If you’re looking for cheap and affordable accommodation in Korea because you would rather spend the money on fried chicken and beer, I’m happy to say that this blog is the one for you. I’ve mostly stayed in cheap hotels, hostels, and now I even have a motel review for you!
For some context, I visited Daegu as part of my graduation trip with 2 other friends and we had a very tight budget. Thankfully, we all agreed that accoms was something we could certainly compromise on because we spent so little time there anyway. The fact that we were only spending 1 day in Daegu also sealed the deal that we would just find somewhere real cheap and convenient – all we really wanted was a shelter over our heads for one night, so we found New Grand Hotel on Booking.com.
New Grand Hotel is a short distance from the KTX station and considered to be in the city central:
- 70m from Daegu Station
- 3.8km from E-World
- 4.0km from 83 Tower
At that point in time (May 2019) we paid KRW 61,532 (~ SGD63) for 1 night, 3 adults. Considering that it was not a hostel and located a stone’s throw from the KTX station, I thought this accommodation in Daegu was actually quite a good deal.
A quick check now shows that it’s still around the same price, or could possibly be even cheaper if you go during off-peak periods!
Here’s a photo of our room.. to be honest it was very shady, with weird wallpaper, not-very-clean beds (we found random strands of hair on the bedsheets!).
The toilet was also a very sad sight… I didn’t take a photo of it but I found this on Agoda and mind you, this was MUCH better than whatever we had, because I absolutely do not recall even having a bathtub!
Here’s my personal analysis of whether you should book this motel when you’re in Daegu:
Pros
- Cheap: Paying just SGD20+ per night for a decent night’s sleep is really a miracle in Korea, especially in bigger cities like Seoul, Busan, and Daegu.
- Convenient: 70m from Daegu station – so you don’t have to spend half the day trying to figure out how to get here! Also very close to other attractions in the city, i.e. E-World and 83 Tower.
Cns:
- Not very safe: I say this based on personal experience – motels are great for the price but the guests staying there are, well, a little varied. When we checked into New Grand Hotel in the morning we bumped into a few drunk guests but the staff looked like they were used to seeing such a sight, so be extra careful.
- Not very clean: The strands of hair on the beds are a dead giveaway that the cleaning is not thorough – I don’t even know if they actually changed the bedsheets…
- Depressing wallpaper: My photo says about as much.
- Bare toilet: Photo above from Agoda says about as much.
If you’re on a super tight budget, want convenience, and are not staying in Daegu for too many days, I think New Grand Hotel (the name is so ironic lol) is not a bad choice. Just steer clear of the drunkards and you should be fine.
DIRECTIONS
Address: 46, Chilseongnam-ro 38-gil, Buk-gu, Daegu Central Area, Daegu, South Korea, 41581
THEVYPEFFECT 