This area has a huge Holiday Inn complex, along with a higher end hotel. Some of the Holiday Inn rooms have kitchens, so if your children aren't keen on bulgogi or chap chae, you can bring your own food. The village does have several restaurants available, including a Dominoes Pizza.
This resort, at least in December, has several choices for lift tickets. You can buy a ticket for 8:30am-12:30pm, 12:30pm-4:30pm or an evening pass from 6:30pm-10:30pm. They do close for a lunch break from 4:30-6:30 and groom the trails. The slopes are all lighted and open in the evening, which is fun and different. Honestly, I don't even know if there was a pass for the whole day. At the time we went, they had 3 slopes open and they were all short and green. We also had a wonderfully warm December, so all the snow was man made. The machines couldn't keep up on the second day, and you had to avoid muddy patches on the slopes.
You can rent all of your equipment from Alpensia, from boots to hats, ski pants and jackets, helmets, etc. I was surprised that you could rent ski clothes, but it was a very popular service. There were a few children's groups there that were using that service, along with some other people. One of the things that I have noticed about Koreans is that when they do something, a sport or a "look" they go all the way. There is no hodge-podge of outerwear, everything matches or it mismatches, but with a purpose. You won't see the old guy on the slopes with his red one-piece snow suit from 1978 that has duct tape on it. You won't see the kids wearing jeans to ski. No, every sport has it's "uniform" and it will be worn to the hilt. This is true with many aspects in Korea. If you are goth, you don't start out with dark lipstick, you go to the Korean version of Hot Topic and buy out the store. Anyway, what I'm saying is that the rental coats and pants were nice because not everyone wants or can afford the super matching outfit.
While skiing, it was nice that everyone was lined up to get on the lifts, orderly. This isn't the case in the States or in Europe. There is always some of the herd mentality. While this can be true in Korea for street food or other things, it was not the case at the ski lift in Alpensia.
We skied for two days and decided that was enough at Alpensia. They couldn't make the snow to keep up with the beautiful weather and the slopes weren't enough to keep us occupied. It is a beautiful part of Korea and we will go back. If we are lucky, we can score some tickets to see some of the events for the 2018 Winter Olympics.
