I first heard of the Hi Class Pension (now called High Class Pool Villa) through Everyday Korea, a blog that has a section on unique accommodation in Korea (among other things). Dave and I had just come back from Phuket where we stayed in an amazing pool villa and we were craving more. We checked the prices on the Hi Class website and were really shocked by how expensive they were! In fact, at $700 a night (during high season), they were more per night than our Phuket pool villa. I was a bit hesitant about staying at Hi-Class for that price, but Dave decided that we should bite the bullet and do it, just for a night.

Hi Class pool villa

When we booked our trip, it was in the hottest part of the Korean summer and we were craving a refreshing dip in a pool. Unfortunately, a typhoon was brewing the week before our trip and it cooled things down considerably. The morning we left for Namhae it was rainy and 78F/25C out. Luckily, the rain stopped just as we approached the island, but it was still too cool out to enjoy the pool. We were happy that our villa (#103) also had a hot tub. At least that would get some use! In fact, I was so excited about the hot tub that I forgot to take any photos of it.

The hot tub is located on the 2nd floor balcony

The bathroom is accessible from the pool area as well as inside the villa. You can see the doors to the bathroom in the photo above, they are just behind the table and chairs. You can choose to keep the blinds drawn to let them down if you want more privacy. You’ll also find the kitchen and living room on the lower level of the villa. The kitchen has one burner, a small refrigerator, a microwave, a rice maker and a kettle. You can also rent a barbecue grill. Upstairs you will find the bedroom. It has two beds, a fireplace, a flatscreen TV, DVD player, computer and a fan. If you stay at Hi Class Namhae, you might want to bring some DVDs or a USB drive (though we didn’t test it). We decided that we would rate Hi Class Namhae a 6 out of 10. The main reason why we didn’t rate it higher was that it was so expensive. Pros:

• There’s an A/C unit on both floors as well as an oscillating fan upstairs
• The view is really great
• You can watch the sunset from your bed/pool/hot tub/toilet/kitchen
• We really liked that there was a hot tub because pool season in Korea is so short
• Pool villas have a private parking spot
• There are two beds so we thought it might be a fun place to take the kids. We don’t have any so you’ll just have to make the decision for yourself.
• You can see stars at night!

Cons:

• We didn’t feel like the quality of the room fit the price tag
• It’s a really industrial area, so the view of the mountains is slightly obstructed by chemical plants and whatnot. Also, ships pass through every few minutes. It didn’t bother us, but it may bother some.
• If you need the bathroom in the middle of the night, you have to walk down a narrow set of stairs to get to it
• We paid more for a pool villa, but it was too cold to swim
• This isn’t Hi Class’ fault, but there’s not much around. Namhae doesn’t have any big cities. We didn’t bring food with us so we ended up driving 15 minutes to the Hilton to have lunch and took dinner to go. We also ate breakfast there the next day.

Namhae is a beautiful island and we are so glad that we went. We did really enjoy our time at Hi Class Pension. While I probably wouldn’t care to go back, Dave said he wished our schedules weren’t so busy so we could make the trip again. Hi Class Namhae (하이클래스 남해) Website Phone number: 070-8220-9089 / 055-863-9955 Address: Gyeongsangnam-do Namhae-gun Seomyeon Jakjang-ri 551-1 (경산남도 남해군 서면 작장리 551-1) If you want to book a night at Hi Class, it make take a few calls to get someone that speaks English. Dave was told, “No English!” then hung up on the first time he called. And just a heads up, the road down to the pension is a bit narrow.   If you decide to make a trip to Namhae, you might want to check out my post: 9 Things To Do in Namhae For more posts like this, please follow us on facebook!