Note: Star Hill is closed until further notice
Star Hill Resort is a real local hill located on Cheonmasan in Gyeonggi-do province, just northeast of Seoul. With just a handful of lifts and runs this is as small as it gets, and it doesn’t have the usual condo-golf-water-park mega-development at the base (though the hotel there is actually still pretty big!)
The hill seems to be popular with local schools and ski clubs for their training, but it doesn’t get the crowds you see elsewhere and doesn’t run shuttle buses. If you’re in northeast Seoul and have a car it’s a convenient hill, but otherwise the access isn’t great (see below for access details)
Highest lifted point: 365m
Lowest skiable point: 180m
Vertical drop: 185m
Lifts: 5
Runs: 4
Longest run: 700m (‘A-line’ / ‘B-line’)
Terrain park: no
Homepage (Korean only) and piste map:
One thing I did like about it was the gradient; although hardly anything extreme, Star Hill probably has the steepest overall gradient of the hills near Seoul. There’s no park though, so this hill really is just about short but reasonably steep groomers – perhaps hence the popularity with ski clubs.
Star Hill is good for:
Those who live nearby. Otherwise, you’re better off hitting Konjiam (for convenience) or heading over to Gangwon-do (for bigger resorts).
Steepest overall gradient in the Seoul area.
Star Hill is not so good for:
Size. It’s tiny!
Freestyle – there’s no park.
Lift infrastructure; while most Korean resorts are all gondolas and high speed detachable quads, Star Hill’s lifts are slower fixed-grip chairs.
No English website (snowguidekorea to the rescue!)
Star Hill lift tickets
Star Hill follows the standard model in Korea, with passes available for AM, PM, and Night blocks, both individually and in combination, with a 90-minute snow grooming break at 5pm.
Star Hill is open from 10am to midnight.
Details are listed on their site here (it’s the one page on the site with an ‘English’ button!), and here’s the 2017 season information as displayed at the ticket windows:
Star Hill: accommodation
If you want to stay at Star Hill’s hotel, it doesn’t appear to be possible to book online; the information is on their website here, with the phone number at the bottom.
Otherwise, just stay in Seoul and take the bus or Metro to the hill: search for hotel deals in Seoul
Airbnb is also a great choice for Seoul – 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 Star Hill
You can take the subway to Cheonmasan Station on the Gyeongchun Line, then either walk (see map below) for 20 minutes or so, or drop a few thousand won on a taxi.
Coming out of the exit on the north side of the station, turn left along this road:
After a few hundred metres, turn right at this church:
When you reach the main intersection with Ediya Coffee and a GS25 store on the corners, turn right up Meokgat-ro. Follow it round to the left at the top, then head up the access road to Star Hill.
Alternatively you can go by bus; take the number M2316 express bus from the underground bus transfer centre in the Lotte World labyrinth at Jamsil Station. Follow the signs to find this place:
The bus numbers are shown on screens with the departure time & platform. It’s usually platform 5, but obviously this may change so check the screens. It takes 30 minutes and costs 2,400 won, but if you use your T-Money card to transfer from the subway it calculates a discounted combined fare; get off at the Cheonmasan Rest Area stop (천마산 휴게소, Cheonmasan Hyugeso), it’s the first stop after Jamsil but make sure the driver knows you want to get off there (there’s a buzzer you’re supposed to press to signal the driver). The stop’s directly in front of this building:
Again, from there either walk up to Star Hill (15 minutes, see map) or jump in a cab. From the stop, simply head north on Meokgat-ro and follow it up to the Star Hill access road.
Going to Jamsil then taking the bus will be faster than taking the subway, unless your starting point is in northeast Seoul.
Despite being much smaller than at other Korean resorts, the base area still has good facilities and easy-to-use ticketing machines (with English) in the cafeteria:
Any questions about Star Hill Resort? Leave a comment below!
For more Seoul area ski 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
May i know how to get there from Dongmyo station ?
Hi Al,
From Dongmyo take Line 6 to Taerung (9 stops), then transfer to line 7 to Sanbong (3 stops). From Sangbong platform 5 take the Gyeongchun Line to Cheonmasan (9 stops), and from the station either walk or take a taxi as described above.
(It’s about 70 mins from Dongmyo to Cheonmasan)
Hi would love to ask of STAR HILL is open for the whole year round?
Hi Jomairah, they run out of snow in March, so the skiing stops then. I’m not sure what’s available there in summer to be honest, but I noticed the hotel has a swimming pool and I guess it stays open year round for conferences etc. But just to go there as a tourist, I don’t think there’d be much to do – better to go to Elysian Gangchon or Konjiam, or Vivaldi Park (which has a water park)
Hi!
When is the closing date for the Ski resort?
Thank you!
Hi Wilson, they’re already closed for this season. You’ll need to go to Yongpyong or High1 if you still want to ski this season – Yongpyong’s closing on the 18th, I don’t have an exact date for High1 but it’ll be some time around the end of the month.
hi, how much total cost for akiing there?
Hi Nadine, it depends how long you want to ski for, whether you want lessons, and whether you need to rent equipment. Please check the prices here. Also, the ski season’s already finished so you won’t be able to ski there until November/December
Hi! may I know how to get there from myeongdong?
Hi Hanna,
From Myeongdong take Line 4 > Line 5 > Line 7 > Gyeongui-Jungang Line. Transfer stations are Dongdaemun History & Culture Park, Gunja, and Sangbong (platform 5).
Hi we just want to play with snowboard sled up & down the slope & play with snow
1. is it open from 5 Dec?
2. travel from Myeongdong – Dongdaemun – Hoegi – Sangbong, can travel in this order?
3. after reach Sangbong station, how to go to starhill?
Thanks!
Hello,
1. Sorry, we don’t know their opening date yet. Hopefully they should be open by December 5th, but it’s been a warm November so the resorts are all opening a little late. Please check again next week.
2. yes you can do it like that, but actually that has 3 transfers and Hoegi is a bad transfer. It’s actually better to change at Ichon and Sangbong, so Line 4 > Gyeongui-Jungang Line > Gyeongchun Line.
3. At Sangbong Station go to platform 5 and take the Gyeongchun Line to Cheonmasan Station. From Cheonmasan stn either take a taxi to Star Hill or follow the walking instructions above.
Hi Starhill,
We plan to visit Korea on Jan 24, 2019.
Can you adv how to go from Inchon airport to your place? Are there bus transfer to?
Hi Yanisa,
Sorry, I’m not Star Hill! This is an independent website, I don’t represent them or any other resort. But I’m happy to answer your question!
The fastest way is to take airport limousine bus #8843-1, and get off at the bus stop called Pyeongnae Nonghyup. Pyongnae Chogyo (평내농협.평내초교), which takes 1h45, then from the same bus stop take the local bus #65 for 15 mins to the bus stop called Ski-jang Ibgu Sageori (스키장입구사거리), which means ‘ski resort entrance intersection’. From that bus stop it’s a 20-minute walk up the hill to the resort.
Alternatively, it might be easier in terms of navigation to change at Jamsil, though it’ll be 30 minutes slower; take limousine #6006 to Jamsil, then bus #M2316 from there as described above (from Jamsil it’s about 25 mins, you get off at the first stop – you have to press the buzzer to tell the driver you want to get off, probably some other passengers will do that anyway but just make sure the driver understands where you want to go just in case no other passengers are stopping there).
In order to easily do this I strongly recommend using an app called KakaoMap, which has an English setting and is much better than Google Maps in Korea.
Thank you so much for your answer. 🙂
Hello~
I doubt you check this website much anymore, if at all, but I just wanted to let you know Star Hill shut down in summer last year
Hi Nic,
Another one bites the dust… can’t say I’m surprised, Star Hill and Yangji Pine were clearly already struggling before covid and it seems the pandemic has finished them off.
Thanks for taking the time to comment with an update – I am still trying to keep the site up to date these days, but I haven’t been able to visit Korea for the last couple of winters so it’s been tricky.
Cheers,
Simon