The Westin Josun Busan: A Local's Pick for a Busan Wellness & Checkup Trip

A note for Himedi's U.S. clients considering a checkup in Busan.

More of our U.S. clients have started adding Busan to their Korea trips this year. I went back through the city's hotels as if I were preparing the trip from the States. The current five-star options are:

• Signiel Busan
• Park Hyatt Busan
• Ananti at Busan Cove
• Grand Josun Busan
• Paradise Busan
• The Westin Josun Busan

From photos alone, most visitors will be drawn to the newer properties — Signiel, Park Hyatt, Ananti, Grand Josun. They look new, sleek, and large. As a local, my pick is different. I would recommend The Westin Josun Busan.

 

 

From the Westin Busan official website — the hotel looks exactly as I remember it from twenty years ago

 

 

"The charm here is not in trend-driven modernity — it is in the quiet reassurance of long corridors and solid, weighty furniture." from Westin Busan's official channels

 

 

Presidential Suite 1031

In the summer of 2007, just after my military discharge, I visited my aunt's family in Haeundae. My cousin took me to the Westin Busan and ordered me a $200 burger at O'KIMS, the hotel's Irish pub. I was surprised such an expensive burger existed. In today's Seoul money that would feel like $600; in U.S. prices, closer to $1,000.

He told me the backstory. During the 2005 APEC summit, President George W. Bush asked for a hamburger that was not on the menu. The chef improvised with Korean hanwoo beef and a Texas-style barbecue sauce. Bush ordered it five or six times during his stay.

 

 

The Korean Beef Black Burger — that is the Bush burger. ₩25,000 twenty years ago, ₩38,000 today; the price has barely moved

 

 

The Bush burger

 

 

The hotel opened in 1978 as the Josun Beach Hotel and was later rebranded under Westin — Busan's first five-star property. In the 1980s, as Korea invested in Busan as its main port city, former presidents and Samsung founder Lee Byung-chul kept a reserved suite here. That suite is Room 1031.

Chairman Lee stayed in 1031 with his family in the 1980s. His youngest daughter is Madam Lee Myung-hee, matriarch of the Shinsegae family that owns the Josun hotel brand today. One story I have been told is that Madam Lee drove a major remodel of the hotel ahead of APEC 2005, and that is why the property was ready to host Bush.

Through the 1980s and 1990s, Busan's economy still ran on light manufacturing — shoes for Nike and other global brands — before Korea's heavier industries took over. Relatives on my mother's side were in shoe and fishing-tackle exports, and they hosted their American buyers at the Westin because it was the only five-star hotel in the city. I was there often as a child. That is why, for me, the Westin reads differently from the towers built in the last ten years. And I suspect many other local Koreans carry similar stories.

 

 

Presidential Suite 1031: No need to be flashy before a sea like this. Weighty comfort is their philosophy of space.

 

 

Presidential Suite 1031: Bedroom

 

 

Presidential Suite 1031: President Bush liked the burger so much he kept ordering it while working — five or six times during his stay. I wonder if this is the table where he had the burgers with his staff.

 

 

Experience

The Westin sits on land that would be difficult to replicate today. West of the hotel is Dongbaek Park, a seaside walk lined with camellia trees, and Nurimaru APEC House on Dongbaek Island. East is Haeundae Beach. I have never stayed in Presidential Suite 1031 myself, but the views from the buffet(camellia restaurant) and from the sauna are already more than enough. When Busan's first five-star hotel stands on the spot that past presidents and a Samsung chairman chose first, I think that view has been well established.

Many of our U.S. clients choose a hotel by loyalty program. The Westin runs on Marriott Bonvoy. The team here is the most experienced in the city. The newer hotels are still finding their rhythm; this one is settled.

 

 

The sauna view is well known in its own right

 

 

Restaurant, sauna, pool — each one looks out on something worth the visit

 

 

The recommendation (for a checkup day)

Among the five-star hotels around Haeundae, the Westin is the one that fits a wellness trip best. The others are larger and flashier, and their bars and pools are more likely to draw a younger crowd. The Westin lets you take in the view at your own pace, sits naturally with the sea, and puts an easy walk around Dongbaek Island right at your doorstep.

The Westin is not short because it could not build taller. Locals have long felt that the low building line along Haeundae and Dalmaji fits the sea, and the hotel has kept its scale to preserve that. (By contrast, Signiel Busan sits inside the 101-story LCT Landmark Tower, the second-tallest building in Korea. The LCT reads unusually tall against the Haeundae–Dalmaji skyline, and its permitting drew resident protests and social controversy at the time.)

Despite its history, a standard room at The Westin Josun Busan runs about $200–$250 — roughly a three-star rate in a major U.S. city, and often the same as or lower than the newer five-stars here. For a guest who prefers understated comfort and a hotel that sits with the sea rather than above it, it is a good value.

 

 

Planning a wellness retreat in Busan? Reach out to Himedi!