours acted as host and helped us resolved any issues or enquires that we had. We had the room on the ground floor and could have our meals outside while having a nice view of the ocean. You could also head down to swim. There were a few eateries within walking distance. It was a simple, nice, quaint and peaceful place. Overall we had a good stay. Would recommend this place!

Entrance to our room

View from our bedroom. That's the porch where we would have our breakfast. And that's our rented bike.

Area in front of our room

Date of stay: July 2014

Address:
Sobra 34, Mljet, Croatia 20225

Links:
Agoda listing
Tripadvisor listing

Homey house Review (Taipei, Taiwan)

(Credits: agoda.com)

(Credits: agoda.com)

Everything looks brand new. The staff was extremely friendly and prompt. We arrived really early at around 10am and we could not check in yet as the standard check-in time was 3pm. That was fine as there weren't any extra rooms and they needed to wait for the guest to check out and clean up the room. But staff was really kind and offered us additional complimentary breakfast for that morning.  Thumbs up to Vivi for that kind gesture! :)

Date of stay: Aug 2013

Address:
No.56, Changchun Rd., Zhongshan District, Zhongshan District, Taipei, Taiwan

Links:
Official website
Agoda listing

Goodstay Nobless Yeoksam Hotel Review

This hotel located behind Yeoksam station and the airport bus stop is located nearby. They have large rooms and just a few stops away from lots of shopping and food.

It has a good location and you could walk to Gangnam underground shopping located 1 train station away or head over to Gangnam COEX. The rooms were spacious fitted with a large flat screen TV, a 2 seater sofa and luggage storage area. The toilet was extremely spacious with a jacuzzi tub (the jacuzzi wasn't working or maybe we had to get the staff to switch it on? We didn't really need to use it so we didn't ask them about it), separate shower area and toilet bowl area. It can get quite noisy as it's located near the main street but that could also be due to our open windows as the air-conditioning was only powered up during winter time.

We only booked this hotel for one night as we just ended our snowboarding trip in Yongpyong and needed a one night stay in Seoul prior to our flight back. Overall we had a good stay and the main intention was to have easy access to the train station and the airport bus.

Our spacious bedroom 

Toilet with tub, shower and toilet bowl area

Date of stay: March 2014

Address:
642-2, Yeoksam-dong, Gangnam - Gangnam, Seoul, South Korea

Links:
Agoda listing
Tripadvisor listing

Vesta Spa & Fitness Review (Busan, South Korea)

(Credits: Tripadvisor)

View from the lounge area

Entrance to one of sauna rooms

This is a typical Korean sauna, the real local experience. My friends, who are local Koreans living in Busan, brought us to this place. It has an amazing view of the beach and the sunset. I think the best time to head there is during the winter and in the evening while catching the sunset. They also have an outdoor pool section, where you could soak in the hot water while enjoying the cool breeze and even the snow.

Date of visit: March 2013

Address:
1509-6 Jung-dong, Haeundae-gu, Busan, South Korea

Links:
Official website
Tripadvisor Reviews

Yongpyong Resort Dragon Valley Hotel Review

Hotel

The rooms were large with comfy beds and the hotel was located just behind the ski lifts. It's about a minute's walk from the hotel lobby to the ski lifts.

Double room (Credits: agoda.com)

Twin room (Credits: agoda.com)

Entrance (Credits: agoda.com)

Hotel Lobby (Credits: agoda.com)

Neighbourhood

There wasn't anything to do around our hotel at night as almost everything was closed around 6pm. So there's definitely no after-ski or places to chill during the night. It is a very different atmosphere from what you would expect from Europe. Maybe it's because we were there during off peak. The night skiing is only available during the weekends.

Transportation

It was tricky getting to the hotel from Seoul as the website to reserve the shuttle bus tickets were in Korean and you needed to buy using a Korean credit card. Fortunately we had a Korean friend who helped us buy the tickets. The hotel staff recommended us to buy the tickets online, but there were also some people who bought the tickets directly on the bus. There were no designated bus stop at the Lotte Mart (Jamsil) for the shuttle buses, but the buses generally arrived early so you could spot them and the buses we took were purple in colour. (More details regarding transportation here: Yongpyong Resort Website) You can book your bus tickets through Grace Travel.

(Credits: yongpyong.co.kr)

Date of stay: March 2013

Hotel details:
130, Yongsan-ri, Daegwalnyeong-myon, Gangwon-do, Pyeongchang, Pyeongchang-gun, South Korea

Links:
Official website
Agoda listing
Tripadvisor review