Oak Valley is one of the local hills for Wonju, the largest city in the province of Gangwon-do (the other hill near Wonju being Welli Hilli Park).
As is common in Korea, the ski area neighbours a golf course with a large hotel / condo arrangement at the base, but this is the only one where the golf course is literally directly next to the pistes. When you come off the top of the ‘Flower’ chair you’re actually strapping in on the golf course – if you’ve ever wanted to walk around on a golf course in your ski wear, you can fulfil that dream at Oak Valley…
Oak Valley: the hill
Vertical drop: ~200m
Lifts:
Runs:
Longest run: 690m
Terrain park: no
Homepage (Korean), and piste map:
Oak Valley has 3 chairlifts going up from the one base; one of them (‘Mountain’) goes right to the top, another (‘Bird’) goes halfway, and the third (‘Flower’) is for beginners. From the top there’s a handful of runs to choose from, all of which feed down to a wide, gentle piste coming across to skier’s left back to the base area. This wide piste at the bottom has its own chair (Flower) and it’s a good bit of terrain for learning on; the runs from the top are good for intermediates, but advanced riders will exhaust all the options in short order. There is a reasonable stab at a terrain park, but it requires full laps of the main Mountain chair each time you hit it.
Note: Mountain chair doesn’t operate any more. The ski area from the two remaining lifts is very small. It’s still a good place for learning, but for anyone else you probably want to go elsewhere.
Oak Valley is good for:
Good for learning and progressing to low intermediate runs.
Being on a golf course in ski gear.
Strapping in on the golf course!
Oak valley is not so good for:
Size – without the main chairlift running, the remaining ski area is very small.
Feestyle & terrain – there’s nothing at all for more advanced skiers.
Oak Valley: ticketing
Oak Valley’s slopes are open from 8:30am to 4am and it follows the standard ticketing model in Korea, with the operating hours split into day & night by a 90-minute snow grooming break at 5pm; the daytime hours are subdivided into Morning and Afternoon, the nighttime hours are divided into Night and Late Night. You can get tickets for any one of those individual slots (of 4.5 to 5.5 hours each), plus various combinations of the above. You can check the latest prices here, also here’s a photo of their 2019 rates:
If you also need to rent ski equipment & wear it works out cheaper to book a package including everything plus transportation, see here
Oak Valley: accommodation
Oak Valley has a collection of massive condo buildings at the base of the hill, and you can search & book their rooms here. If you need rental equipment & wear it may be cheaper overall to book a 2D1N package (including transportation, hotel, rentals, etc)
If you’d prefer to stay in the nearby city of Wonju, search Hotels Combined for deals in Wonju; also see their listings in Seoul if you’re planning to stay in the capital and hit Oak Valley from there.
Airbnb is also a great choice for Seoul or Wonju – hosts usually have it set up so you can arrive & check in by yourself without having to wait around or meet anyone, and the housing standards are decent with underfloor heating and excellent internet connections as standard. If you haven’t used Airbnb before, you can get a 35-dollar discount off your first rental by signing up through Snow Guide Korea; simply click on this link and register!
How to get to Oak Valley
If you need a lift ticket or rentals it works out better to book one of the packages here; they can also arrange direct airport transfers.
The resort runs a free local shuttle bus from Wonju, schedule here. It’s all in Korean, so to help you decipher it here’s a screenshot (using an old schedule as an example, times change every season so do click the above link for the correct version):
Click to enlarge
The boarding points are listed on the left; arriving from Seoul by highway bus, you’ll board the shuttle in Wonju at the 시외버스터미널 stop (the Intercity Bus Terminal), on the westbound side of the street i.e. on the main road in front of the bus terminal, on the same side. Arriving at Wonju Station by train, the shuttle boarding point is 역전시장, which is a short distance south on Wonil-ro, on the southbound side i.e. on the right side. These two boarding points are clearly shown on the maps on the lower portion of this page.
Somewhat surprisingly Oak Valley hasn’t been doing shuttles from the nearby KTX station (Manjong) since the Gangneung KTX opened, so if you want to go by KTX you’ll need to take a taxi from the station – in theory this should take about 20 minutes and cost something in the region of 20 dollars, though it may be hard to get a taxi in the first place.
Train tickets: you can easily buy train tickets on the day from the ticket machines or manned ticket counters at railway stations, but trains do sell out (especially during peak hours & on holidays) so if you want to be sure of a seat on a specific train it’s better to book in advance. You can either do this in person by visiting a station, or book online on 12go Asia
Returning to Seoul in the evening, buses wait in the parking area and leave at 17:30 to various points across the city (tell the drivers where you need to go and they’ll point you to the right bus):
(to take one of these buses to the resort in the morning, you’d need a Korean friend to book it for you)
The base facilities at Oak Valley are excellent, as is standard in Korea:
Any questions about Oak Valley? Leave a comment below and I’ll get back to you.
For more Gangwon-do resorts, see here; for full reviews of every Korean ski resort, see here
Also check out the best Korean ski resorts according to various criteria, and this size comparison of Korea’s ski resorts using satellite imagery
Would you mind to tell me about The KTX from seoul station to manjong station ( i’ve a KR pass :: so, i can use KTX] ,
Are there any updating from oak valley ski resort about manjong station to the ski resort, Are there’ve a shuttle bus ?
Thank a lots
Beam
Please contact us
Hi Beam, the KTX takes an hour from Seoul Station to Manjong, you can search & book tickets here. The latest Oak Valley shuttle bus schedule is here (click on the middle tab), but it still doesn’t include Manjong Station. I don’t know if they’re going to change it or not (they’re terrible at answering messages)… if they don’t change it, it will actually be better to take the regular train from Cheongnyangni to Wonju Station (also about an hour, but you have to get to Cheongnyangni first), and then the shuttle bus from there. To be honest, I would probably recommend going to Welli Hilli Park instead.
The KTX starts service on Friday, so hopefully any updates should be made soon – I’ll post again here if they do change the shuttle bus route. Hope this helps, and let me know if you have any more questions
Dear Mr,Mrs
We plan to go to pyeongchang-trout-festival in the same day of skiing.
Could you mind ti recommend me the ski reort that near this festival & the prices of ski lesson are reasonable.
We can use the KTX so, if any ski resort has a shuttle bus from the KTX station it’d be better.
Firstly we plan to go to the festival first in the morning > in the afternoon around 3pm. Taking one ski lesson and back to the incheon airport by ktx.
Thank you,
Beam
Hello again Beam,
I don’t know much about the trout festival, but the location is Jinbu town. Jinbu has a KTX station (the name is Jinbu Station), and Yongpyong ski resort is located near Jinbu. So, for your plan you should ski at Yongpyong. See here for Yongpyong
for 2018, until when can we expect to see snow in this area? Thanks!
Hi Gerand, they should be open until some time in late March. The exact closing date will depend on snowfall & temperature, and won’t be fixed until close to the time. When are you thinking of going?
Hey,
I am staying at Cheongnyangni station in seoul and have the KTX pass. Is this the best place to ski as a day trip? I plan on going in 2 weeks time.
Thanks for the great advice by the way.
Hi Kevin,
Actually I’d recommend Welli Hilli Park instead. Take the KTX to Dunnae Station (about an hour from Cheongnyangni) then the shuttle bus (10 mins) to the resort
Hey Simon
Thanks for the reply.
I’m an amateur skier. What is the difference between Welli park and Oak valley? Why would you recommend one of the other?
Hey Kevin, Welli Hilli’s better for advanced & upper intermediate skiers as it has steeper slopes and a halfpipe & terrain parks. Oak Valley’s better for lower intermediates due to the gentler gradient. They’re both fine for beginners, as they both have suitable learning slopes.
Hi,
I am looking for a personal ski instructor at Oak Valley from 2nd to 4th December 2018. I cannot seem to find a Contact Us page on Oak Valley website. I hope this post will find someone whom I can coordinate with for this booking. Thank you.
Hello Mr Teo,
When you arrive at the resort you can visit the ski school desk and arrange for an instructor, there isn’t really any need to book in advance.
Hi Simon,
Thank you so much for your response! I understand from the Resort when I called this number +8233-730-3500, that the Ski School is closed and no date have been set for the Ski School to be opened?
Can you please help confirm on this as I do not want to disappoint any of my family members as we will be visiting Oak Valley all the way from South East Asia.
Looking forward to your response again. Many thanks in advance!
Actually, I think this information applies to the entire resort, not just the ski school. In other words, the ski resort isn’t open yet and they haven’t set the opening date yet. When the ski resort opens, the ski school will also open.
But I’m afraid you may have a problem due to the weather, this November has been much warmer than usual so the ski resorts are opening a little late this year. I’m sure Oak Valley will try to open by the end of November, or at least Saturday 1st December, but it depends on the weather. They can’t guarantee anything, so they won’t tell you (or me) the opening date until they’re sure about it.
For now, keep your fingers crossed for cold weather in Korea (thankfully the forecast is looking much better starting from this weekend), and if you check back next week hopefully we’ll have better information.
Hi im planning to go for a day trip to Oak valley, but not interested in skiing, since i’m just going there for the fun and the nice snow background. Snow sled is fun but is it just available to kids? Also may i know if normal visitors get to ride the lifts even if im not skiing. Thanks in advanced!
Hi Luna, sledding is open to both kids & adults. For the lifts you can usually buy single ride tickets for around 15 dollars, just for a round-trip to the top & back.
Hello
Me and my friends will be staying for a night at oak valley resort. We are thinking of going out at night. Are there some places we can go near the resort and how do we get back?Can you recommend anything to us?
Thanks!
Hi Starlyn, there isn’t much at the resort at all, just a few restaurants & bars and a karaoke room I think. If you want to go out properly, you’ll probably have to go down to Wonju. There are shuttle buses from the resort to Wonju, then a taxi back would be maybe 20 dollars (20-30 minutes)
Hey there Simon,nice to hear from you so soon. We will surely check it out!
Thanks a lot for accommodating my inquiries!
Is there any event or fireworks for newyear eve in oak valley resort?
Hi Danny, sorry I saw your comment too late. Hope you had a good NYE!
Hi
We are coming from Seoul Myeongdong, which ski resort would you recommend, thanks.
The most convenient option from Myeongdong is Vivaldi Park as they have a free tourist shuttle bus direct from Myeongdong.
hi simon,
i have plan to skiing 8 january 2020 with my kids. can you suggest which one is the best for intermediate course between oak valley and bear town based on hotels, accommodations, ski lift queues? and which one more crowded on that date?
Hi Aristo,
I’ve never stayed at either, but the accommodation all looks decent and is close to the lifts. So you can base your decision on the skiing – basically, Oak Valley is bigger and a bit better for intermediates, but it only has 3 lifts (1 of which is just for the beginner slope) so the lift queues tend to be worse. But as Jan 8th is a Wednesday, the queues hopefully shouldn’t be too bad so I’d probably recommend Oak Valley. Hope this helps!
Thanks simon for your suggest