The Korea Herald

Enjoy springtime in Gochang

Walk around green barley field and take a break at a beautiful templeIt’s spring. Flowers are blooming and the weather is warming up. Itching to get of out of town? How about walking around a vast green field or enjoying a quiet stroll at a beautiful temple.Gochang, North Jeolla Province, located some 290 kilometers south of Seoul, is a perfect place for a spring outing. Green Barley Field FestThe annual Green Barley Field Festival at Hagwon Farm this year is scheduled from April 21-May 23, off

April 16, 2012

New JW Marriott to open in Dongdaemun

A new JW Marriott Hotel, a luxury hotel chain from Marriott International, is coming to the Dongdaemun area by 2013, becoming the first Marriott hotel in the northern part of Seoul. “Dongdaemun is a neat area to be in and since the city is growing that way, we are positioned perfectly as it continues to expand,” Craig Smith, chief operating officer of Marriott International’s Asia Pacific operation, told The Korea Herald in a recent interview. He was in Seoul last week to check on the Korean mar

April 16, 2012

More train services for Yeosu Expo

Tickets for extra train services to Yeosu during the Expo period from May 12 to Aug. 12 are on sale. Six weekday and 10 weekend KTX operations from Seoul Station to Yeosu Expo have been added to the regular schedule. Four daily Mugunghwa Train services from Yongsan Station to Yeosu Expo are also arranged. Two Mugunghwa Train service between Iksan and Yeosu Expo as well as free shuttle trains from Suncheon to Yeosu Expo are also available, Korail said. Passengers can get 30 percent off their trai

April 13, 2012

Lotte Jeju hosts ‘Pleasures of W10,000’

Lotte Hotel Jeju celebrates spring with an outdoor buffet of local specialties April 22-26. This special event offers an all-you-can-eat meal for two, originally priced at 140,000 won, for an incredible price of 10,000 won. This offer is only available to the first 10 guests each day who book the “Spring 8 Healing Package” for more than two nights. The hotel offers the “Spring Healing Package,” starting from 260,000 won, which includes a one-night stay in a deluxe room, breakfast for two in the

April 13, 2012

Millennium Hilton offers Napa wine

Millennium Seoul Hilton’s French restaurant Seasons will host a special promotion on April 20, showcasing Clos Du Val, a Bordeaux-style Californian wine. Diners can pick from a wine list that includes 2007 Clos Du Val Pinot Noir Reserve and 2008 Clos Du Val Chardonnay Reserve. Along with the wine comes dinner by Seasons’ executive chef Park Hyo-nam. The menu is carefully selected to match the bouquet of wines showcased. Created in Bordeaux style, Clos Du Val has its winery in the Napa Valley. A

April 13, 2012

Titanic’s wealthiest passenger built NYC hotel

NEW YORK (AP) ― A century after the Titanic sank, the legacy of the ship’s wealthiest and most famous passenger lives on quietly at the luxury hotel he built in New York City.John Jacob Astor IV, who was one of the richest men in America, went down with the ship in 1912 after helping his pregnant wife escape into the last lifeboat. But at the St. Regis, one of Manhattan’s oldest luxury hotels, the aristocratic sensibilities of the Gilded Age remain intact.Butlers in white ties and black tailcoat

April 13, 2012

Titanic’s wealthiest passenger built NYC hotel

Making strides along Cotswold Way in England

BATH, England ― On the high street of the lovely Cotswold village of Chipping Campden, just next to the 12th century stone marketplace, sits an unobtrusive but intimidating sign. “Cotswold Way, the beginning and the end,” it reads. “Bath 100 m.” The “m” stands for miles.The sign marked the starting point of our 10-day walk through the Cotswolds, along a trail that loosely follows the route that monks in ancient times walked each year to pay tribute to Bath Abbey. My husband, Carl, and I had been

April 13, 2012

Making strides along Cotswold Way in England

Competition to find Earhart strong 75 years on

HOUSTON (AP) ― Jon Thompson has traveled the world collecting art and artifacts for museum exhibits, seen the remains of the Titanic on the sea floor and participated in two unsuccessful missions to find Amelia Earhart.Aged 72 and battling prostate cancer, Thompson is convinced he and a team from deep-sea exploration company Nauticos will finally be successful in finding the Kansas-born aviator’s plane, which disappeared with Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan in July 1937. He’s among the researc

April 11, 2012

Ship leaves NYC to visit Titanic graves in Canada

NEW YORK (AP) ― Passengers dressed in fur coats and wide-brimmed hats strolled the decks of a memorial ship as it began its journey to Canada to visit the spot where the Titanic sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean a century ago.The ship was packed on Tuesday with history aficionados who have long been obsessed with the doomed ocean liner. Quite a few wore old-fashioned costumes, and one boy in a fake white beard was dressed up as Captain Edward John Smith.The cruise ship Journey, operated b

April 11, 2012

Ship leaves NYC to visit Titanic graves in Canada

Doomsday condos on sale for those who can afford it

Luxury flats built inside missile silos to fend off disaster“Act now, or you’re a loser.”A salesman abides by this strategy to prepare for the worst as he seeks to sell ultra-safety underground havens designed to withstand Doomsday. ‘Doomsday preppers,’ luxurious underground havens built deep under the Kansas prairie, have been sold to four buyers for a total of about $7 million so far, the Daily Mail reported.The luxury flats located within 3-meter-thick walls of abandoned missile silos stretc

April 11, 2012

Doomsday condos on sale for those who can afford it

Have whale of a time in Ulsan

Boat excursions offer a rare chance to see sea mammals up closeULSAN ― It’s spring, and if you are itching to get out of town, Ulsan could be an ideal place to spend a weekend. This suggestion may raise some eyebrows because Ulsan is a city known for its heavy industries. But sometimes one needs to see what’s happening on the far edge of the country, and there is something special about visiting this coastal city at this time of the year.Ulsan has been a driving force behind the country’s indust

April 6, 2012

JW Marriott launches live performances

JW Marriott Seoul’s Bar Rouge offers new live performances by band Musica starting on April 10. This award-wining Filipino male-female duet has gained a reputation for breaking the stereotypes of existing Filipino bands and mastering a wide range of genres such as pop, jazz, bossa nova, reggae and R&B. The band will perform Tuesday to Saturday, from 9 p.m. to 12:45 a.m. Bar Rouge will also offer free membership to everyone who visits between April 10 and 14. Bar Rouge membership brings a wide va

April 6, 2012

Imperial Palace Seoul hosts Black Day event

Imperial Palace Seoul’s New York-style lounge bar Zoe will host a “Black Day Event” from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. on April 14. Black Day is a day known in Korea among singles who didn’t get to celebrate Valentine’s Day and White Day (March 14) as part of a couple.The hotel’s event offers various match making programs as well as games for couples formed that day. There will also be sweepstakes where winners can receive a complimentary stay in one of the hotel’s room, a complimentary coupon to Buffet Fami

April 6, 2012

Millennium Seoul Hilton offers Campania taste

Millennium Seoul Hilton’s Italian restaurant Il Ponte will host a special promotion showcasing the foods of Campania. Diners can enjoy a special five-course menu that highlights the bountiful foods made famous from this southern region of Italy. Chef Anita Bidini has put together a menu composed of dishes such as spaghetti with mussels and oregano in white wine sauce and grilled sirloin of beef with prosciutto and mushroom sauce on broccoli with garlic and oil. Dinner options start from 69,000 w

April 6, 2012

Hanjin Tour offers Balkan tour packages

Hanjin Tour is offering various tourism packages to visit Balkan countries. Tourists can depart on April 28 or every Saturday in May to Croatia on Korean Air flights. A nine-day tour which visits Croatia, Bosnia, Slovenia and Montenegro is priced at 3.99 million won; another nine-day tour which makes a round of Croatia and travels as far as Hvar Island starts from 4.79 million won; and a package offering travels crossing four countries ― Croatia, the Czech Republic, Austria and Hungary ― starts

April 6, 2012

Book Benikea hotels on smartphone

Benikea, the nation’s largest tourism hotel chain run by Korea Tourism Organization, announced on Wednesday the launch of an application which enables booking through smartphones. Users can check real-time information and reservation rates of Benikea hotels. It can also be useful in locating a nearby Benikea hotel.The app is available in Korean and English, and can be downloaded from the android market as well as the iPhone app store. It will also be available at T-store within April. For more i

April 6, 2012

For $65, Buddhist retreat provides a yurt, all the peace you can stand

BLOOMINGTON, Indiana ― No matter how I searched, the Wi-Fi wasn’t there. No television either. Even my phone, struggling toward two bars, conspired against modernity.But that’s what you pay for at the Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center and its 108 wooded acres just south of this state’s flagship university. Not that you pay much. Renting one of the four yurts in these woods costs $65 per night.What you won’t get during your stay: what’s mentioned above. Or soap in the bathroom.What you d

April 6, 2012

For $65, Buddhist retreat provides a yurt, all the peace you can stand

Money talks in search for London Olympic hotels

LONDON (AP) ― Coming for the Olympics with money to spend? Then there’s still time to ensure you can take tea at The Ritz, drink at the Savoy’s American bar, or sleep in an Art Deco room at Claridge’s.Most of London’s most exclusive hotels have been booked for the Olympics, snapped up by Olympic officials or companies block-booking rooms for favored customers, but there are still amazing places to stay.That is, if you can afford the bill.“You can still get some rooms in certain periods of the ga

April 6, 2012

Money talks in search for London Olympic hotels

Go ‘glamping’ with heartthrob actor

Cheil Industries’ new outdoor brand Bean Pole Outdoor offers a camping trip with actor Kim Soo-hyun, who shot to fame after starring in the hit MBC drama “Moon Embracing the Sun.” The participants will be able to enjoy “glamping,” or glamorous camping, from May 11 to 13 at Hotel Shilla Jeju. Glamping is a luxury kind of camping which is gaining popularity among the wealthy in Northern America and Europe, organizers said. Among subscribed customers, Bean Pole Outdoors will randomly pick eight tea

March 30, 2012

Outrigger, OHANA offer deals for SPAM JAM

Set for April 28, the 10th Annual SPAM Jam Festival celebrates one of Hawaii’s most beloved canned meat, SPAM. That night, Kalakaua Avenue will be lined with various booths offering all types of SPAM-related food and products, and various events will be held. At the Outrigger Reef on the Beach, guests who turn in a can of SPAM when checking in on Saturday, April 28, will be given a $10 gift certificate (one per room, per stay) to Kani Ka Pila Grille, a casual dining restaurant located poolside a

March 30, 2012