Pet Trip to Yeongju — Traveling Gyeongsangbuk-do's Yeongju with Your Dog
Pet Trip to Yeongju — Traveling Gyeongsangbuk-do's Yeongju with Your Dog
With its beautiful natural scenery and laid-back atmosphere, Yeongju is also a wonderful destination for traveling with your pet. If you’re looking for accommodations that go beyond comfortable stays to include facilities and activities for both pet parents and their dogs, take a look at the standalone stays in Yeongju featured by Petel, a booking platform for pet-friendly travelers.
Words Ryu Sunwoo, Pyo Youngso
In collaboration with Impact Square
To Stay
Sobaeksan Flower Tea Story
Head northwest from downtown Yeongju toward Mount Sobaeksan, and you’ll arrive in Punggi-eup, a town famous for its ginseng. About a 10-minute drive from Punggi Station, Sobaeksan Flower Tea Story is a standalone stay set beside a flower tea café and flower farm. The space has been built up gradually by an owner couple who moved to Yeongju in 2011 to farm and expanded their edible flower business over time. What makes the time spent here so rich and fragrant is the owner, a certified flower sommelier. During your stay, you can sample tea made from flowers grown organically by hand at the flower tea café, and try hands-on activities like making flower cordials or natural incense smudge sticks. Inside the standalone lodging, a cozy time awaits. With a loft on the second floor, the spacious two-story space can accommodate up to 10 guests, making it perfect for families and their dogs to spend time together. It comes with a fully equipped kitchen complete with dishware and cooking tools, and you can even barbecue in the garden. Basic pet supplies such as bowls, a pet sofa, and shampoo are also well provided. Bookings for this stay are only available through Petel.
33-22 Daepyeong-ro 229beon-gil, Anjeong-myeon, Yeongju-si
[Interview with Lim Jihoon, CEO of Petel]
Could you introduce your travel service?
Petel is a booking service for pet-friendly accommodations. We discover the best pet-friendly stays in Korea, ones with verified facilities and services, and sign direct contracts with them so that travelers with dogs can conveniently book their stays.
What led you to start a travel startup?
As a pet parent myself and someone who worked at a hotel, it always bothered me that if you wanted to travel with your dog, your only option was often an old-fashioned pension where you’d just grill barbecue outside. I wanted to curate quality stays that could offer pet parents a great lodging experience too, and provide a convenient booking service — that’s what led me to start this company.
What travel products did you introduce for the Gyeongsangbuk-do Tourism Organization’s ‘Local Attachment’ project?
We introduced two pet-friendly stays in Yeongju: Sobaeksan Flower Tea Story and Baettaegine House. Sobaeksan Flower Tea Story is a standalone stay with the cozy feel of visiting a countryside home, and it also runs a pet-friendly café. Baettaegine House, which has individual standalone rooms, is a wonderful retreat for both pet parents and their dogs thanks to its location, which offers sweeping views of Yeongju’s beautiful natural surroundings.
If you had to pick one appeal of Yeongju as a sustainable local travel destination, what would it be?
I think it’s a place where serene natural surroundings come together, making it an attractive spot where travelers with dogs can enjoy a peaceful, healing experience.
What kind of traveler would you recommend a trip to Yeongju to?
I’d recommend it to pet parents whose dogs may be a bit less socialized, and to travelers who want to enjoy a relaxed trip with their dog, free from the judgment or restrictions they might face elsewhere.
Do you have a personally memorable travel experience?
I have fond memories of a trip to a mountain lodging in Bonghwa, Gyeongsangbuk-do, where my family, our dog, and I had the whole place — including a spacious natural lawn — to ourselves, and fully enjoyed the quiet beauty of nature.
Could you tell us about any travel product projects or goals you’re working on this year?
We recently launched a package trip to Busan and Gyeongju for Japanese travelers with dogs. In the first half of the year, we hope to contribute to making pet-friendly travel more mainstream through accommodation sale festivals and workers’ vacation support programs.
Petel: www.petel.co.kr
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