Seoul: what to see, where to stay and how to get around
The Joseon dynasty ruled Korea for five hundred years — one of the longest in history — and built five palaces in Seoul. The Japanese demolished almost all of them between 1910 and 1945, and Korea has been rebuilding them since the 1990s from original plans. Anyone wearing a hanbok gets in free, and there is a shop renting them on every corner.
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A short history of Seoul
Seoul has been a capital for more than 600 years. In 1394 King Taejo, founder of the Joseon dynasty, established his capital here under the name Hanyang, and in 1395 Gyeongbokgung Palace was completed. In 1592 the Japanese invaders burnt it, and it was rebuilt only in the 19th century. From 1910 to 1945 Korea was a Japanese colony. During the Korean War Seoul changed hands four times and was largely destroyed. From here South Korea's economic growth began, and in 1988 the city hosted the Olympic Games. Today about half of the country's population lives in the metropolitan area.
The ten best sights in Seoul
1GyeongbokgungBurned twice, rebuilt twice — the guard changes at ten
2ChangdeokgungA UNESCO site, and the secret garden is separate
3DeoksugungKorean halls and a Western stone building side by side
4Jongmyo ShrineFive hundred years of royal tablets, in silence
5Jogyesa TempleThe main Zen temple, in the middle of the city
6SungnyemunNational Treasure No. 1 — burned down in 2008 and rebuilt
7National Museum of KoreaThe sixth largest museum in the world, and free
8War Memorial of KoreaThe Korean war, told without triumph
9Seodaemun PrisonThe Japanese occupation, kept exactly as it was
10Bukchon Hanok VillageNine hundred traditional houses, and people live in them
Scan with your phone camera to open the map there
What is an audio walk?
Tours in Seoul →A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Seoul:
Free walking tours in Seoul
The palaces
The Joseon dynasty ruled Korea for five hundred years — one of the longest in history — and built five palaces in Seoul. The Japanese demolished almost all of them between 1910 and 1945, and Korea has been rebuilding them since the 1990s from original plans. Anyone wearing a hanbok gets in free, and there is a shop renting them on every corner.
- Gyeongbokgung · Built in 1395, burned by the Japanese in 1592, left as ruins for two hundred and seventy years, rebuilt in 1867, demolished again under the occupation. Of three hundred and thirty buildings, ten remained in 1945. The guard changes at ten and two.
- National Folk Museum · Inside the palace grounds and free. It shows the Korean year — the farming, the rituals and the food of each season — which is the context everything else here sits in.
- Bukchon Hanok Village · Nine hundred traditional houses on a hill between two palaces, built in the 1930s for a Korean middle class that the occupation had squeezed out of the centre. People live in them, so signs ask you to be quiet after five.
- Changdeokgung · The UNESCO one, because unlike the others it follows the shape of the hill instead of imposing a grid on it. The Secret Garden behind it is a separate ticket and a guided hour, and it is the better half.
- Jongmyo Shrine · One long dark hall holding the memorial tablets of five hundred years of kings, and nothing else. It is the oldest Confucian royal shrine preserved anywhere, and the ritual performed here has not changed since the fourteenth century.
- Insadong · The street where the court painters and calligraphers lived. It still sells paper, brushes and tea, and the Ssamziegil mall in the middle is one continuous ramp spiralling up four floors.
Markets and alleys
Seoul was almost entirely destroyed in the Korean War — ninety per cent of it — and the markets were the first thing to come back. Gwangjang has traded since 1905 and you eat sitting on a stool facing the cook. Namdaemun has been open since 1414. And between them are alleys a metre and a half wide that have become the café quarter in the last decade.
- Gwangjang Market · Korea’s first permanent market, opened in 1905 by Korean merchants as an answer to the Japanese-run ones. You sit on a stool at the stall, the cook works a foot away, and the mung-bean pancakes are ground on a stone mill behind her.
- Cheonggyecheon · A stream that was covered by a road in 1958 and then by an elevated motorway. In 2003 the mayor tore all of it out at huge cost and put the water back — eleven kilometres of it, five metres below street level.
- Ikseon-dong · The first planned hanok development, built in 1920 by a Korean developer as affordable housing against Japanese land seizure. The alleys are a metre and a half wide; the houses are now cafés and the alleys are unchanged.
- Dongdaemun Design Plaza · Zaha Hadid’s building with no straight line and no corner — forty-five thousand aluminium panels, each a different shape. Underneath it, excavation found a stretch of the Joseon city wall, which was left exposed.
- Namdaemun Market · Trading on this ground since 1414. It is a wholesale market that never fully closes — some alleys open at eleven at night for shop owners and shut at dawn.
- Tongin Market · You buy brass coins at the entrance, walk the stalls and pay with them, filling an empty lunchbox as you go. It was invented here to keep an old market alive, and it worked.
The modern city
In 1953 South Korea was among the poorest countries on earth, with a lower income per head than Ghana. Today it is in the top ten. You can see that jump along the Han river — whose southern bank, Gangnam, was rice paddies in 1970 and is now the most expensive ground in the country. This walk is the side where Seoul looked forward.
- Yeouido Hangang Park · The Han is a kilometre wide here, and both banks are continuous park. On summer nights whole families lay out mats, order fried chicken by phone and have it delivered to a spot on the grass.
- National Museum of Korea · The sixth largest museum in the world and free to enter. The pensive bodhisattva on the second floor — gilt bronze, seventh century — is kept alone in a dark room, which is the right decision.
- Namsan Seoul Tower · A mountain in the middle of the city with a cable car up it. On the summit, beacons were lit in a chain to carry news of invasion to the king — five fires meant the enemy had crossed.
- Starfield Library · Thirteen-metre shelves holding seventy thousand books in the middle of a shopping mall, free, with armchairs. It was built to make people stay in the mall longer and became the most photographed room in Seoul.
- Seongsu-dong · A district of shoe factories and car workshops that emptied in the 2000s. The buildings were too cheap to demolish, so cafés moved into them and left the machinery where it stood.
- Seoul Forest · A racecourse and then a water treatment plant, turned into a hundred and twenty hectares of park in 2005. There is a deer enclosure you can walk into, and the river path starts at its edge.
Getting to Seoul and getting around
- Incheon Airport · Voted the best airport in the world, repeatedly
- Seoul Station · The KTX reaches Busan in two and a half hours
- Euljiro 3-ga · The metro has signal underground, everywhere
Museums in Seoul
- National Museum of Korea · Free, enormous, and one statue alone in the dark
- Seodaemun Prison · Kept exactly as it was, and not easy
- War Memorial of Korea · Free, enormous, and the aircraft are outside
- National Folk Museum · Inside the palace, free, and the best context
- Leeum Museum · Three buildings by Mario Botta, Nouvel and Koolhaas
Parks and gardens in Seoul
- Bukhansan National Park · Reached by metro, and busy on Saturdays
- Seoul Forest · A racecourse turned park, with a deer enclosure
- Hangang parks · Both banks, continuous, and chicken delivered to the grass
- Inwangsan · A rock mountain with a shaman shrine still in use
Things to do in Seoul with kids
- Lotte World · The largest indoor theme park in the world
- COEX Aquarium · Under the mall, beside the library
- Children’s Grand Park · A zoo, a funfair and a botanic garden, free
- Namsan cable car · Up a mountain in the middle of the city
Cheap eats in Seoul
Eight counters where Seoul eats sitting on a stool. A market stall grinding mung beans on a stone mill, a lunchbox you fill with brass coins, a fish you choose downstairs and eat upstairs, and a night market that opens when the shops close. Five to fifteen thousand won.
- Gwangjang Market · Mung-bean pancake, ₩5,000, on a stool
- Tongin Market · Brass coins, an empty lunchbox, and you fill it
- Noryangjin Fish Market · Choose it downstairs, they cook it upstairs
- Myeongdong street food · From four in the afternoon, and cash is faster
- Euljiro back alleys · No signs. Follow the plastic stools
- Mangwon Market · A neighbourhood market with no tourists in it
- Namdaemun kalguksu alley · Knife-cut noodles, refilled free, ₩7,000
- Hongdae · Student prices, and busking on the street until late
Nightlife in Seoul
- Euljiro · Unmarked bars above print shops, after six
- Hongdae · Where the art students drink, and it runs all night
- Itaewon · The international quarter, beside the old US base
- Seongsu-dong · Factories turned bars, with the machinery left in
Frequently asked questions about Seoul
What is there to see in Seoul?
The top sights in Seoul are Gyeongbokgung, Changdeokgung and Deoksugung. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.
How many days do you need in Seoul?
Three to four days are enough to see the best of Seoul without rushing, including at least one walking tour.
Is there a free walking tour in Seoul?
Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Seoul, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: The palaces.
How do you get to Seoul and get around?
The main ways are Incheon Airport, Seoul Station and Euljiro 3-ga. Full details are in the transport section on this page.
Where to stay in Seoul, and for how much?
sleepntrip shows only rooms in Seoul that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.
Looking for a hotel in Seoul for your dates?
Only rooms that meet nine conditions, up to $80 a night.