Hundreds of nights across more hotels than most visitors know exist. Here is a personal guide to where to stay in Pyongyang, from someone who has kicked down a door in one and waited far too long for meetings to start in several others.
While I have counted the number of times I have visited North Korea (almost 200 times), I have not counted the exact number of nights I have spent there, nor how many visits or nights in which city or even which hotel.
Total nights in Pyongyang hotels, the capital city, would be in the high hundreds, though. And across a number of different Pyongyang hotels, too. So, I thought it might be interesting to have a think about what I think about each one.
I’m not going to rank these Pyongyang hotels directly... While I prefer some to others, it is blurry, subjective, and also subject to change on a whim or on a remembered moment that may move the position up or down.
So, in no particular order, I offer these brief reviews of Pyongyang Hotels.
Yanggakdo International Hotel
Koryo International Hotel
Pyongyang Hotel
Ryanggang Hotel
Chongnyon Hotel
Sosan Hotel
Haebangsan Hotel
Potonggang Hotel
Changgwangsan Hotel
Changgwang Guesthouse
Moranbong Hotel
Kobangsan Hotel
Hotel Pyongyang entrance
Yanggakdo International Hotel, Pyongyang
North Korea Hotel Rating: 4.5
North Korea Hotel Pros: On-site brewery
North Korea Hotel Cons: Most common tourist hotel
Pyongyang’s most famous hotel* is the Yanggakdo International Hotel. This hotel in Pyongyang is a 47-storey building at the northern tip of Yanggak Island, in the Taedong River running through the middle of the city.
This is the main ‘tourist’ hotel traditionally, with more rooms than any other, capacity to feed larger numbers, more activities to pass the time when in the hotel, and simply better able to deal with larger numbers at peak times.
While it may be the usual and common place for tourists, I have also always loved staying here.
Why?
It was the first place I ever stayed in the DPRK, after all. And I know my way around this place very well.
The meeting rooms on the 3rd floor of the Yanggakdo are where I have had meetings with many different DPRK partners. Often, these have been somewhat farcical (tales for another day!) and memorable, and I even once had cause to kick down a locked fire escape door in an effort to persuade the hotel staff to unlock both of the stairwells. (It worked! and I got to kick down a door).
So, the Yanggakdo Hotel in Pyongyang was, for many years, a bit of a home-from-home.
Pro-tip: the beer in the lobby bar is brewed on site. The quality varies, but I have always sent back a glass poured with more than 10% foam/head. The prices are relatively high, and I ask merely for the beer I paid for. I advise any visitor to do the same and get value for money.
*Note - Whilst the Yanggakdo Hotel may be the most famous hotel in Pyongyang, this is only so if we consider only actually operational hotels. Arguably much more famous is the Ryugyong Hotel. The big, triangle hotel looming over Pyongyang's city centre. However, it is still incomplete, so this is mere pedantry... I have actually been inside and up the Ryugyong Hotel. You can read about that here!
Read more: Koryo Tours Yanggakdo Hotel Travel Guide
Koryo International Hotel, Pyongyang
North Korea Hotel Rating: 4.5
North Korea Hotel Pros: Bigger rooms with a great view and great location
North Korea Hotel Cons: The 'other' main tourist hotel
Pyongyang’s ‘other’ main hotel. There is a common and persistent belief that there are only two places that foreigners can stay in the city. We're happy to say that this is indeed false, which you'll see from this page. Nevertheless, this is the other of the famous Pyongyang Hotels.
This is seen as the ‘business’ hotel, but in reality there is not all that much business going on most of the time. So, it is actually another place that tourists can stay.
The rooms are usually a bit better than the Yanggakdo. Larger with more urban views, but there is less to do in the twin-towered hotel in terms of evening activities, although any visitor will manage to fill the hours for sure.
This place has seen more varied delegations than the Yanggakdo, and so has a little more prestige. It's in a nice, central location not far from Pyongyang Railway Station. However, foreign guests are not allowed outside of the parking area unaccompanied, so the central location is of limited value in many cases.
Each tower is topped by a revolving restaurant, but only one of them has ever been open.
Is it a coincidence that the never-open one would give a view deep into the Party Central District (the so-called Forbidden City)? No, it isn’t.
Bonus Fact: There is, deep inside one of the towers of the Koryo Hotel, a 3-floor, several-bedroom mega-suite, with its own private elevator. It’s very nice, well-equipped, and almost never used.
Known to some as the ‘Jimmy Carter’ suite, and to me as the ‘Rodman Rooms’. You can’t stay there, no matter how nicely you ask.
Read more: Koryo Tours Koryo Hotel Travel Guide
Pyongyang Hotel, Pyongyang
North Korea Hotel Rating: 4.2
North Korea Hotel Pros: Great facilities and shops, including a coffee shop on the top floor with views overlooking the Taedong River
North Korea Hotel Cons: Smaller than most (good if you prefer cosy with a modern touch)
Named so simply because it was the first hotel open in the newly rebuilt capital city after the devastation of the Korean War, this place is next to the river and opposite the Pyongyang Grand Theatre.
With a bar on each floor (it’s only 5 floors though, still, that’s a handy ratio) and a lovely barbecue restaurant, this is commonly used by visitors from the Korean community in Japan.
The top floor is a nice modern coffee shop with high prices and excellent views over the Taedong River.
This place has been handy for a lot of things in my time going to the DPRK. Its very central location means it is ideal for popping in for phone calls in the pre-mobile phone days. The shop there is pretty good too, as well as the parking area below, well-placed for stopping for riverside strolls.
Unique Experience: In 2004 I attended a steel band concert there. The band were visiting from the UK and taking part in the April Spring Friendship Festival.
An event which featured a troupe of waitresses singing Korean songs while backed by the steel band, which I found a lovely bit of adaptability to the usually dogmatically arranged Korean standards I was, even then, over familiar with.
Read more: Koryo Tours Pyongyang Hotel Travel Guide
Ryanggang Hotel, Pyongyang
North Korea Hotel Rating: 3.9
North Korea Hotel Pros: Unique and rather bizarre layout and retro vibes
North Korea Hotel Cons: Basic rooms and limited hot water
‘Two Rivers’ Hotel, so-named as it is on a hillside above the confluence of the Taedong and Potong Rivers.
The Ryanggang Hotel is a bit dated but is attractive for fans of a certain aesthetic anyway. This is a modernist beauty which tapers up step by step to a revolving restaurant at the peak of the building. The hotel as a whole has a very pleasing retro vibe.
With a somewhat mazey layout leading to visitors roaming around in search of the karaoke, a bar, or even the elevators, the Ryanggang may be little used by foreign tourists, but it is a bit of a gem. The rooms are basic and hot water is limited, and if you want to make an international call, you can’t just pick up the phone in your room as you would in the Yanggakdo Hotel or Koryo Hotel.
However, it grants great views from the balcony that every room has, and you very much feel like you’re in a different world every time you step into the building.
Pedantry Corner: The revolving restaurant atop the Ryanggang Hotel, this is actually called, according to the signage, ‘Swivelling’ restaurant. Swivelling and Revolving are not the same thing, and it usually doesn’t do either.
When it does work, though, it generally creaks around most of a full turn, and then reverses. So, I do see this as more of a swivel than a revolution.
Read more: Koryo Tours Ryanggang Hotel Travel Guide
Chongnyon Hotel, Pyongyang
North Korea Hotel Rating: 4
North Korea Hotel Pros: Only hotel in Pyongyang with an outdoor pool
North Korea Hotel Cons: Old rooms
One of a few built for the 1989 Festival of World Youth and Students (along with the Ryanggang and Sosan), the Chongnyon Hotel translates literally to ‘Youth Hotel'.
This hotel in Pyongyang is another modernist wonder, made up of a single tower of green tiles looming towards one end of the massive Kwangbok Street.
Rarely used by foreign tourists, it is worth a stay and a visit even though the rooms could do with some sprucing up. Indeed, if you’re wondering what the aesthetic of the 1989 festival was for foreign guests, then this is the place to find out.
The Chongnyon Hotel is also blessed with an outdoor pool - actually the only one in any Pyongyang Hotel. It had a glorious karaoke hall with brown fabric-clad walls, which sadly was gutted and replaced with a far more boring set of private Karaoke rooms some years ago, much to my despair.
Fun Fact: This is the location of one of the DPRK’s chain of Samtaesong Hamburger Restaurants. Why here? No idea, as people don’t usually pass by the area where the restaurant is, so it rarely has much trade.
My usual choice here is the ‘combo burger’ which features the burger itself, cheese, and a fried egg. (Unless you buy it at the Kaeson Youth Funfair branch where the fried egg is replaced with… mayonnaise?) I find this unacceptable as mayo is a condiment rather than an ingredient and cannot be seen as a viable substitute item for an egg. Also, it is horrible stuff. So buy your combo burger at the Chongnyon Hotel instead!
Sosan Hotel, Pyongyang
North Korea Hotel Rating: 4.2
North Korea Hotel Pros: Unique sports vibe and own golfing range
North Korea Hotel Cons: Precariously low room balconies
Upgraded a handful of times in the 21st century, this is the higher standard of the 1989-built trifecta of hotels.
This is the ‘Sports’ Hotel, where visiting teams are usually housed. The Sosan Hotel is just downhill from the Ryanggang Hotel and at the end of Pyongyang’s Sports Street. So, it is in close proximity to the multiple sports grounds and facilities on the south side of the city.
With its own golf driving range as part of the hotel, it is blessed with a good few things to do for guests, as well as the chance to wander around outside a bit, as it is well off any main road, and so less sensitive than some other accommodation options.Visitors here can often findthe chance to have a morning run aong the sports street too, an uncommon experience in tightly-controlled Pyongyang.
All rooms have a small balcony, although anyone above average height should note that the top of the wall separating you from the void is lower than your centre of gravity, and act accordingly.
Being a sports-specific hotel doesn’t mean only athletes can stay here. It is a good option for regular tourists too and also has a nicely laid out lobby and mezzanine for evening relaxing, as well as a shop selling sporting goods, including attractive and popular DPR Korea team tracksuits.
Sosan for Me: This is a place close to my heart due to Koryo Tours’ close relationship for many years with the Pyongyang Marathon Committee. Many hours spent in discussion (some good, some less so) in the meeting rooms of the Sosan Hotel. Many more hours spent lingering in the lobby waiting for these meetings to begin or for the results of them to be digested.
A place I have enjoyed and endured as both a tourist and for business reasons.
Read more: Koryo Tours Sosan Hotel Travel Guide
Haebangsan Hotel, Pyongyang
North Korea Hotel Rating: 4.1
North Korea Hotel Pros: A classic - Rarely visited by tourists & one of the first hotels in Pyongyang
North Korea Hotel Cons: You might get lost inside trying to find... anything.
Right in the middle of the city, this 8-storey classic is one of the first hotels built in Pyongyang.
And yes, it does show its age...
But this Pyongyang hotel also is a good bet for anyone looking to stay away from other tourists and pretend that they are the only visitor in the city at that time.
With basic rooms but enough entertainment to see you through the evenings, the Haebangsan Hotel is a top place to stay in Pyongyang.
During the day, the clientele of the Haebangsan Hotel are an unexpected bunch. There are multiple small businesses who use the hotel as an office location, and usually a line of taxis outside doing frequent pickups and drop-offs. This is a good place to sit and wonder who everyone is and what they are doing (you will probably never find out, so be happy with wild speculation instead!).
Finding your way around the hotel is a bit complicated, and often you have to go downstairs to go upstairs. The bar is on the 8th floor for one thing, and it is not as simple as just pressing an elevator button to get there, or to the beauty parlour, or the post office, and so on.
Unmissable: Whether you like ping pong/table tennis or not, you must visit the 2nd floor ping pong hall when at this hotel. It is sizable, with a few tables, and with a viewing platform so you can get a bird’s-eye view of the action if you’re into the watching rather than the doing.
Read more: Koryo Tours Haebangsan Hotel Travel Guide
Potonggang Hotel, Pyongyang
North Korea Hotel Rating: 4.4
North Korea Hotel Pros: Pyongyang's "best" hotel (5*-rated).
North Korea Hotel Cons: Shops and services more expensive than eslewhere
For many years considered to be the ‘best’ hotel in Pyongyang (i.e. the 5* hotel of Pyongyang), this is one that coasts a bit on reputation. Although, the living space is very generous, and the hotel corridors are wide enough to drive a car down.
It’s a 9-floor building with a nice outdoor terrace for evening drinks, and plenty of entertainment inside. However, you have to pay a higher price than usual for much of the action though. This includes Karaoke, a fancy coffee shop, and a screen-golf driving range advertised with a sign of someone holding a field hockey stick.
Reason to Visit: While not many tourists stay here, the reason many stop by is because on the ground floor is the office of KoryoLink, the mobile phone service provider. So to buy a local SIM card, to register or re-register it, to complain about why it isn’t working, and so on, a visit here is often necessary.
As a result, I have been to the Potonggang a painfully large number of times, usually to stand in a kind of queue waiting my turn to speak to the usually lone employee of KoryoLink to do something that would be covered by simply turning my phone off and on again anywhere else.
Read more: Koryo Tours Potonggang Hotel Travel Guide
Changgwangsan Hotel, Pyongyang
North Korea Hotel Rating: 3.8
North Korea Hotel Pros: Indoor swimming pool
North Korea Hotel Cons: Dated rooms (from 1976).
An attractively retro place made up of a low main building with two accommodation towers rising above it.
The Changgwangsan Hotel looks across to the Pyongyang Indoor Stadium as well as the Changgwangwon Health Complex. This is another of those hotels that seems too large for the number of people who must stay here, but the location cannot be argued with, even if the hotel itself is a little dated.
Built in 1976, and still mostly reflecting the aesthetic of that time, the Changgwangsan Hotel is on Chollima Street in the centre of the city.
Of course, it too has the full range of DPRK hotel entertainment options (billiards, bars, coffee shops, bookshop, beauty parlour) as well as a very nice small indoor swimming pool, which you’ll most likely have to yourself.
A Taste of Germany: For many years the Changgwangsan Hotel was home to an unusual place known to many as the ‘Germany Shop’. This was a multi-room shop on the ground floor that sold mainly goods from Germany specifically. So sportswear, various wurst, and Tchibo coffee too. Odd, and never quite clear how or why this place existed.
Read more: Koryo Tours Changwangsan Hotel Travel Guide
Changgwang Guesthouse, Pyongyang
North Korea Hotel Rating: 3.4
North Korea Hotel Pros: Stay here just to stay here - very few have!
North Korea Hotel Cons: No hotel entertainment
Not near to, or related to, the Changgwangsan Hotel, this place is a little hidden gem in the centre of Pyongyang, just across the road from the Koryo Hotel.
Also known sometimes as the Changgwang Inn, this hotel in Pyongyang has no signage, a mere 10 or so rooms, and no entertainment beyond a small bar.
It is, however, across the street from the Koryo Hotel. So, guests would be pointed in that direction if they were looking for more than a quiet beer before bed.
The advantage of the Changgwang Guesthouse is that you will be among an elite few to ever stay here, and most North Koreans you may speak to will never have heard of it.
So if obscurity is your aim, then this is the place to be, even though it is a bit boring!
Fun Fact: This was the first place I ever saw an ATM in the DPRK, before even the one at the airport. Of course it wouldn’t accept a foreign card, or even at that time a DPRK card, and the Koreans I was with were mystified as to how it worked, as were the hotel staff. Maybe they were ahead of the game, or just storing it there for a while!
Read more: Koryo Tours Changgwang Guesthouse Travel Guide
Moranbong Hotel, Pyongyang
North Korea Hotel Rating: 3.7
North Korea Hotel Pros: Find the cave-karaoke!
North Korea Hotel Cons: Very secluded and hard to find
A very good place to opt to stay if you are travelling alone or in a small group.
The Moranbong Hotel has just twelve rooms and is located next to Moran Hill (Moranbong, in Korean). So, right in the centre, next to Kim Il Sung Stadium, the Kaeson Youth Funfair, and the park itself.
Moranbong Hotel is very secluded, hard to find (even if you know where it is!), and a place that seems as if it is very much not in the heart of the biggest city in the country.
Who the regular clientele may be is anyone’s guess, but tourists are not among them, even though it is permitted to stay here.
So, choose it if you wish to avoid any other foreign visitors, or if you want to look up at the Pyongyang TV Tower peacefully in the evening from almost directly beneath it.
Don’t Miss: Moranbong Hotel may seem a little underequipped with entertainment, beyond a bar and looking at the TV tower. However, if you go into the car park and then walk toward the rear of the hotel, you come to an amazing Karaoke facility carved into a cave in the hillside of Moranbong Park.
It’s a bit campy-Bond-villain for sure, but it is also the only thing to do while at this hotel and has a good selection of international songs too. So, embrace the moment!
Read more: Koryo Tours Moranbong Hotel Travel Guide
Kobangsan Hotel, Pyongyang
North Korea Hotel Rating: 3.4
North Korea Hotel Pros: The actual least-visited hotel in Pyongyang (by tourists).
North Korea Hotel Cons: Very far from the city centre of Pyongyang
Of all the ‘little used by tourists’ hotels in this list, the Kobangsan Hotel in Pyongyang is almost certainly the one used the least.
It is not really in the city proper at all. It's expensive, obscure, and most guides have never even heard of it.
However, it is fun, storied, and very ‘North Korean’.
Allow me to explain: This hotel was built to house visiting officials. So, more important types than comparatively lowly tourists.
Since other facilities now exist for this, it has reverted to a hotel. However, since it is more than 30 mins drive from central Pyongyang, this makes the location inconvenient for starting and finishing a day of tourism. It was used as the base for the umbrella USNGO group (made up of several American NGOs) in better times but has been a little-used hotel for the most part.
The most fascinating thing about the Kobangsan Hotel is that the upper floors and lower floor could not be more aesthetically dissimilar. The ground floor and upper areas with the large and ornate rooms were modernised and generally improved in 2015, so they are clean and tidy, fairly subtly ornate, and in fitting with the DPRK’s 2010s aesthetic.
The basement is a different story, and it is one from the past.
It has a pool, a single-lane bowling alley, a ping-pong room, and other leisure facilities all decorated straight out of the 70s due to being unchanged since that time. The wallpaper in particular in the ping pong room makes it almost impossible to actually play the game due to the distracting patterns and bright yellow colour.
This is the place to stay if you are not price-sensitive or if you want a lot of your trip to be spent alone or beside a scenic part of the Taedong River, and not a place to stay if you want to be active in exploring Pyongyang and beyond without the hassle of a long ride out and back from/to the hotel daily.
Bonus Fact: The larger multi-room suites at the Kobangsan Hotel come with something missing from all other elite hotels around the world - a full set of the reminiscences of Kim Il Sung.
So if you’re not able to sleep in the comfy beds there, you can work your way through dozens of volumes of memoirs from the Great Leader as an alternative to being stuck scrolling through Netflix.
Read more: Koryo Tours Kobangsan Hotel Travel Guide
Hotels of Pyongyang In Review
There are other hotels in Pyongyang too, but I haven’t included them here. Either because I haven’t actually stayed at them personally yet (Rakrang Hotel, Golden Cup Hotel, Air Koryo Guesthouse), you might not really be able to stay there despite claims (Jongbo Centre Annex), or if they are for locals only (Scientists Hotel, and various others). Or, of course, if they burned down decades ago (Taedonggang Hotel) or they're not yet complete (Ryugyong Hotel).
There are dozens more hotels outside of the capital too, with many of the other cities and areas tourists could go to having more than one option. However, we'll save those North Korean hotel reviews for another day!
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Simon Cockerell
Simon has been Koryo’s General Manager since 2002. He has travelled to North Korea more than 175 times and has probably been to the country more than any other Westerner. He is a respected speaker on the country and appears regularly in international media. He is also a tour specialist in Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and the Russian Far East where he has personally designed and led multiple tours over the years.