8 Busan Hotels Where the Beach Is Downtown

Busan is the only major Korean city where the beach is downtown. Haeundae is two kilometres of sand with apartment towers and hotels directly behind it and a subway station at one end, and in summer the city puts something in the region of a million people on it over a single peak weekend.

That is unusual. Korea's other cities are inland or industrial; Busan is a port that grew up a narrow coastal strip between mountains and sea, which forced it upward and sideways into a shape no other Korean city has.

The hillside the war built

Gamcheon Culture Village is a slope of small houses in pastel colours, stacked in terraces so that no house blocks the one behind it. It was settled by refugees during the Korean War, when Busan was the temporary capital and the population roughly quadrupled almost overnight as people fled south. The city held. The houses they threw up stayed.

By the 2000s it was poor and emptying. From 2009 an arts programme painted the houses, installed works in the lanes and turned it into a destination. Around 8,000 people still live there and the signs asking visitors to keep their voices down in the alleys are not decoration.

The market that women run

Jagalchi is Korea's largest seafood market, on the waterfront, and it is run overwhelmingly by women — the Jagalchi ajumma, who took it over after the war when many of the men did not come back. You pick a fish downstairs and it is cooked upstairs. The scale, the noise and the range of things in tanks is genuinely startling.

The districts

Haeundae and Marine City have the beach, the towers and most of the hotels.

Gwangalli, next bay west, has a second beach facing the Gwangan bridge, which is lit at night and is where the city watches its fireworks.

Nampo-dong and Jagalchi, in the old centre, have the market, the fish, the film street and Gamcheon above.

Beomeosa and the mountains behind hold a major Buddhist temple founded in 678 and hiking on Geumjeongsan with a fortress wall along the ridge.

The eight below are grouped by district.

Haeundae and Marine City

The beach and the towers.

Park Hyatt Busan occupies the upper floors of a tower in Marine City with a spa, a pool looking down the coast and the most polished service in Korea outside Seoul.

Signiel Busan sits at the top of a very tall building at Haeundae with rooms at extreme height, a pool and views over the whole bay.

Paradise Hotel Busan occupies a long-established position on Haeundae beach with its own hot spring baths drawn from beneath the building, several pools and a casino.

Grand Josun Busan sits on the beachfront with a spa, several restaurants and full family facilities.

Ananti Hilton Busan occupies a clifftop east of Haeundae with an infinity pool over the sea, a spa and a quieter setting.

Gwangalli and the bridge

The second beach, west.

Josun Beach Hotel & Resort sits facing the Gwangan bridge with a rooftop, contemporary rooms and the bridge lit at night from the window.

Nampo-dong and the old centre

Near the market.

Lavalse Hotel occupies a position near Jagalchi with reliable rooms and the market, the film street and Gamcheon within reach.

Lotte Hotel Busan sits in the centre with a pool, a spa and rates below the beach hotels.

What we have left off

The guest houses in Gamcheon and around Nampo-dong are excluded, and several occupy houses in the village itself. They are guest houses rather than hotels.

What to do

Go to Jagalchi early and eat upstairs. Pick from the tanks, agree the price first, and expect the raw fish to arrive before anything else.

Walk Gamcheon in the morning, quietly, and remember that people live there. The lanes are narrow and residents have asked repeatedly for restraint.

Take the Haeundae Blueline Park, a coastal train and sky capsule running along a disused railway above the sea between Mipo and Songjeong.

See Beomeosa temple, founded in 678 on the mountain behind the city, and walk the Geumjeongsan fortress wall if you have the legs.

Eat Busan food, which differs from Seoul's: dwaeji gukbap, a pork and rice soup that is a war-era dish, milmyeon noodles, and eomuk fish cake, which the city is known for.

Practical notes

Gimhae airport serves Busan with regional flights; the KTX from Seoul takes about two and a half hours and is the better route. A ferry runs to Fukuoka in Japan.

May, June, September and October are best. Summer is hot, humid, extremely busy on the beaches and inside typhoon season. Winter is mild by Korean standards and the city is quiet.

The Busan International Film Festival in early October fills the city.

Is the beach really downtown?

Haeundae has a subway station at one end and towers directly behind it. No other major Korean city is arranged that way.

What is Gamcheon?

A hillside of refugee housing from the Korean War, painted and regenerated from 2009. About 8,000 people still live there.

Busan or Seoul?

Seoul for the palaces and the scale. Busan for the sea, the market and a slower pace. Two and a half hours apart.

How many nights?

Three. One for the beach, one for the market and Gamcheon, one for the temples.

If you only book one

Search 4 and 5 star hotels in Busan, South Korea