Top 25 Things to Do in Seoul, South Korea

Seoul is one of those cities that completely resets what you think a city can be. It is ancient and ultramodern in the same neighborhood, affordable by any global standard, and the kind of place where a late-night street food stop at 2am feels completely normal. K-drama and K-pop have sent global interest through the roof, but Seoul has enough substance to reward travelers who have no interest in either.

This guide covers the top 25 things to do in Seoul, South Korea, from Gyeongbokgung Palace and the Bukchon Hanok Village alleys to the Seongsu concept cafe district, Gwangjang Market street food, and a DMZ day trip to the North Korean border. April to June and September to November are the best months to visit.

Where to Stay in Seoul

Seoul’s neighborhoods feel almost like separate cities, so the right base depends on whether you want shopping in Myeongdong, the food scene of Hongdae, or the polished streets of Gangnam. These five hotels cover a range of styles and budgets and put you within easy reach of the metro.

Hotel28 Myeongdong is a stylish mid-range pick steps from Myeongdong Station, ideal for first-time visitors who want street food and shopping at the doorstep. Moxy Seoul Myeongdong is a fun design-forward option with a rooftop bar and a more youthful vibe in the same area.

Hotel Cappuccino in Gangnam is a quirky boutique with creative breakfast and dessert spots, perfect if you want a quieter base south of the river. Signiel Seoul sits inside the Lotte World Tower with city skyline views and infinity pool, a splurge for special trips. Four Seasons Hotel Seoul in Gwanghwamun is a top-tier luxury pick near Gyeongbokgung Palace and the main museums.

Best Tours and Day Experiences in Seoul

The most popular Seoul experiences book up fast in peak season, so reserve ahead. These five tours cover the essentials and often beat going on your own.

• DMZ Half-Day Tour from Seoul – North Korea border experience
• Gyeongbokgung Palace Hanbok Tour – guided history in traditional dress
• Seoul Night Food Tour – Gwangjang Market and Korean BBQ
• K-Pop and Hongdae Walking Tour – music and nightlife district
• Nami Island and Petite France Day Trip – countryside escape from the city

Best Seoul Travel Gear

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Palaces and History

1. Gyeongbokgung Palace

Gyeongbokgung is the largest and most restored of Seoul’s five royal palaces, and it is the one most worth your time. Built in 1395 at the start of the Joseon dynasty, the complex covers 57 acres in the heart of the city, with the Bugaksan mountain range as a backdrop. The scale of it surprises most visitors who expect something smaller.

You can rent a hanbok at the stalls just outside the main gate for around 20,000 won, and wearing one gets you free entry. The changing of the royal guard ceremony runs at 10am and 2pm daily except Tuesdays and is worth timing your visit around. Arrive before 9am on weekends to beat the crowds at the Geunjeongjeon throne hall. The National Folk Museum inside the grounds adds an extra two hours if you want the full history context.

2. Bukchon Hanok Village

Bukchon is a residential neighborhood of traditional hanok houses that sits on the hillside between Gyeongbokgung and Changdeokgung. The tiled rooftops, stone walls, and narrow alleys have become one of the most photographed spots in Seoul, partly because so many K-dramas have filmed here. Scenes from Jewel in the Palace, My Love from the Star, and dozens of others were shot in these lanes.

The neighborhood is still home to real residents, so the city now asks visitors to keep noise below a certain level and to avoid visiting before 10am. Going early on a weekday is still your best move for getting the alleyways to yourself. The viewpoint on Gahoe-ro 11-gil is the classic shot. Head down the hill toward Anguk station when you’re done and stop at one of the traditional teahouses for barley tea and a Korean sweet.

3. Changdeokgung and the Secret Garden

Changdeokgung is a UNESCO World Heritage site and the most beautifully preserved of Seoul’s royal palaces. Where Gyeongbokgung is grand and formal, Changdeokgung feels more organic, built into the natural contours of the hillside rather than imposed on a flat grid. It was the main royal residence for most of the Joseon period and the palace where the last Korean emperor lived until 1926.

The Secret Garden at the rear of the palace is the real draw. This 78-acre woodland garden has lotus ponds, pavilions, and pine forests that feel completely removed from the city around them. Access to the Secret Garden requires a separate guided tour ticket, which sells out fast on weekends. Book online through the Cultural Heritage Administration site at least a few days ahead. Tours run in Korean and English and take about 90 minutes.

4. Insadong

Insadong is Seoul’s traditional arts and crafts district, a few blocks of galleries, antique shops, teahouses, and street vendors that feel genuinely different from the rest of the city. The main pedestrian street runs north to south and is lined with shops selling pottery, handmade paper goods, and traditional Korean snacks you won’t find anywhere else. It’s touristy, but the right kind of touristy where the things being sold are actually worth buying.

Ssamziegil is the courtyard complex halfway down the main street, a stacked open-air market with independent designers, art installations, and food stalls. Look for the dalgona candy maker near the entrance and the women selling sweet rice cakes out of steamers. If you want something to take home that isn’t a keychain, Insadong is where to look. Korean ceramics and pojagi patchwork textiles make good gifts and pack flat.

5. Jogyesa temple

Jogyesa is the head temple of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism and is located in central Seoul, an easy walk from Gyeongbokgung. A 500-year-old white pine tree and a Chinese scholar tree guard the main hall, and the building itself is painted in the vivid dancheong colors (deep red, green, blue, and gold) that mark Korea’s Buddhist architecture.

The temple is most spectacular during the Lotus Lantern Festival in May, when thousands of colorful paper lanterns are hung throughout the grounds ahead of Buddha’s Birthday. Even outside festival season it is a calming and genuinely spiritual place in the middle of a dense city. Entry is free. The temple stay program allows overnight visits if you want the full monk schedule experience, which includes 3am wake-up calls and meditation sessions.

Modern Seoul and Neighborhoods

6. Seongsu District

Seongsu has become the most talked-about neighborhood in Seoul, and the comparisons to Brooklyn are fair. An industrial area of leather factories and print shops started attracting independent designers and coffee roasters around 2018, and the transformation since then has been fast. The factories are now concept stores. The loading docks are now cafe terraces. Major brands including Gentle Monster, Aesop, and New Balance have opened flagship spaces here that double as art installations.

The neighborhood changes constantly, which is part of the appeal. Pop-up stores run for a few weeks and disappear. A coffee shop can have a six-month lease and no plans to extend. The best way to explore Seongsu is to walk slowly along Seongsu-dong 2-ga and the side streets near Seongsu station. Come hungry, as the bakeries and brunch spots here are excellent, and the line outside the most popular ones is worth joining. This is the place in Seoul that will look completely different on your next visit.

7. Hongdae

Hongdae takes its name from Hongik University and has been Seoul’s centre for indie music, street art, and youth culture for decades. The streets around the university are packed with live music venues, art supply stores, vintage clothing shops, and cheap Korean food spots that stay open until the early hours. The outdoor Free Market on weekends draws local designers and artists selling handmade work.

The busking scene in the plaza near Hongik University station is one of the best free shows in the city on Friday and Saturday nights. Cover bands, solo vocalists, and dance crews all compete for space and audience. The neighborhood also has some of Seoul’s best street food. Look for the fish-shaped pastry stands, tteokbokki carts, and the late-night pojangmacha tents for spicy fried chicken and beer. Hongdae is loud and chaotic and exactly what it should be.

8. Gangnam

Gangnam is the wealthy southern district that the Psy song made famous, but there is a lot more here than the joke version suggests. The Apgujeong and Cheongdam neighborhoods are Seoul’s luxury shopping hub, with designer boutiques, upscale Korean skincare clinics, and some of the city’s best restaurants clustered along wide tree-lined streets. The area around K-star Road has statues of famous K-pop groups and draws fans from all over the world.

COEX Mall is worth a visit for the Starfield Library alone, an enormous public reading room inside the mall with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves that has become one of Seoul’s most photographed indoor spaces. Bongeunsa Temple sits directly across from the COEX complex, an active Buddhist temple that feels deliberately quiet next to the commercial noise around it. The contrast is very Seoul. Gangnam also has the highest concentration of K-pop agency headquarters, with SM, YG, and JYP all within a few kilometers.

9. Itaewon and Haebangchon

Itaewon has been Seoul’s international neighborhood for decades, built up around the US military base and now home to the city’s most diverse restaurant scene. You can eat Lebanese, Ethiopian, Mexican, and Persian food within a few blocks of each other, which is rare in a Korean city where the food culture is almost entirely Korean. The neighborhood took a difficult few years after the 2022 Halloween crowd crush, but the main dining and bar streets have largely recovered.

Haebangchon, or HBC, is the hillside neighborhood just behind Itaewon, and it has a more relaxed and residential feel. Small wine bars, independent bookshops, and coffee spots that open late attract a mix of expats and Koreans looking for something quieter than the main Itaewon strip. The Gyeongnidan-gil area between Itaewon and Noksapyeong stations is another good strip for restaurants and is less crowded than the Itaewon main road.

10. Dongdaemun Design Plaza

The DDP is one of the most distinctive buildings in Asia, a flowing silver structure designed by Zaha Hadid that opened in 2014 and still looks like nothing else in the city. It hosts design exhibitions, fashion shows, and public installations, and the grounds around it are covered in thousands of rose bushes that bloom in late spring. The building itself is clad in 45,133 aluminum panels, each one a slightly different shape.

The surrounding Dongdaemun area is one of Seoul’s biggest wholesale and retail fashion districts. The outdoor markets and shopping towers around the DDP run 24 hours a day, which is worth experiencing at least once at 3am when the wholesale buyers are doing their rounds and the food stalls are at full output. Doota Mall and Migliore are the main retail towers for affordable Korean fashion. The night market in the open space near the DDP sells street food, vintage items, and handmade goods until late.

11. Namsan Tower

N Seoul Tower sits on top of Namsan mountain at 480 meters above sea level and gives a 360-degree view over the entire city. You can take a cable car up from the base, or hike the 40-minute trail through the forest, which is one of the better urban hikes in any major city. The observation deck at the top has viewing floors and a restaurant, though the exterior viewing area is where most people spend their time.

The love lock fence around the base of the tower has become a Seoul landmark in its own right, with padlocks in every color covering every inch of the railings. It’s sentimental and a little chaotic and makes for good photos. Come at dusk to catch the city in the last light and stay for the full dark, when Seoul’s skyline becomes one long grid of neon and office towers. The tower lights up in different colors depending on the air quality that day.

12. Han River Parks

The Han River runs through the center of Seoul and is flanked by a series of parkways that have become central to how Seoulites spend their free time. On warm evenings and weekends the riverside fills up with people cycling, picnicking on tarpaulins, playing badminton, and doing the very specific Seoul thing of ordering delivery food from nearby restaurants directly to the riverbank via app. The convenience store culture is at its peak here. People pick up instant ramen from the 7-Eleven, cook it in the store’s hot water station, and eat it at the plastic tables on the riverside terrace.

Yeouido Hangang Park is the most popular stretch and the main venue for the Cherry Blossom Festival in early April. Banpo Hangang Park has the Banpo Bridge Rainbow Fountain, which runs timed water and light shows in the evenings from April to October. Bring a blanket and snacks and give yourself a few hours here. It is one of those places that captures how the city actually lives, away from the tourist version of itself.

K-Culture Experiences

13. K-Drama Filming Locations

A significant portion of visitors arriving in Seoul today are coming specifically because of a K-drama they watched, and the city leans into this. Gyeongbokgung appears in Goblin and Mr. Sunshine. The Bukchon alleys show up in My Love from the Star and Love in the Moonlight. The Gwangjin Bridge and Han River parks have featured in dozens of crime thrillers. The Hongdae streets are in nearly every youth romance.

The Hallyu tourism map on the Visit Seoul website is a useful starting point for finding specific locations from your favorite shows. Many neighborhoods have unofficial filming location signs pointing out exact spots where specific scenes were shot. If Crash Landing on You sent you here, the DMZ area (see item 23) has its own set of filming locations along the border towns. K-drama tourism has become a full industry in Seoul, and the infrastructure for it is genuinely good.

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14. SM, HYBE, and YG Entertainment

K-pop pilgrimages are a real category of Seoul tourism, and the three major agency headquarters attract fans who have traveled specifically to stand outside the building where their favorite group works. HYBE Insight in Yongsan is the most visitor-friendly, with a museum dedicated to BTS and other HYBE artists that includes costumes, stage sets, and interactive exhibits. Tickets sell out fast and must be booked ahead.

SM Entertainment’s headquarters in Seongsu is worth visiting even if you’re not a particular fan, because the building itself is architecturally striking and the surrounding area has some of the best cafes in that district. YG Entertainment in Mapo doesn’t have a public-facing experience but the building exterior is well-documented by fans. The music show tapings at KBS, MBC, and SBS are free to attend if you apply in advance and line up on the day, which is worth doing if you want to see a live K-pop performance in its natural habitat.

15. Noryangjin Fish Market

Noryangjin is Seoul’s main wholesale fish market and one of the best food experiences in the city. The market runs 24 hours a day, though the peak action is between 1am and 6am when the auction floor is at full volume and buyers are moving through fast. For visitors, the daytime hours work fine, and the range of live seafood on display is genuinely astonishing.

The process works like this: you walk the stalls, choose what you want from the live tanks, agree on a price, and then take your selection to one of the restaurant floors above the market where the staff will prepare it for you. You pay the restaurant a small preparation fee. Sea urchin, raw crab marinated in soy, live abalone, and fresh sashimi are all worth ordering. Arrive hungry and bring cash. The market is a 5-minute walk from Noryangjin station on the subway.

16. Jjimjilbang Korean Spa

A jjimjilbang is a Korean bathhouse and sauna complex, and going to one is one of the most memorable things you can do in Seoul. Dragon Hill Spa in Yongsan is the most famous and the most visitor-friendly, open 24 hours and equipped with multiple gender-separated bathing floors, a co-ed common area with different temperature sauna rooms, a restaurant, and sleeping areas where people actually spend the night.

The protocol for first-timers: pay at the entrance, get your locker key and uniform, separate by gender at the bathing floor, shower before entering any of the pools, and take your time moving between the hot and cold baths. The co-ed common area upstairs is where you’ll find people in the matching shorts and shirt uniforms eating hard-boiled eggs and sikhye sweet rice drink, which is the traditional jjimjilbang snack for reasons nobody can fully explain. Entry runs around 12,000 to 15,000 won and includes the uniform. Tattoos are accepted at Dragon Hill Spa, which is not universal.

17. Korean Cooking Class

Learning to make kimchi, tteokbokki, and bibimbap in a Seoul kitchen is one of those experiences that holds up well after you get home, because you can actually reproduce what you made. Several cooking schools in the Insadong and Mangwon areas run classes for English speakers, typically lasting two to three hours and covering two or three dishes. Most include a market visit to pick up ingredients first.

O’ngo Food Communications is one of the most established cooking school operators in Seoul and runs classes daily in a proper teaching kitchen near Insadong. Seoul Cook in Insadong is another reliable option. For kimchi specifically, the Kimchi Museum in the COEX Mall is worth a visit for background before a class. Book at least three days ahead for weekend sessions, which fill up. Prices run from around 60,000 to 90,000 won per person including ingredients and a sit-down meal of what you made.

18. Seoul International Garden Show

The Seoul International Garden Show runs from May through October 2026 at Seoul Forest Park in Seongsu, which makes it a seasonal bonus if your trip falls in this window. The show transforms a large section of the park with garden installations from Korean and international designers, themed around different concepts each year. Seoul Forest itself is one of the better city parks in Korea, with deer enclosures, butterfly gardens, and good cycling paths along the Han River edge.

The combination of the Garden Show and the Seongsu neighborhood (a 10-minute walk away) makes for a full day without much planning. Go to the park in the morning when it’s less crowded, walk through the garden installations, then migrate to Seongsu for lunch and coffee. The park is free and the Garden Show is included in general admission. Check the Seoul Metropolitan Government website for 2026 dates and themes, as the specific programming changes each season.

Food and Markets

19. Gwangjang Market

Gwangjang is the oldest market in Seoul, running since 1905, and the food alley inside it is one of the best eating experiences in the city. The covered main hall is lined with stall vendors cooking at open grills, and the smells hit you before you’re fully inside. Three dishes are worth centering your visit around: bindaetteok (mung bean pancakes fried in oil until golden and crisp), mayak gimbap (sesame and carrot rice rolls smaller than your thumb, eaten with yellow mustard), and yukhoe (raw beef with egg yolk and pear).

The market became internationally known after appearing on a Netflix show, which means it is busier than it used to be and some vendors have raised prices accordingly. It is still worth it. Arrive before noon on weekdays for the shortest waits. The vendors who have been there for 30 years are usually the ones with the longest lines and the smallest menus. Eat at the stall, standing or on the narrow bench, and order a cup of makgeolli rice wine to go with the pancakes. The full market also has fabric and textile merchants on the upper floors if you want to browse after eating.

20. Myeongdong Street Food

Myeongdong is Seoul’s most commercially dense neighborhood and also has one of the city’s best street food strips running down the centre of the pedestrian shopping area. The vendors change with the seasons, but regulars include tteokbokki in several variations, hotteok (sweet pancakes filled with brown sugar, cinnamon, and sesame), tornado potatoes spiralized and deep-fried on a skewer, and cheese-topped corn in a cup. The cheese dakgalbi stalls serving spicy stir-fried chicken are also worth finding.

Myeongdong is at its loudest and most alive in the evening when the full length of the street food strip is operating and the shopping crowds are at peak. It can feel overwhelming in a good way. The surrounding streets are where you’ll find the main Korean skincare and cosmetics chains, including Olive Young, Etude House, and Innisfree, all packed within a few blocks of each other. Budget one to two hours for Myeongdong, enough to eat your way through the strip and do a proper skincare run without getting lost.

21. K-Beauty Shopping Guide

Seoul is the best city in the world to buy Korean skincare, and knowing where to shop for what saves both time and money. Olive Young is the pharmacy-style chain found in almost every neighborhood, stocking a rotating selection of trending Korean brands at prices close to what locals pay. It’s the place for sunscreens, toners, essences, and the viral products you’ve seen on social media. The Myeongdong flagship is the largest in the country.

Myeongdong itself is good for brand flagship stores like Innisfree, Laneige, and COSRX, where you can try before you buy and take advantage of in-store promotions. Seongsu has become the address for newer, more design-forward Korean skincare brands that haven’t yet expanded into Olive Young. Dongdaemun has wholesale beauty options if you want to buy in quantity. If you are buying for people back home, bring a list of what they use and ask the Olive Young staff for equivalent Korean recommendations, since they are used to this question and good at answering it.

22. Korean BBQ Guide

Korean BBQ is so embedded in Seoul food culture that going without it would be like visiting Naples and skipping pizza. The format is consistent across most restaurants: raw meat comes to your table, you grill it yourself on a gas or charcoal grill set into the table, and eat it wrapped in perilla leaves or lettuce with doenjang paste, sliced garlic, and banchan (the side dishes that arrive automatically and are refilled for free).

The best cuts to order are samgyeopsal (thick pork belly), chadolbaegi (thin beef brisket), and galbi (marinated short rib). The Mapo district near the Han River is Seoul’s unofficial pork belly capital, with several streets lined entirely with BBQ restaurants catering to office workers. Unlimited AYCE BBQ restaurants are common and work out cheaper than ordering cuts individually if you are hungry. Palsaik Samgyeopsal in Hongdae is one of the most visited AYCE spots. Drink soju, beer, or the mixed soju-beer drink called somaek while you cook. Dinner at a good Korean BBQ restaurant will take at least two hours and should not be rushed.

Day Trips and Practical Tips

23. DMZ Tour

The DMZ, or demilitarized zone, is the 4-kilometer-wide buffer strip that has divided North and South Korea since 1953, and it sits about an hour north of Seoul. Visiting requires joining an authorized tour, as independent access to the military zone is not permitted. The main sites include the Joint Security Area (JSA) at Panmunjom, where you can stand directly on the border line, the Third Infiltration Tunnel dug by North Korea in the 1970s, and the Dora Observatory with views into North Korean territory.

The JSA tour is operated under UN Command and has its own regulations, including a dress code (no ripped jeans, shorts, or sandals) and a required signed acknowledgment before entering. The overall experience is surreal in a way that is hard to describe. The tension and the quiet and the geometry of the border make it one of the most memorable day trips available from any capital city in the world. Tours depart from central Seoul hotels and the Hongik University station area. Book at least a week ahead for JSA access, which has limited daily capacity.

24. Nami Island

Nami Island is a small river island about 75 kilometers east of Seoul that became a major Hallyu tourism site after the K-drama Winter Sonata filmed here in 2002. The island is tree-covered and car-free, with long straight avenues of metasequoia and ginkgo trees that are spectacular in autumn gold and spring green. The ferry crossing from the mainland takes about five minutes and runs constantly.

The island has developed well beyond its drama fame and now has sculpture gardens, art installations, and good cafes alongside the tree avenues. Combine it with a visit to the Garden of Morning Calm, a private garden about 20 minutes further into Gyeonggi Province, for a full day out of the city. Both sites are more enjoyable on weekdays when the tour groups have thinned. From Seoul, take the ITX express train from Cheongnyangni station to Gapyeong, then a short taxi ride to the ferry terminal. The whole journey takes about 90 minutes each way.

25. Climate Card Transit Pass

The Climate Card is Seoul’s tourist transit pass and the most practical thing to sort out on your first day. It gives unlimited rides on the Seoul Metro, city buses, and some suburban rail lines for the duration you choose: three days, five days, or seven days, priced at around 42,000, 55,000, and 62,000 won respectively. For context, a single subway ride costs around 1,400 won, so the card pays for itself quickly on any active sightseeing day.

The card is available at Incheon Airport, major metro stations including Seoul Station, and at 7-Eleven and GS25 convenience stores throughout the city. You tap it on the reader when boarding and tap again when exiting. The Climate Card does not cover the airport railroad directly, so if you are arriving at Incheon and heading to the city center, you will pay for that first trip separately with the AREX express train. Everything else in the metropolitan area is covered. Keep the card charged with enough credit for the last day, as unlimited passes sometimes revert to pay-per-use near the expiry point.

Frequently Asked Questions About Visiting Seoul

Is Seoul safe for solo female travelers?

Seoul is considered one of the safest large cities in the world for solo female travelers. Violent crime rates are low, public transit runs until around midnight (with night buses continuing after), and well-lit streets make late evenings feel comfortable in most neighborhoods. The main precautions are the same as any major city: stay aware of your surroundings in very busy nightlife areas, keep your phone secured, and use official taxis or the Kakao T app rather than accepting rides from unmarked vehicles.

How many days do you need in Seoul?

Five to seven days gives you enough time to cover the main palaces, spend a full day or two in neighborhoods like Seongsu and Hongdae, visit the markets, eat well, and do the DMZ day trip without feeling rushed. Three days is workable if your itinerary is tight, but you will need to make choices about what to skip. Ten days or more is ideal if you want to also do the Nami Island day trip, explore beyond the main tourist circuit, and eat your way through the city at a slower pace.

What is the best time to visit Seoul?

April through June is the most popular period, with cherry blossoms in late March to early April and warm, clear weather through June. September and October are equally good, with the city turning gold and red as the leaves change, and temperatures that are comfortable for walking all day. July and August are hot and humid with a rainy season from late June to mid-July that can disrupt outdoor plans. December through February is cold and occasionally snowy, but the city stays lively and the indoor food and cafe culture is at its warmest.

Is Seoul expensive?

Seoul is significantly cheaper than Tokyo, Singapore, or Hong Kong. A subway ride costs around 1,400 won (roughly $1 USD). Street food runs between 3,000 and 8,000 won per item. A sit-down restaurant meal for one costs around 10,000 to 15,000 won at a standard local place. A budget guesthouse or hostel in a central neighborhood starts around 25,000 won per night. You can eat, move around, and see the major sights on about $50 USD per day without trying hard. Luxury hotels, international restaurants, and designer shopping push costs up considerably, but the budget floor is low by the standards of any capital city.

Do you need to speak Korean in Seoul?

You do not need to speak Korean to get around Seoul. Major subway stations have English signage throughout, Google Maps works reliably for navigation, and most restaurants in tourist-adjacent neighborhoods have picture menus or QR code ordering systems. The translation apps on your phone will handle most situations where language is a barrier. Learning basic phrases like annyeonghaseyo (hello), gamsahamnida (thank you), and the numbers one through ten, which goes a long way in terms of goodwill even if you rely on translation for the rest.

Final Thoughts on Seoul, South Korea

Seoul rewards slow, curious travel more than any schedule-driven checklist approach. The palaces and the major landmarks are worth your time, but the best parts of the city tend to happen in between: the corner convenience store at 1am, the alley cafe that seats eight people, the jjimjilbang where you spend three hours moving between hot and cold rooms without really meaning to. Seoul is a city that functions at a high level in every direction, and most visitors leave wanting more time than they had.

Whether you have five days or two weeks, build in at least one completely unplanned day. Pick a neighborhood you haven’t been to, start walking, and follow whatever looks interesting. That is when Seoul shows you what it actually is.