Here I am, continuing with my Korea vacation post after a month break. Well, we visited the breathtaking Mount Sorak National Park in the afternoon and had lots of fun at the Hanwha Waterpia Hotspring Resort.
We were given 1.5 hours to explore Mount Sorak National Park on our own. The weather was getting a little warmer here, but in general, it was still windy and comfortable to walk. And we saw many local hikers going there with their backpacks.
The park has beautiful sceneries with granite peaks, lush green valleys and dense forest. On the other hand, it’s also cultural and full of history.
These are some of the pictures that we took at the park while we admire the beauty of its nature. I heard that there’s a cable car that brings visitors to the peak of the mountain, but due to time constraint, we didn’t have a chance to experience it.
We left Mount Sorak National Park at 3pm and headed to Hanwha Waterpia Hotspring Resort. I must say that this is the most exciting place in the entire trip!
Hanwha Waterpia Hotspring is one of Korea’s largest theme parks offering a wide variety of outdoor leisure activities and hot spring facilities. It has indoor and outdoor water theme parks, children’s pool, lazy river ride, wave pool, indoor, as well as outdoor hot spring facilities. The waterpark is really HUGE and AMAZING! I will go crazy if we have such waterpark in Singapore.
The spa area uses 100% all-natural hot spring water from Seoraksan Mountain. I totally enjoyed the outdoor hot spring. While V was playing with Edison at the waterpark, I spent almost an hour at the spa area. It was totally relaxing and enjoyable.
Speaking of hot spring in Korea, it’s similar to Japanese Onsen where bathers must disrobe completely. In general, wrapping a large towel around the body or wearing a swimsuit to bathe is not allowed.
My first experience of appearing naked in front of others was completely nerve-wrecking. It happened many years ago in Japan – on my first trip to Tokyo. So, this was my third “bare it all hot spring” experience. It wasn’t as scary as before.
Nonetheless, the main difference in Waterpia as compared to the previous Japanese onsen that I went is that their changing room is so huge and there’s a long walk to the hot spring area. Ha! This means you’ve to walk quite a bit completely naked to enter the hot spring.
I didn’t bring my camera to the waterpark, thus I don’t have any pictures to show you. Moreover, photography is strictly prohibited at the spa area.
I highly recommend Hanwha Waterpia Hotspring if you’re visiting Korea. As we went on a group tour, I couldn’t comment whether it’s easy to travel to this place if you go on free-and-easy mode.
We stayed at Hanwha Resort, and it was absolutely delightful! Our family-type room is very spacious and comfortable. It has two rooms – one modern bedroom with a queen-sized bed and one traditional Korean bedroom with tatami. It’s clean with kitchenette complete with utensils needed for simple cooking. Inside the resort, there’s a supermarket that sells meat, vegetables, fruit, snacks, and drinks etc.
All in all, Day 5 was extremely fun as we get to experience gondola at YongPyong All Seasons Resort, visit the breathtaking Mount Sorak National Park, and had lots of fun at Waterpia water theme park and hot spring.
Hanwha Resort Seorak Sorano
111, Misiryeong-ro 2983beon-gil, 217-130 Sokcho, South Korea
Website: http://www.hanwharesort.co.kr/irsweb/resort3/eng/index.asp
