Where to sleep in regional Korea, and what each type is like
Hanok guesthouses, pensions, minbak, motels and jjimjilbang are all normal places to spend a night. What each actually involves, and who each suits.
Updated
Hanok stays
A hanok is a traditional wooden house, and staying in one is the most atmospheric option in towns that have them — Jeonju, Andong, Gyeongju and parts of Seoul.
Expect to sleep on a yo, a padded mat laid on an ondol-heated floor, rather than on a bed. Rooms are small, walls are thin, and bathrooms are often shared. The heating is exceptional; the sound insulation is not.
Book the courtyard-facing room if there is a choice. The courtyard is the entire point of the building.
Pensions and minbak
A pension is a self-catering holiday house, usually near a beach or in the mountains, rented as a whole unit. They are built for groups and families, frequently include a barbecue area, and are poor value for one or two people.
A minbak is a room in a private home or a small family-run building — closer to a homestay, cheaper, and more variable. In a coastal village a minbak may be the only accommodation of any kind.
Neither type reliably has an English-speaking host. Both are usually spotless.
Motels are not what the word suggests
Korean motels are ubiquitous, inexpensive, and considerably better than the English word implies. Rooms are clean and well equipped, often with a large television and a good bathroom.
They cluster near bus terminals and train stations, which makes them convenient for exactly the kind of trip where you arrive late and leave early.
Some are aimed at couples and decorated accordingly. This is normal, nobody will comment, and the rooms are still perfectly comfortable places for a solo traveller to sleep.
Jjimjilbang as a fallback
A jjimjilbang is a 24-hour bathhouse with communal sleeping areas, and staying overnight is a completely ordinary thing to do. It costs a fraction of a room and is a genuine cultural experience rather than merely a cheap bed.
You sleep on a mat on a heated floor in a shared room, in the shorts and shirt they issue you. Bathing areas are single-sex and fully nude; the common areas are mixed and clothed.
It is a reasonable answer to a missed last bus, which in regional Korea happens more often than you would like.