South Korea 🇰🇷 - Seoul

Tips 👏

• If you are wondering where to base yourself, stay up north in areas like Insadong! There is significantly more to do and see within walking distance compared to the south (like Gangnam), which is mostly shopping.
• Rent a traditional Hanbok outfit! Not only does it make for amazing photos in the Hanok villages, but it also gets you free entry into the main palaces like Gyeongbokgung.
• If you hike Bukhansan, be prepared. The Baegundae peak gets a bit exposed toward the end, and you need to bring plenty of water and food. The Seoul City Wall trail is also an excellent option if you're up for 18kms or less.
• Book a Korean scalp treatment. It is a wildly popular and super relaxing local experience you can't easily find back home. Juno Hair is omnipresent and offer a good one for decent price.
• Experience a true local weekend by having a picnic at the Han River (Hangang Park) with convenience store ramen and fried chicken delivered right to your picnic mat!
• Watch a baseball game if you can, one of our favourite experience!

Accommodation 🏠

We actually split our stay to experience different sides of the city. We started up north in Insadong, which was incredibly convenient for historical sightseeing and cafe hopping. We stayed at Moxy Insadong and it was great, ideally located on the main street, seconds away from the hanok village and super comfy!

For our last couple of nights, we moved south to the Shilla Stay Seocho in Gangnam. It was super modern, and we even had our room service dinner delivered by a robot! While the hotel was great, we'd recommend to stay in Insadong or nearby as it's closer to everything (distances are huge in Seoul!)

Getting there 🚲

We arrived by taxi from the Incheon Airport, but buses and train were also possible (too tired to struggle!)

Food & Drink 🍜

• Flipper's Ikseon: An amazing spot in the Hanok village for giant, jiggly fluffy pancakes.
• Soha Salt Pond: Delicious salted bread in Insadong, highly recommended (only if there's not a massive queue)
• Mil Toast: Famous for its steamed bread with a massive queue. Honestly? We tried it, and it was not worth the wait. Skip it and go elsewhere (or come back during the evening, still open and no-one)
• Onjisim: A beautiful Hanok cafe serving up some fantastic early-morning bagels.
• Myeongdong Kyoja: A Michelin-guided spot in Myeongdong. You absolutely must try their dumplings and noodles. Super fast and super cheap!
• Yukmokwon: Top-tier Korean BBQ and amazing Korean beef tartare, super cheap for lunch!
• Insadong Tents: The perfect casual spot to grab late-night nibbles and drinks under the street tents.

Duration ⏱

We spent a solid five days exploring Seoul. This felt like the perfect amount of time to split our itinerary between the historical, cultural sights in the north and the hyper-modern, shopping-focused vibe of the south, with enough time to squeeze in a mountain hike!

Palaces & Hanok Villages 🎎

We strongly believe the best place to stay is up north, so we based ourselves in Insadong to start. We kicked off our first day strolling through the incredibly charming Ikseon-dong Hanok Village, fueling up on fluffy pancakes at Flipper's Ikseon.

Then, we fully embraced the tourist spirit and rented traditional Hanbok outfits at Studio KJD. Walking through the massive Gyeongbokgung Palace in our Hanboks was a highlight (plus, wearing the outfit gets you in for free!) for us and also local tourists.

We then checked out the National Museum of Modern Art in front (still in original clothes) to see Damien Hirst original work, and spent the rest of the day wandering the beautiful Samcheong-dong Street and Bukchon Hanok Village (packed with tourists).

Bukhansan park 🥾

Before heading to the mountain, we visited one of the hiking centre in the city centre in Insadong (there's a few in the city). They gave us tons of info and good tips, along with leaflet on the best hikes to do based on the season (make sure to pay a visit to help you plan, it's all free and they're super nice).

We decided very originally to do the first hike recommended in the book, the Baegundae Peak loop in the Bukhansan park at the edge of the city. We took the tube to Bukhansan UI stop and started the hike directly from there (note that you can take a cab/bus up to the Sacheonwangmun Gate if you want to avoid the road section, but the hike is very nice from the start). Make sure to pack food & water before starting as it's fairly demanding (lots of convenience stores & restaurant close to the subway stop).

After a couple of kilometres to the gate, the real loop started on a very pretty path all the way to the path where we could admire the wonderful view on Seoul. We did first the extra stop to the Yeongbong peak (nice but can skip) to then push toward the Baegundae peak. The last 200m are fairly exposed with metal rails so avoid if you have vertigo!

After a quick rewarding stop, we carry on the loop, passed by old wall gates and couple of other passes, before reaching back the original point and the subway stop. Count about 4 or 5 hours in total, 10kms and about 950m elevation (mid-level hike).

Great alternative is also to do the Seoul City Wall tour, which is about 18kms length with lots of up and downs, but we didn't had enough time. The nice thing about that one is that it combines with historical landmarks, and can be done in chunks!

Views, Markets & Dumplings 🥟

We started the day with bagels at Onjisim, leaving our luggages in the hotel locker, and then headed to the futuristic Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) to observe latest exhibitions.

Few stroll and picture later, to headed to Euljiro for food, only to find that the main night drink area has sadly been demolished and under construction. So we took a nice treat and coffee at NeuTee Book Store instead! We then took a cab to the N Tower cable car (big queue!) to get another panoramic view on the city. Once at the top, we enjoyed the view and the vibe on the entire city. Note that you can also hike to get to the top, but the cable car was quite fun to do.

We then walked down the hill, and ended up in the Haebangchon market area for a stroll and a well-deserved glass of wine.

We then took a short bus ride to Myeongdong to check out the amazing street food market (egg bread was really good) and the awesome super fast/cheap/good Myeongdong Kyoja for dumplings (michelin quoted). We then headed back to Insadong for some drinks & nibbles in the tents, picked-up our bags and went to our next hotel in Gangnam.

Gangnam, Parks & Pampering 💆‍♀️

We started the day with relaxing experience: a scalp cleaning treatment of 90minutes at Juno Hair. Following a 15 step plan and for about 220 KRW, we got our scalp cleaned-up deeply, including massage and before/after picture, 100% worth it.

With the blue sky and warm temperatures, we went to the Hangang Park like locals to enjoy the sun for a picnic. We grabbed ramen from the convenience store in the park, beers, and ordered fried chicken with a great view, a must-do! Post nap, we checked out the nearby Hyundai Seoul mall for stroll and coffee, but can give it a miss.

We then took a cab back to Namsan, chilled a bit in a random manga coffee (strongly recommend, super comfy and cheap), before going to Namsan Gugakdang for a free live performance of traditional Korean music (must be booked online, usually once a month).

We were so tired by the time we got back to the hotel that we ordered dinner to the room, which was hilariously delivered by a robot.

Baseball & Cherry Blossoms ⚾️

Our final Seoul day started with calm with a little stroll in the nearby Gangnam canals and streets packed with Cherry blossoms. We treated ourselves to an incredible Korean beef tartare and K-BBQ lunch at Yukmokwon, very cheap and top quality.

We then went to checkout the Starfield Library (which is stunning but definitely missable and much smaller than expected) and the surrounding mall including the Psy statue in front.

We ended our time in Seoul by hitting up a batting cage for some practice before heading out to watch a live baseball game of the Seoul team at the Jamsil Baseball Stadium which was one of the highlight - so much energy with local fans (including cheerleaders, choregraphies, beers & friend chicken), a must do (book tickets in advance!)

Hope this was helpful, you can ask us any questions on Instagram.