Serene gardens near ICN at Nest Hotel Incheon | Review

Nests: minimal, yet functional with touches of coziness tucked where they can fit. These descriptors can be extended to Nest Hotel Incheon as well. Settled on the water near Incheon International Airport, this hotel is an excellent stopover before or after a flight.

Nest Hotel Incheon Review

Keep reading for my complete Nest Hotel Incheon review:

First Impressions

Upon arriving at 4:30pm, staff had me take a number to approach the check-in desk despite five people working it. I guess I came at a popular time.

After 10 minutes or so, I was able to check in without any issues. The “take a number” system and check-in waiting area dissolved by 5:30-6pm.

The lobby hosts a small sitting area and an interesting nest-inspired sculpture near the entrance.

The Room

I stayed in room 704, a Standard Double Mountain View room looking out towards the airport. The accommodations sported a minimal design with sleek modern touches.

The main wall is entirely concrete, giving an urban edge. The light wood tones of the furniture and desk alcove bring some warmth back into the room. Brushed metal accents in the lighting and glassware add a cool vibe to punctuate the overall room design.

A tiny desk nook can serve as a quaint workspace, a vanity, or a robust charging station.

Even though this is the base room, it feels like it has breathing room. There’s plenty of space around the bed. The workstation is tucked into an alcove and the other furniture rests perfectly next to the closet, so nothing juts out into the living space. Floating shelves and end tables also give an openness to the room and help maximize space.

Moreover on the efficient use of space, I was (perhaps needlessly) fascinated by how the bathroom door swings open into the bathroom and then becomes the door to the toilet area. The bathroom houses a wide sink and a rainfall shower.

The furniture in the standard rooms is minimal; there’s no couch or anything apart from a couple chairs and a very small table. The only piece of furniture you can sprawl out on is the bed. If that’s a minus for you, I’d recommend looking into one of the deluxe room options.

Along with the interesting mix of materials, Nest Hotel Incheon incorporates sleek modern technology elements that made my stay a bit more fun. Each bed’s headboard comes equipped with a Bluetooth speaker for…underscoring, I suppose. Although I stayed solo, I liked having background music playing while I was in the room.

Mounted on the concrete wall is a smart TV where you can access popular streaming services. (Just make sure to log out of your accounts when you’re finished.) I also quite enjoyed how the recessed strip lighting in the ceiling gave the room a comfortable glow at night.

Each room comes with a pizza-slice-shaped balcony. Mountain view rooms look out primarily on train tracks, although there is a modest mountain in the distance beyond. On the opposite side of the hotel, seaside view rooms look out at the water.

Design & Layout

The hotel is a traditional rectangular shape, with rooms lining the long sides. The north-west side faces towards the airport while the south-east side faces the ocean.

Interestingly, the hallways were practically pitch black. The windows at the far end of the hall gave a “light at the end of the tunnel” effect. A little more light would have allowed me to see the faces of the people I passed or my room number without the aid of my phone light. I can now confidently proclaim I would not enjoy life as a mole.

My favorite element of Nest Hotel Incheon was the amazing gardens extending from the lobby rear exit towards the water. It was so relaxing exploring the different paths. The tall grasses created private sitting areas and gave the paths a winding quality since you couldn’t see the end. The gardens led out to two different paths circling the water.

True to the hotel’s namesake, outside there were wicker nests you could sit in along the walking path. (Actually, you and all your friends could lounge in one of these nests.) String lights coat the outsides and the peek-a-boo holes, illuminating at night.

“Industrial with cozy accents” describes the design aesthetic of this place. Cement accent walls in the rooms, lovely gardens, huge floor-to-ceiling windows, and human-sized bird nests formed an intriguing combination.

Food

Nest Hotel Incheon has only two dining options onsite: Platz and Kunst Lounge. There are a handful of seafood restaurants a short walk down the road, but they will probably only provide service in Korean.

Platz

The main restaurant at Nest Hotel Incheon is Platz, which sits right off the lobby.

The restaurant seating is a four-tiered design, surrounded by three towering walls of floor-to-ceiling windows. Dining in such a light and airy space was a delightful experience. Your meal is elevated by a perfect view of the adjacent gardens and the water.

Eating at Platz was buffet-style only during my visit. It was a pretty extensive buffet, with sections for fresh meat and seafood, hot dishes, cold dishes, Korean food, Japanese food, a salad bar, and a dessert bar.

The dessert bar deserves an honorable mention because it included various cakes, cookies, Baskin Robbins ice cream, macarons, and different kinds of chocolate in chunk form. Surely anyone could find something to satisfy their sweet tooth there.

While there were not many vegan offerings, I made do. I appreciated that each and every dish had allergen information clearly listed.

A notable con is that the Platz buffet is SUPER expensive. My one dinner buffet for a singular person was 110,000 won (~$82 USD)! I was shocked when I saw my one meal cost two-thirds the price of my room.

If you’re planning to eat a lot of steak and sushi, then the price may be worth it for you. However if you’re only staying one night and want to economize, I’d recommend eating at Kunst Lounge instead, stocking up on convenience store foods beforehand, or utilizing delivery services. Note that there’s a kettle and mini fridge in each room, but no microwave.

Kunst Lounge

The other food option is the Kunst Lounge. Like the name suggests, it’s on the casual side and feels more like a lounge than a restaurant.

The Kunst Lounge offers pub-style fare like pizza, burgers, fried chicken, and pasta. To me it felt like a cocktail bar that had some food to complement the drinks.

This could be a better option if you don’t want anything too healthy or to pay an arm and a leg at Platz.

Amenities

While this hotel isn’t the type of property that you plan to stay at for a week to enjoy onsite activities, it does have a couple amenities to enjoy while you prepare for or recover from a flight.

Pool

Located directly off the south-west side of the building is the pool area: a smaller pool for the kiddos and an infinity pool for the rest of us.

The infinity pool was quite popular (aka. so packed I could barely see the water). When the sun went down, the tunes came on. Musical selections featured a mixture of Korean and Western pop in DJ-set style, blending from one song to the next. Corresponding music video snippets were projected on the side of the hotel above the pool. I imagine the rooms on that side of the hotel were not the most tranquil.

Curiously, access to the swimming pool is not included with your room; you need to buy tickets at the swimming pool desk to access the infinity pool.

Fitness Center & Sauna

You can find a small but adequate fitness center equipped with a stairmaster, treadmills, and a small variety of machines, including an assisted pull-up machine.

Following your workout, sauna and steam rooms are available for you to use.

Atmosphere

Depending on where you are on the property, you’ll get a different vibe: open and airy, urban chic and modern, dark and dreary, fun and whimsical, and spring break party, to name a few.

Nest Hotel Incheon is right on the water. Very tranquil. The front of the hotel has an industrial view of train tracks, but the rear side’s view is lovely.

Once the sun went down, the music at the pool was absolutely bumpin’. Curled up in my string-light-strewn man-sized nest, for an hour I experienced life like Miami birds. I couldn’t hear any noise from my room halfway down the building, but I imagine some bleed-through could be possible if your room is close to the pool.

Overall the hotel is very modern, with an urban feeling in the rooms and a lighter feeling in the open common spaces.

Staff & Service

You can anticipate pretty normal service. Not bad by any means, but nothing out of the ordinary that surpasses expectations.

I appreciated how the staff manning the entrance to Platz let me inspect the buffet before deciding if I wanted to go for it or not. Outside of this instance, I didn’t have any staff interactions worth writing about. Again, please don’t take that as a bad thing. That’s just not the kind of hotel experience this is.

Guest service is offered in both Korean and English.

Location

Nest Hotel Incheon is about an hour away from the center of Seoul, but just a quick taxi ride from Incheon Airport. It’s a perfect choice to spend the night if you’re flying in late or departing early on a morning flight the next day (a.k.a. my situation).

There isn’t much to do immediately around the property, as it’s mostly other hotels and the airport. Some local seafood places as well as the Yongyu Sky Observatory are close by, but that’s about all you’ll find.

Getting There

There are a couple ways to get to Nest Hotel Incheon:

Public Transit

Coming from Seoul, you can take the Airport Railroad train from Seoul Station to get close (Incheon Airport Terminal 1), but you’ll need to take a taxi the rest of the way. A taxi will cost around 9000 won from the airport (~$7 USD).

Have the hotel name and address prepared in Korean for the taxi driver so they’re clear on where you’re going. Here it is below for reference:

Alternatively, you can take the 306 bus or one of the small village buses from Terminal 1 to the nearby Muuido Entrance stop, but only if you don’t have any luggage with you. The driver will shoo you away if they see a suitcase.

Airport Shuttle

Fortunately, the hotel runs a free shuttle both to and from Incheon Airport (Terminals 1 and 2). From the hotel, meet at the main entrance. The shuttle runs every ~45-60 minutes.

Terminal 1

• From the airport, meet at the 14C pickup point outside Terminal 1.
• First shuttle: Leaves Nest Hotel at 6:00am. Leaves ICN Terminal 1 at 6:15am.
• Last shuttle: Leaves Nest Hotel at 10:30pm. Leaves ICN Terminal 1 at 10:45pm.

Terminal 2

• From the airport, meet at the 8A pickup point outside Terminal 2.
• First shuttle: Leaves Nest Hotel at 7:05 am. Leaves ICN Terminal 2 at 7:30am.
• Last shuttle: Leaves Nest Hotel at 9:05pm. Leaves ICN Terminal 2 at 9:30pm.

Here’s the current shuttle schedule and pickup location map.

Booking

Nest Hotel Incheon is part of the Design Hotels collection, bookable through Marriott.

Since the rate was quite reasonable, I opted to book with cash. Using a benchmark of 0.8 cents per Marriott point, putting the purchase on my Ritz-Carlton card netted me 14.8% of the cost back to use towards future Marriott stays.

Prices range from ~$80-130 a night, or ~25k-35k Marriott points on the rewards side. You’d be able to use the annual free night certificate that comes with the Marriott Boundless card.

Nest Hotel Incheon is bookable via Marriott or through your favorite travel portal.

Book through Marriott here.

Overall Nest Hotel Incheon Review

Nest Hotel Incheon did what I needed it to do, with some flair in places. It was a great place to hang out and relax the evening before my early flight, as someone who appreciates a good ole garden and walking trail. The food was a bit expensive for my needs, but I could plan around that next time.

I’d gladly stay here again, but only for one-night stays. I don’t think you need to be here longer than that. Nest Hotel Incheon is a great pass-through option, not your final destination.

Stay here if:

• You want to stay at a hotel near Incheon International Airport
• You want to stay somewhere that doesn’t have the corporate feel of a typical airport hotel
• You enjoy hotels with beautifully cultivated gardens and outdoor areas

Skip if:

• You want to be within walking distance of fun attractions and things to do
• All of your planned activities are in Seoul
• You’d prefer a handful of non-buffet restaurant options onsite
• You want to stay in Incheon proper and not just next to the airport

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