Ever since the Korean Wave (K-pop, K-drama, K-beauty, K-food & K-ty Perry) started engulfing the planet, South Korea has been climbing the ranks as a travel destination. Many people in love with the culture, now want to experience the country in person. Time for me to pack my bags as well and find out what all the fuzz is about. And where better to start than in Seoul? The South Korean capital is a bustling megacity, offering both authentic charm and a ton of – here it comes – op, op, op, oppan Gangnam Style. Had to get it out of the way, folks.
In my mission to peacefully infiltrate at least one Asian megacity every year, my hungry gaze fell upon the Korean peninsula. After some careful deliberation, I decided to take a pass on the undoubtedly vibrant Pyongyang in favour of its southern neighbour Seoul – maybe next time, who knows. South Korea used to be a somewhat overlooked destination, mainly because many European tourists were more familiar with places like Thailand, Bali or Japan. Those days are over now. Due to the cultural tidal wave that is K-pop and supported by hyped-up series like Squid Game, the country’s popularity is reaching unprecedented levels. This is great, because Korea is a surprisingly varied place, and Seoul is the icing on its yummy yummy cake. You’ll of course find your beautiful historic palaces and temples here, but it’s the vibe that’ll make you fall in love with the city. Seoul, my friends, is cool. It’s trendy, lively and both hectic and cosy at the same time. South Korea is home to one of the world’s saddest birth rates – if you’re in the office for ten or more hours a day, there’s not much room for sexy time – but in the capital, you’ll barely notice it*. Seoul looks and feels like a city for young well… souls. Smartly dressed couples parade through the shopping boulevards; there’s a trendy coffeeshop on every corner and the nightlife is wild and keeps going past dawn. Seoul is an ever evolving metropolis exuding unabashed self-confidence, propelled upwards by a culture that realises its heyday has arrived. Life is lived today, not tomorrow.
*There’s a rural exodus happening. Young people move to the cities, because that’s where you build a career.
The Ultimate Seoul Travel Guide: Discover 14 Beautiful Sights & Attractions
And yet, this flashy metropolis is still quite authentic in many places. The food culture for example, is fantastic. You’ll find great BBQ places all over the city, where groups of friends or colleagues share the grill, and the countless covered food markets offer any dish you can imagine. Around these traditional markets is usually a network of narrow alleyways, where you’ll find old shops crammed to the ceiling with wares and tiny family restaurants where you can eat bibimbap with a dozen side dishes for around six euros. Wonderful areas to explore. Seoul is surprisingly green for its size as well. The centre is sheltered by four wooded hills, there are multiple beautiful parks to visit and in recent years several dilapidated spots were turned into green oases. This blog post will guide you through all the main neighbourhoods and sights. Perfect for when you’re still considering Seoul and want a quick overview of all the city’s major assets. More detailed posts on specific districts will follow soon. There you go: a reason to come back.
**There are a couple of affiliate links to interesting activities or hotels in Seoul in this article. These were personally selected by me to make sure they’re not crap. If you’re already planning to book a tour or hotel in Seoul, consider doing so via one of these links. Doesn’t cost you an extra cent and I’ll get a small compensation for my efforts. Thank you in advance.**
1. Gyeongbokgung Palace: wear a lavish outfit for a royal visit
There are no less than five huge palaces in Seoul. If you only have time for one, visit Gyeongbokgung Palace. It’s the oldest: an elaborate complex from the late 14th century that served as the Joseon dynasty’s primary seat of power. This royal line ruled over Korea for over 500 years, until Japan annexed the whole country in 1910. They’d already invaded a first time four centuries earlier – small reunion so to speak – and on both occasions the palace was left in ruins. It took until the nineties before it was restored to its former glory, but today it looks as good as new. Most people start their visit by passing the imposing Gwanghwamun Gate. This is where the changing of the guard takes place every day at 10am and 2pm (think lots of guys in bright clothes and funny hats).
“There are no less than five huge palaces in Seoul, but if you only have time for one: visit Gyeongbokgung Palace.”
A ticket will cost you a measly 3.000 won (less than €2) but if you don’t feel like paying you can go and rent a hanbok first (they’re everywhere in Seoul, but this place has good reviews). This is a traditional Korean outfit, and anyone wearing one can enter any palace free of charge. This causes all of them to be full of people in the most radiant outfits, which is always fun for photographers. Gyeongbokgung itself has all sorts of photogenic corridors, courtyards and impressive buildings to explore – the National Folk Museum of Korea is in one of the nicest ones and can be visited freely. Up for a second palace? Walk to nearby Changdeokgung. It’s a similar place, but with more original buildings left standing, and its Secret Garden (book your tickets in advance: limited number of daily visitors) is on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Jongmyo Shrine located just below is worth a visit as well.
Tip: I took a bunch of portraits of people wearing hanboks, but since I’m not in Seoul anymore, this professional photo shoot might be a good alternative.
2. Bukchon Hanok Village: Seoul’s most popular photo spot
Right in between the two palaces, you’ll find Bukchon Hanok Village: one of Seoul’s main postcard views. Bukchon is an old residential area where the royal servants and craftsmen used to live. They did so in traditional hanoks – beautiful, ornate wooden houses – of which there are a few hundred still standing here: the largest concentration in the entire city. This of course makes for great pictures, so the place is perpetually crowded with tourists. The main street leading down to the city centre is especially busy, because this is where you can get the old Bukchon rooftops and the modern skyline looming up behind them on one picture. Things were getting out of hand recently – people do actually live here – which is why a tourist curfew was imposed in March 2025: you’re not allowed in from 5pm to 10am (fines are quite hefty). This said, the side streets are a lot quieter. This is where you’ll find gems like the Baek In-je House: a perfectly preserved hanok from the early 20th century, with a beautiful garden that is free to visit. Want to look out over the area in peace? Pay a small entrance fee (drink included) and find yourself a spot on the Bukchon Observatory’s rooftop terrace. Bukchon is a beautiful neighbourhood that certainly deserves to be explored, but there are great alternatives elsewhere in Seoul if the selfie crowd gets too annoying. By the way: right outside the area is one of the cutest bakeries in town. Dotori Garden is completely furbished in Studio Ghibli style and offers fantastic pastries and desserts. You can even get some ice cream covered in honey still in the comb. You’re on holiday: that diet can go right in the trash where it belongs.
Tip: this guided tour takes you to Bukchon, Gyeongbokgung Palace and Gwangjang Market in one go.
3. Ikseon-dong: experience Korean coffee culture in hipster heaven
Just a few hundred meters south from Bukchon, is one of its more relaxed alternatives. Ikseon-dong has plenty of hanoks as well, and is usually a bit less overcrowded. It’s a network of attractive little alleys surrounded by the city centre, where the houses have been turned into shops, restaurants and microbreweries. This makes for a colourful and lively place, in a mostly non-residential neighbourhood – which means you can keep hanging out after five o’clock. Ikseon-dong is one of the main places in Seoul where the local hipsters tend to gather. During the day, you can step into a couple of the city’s best coffeeshops and nibble on some of its finest pastries (Soha Salt Pond Bakery and the very Instagram-worthy Cheong Su Dang Dessert Café are great, but just walk around and pick one you like). In the evening you can have dinner in numerous (often international) restaurants. You’ll also find the typical photo booths – very popular in both Korea and Japan – a number of shooting ranges where you can try various BB guns and several arcades full of crane machines and classic videogames. Please note: this is not a nightlife district. After dinner time, many businesses gradually start closing up. Insadong is another fun neighbourhood a little further down the road – more focussed on shopping and culture – and around the Jongno 3 metro station is a lively area where a mass of people eat outside every night – not as common in Korea as it is in some other Asian cities.
Tip: I stayed in Jongno (the historic quarter where everything I mentioned above can be found) for a whole week and did so in Jongno Stay Hostel. This is a reasonably cheap, very clean and perfectly located hostel. For more hotel tips, check the extra info down below.
4. Enjoy the chaos in Gwangjang and Namdaemun Market
Speaking of food: take the subway to the next stop (Jongno 5) and you’ll be right in front of Gwangjang Market: one of the largest and busiest food markets in Seoul. Come by during peak hours and you’ll be overwhelmed by the teeming crowds and the rowdy vendors trying to get you on a stool in front of their stall. Rows of people sit shoulder to shoulder, enjoying a dazzling range of dishes. Some stalls offer pretty exotic food (by Western standards at least), but there are hundreds and hundreds to choose from. If you can’t find something to eat here, you’ve not been raised right.
A little further south – near Seoul Station – Namdaemun Market is another superb place to explore. This is the oldest and largest traditional market in the capital. It’s been on this spot for over six hundred years and you can buy just about everything here: from clothes and cooking utensils to souvenirs and electronics (the latter being a more recent addition obviously). Namdaemun Market is spread over several streets and blocks. Some alleys are fully focused on the sale of one single product, others offer only chaos. The large covered pedestrian street in the centre of the market looks quite modern, but the most interesting parts to visit are the “backstage” bits behind it: a maze of dark little corridors splitting off from the main boulevard, where countless tiny restaurants are hidden and chefs cook their food right in the hallway. A figurative journey through time and a fantastic area to dive into headfirst.
Tip: if you want some local help finding your way to the best stalls in Gwangjang Market, book this highly regarded tour.
5. Bombard your senses at Myeongdong Night Market
Want to experience Seoul at its most bombastic? Visit the centrally located Myeongdong neighbourhood after sunset. Myeongdong Walking Street is one of the capital’s main shopping boulevards, full of large Korean brands like MPlayground (for crazy and affordable clothing – I loved these shops) and Olive Young (for all your face cream stuff). In the evening, the atmosphere changes completely when dozens of food stalls are dragged in, transforming the entire place into a wildly popular night market. In terms of crowds and the abundance of neon signs, this is the part of Seoul most reminiscent of places like Hong Kong or Shinjuku. Locals will tell you it’s somewhat of a tourist trap – the food stalls are a bit overpriced and don’t always offer top quality: in my opinion it’s not too bad – but wading through this pandemonium of a neighbourhood is an experience in itself. You can pop into weird venues like the pink 3CE Pink Space Hotel, Hello Kitty Apple Café or Starfox Artist Chocolate Shop (for all your exclusive K-idol chocolate), but in the side alleys you’ll find plenty of authentic family restaurants, and these don’t aim for tourists.
“Myeongdong Night Market is Seoul at its most overwhelming: in terms of crowds and neon lights, it’s one of the few places in the capital reminiscent of the busiest parts of Hong Kong or Shinjuku.”
Right next to this hedonist paradise you’ll find Myeongdong Cathedral: the oldest Roman Catholic church in the city. Many people don’t know, but Christianity is (ignoring Atheism) the largest religion in South Korea. One in three Koreans call themselves Christians, while less than one in six is Buddhist. This is why you’ll see way more churches than temples here. A couple of them take the whole religion thing a bit too seriously. These are the lovely people you’ll see standing in the busiest tourist spots, carrying all kinds of hell-and-damnation signs. Usually these are members of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus: a fairly notorious religious sect. Kindly ignore them when they approach you, or you’ll lose half the day listening to their ramblings.
6. Fuel up on fried chicken and beer in Euljiro’s neon-lit alleys
Right next to Myeongdong you’ll find Euljiro (pronounced: “Ooldjiro”). This is one of the most laid-back neighbourhoods in Seoul to enjoy some nightlife, offering a couple of incredibly atmospheric alleys full of neon signs – they could have come straight out of a cyberpunk movie. These alleyways are crammed with quirky little restaurants, cool bars and micro-breweries, and unlike places like Itaewon, you’ll be drinking more with actual young Koreans than with expats here. Because of the unique vibe, the area is sometimes nicknamed Hipjiro. This offends me a little. Not because it isn’t true, but because “Cooljiro” fits much better with the actual name (PR Agencies: I’m available for assignments). You can find the best cluster of alleys by looking for “Euljiro Brewing” in your Naver App (the local answer to Google Maps, which doesn’t properly work in South Korea). This is a small brewery with a puking drunk on the logo, and it’s right in the middle of Euljiro’s most photogenic part. Nearby Nogari Alley used to be the place to be to get some Korean fried chicken and beer. Sadly several construction projects were started here in recent years, which causes the outdoor terraces to be a bit less atmospheric currently. My personal favourite place for fried chicken in Euljiro was the Ohaiyo Euljiro Retro Bar next to the brewery I mentioned earlier. This place was furnished to look like a campy Japanese supermarket from the eighties, and they offer typical izakaya food.
7. Cheonggyecheon River Walk & Seoullo 7017: two green urban oases
Walk a bit north from Euljiro or Myeongdong, and you’ll quickly arrive at one of Seoul’s coolest projects: the Cheonggyecheon River Walk. Twenty years ago, this small stream lay suffocated under an ugly elevated highway. Not what you’d call great for the local fauna, and not a place you’d want to hang out – but times have changed. The highway was removed, the little river cleared and cleaned, a whole bunch of greenery was planted and an almost seven mile walking path was laid out on both sides of it. Nowadays it serves as a green corridor below street level, where people come to jog, read a book, do some public dancing or watch artists perform. Nature came back as well. You’ll see herons looking for a meal, and here and there you’ll even spot some big fat carp roaming the water. All of this in a creek running straight through the city’s busiest districts.
A second green project doesn’t run under the streets but above them. Ten years ago, Seoullo 7017 was another of these elevated highways, polluting the view on the city next to Seoul Station, but they found another purpose for this one as well. Today it’s an elevated park full of trees, flowers and even little ponds, running right over some of the main thorougfares for almost a mile. Very pleasant shortcut if you want to skip the traffic lights, and it even allows you to visit the station’s rooftop. There’s a cute little coffee bar somewhere on the Seoullo by the way – obviously with a great view.
8. Climb Namsan Mountain and see the city in a new light
Of the four mountains (read hills: they’re not that high) guarding Seoul, Namsan is by far the most popular. This is probably because the iconic N Seoul Tower is on top of it, offering amazing views over the city. The Namsan Cable Car is within walking distance of Seoul Station, but unless you’re built like a southern elephant seal (look them up, they’re awesome) I recommend climbing the hill on foot. The hike will take you through a hundred hectares of protected forest and along restored parts of the old city wall. The shortcut you can take via the wooden steps is a bit brutal on the calves, but nothing most people can’t handle. Once at the top, you’ll find a bunch of restaurants and souvenir shops under the tower, and tens of thousands of padlocks left behind by loving couples on the observation platform railing. It’s only on top of Namsan that the real scale of Seoul becomes clear. Because the historic city centre is quite walkable, with plenty of cosy little alleys, you tend to lose sight of the bigger picture. Until you stand here on the balcony, and realize the biggest part of the city is on the other side of the hill, stretching far over the opposite bank of the Han River in the distance. Seoul is a monstrously large city. Officially, more than ten million people live here, but in the surrounding urban area this number rises to twenty-five million – which is half the country. Feeling a bit overwhelmed by this realisation? Head back down and walk to Comic Road near the foot of the hill. This is a pleasant street full of funny graffiti, with a great view on the N Seoul Tower you just visited. To find it, search for “Myeongdong Fun” on Naver or for “Fun Road” on Maps.
9. Dongdaemun Design Plaza: visit one of Zaha Hadid’s strangest creations
Dongdaemun is east of Myeongdong, and is an area best known for its huge malls and covered markets. The absolute showstopper of the neighbourhood is the Dongdaemun Design Plaza (or the DDP). This is a strange, aluminium-clad building designed by Zaha Hadid, and it looks like a giant molten UFO. At night, the whole thing is lit up with coloured and pulsating LED lights, and inside you’ll find a cultural hub with a design museum and a lot of rooms for exhibitions and events. Near the DDP is another park where you can walk along parts of the former city wall. Follow it to the north, and you’ll eventually end up in Iwha Mural Village. This is a cosy piece of Seoul built against a hillside, which for some reason feels like a separate village away from the rest of town. Originally, this is where refugees from the Korean War used to live in tents, but it became a modest tourist attraction since, because plenty of walls were brightened up with all kinds of colourful paintings. Near the Dongdaemun metro station, you’ll find Toy Street. This is a street exclusively filled with toy stores (there’s about a hundred of them: I challenge you try and keep your kids in check for this visit, haha) and it comes with a huge fake gorilla looking out over a crossing in the middle of it. East of the DDP lies Sindang: another hipster neighbourhood full of coffee bars, spread out around the very lively Seoul Central Market (also called Jungang Market). If you see the granny in the picture above baking her pancakes, go and grab one. They cost next to nothing and are very very yummy.
10. Watch K-Pop for free in Hongdae
Hongdae is a fun district in southwest Seoul, a bit further away from everything we’ve seen so far (but a thirty minute subway ride takes you straight to Gyeongbokgung). It’s the city’s main student hub – laid out around one of its biggest universities – and thus the ideal place to dive into the local youth culture. Hongdae offers a pleasant mix of wonderfully hectic party streets and laidback residential areas, with a pretty waterfront walk along the Han as icing on the cake. The biggest draw here is Hongdae Street (also known as Festival Street). This is a colourful, pedestrianised boulevard full of trendy shops, vintage stores, arcades and fortune tellers. Plan your visit on a weekend. This is when numerous aspiring K-pop band and other artists will take to the streets and perform. Often these performances are surprisingly good and will get a crowd of a few hundred people going. Continue your evening in one of the countless karaoke bars, clubs or even Akihabara-style maid bars. You can also do the much easier thing and sign up for this popular pub crawl instead. During the day, you can practise your Wingardium Leviosas in 943 King’s Cross Café – the biggest Harry Potter themed coffeeshop I’ve ever seen – and a few bus stops away is the 2002 World Cup stadium where South Korea reached the semi-finals as the host nation. The beautiful Haneul Park is right next to it, which is full of tall silver grass in fall.
Tip: I spent my second week in Hongdae in the fantastic Zzzip Guesthouse. This is a popular and very social hostel, run by the lovely Gina and Brian. They are very involved with their guests, which means you’ll get constant and interesting tips on what to do during your stay. Very recommended.
11. Party with the expats in Itaewon
Itaewon – located on the southern side of Namsan – has long been the most international area of Seoul. This is mainly because a large American army base was located next to it for years. The neighbourhood is spread over three hills with some pretty raunchy nicknames. Halal Hill is where the largest Muslim community lives. Right next to it is Homo Hill (uhu): the most important LGBTIQ+ stronghold in the city, home to several gay and trans bars. Hooker Hill officially no longer exists, but you can safely assume that this is where most American GI’s used to spend their days off. Because of this international mix, Itaewon quickly grew into one of the capital’s major nightlife districts. The epicentre of the party is World Food Street: a pedestrian street full of clubs, pubs and tiki bars, mostly catering to the expat crowd. Several narrow alleys also full of bars split off from this main street, descending quite steeply. Sounds like a fun place to be, and it certainly is, but due to this setup things went horribly wrong here on Halloween 2022. Because of the enormous crowds, panic broke out in the main street. As a result, a mass of people was pushed down into the alleyways, which caused 159 poor souls to get trampled and suffocated: the greatest national trauma since the Korean war. Since then, the area – understandably – became a lot quieter for a while. I actually passed through it on Halloween myself this year – right after sunset so it was still reasonably calm. The security measures where what you’d expect: police officers everywhere were maintaining corridors to help herd the crowds through the street in an orderly matter. They were not taking second chances, and thank god for that. A bit less in your face, but close to Itaewon,is Seongsu-dong. This used to be an industrial quarter, but lots of the warehouses are now (can you guess by now?) coffeeshops and galleries. They call it Korea’s Brooklyn – Seoul is a hipster town.
12. Gangnam: feast your eyes on Seoul’s most materialistic neighbourhood
Gangnam – located across the Han River in the south of the city – is the only part of Seoul most foreigners know by name. This of course all because of PSY’s monster hit Gangnam Style – the man is personally responsible for the global rise of K-pop. Turn the clock back half a century though, and the place barely exists. Before the Olympics were held here in 1988, not much of note could be found in this area, but things moved fast from then on. Nowadays, Gangnam is synonymous with luxury brands, exploited idols and the ever-growing Korean beauty industry. The Starfield COEX Mall is located here: the largest underground shopping mall in the world. Inside you’ll find the Starfield Library: a visually stunning modern library where ironically I think not a single person has ever read a book, because everybody’s just taking selfies. Walk out of this mall and you’ll soon end up at the Gangnam Style Sculpture: two giant golden hands for you to do your little horse dance under – there’s even a video playing to show you how. Nice tribute to a song that relentlessly mocked the Gangnam lifestyle (I bet PSY loves it).
“Gangnam is the only part of Seoul most foreigners know by name. This of course all because of PSY’s monster hit Gangnam Style – the man is personally responsible for the global rise of K-pop.”
Apart from the surprisingly beautiful Bongseun-sa temple, most of Gangnam’s other sights are a bit spread out: hop on a bus and save some time. K-Star Road is where you’ll see the iconic bear statues named after famous K-pop bands – but mostly it’s just expensive luxury stores and malls. In the south (around Nonhyeon-ro) you can go and get your face patched up, in the vain hope you’ll actually look presentable now. This is where the concentration of beauty clinics is so high they started calling it Plastic Surgery Street. For your info: more than 1 in 4 Korean women under the age of thirty (!!) have already undergone cosmetic surgery in one way or another. South Korean culture is very focused on appearance. East of Gangnam is Lotte World: a popular amusement park with an indoor and an outdoor area. Next to it is the Lotte World Tower: 555 meters high and the sixth tallest building in the world (buy your tickets for the observatory here). Gangnam is a popular place for clubbing as well, but I honestly think you’d be better off in places like Itaewon or Hongdae – and it’ll cost you less too.
Tip: if you want an actually insightful guided tour through Gangnam, focused on the beauty/idol industry and the enormous pressure society puts on young Koreans, you have to book this one. It’s one of the few glimpses tourists can get into the darker side of Korean society and the psychological problems it comes with. Very recommended.
13. Museums in Seoul
Seoul has a whole bunch of interesting museums on offer, and just like me you’ll never be able to visit all of them in one trip. I’ll give you some of the more important/curious ones to help you pick your favourites.
–National Museum of Korea: largest museum in South Korea. Exhibits the country’s history and culture, from prehistory to modern times. Think: national treasures, art, ceramics and historical artifacts.
–War Memorial of Korea: enormous complex focused on the Korean war history. Outside an impressive collection of army vehicles is on display, including a giant American B52 bomber. I also discovered that more than three thousand Belgian volunteers fought on the South Korean side during the war, of which more than a hundred lost their lives. They are honoured in several places in the museum.
–Leeum Museum of Art: architecturally impressive museum managed by the Samsung Foundation, exhibiting both traditional Korean and modern art.
–Seodaemun Museum of Natural History: wonderful museum for dino lovers, with a copy of the famous T-rex Stan on display, as well as some lesser common skeletons like a pair of pachycephalosaurs and a (surprisingly large) velociraptor.
–Museum Kimchikan: quirky museum in Insadong, where you can learn everything you’d ever want to know about Kimchi. They offer workshops as well.
14. Day trips from Seoul: take a look inside North Korea from the DMZ
You’re in Seoul anyway, so checking out the DMZ (the Demilitarized Zone between the North and South) is somewhat of a must. It’s the most popular daytrip from the capital and it’s only an hour’s drive away. A visit is only possible on an official tour. These are offered by almost all hotels, but choose a decent one or you’ll eventually end up in a jewellery store, where they’ll guilt trip you into buying some overpriced trinkets. The tour itself, while historically very interesting, left me with a bit of a sour taste afterwards. This, mainly because they turned a war that cost four million lives into a hyper-touristic affair. It would have always become a popular spot for tourists, I understand, but it’s more about the way you do it. Right next to where the busses park for example, is a whole theme park for kids, and at the statue honouring the thousands of Korean “comfort women” abducted by the Japanese (to serve as forced front line prostitutes) a line of people was happily taking selfies like they were next to Mickey Mouse. You do get to see some interesting things though. You’ll be able to descent down into the third infiltration tunnel (no pictures allowed) drilled by the North Koreans for a secret invasion, but discovered in time with the help of a defected engineer. Highlight of the day is the visit to a viewing platform where you can take a look into actual North Korea with some binoculars. There was literally nothing moving when I was looking, but they did have a completely deserted “model” village right across the border, sporting the tallest flagpole on the planet. Now all they need is some rice to survive the next winter. I feel sorry for everyone actually living there.
Traveling to Seoul and South Korea: tips, hotels and activities
If you want your hotel in Seoul to be in a pleasant/convenient place, there are three main options:
–Jongno is the historic centre where most of the grand palaces are located. If you’re in Seoul for the first time and just want to see the main attractions, this is the perfect place to stay. It’s charming and atmospheric, and most of the things you want to see are within walking distance. I mentioned the Jongno Stay Hostel in the beginning of this arcticle. This is a pleasant place to stay, run by a single guy named OG. He’s very friendly and helpful, but slightly overworked. Want your stay to be completely unique? Bukchon Binkwan is a great option. This is a hotel in a wonderful hanok right in the middle of Bukchon, which means you can keep hanging around in the area after 5pm apparently.
–Myeongdong is the most central in terms of metro connections to other parts of the city. A little less authentic than Jongno – and may avoid hotels that are in the middle of the Night Market – but if you like shopping you’ll be over the moon. Moxy Seoul Myeongdong is a hip hotel within walking distance of all of the neighbourhood’s biggest attractions. Hotel 28 is a luxurious venue in the middle of Myeongdong.
–Hongdae is a bit further from the center, but the atmosphere is great. Perfect place for foodies or people who like K-pop and partying. As mentioned above, I spent a week in Zzzip Guesthouse here. It’s a two minute walk from the closest metro station and it’s in a very cosy neighbourhood.
-Because the name is so well known, you might be tempted to book a hotel in Gangnam. I personally wouldn’t do this, mainly because it’s quite far away from the rest of the city’s highlights, and it’s mostly focused on high-end shopping. Want to stay in Gangnam anyway? Better go all-in then. Splash some cash and book a room in the phenomenal Josun Palace. Sometimes you just have to treat yourself.
-You’ll need two things to get from A to B smoothly in Seoul. The Naver App on your smartphone for all navigation, and a T-money Travel Card to pay for bus and metro without hassle. You can buy and charge it in any convenience store (7-Eleven, CU or GS25), and just like with the Japanese Suica Card, you can pay with it in many stores (it’s slightly less universal though). The buses here are just as convenient as the metro. There’s plenty of them and the app tells you exactly how long you have to wait or where you have to get off.
-There’s plenty of tours and activities you can book in Seoul I didn’t have room for in this article. Viator and Getyourguide have a whole bunch of them. Here are a couple I found particularly interesting.
-a nightly walking tour to a couple of lesser known spots
-a cooking workshop with a real Korean granny
-a day trip to beautiful Nami Island and to a farm where you can cuddle alpacas
-an evening playing drinking games with Korean students (no kidding)
-a night visit to Suwon Hwaseong Fortress (Unesco World Heritage)
Rather want to visit Tokyo? I’ve published blog posts on almost every interesting neighbourhood in the Japanese capital. Read my posts on Akihabara, Odaiba, Shinjuku, Shibuya, Ginza, Harajuku, Asakusa, Ueno and Marunouchi next. Looking for a quieter alternative to Kyoto? Visit Kanazawa instead.
Looking for another Asian Trip? Read my blog posts on Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore and Hanoi. Would you rather go to Texas? Read my posts on Dallas, Austin and San Antonio.
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