Inside Park Hyatt Seoul, a Gangnam High-Rise That Works for Both Business and Pleasure

Stay Here For

A business trip to Seoul with a precious few personal days tacked on to the end.

Dropped into the affluent, future-forward district of Gangnam, Park Hyatt Seoul is perfectly positioned for travelers in town for work. But you’d be forgiven for staying put long after close of business thanks to its airy and blissfully quiet rooms, top-notch food and even an underground Japanese vinyl spot where you can belly up to a whiskey bar.

Impressive though it may be, Seoul has plenty of qualities to make your head spin: its sheer size, to start, and the millions of people who live and work here; a vast network of trains and buses; the manifold markets, landmarks and religious sites that dot the city, drawing in tourists and locals by the thousands. It can be a lot. So it’s no small comfort that when you check in to Park Hyatt Seoul, much of this overwhelm quickly evaporates.

The hotel sits on the corner of a broad, thrumming Gangnam intersection, but you’re liable to forget that fact—or at least, to feel wholly unbothered by it—once you cross the property threshold. After an obliging valet summons an elevator to zip you up to the 24th floor and the doors part, the walls suddenly expand outward and the city stretches before you in every direction. But in place of the sounds and smells that usually accompany these familiar vistas is a near silence, punctuated only by the dulcet tones of the sweetly inquiring front-desk staff.

An aura of calm follows you around this place, from the carpeted hallways leading into your bright, open room—and your boat of a soaking tub—right on up to the glass-walled lap pool where, for a moment, it feels like you’re hovering right over Gangnam. You can further exploit the feeling at the Ocelas Spa, with a Rose Brightening facial to counteract your full day of travel, or a soothing aromatherapy treatment (complete with sugar scrub) to help you wind down after a day of negotiations or meetings.

Speaking of: Once you’ve closed your laptop, slink down to The Timber House for a celebratory beverage; you’ve earned it. Depending on the time you visit, there might be a live performance to watch (perhaps a DJ set, a jazz night or a violin show), and each provides a moody backdrop. The whiskey bar and omakase counter are highlights, but the standout is the cocktail bar, Jukebox, which marries Korean ingredients with musical history to create highly unusual drinks (like the CnC, an electric blend of persimmon vodka, cold brew coffee, Campari and banana liqueur). You might be here on business, but the pleasures are plentiful and will make you feel guilty—almost—that you’re not using PTO.

The Essentials

The Location

You’re smack-dab in the middle of busy Gangnam, a prominent Seoul business district and one of the city’s swishest neighborhoods. (Think: sleek design, fine dining and lots of cheddar to spend on it all.) Coex, a major convention and exhibition center, is just across the street, as are the Starfield Coex Mall, the Parnas Mall and the upscale Hyundai Department Store.

The Bars and Restaurants

The hotel’s greatest strength is its food-and-beverage program—notable especially if you’re here on business, and you lack the time or energy to venture out once the workday ends. Cornerstone, the second-floor restaurant, serves Italian-influenced fare for every meal, including the downright Dionysian breakfast buffet; for an extra $60, you can indulge in the special weekend edition, which features the bonus of a live carving station, one welcome drink and heaps of fresh seafood. (Such as king crab legs the size of conducting batons and juicy lobster tails, plus every sauce imaginable to accompany them, from pollack-roe mayonnaise to apple mignonette.)

Around the corner from the check-in desk, The Lounge offers a robust (and genuinely delicious) menu all day long, and feels as appropriate for working lunches as it does a relaxed afternoon tea. There’s a tempting selection of sweets, including matcha and strawberry bingsu, a milk-based shaved-ice dessert; pretty little tea cakes with flavors like rose and raspberry; and injeolmi (glutinous rice cake) mousse with sesame tuile. The real standout, though, is the tea. Try the Sharing Tea Experience, inspired by the Korean tea ceremony known as dado, choosing from blends like Jeju sejak, a green tea from the Korean island, and Gimhae janggoon, a yellow tea known as the oldest in Korea.

And while you’d think that in a city as food- and drink-rich as Seoul, you’d be disappointed to stay in after hours, you’d be wrong. Because after dinner, when you head downstairs to The Timber House for a solo snifter of top-shelf Japanese whiskey and find yourself mesmerized by the DJ’s vinyl set, you’ll wonder why everyone else isn’t here.

The Room

Rooms at Park Hyatt Seoul are not unlike a comfortable art installation: modern, minimalist and striking, and each choice preserves the hotel’s general air of tranquility. It’s Scandinavian meets Korean, with pale oak flooring and soaring ceilings that dovetail with a window wall; crisp white bedding draped over a low-slung, honey-colored wooden frame; a single gray reclining chair between a tubular paper lamp and a standing flat-screen television.

It’s a hotel room that might, finally, make you contemplate the feng shui of a space.

Getting out of bed each day requires maximum effort, so comfortable is the setup. Parceled off from the sleeping quarters by a large closet, the bathroom has three distinct spaces, including a stall with a fancy toilet (there are various bidet and seat-heat settings); a marble-top vanity with a sink, a high-magnification mirror and room for a small stool; and, perhaps most enticing of all, a glass-doored compartment that frames out the shower and bathtub, complete with a full picture window. (One cheeky detail worth noting: the glass wall separating the shower and bathtub compartment from the bedroom, which offers clear sight lines from tub to bed.) Refillable bottles of Le Labo’s Bergamote 22 amenities sit on a narrow ledge chiseled into the shower’s rough-cut stone wall, and a small television is inlaid like a jewel into the mirror by the huge soaking tub. If there were ever a reason not to leave your hotel room, this would be it.

The Standout Feature

With just a few chairs and a hanji paper lamp, there’s little to distract you from taking in the city.

The highlights of this hotel are found at its vertical extremes: at the top, its expansive city views, and down below, The Timber House, a multi-concept bar set in a rambling subterranean space. Not only does it have three distinct bars—one at the omakase counter, one for cocktails and one just for whiskey—but it’s also a vinyl record bar, with occasional live DJ sets. (More of a film buff? Head to the cocktail bar, where a large-scale projector runs old movies.)

The Time to Go

Park Hyatt Seoul feels like a palace high above the city.

Seoul’s climate is comparable to that of New York—and like the Big Apple, it’s best experienced when you can get out and walk around. For best results, visit in the spring, between March and May (April is cherry blossom season), or the fall, between September and November (the changing foliage makes this an ideal time to hike in Bukhansan National Park, just north of the city). Just try to avoid Chuseok, the annual harvest festival, which falls in late September or early October, when everything closes for a few days.

The Vibe

Need motivation to work out? Look no further than the fitness center’s 180-degree views.

The highly specific reason you’d come here: You’re in town for work, and you want to stay near the local office in Gangnam, one of Seoul’s primary business districts. The days will be long, so you want someplace where you can get a solid night’s sleep and kick off each morning with a first-rate breakfast.

What are you packing? Unadorned, high-quality button-downs and suits for office hours, plus structured denim pants (sans holes, rips or tears) to sub in once the day’s out; tidy peacoats, black ballet flats or leather dress shoes. The aesthetic is elegant, restrained and totally unflashy.

The dish you’re re-creating at home: Bibimbap, inspired by one of the (many) breakfast buffet stations at Cornerstone, or the Speed Selector cocktail, made with tequila, watermelon, citrus and Cointreau.

The perfect spot for your social media post: At a window table in The Lounge, up on the 24th floor. (Make sure it’s one of the three facing Coex and the city skyline.) Bonus points if you’ve ordered tea to round out the composition.

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