The Shilla Seoul Review: Check Whether Your Room Includes the Pool

Location & getting around

The hotel is 280m from Dongguk Univ. Station and 440m from Yaksu, an interchange station, so two lines are within a short walk.

This is not the middle of the city. Myeongdong is 2.09km away, the main shopping street 2.21km, Cheonggyecheon 2.79km and Changgyeonggung Palace 2.66km. You will be taking the subway rather than walking to the sights. Closer by are Namsangol Hanok Village at 1.16km and the Namsan cable car at 1.95km. The nearest convenience store is 900m, which is far enough to notice at night.

What you get instead is the airport. Gimpo is 18.12km away and Incheon 50.41km, with roughly 60 minutes quoted. Large hotels in the city centre quote around 100 minutes. Sitting slightly outside the dense core actually works in your favour on the airport run — and on a trip with an early flight, that difference is a chunk of a day.

Location scores 9.0 against an overall 9.1, so the position neither earns nor loses points here. The facilities section below explains where the score does come from.

Rooms & occupancy

Opened in 1979 and renovated in 2013, with 464 rooms.

The most important booking condition sits here. Room type names carry “outdoor pool access included” or “not included” — and actual stay records show both. Some types allow indoor pool use only. Executive lounge access also varies by type. Two rooms both called “Deluxe Double” can carry different privileges, so if you do not read the rate name to the end you can arrive and find the outdoor pool closed to you.

There are also halal-friendly rooms with a prayer set provided on check-in.

Families should check the age rule first. Free stays apply only to children aged 2 to 3. The other properties on this list allow ages 2–12 or 6 and under, so this is noticeably narrower — a four-year-old already triggers a charge.

Facilities

This is where the hotel earns its score. There are separate indoor and outdoor pools, a spa, gardens, a kids club, an executive lounge, restaurants, a bar and lounge, banquet rooms, a business centre and recreation facilities. A hot tub is also listed.

A city hotel with both gardens and an outdoor pool is not common. If your plan is to spend part of the trip at the property rather than out in it, that is the thing separating this from a hotel in the middle of Myeongdong. The kids club is a genuine difference for families rather than a line on a list.

The caveat is the access conditions above. Having facilities and being able to use them from your room are different things. If you are choosing this hotel for the pool or the lounge, match the rate plan to that intention.

Compared & alternatives

The natural comparison is Lotte Hotel Seoul — also opened in 1979, also large. The difference is that city access and airport time run in opposite directions.

Lotte sits 190m from a station and 250m from Myeongdong’s shopping street, so central Seoul is walkable — but around 100 minutes is quoted for the airport. The Shilla is more than 2km from Myeongdong and not a walking base, but the airport run is around 60 minutes and there are gardens and an outdoor pool.

Lotte if you intend to walk the city; The Shilla if the property is part of the trip and the airport run needs to be short. How the districts differ is set out in Where to Stay in Seoul.

Bottom line

9.1 across 10,330 reviews, the highest on this list — and that score comes from the grounds and the facilities rather than the position, which sits at 9.0. Gardens, indoor and outdoor pools, a kids club, and roughly 60 minutes to the airport.

But having the facilities and being allowed to use them are not the same thing. Outdoor pool and lounge access vary by room type, and free child stays stop at age 3. Most disappointments at this hotel come from not reading the rate name to the end.