Waterpia

Waterpia

View of Waterpia from Sorano 

Waterpia is one of the first hot springs in Korea.   With proximity to mountain Seoraksan it makes for a beautiful place to spend the day with family and close ones.  Water inside the park's various baths  are provided in the range of 42-26 Celsius degrees.  Hot spring water is rich in minerals and is good in healing many diseases such as insomnia, hypertension, neuralgia, joint disease, senile disease, women's diseases, relieves muscle pain, and especially good in restoring the body after the effects of accidents.   The good thing is the water park is open throughout the year even during the heavy snowfalls of February - March period.

• Number of water rides and games:                 29
• Water temperature :                                      26-44 °C
• Open hours:                                                  09:30 - 20:30

Entering the park

Once you get inside the building you take off your shoes and put it into the shoe locker, the number of which will be shown on your entrance ticket.  Like many saunas around Korea the locker key has got a chip inside. You will be asked to deposit some cash into the your key's chip.  Once deposited some money you are ready to pay for things and services inside the park using this key.  Later on when leaving the park you can return to the kiosk and reclaim the remaining money from your key.

The main locker rooms are located a level below.  Here you can put on your swimming shorts and maybe t-shirts like Koreans usually do, hit the shower room and get into the water park area.   

Inside the park people walk barefoot. Phones, cameras, baby bottles and other items can be stored for free inside the little items lockers throughout the park.

Wave pool

Two tons of water splashing down for kid's joy

Waves of Torrent River

The water park has a rich variety of all kinds of spring ponds.  This one above, for example, has got extracts of jasmine while others can have other herbal extracts. 

The basins use 100% mineral water at temperatures of about 26-42 Celsius degrees. The composition of this water, together with alkaline components (sodium, calcium, magnesium, etc.) includes a large amount of negative ions and (carbon dioxide, chlorine dioxide), which are known to be effective in the treatment of arthritis, neurological and geriatric diseases.

Guests enjoying water massage

Winter for the two

Two main buildings of the park are interconnected by waterways

When you don't mind snow on the back of neck :)

A family party 

Giant bucket dropping it's load

Eating corner

Waterpia is open even during the heaviest snowfalls.  Last year (Feb 2014) the heaviest snowfalls in 50 years in Sokcho.  Snowfall level reaching more than 1 meter.  

Water park is open well after sunset until 8:30 pm (10pm at peak times).  Some people chose to spend the first half of the day hiking and the remaining half restoring their body in hot springs of the park.  

At night time underwater lighting creates a soothing atmosphere

Although Waterpia is just some 200 meters away from the hotel building shuttle bus comes very handy during the unpleasant cold or rainy weather.

Guests returning back to hotel