South Korea is known for its beauty and skincare rituals – we came to the right place when we checked into the Four Seasons Hotel Seoul.
Centres of gravity shift in many cities, as established areas seem staid for a while and newer parts of town steal their glamour – and then the old order returns and things settle down again to the way they used to be. Such is certainly the case in Seoul, when for a couple of decades the Gangnam area was deemed the only place to be, but these days the city’s traditional centre on the north side of the Han River is back to being as sophisticated and desirable as it ever was. Indeed, if you were searching for proof, just check in for a few nights, as I did, at the Four Seasons Hotel Seoul, a gleaming 29-storey tower of steel and glass that opened in 2015 and sits almost equidistant from the Gyeongbokbung and Deoksugung palaces. In other words, it could hardly be more central or convenient.
During my stay at the Four Seasons, I was fortunate enough to be able to take advantage of the hotel’s Timeless Beauty room package in association with the premium Korean beauty brand The History of Whoo, so on entering my spacious room, with its elegant melding of traditional saetgollai textiles juxtaposed with contemporary arts and crafts – and fabulous cross-town views through its floor-to-ceiling windows – I discovered a Whoo Hwanyu Imperial Youth Discovery Kit, packed with luxurious ingredients for the ultimate beauty ritual and exquisitely wrapped in organza. If that weren’t enough, a 40-minute Whoo Hwanyu spa facial was also included in the package, which turned out to be so deliciously indulgent that I can hardly remember any of it, having promptly nodded off almost as soon as it began.
As for the hotel’s spa and fitness facilities, they’re absolutely enormous – in fact, they’re easily the biggest I’ve seen, taking up three floors, an incredible area of more than 57,000 square feet (which is only slightly smaller than a soccer field), and encompassing just about every kind of treatment room imaginable, with some areas of the vast sauna – where cold, warm and hot baths are available – extravagantly tiled in 18k gold. And if that weren’t enough there’s even an indoor golf range.
Other highlights? My white-marble bathroom with deep tub; the outstanding array of dishes from around Asia and the world at the Market Kitchen restaurant, meaning I began each day by eating like a queen; the André Fu-designed Yu Yuan Chinese restaurant; and OUL, the hotel’s watering hole where a trio of History of Whoo-inspired cocktails was available, as well as a menu of beautifully presented dishes to satisfy any late-night hunger pangs. With facilities such as these, not to mention service to match, this is the kind of hotel it’s difficult to tear yourself away from, so when the time eventually came around for me to check out, saying goodbye to the Four Seasons Hotel Seoul was hard. Very hard indeed.
Managing Director & Publisher
An industry veteran, Oceana held senior positions at leading media companies in both London and Hong Kong before joining Prestige as the Publisher and Managing Director. Passionate about her work, she ..Read More
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