Day 1: Travelling

10.40 our airplane to Frankfurt left. We arrived at Schiphol about 2.5 hours early, and had a very easy time going through all the security and everything. We mainly just chilled at the airport, until our flight. The flight to Frankfurt was 1 hour and 10 minutes. Our transfer took another 3 hours, which we also just spent at a cafe with electrical outlets, got to charge the phone. Then the daunting 12 hours flight started to Incheon Airport. I tried to sleep during the flight, which I think I managed for like 30 minutes. After finally landing, we passed immigration very easily because of our e-arrival card application, you should definitely do that if you are visiting South Korea. After taking the 1 hour AREX train to Seoul and arriving there at around 2pm the next Day, our trip could finally start.

Arriving in Korea with plane

Day 2: Arrival in Seoul

We arrived at the hotel a little bit before check-in time. Since we were starving, we decided to have lunch at a nearby place. Since our hotel is literally next to the main street of Myeongdong, we already got a good taste if the vibes. The vibes were: loud music, lots of colours, and Kpop (Demon Hunters). However, everyone was a bit overwhelmed by all the sensory stimuli while experiencing quite a jetlag. The first lunch was fine. You can read at the bottom more about the food we tried. Lets just say that we had to learn what we liked and did not like in Korean food.

Our hotel street

Namsam

Our idea was to go to the iconic N Seoul tower to see the view of the city. So we walked to the cable car station. To reach the cable car station, there is a small elevator like cabin that you can use to reach the building of the cable car. You could also walk the stairs for a bit, but we were tired so we opted for the elevator. This queue already took like half an hour. However, when we finally reached the cable car building, the queue was even longer, like at least an hour. So we decided that took too long, so we skipped exploring Namsam park, and the N Seoul tower. We could see the tower from our hotel room, so that was good enough. To make up for this, we went to Namsangol Hanok Village, which is close to Namsam park. We first walked in the surrounding park, which was really peaceful, with all the pretty lights and beautiful trees. We reached Seoul Millennium Time Capsule, which is a place where the city stored 600 items in 1994 to be dug up at 2394 to celebrate the 600th anniversary of the city by memorising the current technology of that time. I thought this was such a cool concept, and I am wondering if it will survive long enough to be dug up again. They want to dig it up at the 1000th anniversary of the city, but so much can happen in 400 years. We only found the actual Hanok village a little bit later, which was quite small but very cute. The building architecture was beautiful, and some items from back in the day were stored there. For example, a carriage which was used to carry the king and some other important people around. This carriage was so tiny, me and my sister were joking about how someone could ever fit in there, while simultaneously an Asian guy that was also visiting the place made the joke that we would never fit into it since, we are too tall. It was a funny interaction.

Namsam tower and its cable car going up

Day 3: Gangnam

Our first full day in Korea was dedicated to exploring Gangnam. You might recognise the name from the famous song Gangnam Style by Psy. Gangnam is actually a district in Seoul where all the rich people live. This is also what Psy was referring to in his song. The area is very businiss oriented, with a lot of skyscrapers and fancy shops.

COEX Mall

Our first stop in Gangnam was the COEX mall. After the recommendation of the Dutch couple we met the day before at the restaurant, we decided to first go to the aquarium. This was located in the COEX mall. It is quite impressive how this whole aquarium could fit in a mall, but it did. However, I do think the fish tanks were often too small for the fish, animal welfare is not up to the same standard as Europe. However, if you ignore the animal abuse…, it was fun and very beautiful. There were all kinds of exotic fish, and even some sharks. I did find Nemo and Dory! It all contained information in English, not that I actually read it I just looked at the pretty fish. There was also a mermaid show, where two white woman were swimming with the fishes, which was cute, especially for children. I also paid some money for a Gashapon (random-toy vending-machine), which I got a Pokéball from. This was the first Gashapon we saw, but certainly not the last. There are even stores filled with only Gashapon machines and claw machine.

Nemo and Dory

After lunch we walked around the mall and I bought some stuff, like an Eevee pyjama and some Pokémon keychains. I know I am not in Japan, but I cannot just ignore all the Pokémon stuff they sell here! There were a lot of nice shops in the mall. Sometimes just filled with random trash, it was definitely not a high-end mall. But it is certainly very big, we only saw a fraction of it. We specifically walked to the Starfield Library, because that was something I was really excited about. You can see in the pictures how cool it looks, however I did expect it to be bigger. What you see on the pictures is just kinda it. There is nothing more hidden somewhere. Still cool place though.

Starfield Library

Bongeunsa Temple

The Bongeunsa Temple, one of the biggest temples in Korea, is very close (practically next to) the COEX Mall. So after we left the mall, we walked to the temple. On the way we accidentally stumbled upon the Gangnam Hands, a statue of two hands performing the Gangnam Style dance. So we quickly took some pictures there with while Gangnam Style was playing in the background.

Gangnam Hands

The Bongeunsa Temple is pretty cool to visit, since it is such a serene place surrounded by business and massive buildings. If you walked to the upper temple grounds you had a nice view of both the big city and some of the temple buildings contrasting each other. We did not stay long at the temple, just quickly looked around. There were a few monks performing some kind of ritual, but we will experience enough of that later on our trip :). This temple is mainly known for its large Buddha statue, however sadly enough they were building some kind of stage around it for an event probably. This did kind of ruin the view sadly enough.

Bongeunsa Temple and Gangnam

Lotte World Sky Observatory

After visiting the temple, we took the bus to Lotte World Tower. This building is the sixth tallest building in the world. We already booked some tickets to the sky observatory, which covers the most upper floors of the building, on klook (which is a website I recommend for booking tickets in Asia). However, the ground floor of the building is very big and there are I think 2 malls located under the building? It was all a bit confusing, and we did not know where the entrance to the sky observatory was. However, with some help from a guy who can speak only a little English according to himself, we managed to find our way. We had to wait a bit in a queue before entering the elevator, but halls of the queue were already made entertaining, with lots of photo options.

Lotte World Tower

The elevator was fast, and as expected you could feel it in your ears. Then we entered the Lotte Sky Observatory, that consists of floors 117-123 at 555 meter high. Some of the floors have glass floors. It is actually the highest glass floor in the world! I do not recommend the glass floor if you have a fear of heights though. The view of the city is amazing. The day was clear enough, so we could see pretty far. We could also see the top view of the Lotte Theme park, which also looked funky. The floors are all decorated in a Disney theme, with picture options with Disney themed decorations. There were also some Gashapon games here, which I got two Pokémon from, Slowpoke and Pikachu. There is also a souvenir shop, a café, a restaurant and even more I think, it was quite big. At the souvenir shops, we bought a wooden block which you can sign and hang below a wish. There were all kinds of different wishes, for example a wish for love and a harmonious family, which we chose, but also for good school results. After going down again, we walked around the mall below a bit, but I did not really buy anything. But there were some cool shops located there, so if you want to shop, I recommend it! It is more high-end than the COEX mall.

Lotte World Sky Observatory

K-Star Road

Our next stop was the K-Star Road, which is a street in Gangnam. It contains a lot of restaurant and shops that are apparently visited by K-pop stars. A lot of K-star companies are also located here. But the main feature for us were the toy statues of different K-pop bands. Nobody in my family actually listens to K-pop but they still do look cute hahah. There are quite some statues, but I could not find Blackpink. (I only know Blackpink and BTS…) I did find BTS though!

K-Star Road

Haus Nowhere

On social media we saw a big moving dachshund statue that was located in Seoul. We discovered that this was located at the Haus Nowhere. This is a shop that combines shopping with art and design. However, apparently there are multiple Haus Nowhere locations and I initially led us to the wrong one. This one was located in a very nice neighbourhood that had these cozy old-fashioned vibes, so the walk certainly was appreciated. This Haus Nowhere location also contained some interesting art. I do not really have good art literacy, so it mainly just looked cool to me. The ground floor contained a display with lots of trash bags and a white main in the middle holding a gold trash bag. Some people were located in weird poses between the trash. I think this has something to do with capitalism, or overconsumption? The other art just looked like very real human faces moving. No meaning that I could find there, but again I am not very good at interpreting art. The main thing that was sold here were glasses, some really funky looking ones.

Haus Nowhere Trash Art

Afterwards we moved to the Haus Nowhere containing the large Dachshund, and it certainly was large. It has this futuristic outfit on and it moves like it is sleeping. There was quite some resemblance to my dog Toby that passed away recently, except for the size of course. Some other art in the building consisted of robots and there was even a fake small dachshund that looked even more like Toby. Here they also sold glasses, as well as pretty cutlery and tea. We all bought some tea as a gift for some people back home (you know who you are :).

Haus Nowhere huge dachshund, he also makes breathing motions.

Banpo Bridge

Our last stop of the day was the Banpo Bridge. To be on time for the 20.30 show we took an Uber there. The Banpo Bridge is a bridge with two levels that until November performs a rainbow water show. We joined a group of people that were also watching it. There was nice music in the background and the vibes were good. The show is also fun and quite pretty, but not super special or anything. It is fun for like the first 5 minutes, since it is still quite impressive, it uses a lot of water. Afterwards it gets kind of repetitive. But if you have the chance to catch it, I would still recommend it. However, this is our second day and the next day we had to get up quite early to go to the DMZ. But we had not eaten dinner yet and we were quite tired due to the jetlag. Our journey to the hotel was also quite long, so the way back was really tough. We randomly picked a restaurant closeby and then quickly ate something before going to bed (too late).

Banpo Bridge Water Show

Day 4: DMZ Tour

On our fourth day, we went to the Demilitarised Zone, which serves as a buffer zone and protects the border between North and South Korea. The area is under the protection of the United Nations. We had go meet our tour group at 7 in the morning, since you can only enter the DMZ when going on a certified tour. This was really early, but we managed. We had to skip breakfast though, since the breakfast opens at 7.

To read more about the DMZ and our tour go here.

After a tiring day, we returned to Seoul at the end of the afternoon. We decided to try the street food in Myeondong, since it is close to our hotel and we wanted to try the street food. Myeondong is a famous (touristy) shopping district in Seoul. The street is filled with shops with lots of bright lights and loud music. It is one of the few places that has street food stalls every day of the week in the evening, stalls and shops close surprisingly early in Seoul. According to Reddit, Myeondong street food is a scam because of the tourist prices, but we are tourists so we did not care. Just a heads up for you if you do care. It was a Saturday, so the place was crowded, and I was quite tired from the day, so that was killing. It also at some point started to rain, and then all that business moved into the shops. We have spent a lot of time in a overcrowded Olive Young shop. However, it did clear up a bit, and we tried some nice stuff. I also bought some knicknakcs at a few shops.

Myeongdong is very very busy in the weekend.

Day 5: Exploring Neighbourhoods

Insa-dong

Insa-dong is a neighbourhood in Seoul with lots of traditional Korean shops and vibes. We started our day by heading to this area. We wanted to go with the bus, but this particular bus that we needed to take was very confusing. I don’t know how to explain it exactly, but when the bus arrived it looked like a school trip bus, and the bus driver said we could not enter. So we decided to walk to Insa-dong instead, since it was not too far away.

While walking there we stumbled upon the Cheonggyecheon stream, which is a very peaceful and beautiful stream that runs through the city. This stream used to be part of the city’s drainage, then later got covered by an expressway, but in 2005 it got restored to its current state. It is a very popular place for locals to relax, hang out, go jogging, etc. It is also a common filming location for K-dramas. My mom having watched a lot of K-dramas was very excited to see it in real life. We walked along the stream for a bit, crossing it at some points, just sucking in the peaceful vibes.

Cheonggyecheon Stream

Then we moved on to Insa-dong. When we reached the side streets of Insa-dong it was still quite empty, since it was only around 10 in the morning. Apparenlty Sunday mornings are kinda dead in Seoul. The side streets we entered were really nice though, with lots of older-looking buildings. However, when we reached the main street of Insa-dong there was already a bit more life. Here we explored some shops and bought some souvenirs, mostly trash stuff, but still fun. But if you go to Insa-dong, make sure to explore the side streets as well, they are so pretty. So many cute cafes and shops with beautiful architecture and botanical decorations.

Insa-dong main street

I googled some tea places in Insa-dong, and we ended up at a traditional tea house. The tea house was traditionally decorated as well, with wooden furniture and paper walls. We all ordered some tea, I got the ssanghwa tea, which is a traditional Korean herbal tea. However, I did not really like it, it tasted quite bitter and medicinal, but it is supposed to be healthy. While drinking our tea, we sat next to a German girl who was doing her PhD in psychology and was visiting Seoul. She was scribbling notes in her notebook, and we had a nice conversation with her.

Traditional Tea House in Insa-dong

Our next stop was the Gyeongbokgung Palace, but before going there we needed to have some lunch. A lot of places had really long queues, but we ended up at some random Korean restaurant with no queue. We had okay lunch, but we still had to learn what we liked in Korea. When looking for a restaurant, my family also bought some snacks from stalls that you can bring with you. I am personally not really a fan of Korean snacks, but my family liked them. And this was our experience of Insa-dong.

Gyeongbokgung Palace

From Insa-dong we walked to the Gyeongbokgung Palace, which is one of the most famous palaces in Seoul. On our way there we saw some really nice modern architecture, which contrasted nicely with the traditional buildings of Insa-dong.

A modern display of advertisement, I think.

When you get closer to the palace, the number of shops renting out hanbok (traditional Korean clothing) increases. A lot of people wear hanbok when visiting the palace, since it gives you free entrance and it is fun to dress up. However, apparently on the day we went there, there was free entrance for everyone (not that a ticket is expensive anyway it is less than 2 euros). I knew there would be a changing of the guards ceremony at 2 pm, so we made sure to arrive on time. On the internet it said it would be 20 minutes, but it actually lasted so long. I actually think something special was going on and we did not just witness the regular changing of the guards, but more of an elaborate ceremony. There was this king, and his soldiers had to display their battling skills by battling each other, but it was all kind of slow. It also did not help that we could not understand anything since it was all in Korean, except for the information that was given through the speaker, which were translated in four languagues including English. However, it was really really cold that day, and we were kind of underdressed, so my parents already decided to leave pretty soon, and my sister and I followed them later.

Gyeongbokgung Palace Change of guards

My sister and I decided to rent an audio guide and explore the palace a bit more, while my parents warmed up with coffee. This audio guide tour system was really cool. You get this map and a pen, and then you can press the pen on different locations on the map to hear information about that location.

Gyeongbokgung Palace Audio Guide

The palace is really big, and there is a lot to see. Gyeongbokgung Palace was the main royal palace of the Joseon dynasty. It was designed in 1394, but during early Japanese invasions of Korea it go burnt down. In 1867 it was rebuilt again, and the result consisted of 330 buildings with 5792 rooms. However, then the Japanese invaded Korea again, and the palace got destroyed again. This is sadly enough a common theme in Korean history. The current buildings are restored versions of the original buildings, and some fractions of the palace ground from the 19th century.

Gyeongbokgung Palace

The tour tells you all interesting facts that you immediately forget about, oops. For example, it tells you about the three different gates of the palace, and their corresponding purporses and animals. The west gate has a tiger guardian, and is used by people that passed away. The north gate has a black turtle as a guardian, and generally used by military. The east gate has a blue dragon as a guardian, and is used by relatives of the king. You walk past different buildings, that are all dedicated to different people. The king has his own quarters, and so does the queen and crown prince. There are also buildings for the scholars that study and help the king with his ruling. There are also some beautiful gardens, and the fall colours really edhanced the experience. Overall, I liked visiting the palace, it was beautiful and interesting.

Hongdae

Af the palace we went back to the hotel to warm up a bit and grab our winter coats. Our next stop was Hongdae, but we decided to first visit the Cheonggyecheon stream again, since it would be dark by then, giving a completely different vibe. We stumbled upon a cool light show, where they projected different images onto the water under a bridge. I could get a free something if I posted about it on Instagram, a guy approached me for that. But my family was already walking on without me, so I had to disappoint him. We walked further along the stream until we reached the start point of the stream. We did not know we were so close to the start point, I was convinced it would be much further away. The start point is just a fountain that shoots water up in the air. The water is from the Han river, which is the main river that flows through Seoul. From this point we could take a bus to Hongdae.

Cheonggyecheon Stream Light Show

Hongdae is a neighbourhood in Seoul that is known for its youthful vibes, street performances, and nightlife. There are a lot of universities located, and thus a lot of young people hang out here. When we arrived we first had to orient ourselves a bit, I was unsure what part was fun to go to. But eventually we found some lively streets, even though we were there on a Sunday evening. The age demographic was indeed quite young, and my parents felt really old. We visited a gaming hub, where people could rent time on gaming PCs or consoles. This place was huge.

Hongdae

Our main quest in Hongdae was to find a dinner place. However, a lot of places already looked full or not really appealing. We did find one place that looked like it had good food, but then the host denied us because he thought we could not handle spicy food, which is hilarious. During our quest for food we stumbled upon an Apple store. I did not plan for this, but with the tax reduction for tourists I could buy an iPad for less than 300 euros, which I could not resists. The guy that helped us was really nice and helpful as well, and spoke great English, so overall a great experience. After buying the iPad we finally decided on a place to eat, and we ate some Korean fried chicken, which was really tasty. This is also the place were someone finally explained to us that you have to press a button on the table to call the waiter, which we did not know until then. After dinner we walked around a bit more, saw some street performances of two guys dancing, and tried out a claw machine in one of the many claw machine arcades. Overall, Hongdae was a fun place to visit, with a lot of energy and youthful vibes. I would definitely want to visit again sometime, and if I would live somewhere in Seoul, Hongdae would be high on my list.

Street Performance in Hongdae

Day 21: Travel Day back to Seoul

We left Sokcho after breakfast. The drive takes more than two hours. It is mainly through mountains, and a lot of tunnels. When arriving in Seoul, the number of cars increased drastically. We drove very close to the Lotte Tower, which was nice to see again from this perspective. Our first stop in Seoul was the Apple Store in Gangnam, since we promised my other sister to buy her an iPad. However, before going there we had some lunch at a western-style restaurant closeby. When going back to the car after our small sidequest, we got stuck at the parking lot, for the second time this trip… These parking lot machines just do not accept our credit card. We pressed the call button, and someone answered, but of course communication was very hard. We thought they would send someone to help us, but after waiting for more than 20 minutes we decided to ask a random person to pay for us, and then we would give the money back. After another confusing interaction with a Korean guy, we finally got out of the parking lot. Afterwards we returned the rental car at a small Lotte rental place. This place looked kind of deserted and shady, but we managed to return the car without any problems. After returning the car, we used public transport to go from Gangnam to Bukchon village, which took more than an hour. Most part of this day was just spent travelling.

Bukchon village is a traditional Korean village located in the heart of Seoul. We booked a hanok stay here, which is a traditional Korean house. However, Bukchon village is a very popular place for tourists, so popular that it leads to a lot of disturbance for the locals that actually live there. This is why since a few months there is a curfew for tourists, you are not allowed to enter the village between 5pm and 10am. However, of course the local businesses are not happy with this curfew, since they lose a lot of customers. When we arrived at Bukchon village, we saw a lot of banners with “stop the curfew” written on them. It shows the tension between tourism and local life in this area. We arrived after 5pm, but people staying at the hanok stays are still allowed to enter. Since we were carrying a lot of luggage with us, the guard (yes they have guards to enforce the curfew and they are dressed as American cowboys) let us in without any problems. When we arrived at the Hanok stay, we were welcomed by the host, who gave us a tour. After relaxing for a bit in our hanok, we went out to go eat dinner at Gwangjang Market.

Bukchon Village Stop The Curfew Sign

Gwangjang Market

Gwangjang Market is one of the oldest traditional markets in Seoul. It is famous for its street food and it is quite large. When we arrived at the market, already a bit after 6pm, some stalls were already closed. However, enough were still open. We mainly walked around and ate some small dishes from different stalls. The stalls where you can sit down have heated benches around them, which is very cosy in the cold weather. You can read below more about the food we tried.

Gwangjang Market

After eating some dinner we walked to the Starbucks located above the market, which has a nice view of the market. We bought some tea/coffee and some snacks. With this order we almost reached 50.000 won, which is the amount you need to spend to get a free souvenir magnet. So we bought some extra snackds to reach this amount. But these extra snacks led to us getting a discount. So we had to buy even more. It was a whole ordeal, poor person waiting on our order. She did not mind, though she also thought it was funny. After finishing our drinks we went back to our hanok stay, and called it a day.

Day 22: Final Destinations

Photoshoot in Hanbok

We woke up in our serene hanok stay in Bukchon village. First we had some breakfast downstairs, which was really really good. Afterwards we made use of the free hanbok rental that came with our stay. Me and my sister both chose a hanbok to wear, and we took a whole photoshoot with it and our surroundings. We were not allowed to leave the hanok stay, but since the stay is very pretty, that was not a problem. After some pushback, we even convinced our parents to also wear hanbok for the pictures, and they loved it! They have all different sizes of hanbok, so if you every are at the Rakkojae Hanok stay, make sure to try it out! Otherwise, you can also rent a hanbok at different places in Seoul and Korea. We did not do that ourselves, but from what I gathered, this experience is quite different from the hanok stay one. You can opt for a full makeover, with hair and makeup, and you can also rent a skirt thingy, which makes your skirt go poof. However, I did like the privacy and serentiy of choosing a hanbok at our hanok stay at our own pace.

Hanbok Photoshoot

Bukchon village

After the photoshoot, we left the hanok stay and explored Bukchon village a bit more. Since we did not have to travel, we were there quite early, and the streets were still relatively empty. Bukchon really is a beautiful place, I get that it is so popular with tourists. Even when it was relatively quiet, at the most picturesque spots there were still a lot of people. However, if you are patient enough, you can get some pictures without tourists in them. The streets are narrow and winding, with traditional Korean houses on both sides. There are also some small shops and cafes located in the village. We ate some ice cream with weird popping fruit balls on top, which was fun, I dropped one of the balls though, and it popped right on the street :(. Look at me contributing to the tourist pollution in Bukchon village, I am sorry… You can clearly see some of the tension between locals and tourists in Bukchon village. There are a lot of signs that indicate that tourists should not enter certain areas, or should not take pictures on the staircases that lead to people’s houses. However, obeying these rules is not always done by tourists, sadly enough. Are people just stupid or are they rude? How much of the tourism issues all over the world would be fixed if people just had common sense.

Bukchon Village

Dongdaemun Design plaza

At this point my main goals in Seoul were achieved, and we saw most of the things I wanted to see. On someones Instagram my mom saw a picture of the Dongdaemun Design Plaza, and she wanted to go there still. Dongdaemun Design Plaza is a major urban development landmark in Seoul, known for its neofuturistic design characterized by curving forms and elongated structures. Basically, nice modern architecture, which my mom adores. Inside the Dongdaemun Design Plaza there is also a museum, but we did not go there since it was some history museum, and my family is not the museum type. We were mainly there to appreciate the architecture. We snapped some pictures, and also snapped some pictures for a Korean couple. The Dongdaemun Design Plaza also contains a small mall with some cafes and shops. Inside this mall I finally found a place that sold bubble tea, or as they called it: Milk tea with pearls. I really wanted to try some bubble tea while in Korea, and I was confused why I could not find any place that sold it. I know bubble tea is originally from Taiwan, but since it so popular worldwide, I expected to find it in Korea as well. The bubble tea was really good, I got the classic milk tea with pearls, and thoroughly enjoyed it. My parents meanwhile were drinking their coffee at Starbucks. After browsing some shops we finished our time at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza. And now we really did not know what to do anymore.

Dongdaemun Design Plaza

Hyundai Department Store

My sister looked up some places we could go to, and we decided to go to a very big department store of Hyundai. This department store is massive, with lots of floors. There were like 12 floors, 6 below and above ground. The mall is stunning, especially with all the Christmas decorations that was put up. The floors were all designed really modern in a good and elegant way. First we ate some cake and chilled for a bit. Then we explored different floors. There was a teletubbies pop up shop which was funny. There was one furniture shop with great knicknacks to buy. It had Dutch nijntje lights, fun tissue boxes, cool mugs and so much more. Sadly we can only bring limited stuff back home in our suitcases. The top floors had some fancy dining places, with a really open architecture. However, too fancy for us, so we went downstairs to the food court, and I ate some great ramen. Then we decided to head to the metro from a below ground floor of the mall to go home again.

Hyundai Department Store

This connection between the mall and the metro was also an experience. You had to walk quite far with these escalator walkways, and there were so many shops there as well. It feels very Asian to me to have this whole world underground. After arriving at our accommodation, we did some face masks that were free from the accommodation, and packed our suitcases for the flight back home the next day. The next day we had breakfast and then took the airport bus to Incheon airport for our long flight back home. This was the end of our South Korea trip.

Hotels

Henn Na Hotel Myeondong

After lunch on the first day we exchanged some money and went to our hotel to freshen up a bit. For the first nights in Seoul we stayed in the Henn Na Hotel Myeondong. This hotel’s main theme is robots, which you can see behind the check-in desks. They do not actually interact with you, however there is a room service robot that does interact with you! We could not immedialtey check in since we were too early, but we could leave our luggage at the hotel. What this entailed is that they just literally store it in the lobby and put a net over it. This was a bit of a culture shock for us, since in other countries there would be too much risk of theft. But in Korea, people do not steal apparently, and it shows in the culture.

When we returned later that day to check in, we had to use a machine to check in ourselves. When we encountered an issue, we could call the front desk, and a staff member appeared to help us, so all good. Like the reviews already said, the rooms were quite small, so if you have a very big suitcase it is quite inconvenient. Also we booked one normal Twin Room and one Hollywood Double Room, but the Hollywood Double Room is not that much more special or bigger than the Twin Room. Yes you can see the Seoul Tower from the window, but other than that it is not so special. However, the location is amazing, and the rooms are clean and comfortable. The toilet also has a lot of buttons, which is quite common in Asian countries. This hotel was not cheap, but relative to other hotels in Myeondong, it was quite okay priced. A smaller room is something that you then have to accept.

One of the main downsides is the small size of the breakfast area. Sometimes you have to wait in a queue to get in, which I have never really experienced before in hotels. The queue is not that long when we stayed there, but I can imagine that it can get quite long during peak season. The breakfast itself was very American style, with also enough asian options, nothing special, but also nothing to complain about. Overall, I would recommend this hotel if you want to have a semi-affordable but still expensive stay in Seoul.

The Halloween themed robots of Henn Na Hotel

Rakkojae Hanok Stay Bukchon Village

For our second part of our stay in Seoul, we stayed at a traditional Korean hanok stay in Bukchon village. This hanok stay is called Rakkojae. Bukchon village is a traditional very touristy place with authentic hanoks, so if you stay at a hanok in Bukchon village, you can be sure that it is a real hanok. Rakkojae specifically is also quite luxerious, which also shows in the price. I think it is the most expensive accommodation we had during our trip. However, it is worth it.

The hanoks are really beautiful, and the interior is also very traditional, while still having all modern amenities. The rooms are heated through these traditional floor heating systems, which is nice since you sleep on the ground. We did have one accident though, since we turned up the heating too much, and then the floor became a bit too hot to sleep on, but that was our own fault. The entrance has a small table on the floor as well, where you can sit around. Luckily for my parents, the accomodation also did have some chairs. The bathroom is very fancy and modern, so you do not have to worry about that. The courtyard is also beautiful, with an absolutely stunning view of Seoul.

Rakkojae Hanok Stay Bukchon Village

When we arrived at the hanok stay, we were welcomed by a nice host that showed us around. The staff brought our luggage upstairs for us, which as Europeans we are maybe a bit uncomfortable with, because we just had so much luggage and it was so heavy. However, the staff insisted. We got some welcome tea, which was actually very sweet and cold, not my vibe, but apparently it is healthy, like all Korean tea that are very mid. The fridge in the house was filled with small snacks and drinks, and face masks, so we definitely could not complain about that! The Korean breakfast was amazing, below you can see some pictures of it. The accomadation comes with a lot of activities that you can book. Most of them for a price, but the hanbok was free, so we made use of that. We did not really book any other activities.

Welcome Tea

For me sleeping on the ground was no problem at all, but my parents did have some trouble with it. We also intentionally booked this accomodation at the end of the trip, if it happened to be too much for us. So that is something you have to consider when you book a hanok stay, but besides that I would highly recommend it.

Food

Day 2

Our first meal in Seoul was close at our hotel in Myeondong. We got some plate with pork and other side dishes, which was okay, nothing really special. It is just meat with some sauce. The Bibimbap was a bit better, but also not the most amazing food I had. The side dishes and the kimchi pancake were definitely the most tasty part of our meal. We all decided that we love japchae, which is these glass noodles with vegetables and sometimes meat.

Our first meal in Seoul

After the hanok village, we tried to get some food. However, a lot of the places were already full. We ended up at a place close to our hotel where we eat some dinner and met some other Dutch people that were sitting next to us. I forgot to make a picture of our dinner, but we had some fried chicken, shrimp, korean dumplings, and some pork in a sweet sauce. It was nice, not a lot of variety, since we only had the four dishes. But one dish per person was also enough.

Day 3

After the aquarium, we ate some lunch at a place in the mall. We all ate some Kalguksu, which was great, because it contains Udon noodles. I actually did make a picture of this dish! We were at the restaurant during lunch time, and a lot of office workers and also some casual people were coming in and out of the restaurant. Compared to Koreans, we eat very slow, probably partly because of the chopsticks.

Kalguksu

We did manage to find a place to eat, and got some food recommendation from a middle aged couple from Hong Kong. However, communicating with people is always a bit of a challenge. But they were really nice. We ate some Bibimbap and noodle soup, which where tasty and some other very nice pancake-esque food (but then completely different than pancakes, I know terrible description lol) that were really good!

Our dinner

Day 4

This day we ate some lunch at the DMZ unification village. This lunch was a buffet, and it was very average.

In the evening we ate at the food stalls in Myeondong. This was our first time trying street food in Korea, and it was a vibe. I cannot name what we ate, because I just do not know the names of the dishes. But in general terms, we ate some chicken, japchae, some fruit with a caramel coating, a marsmhallow ice cream with chocolate in it, and some dumplings. It was all very tasty.

Fruit with caramel coating on a stick.

Day 5

We had lunch in Insa-dong at a random Korean restaurant. We ordered some Bibimbap which was nice, and also some sushi-esque something. These were kinda disappointing. The rest of the food we had I barely remember, I only know that it was not that special.

Lunch in Insa-dong

However, for dinner in Hongdae we had some amazing Korean fried chicken. The chicken was very crispy and juicy, and the sauces were really tasty. I forgot the exact orders, but I remember we tried some different things. I guess at some point it becomes a bit repetitive, but good thing I like chicken! Also this is the restaurant were we finally learned that you have to press a button on the table to call the waiter. Thank you random waiter that looked like a student and was very kind!

Korean Fried Chicken in Hongdae

Day 21

When we came back to Seoul from Sokcho, we had lunch at a western-style restaurant close to the Apple Store in Gangnam. Since it is western-style food, I did not really care to take a picture or anything, it was not that special to me. I remember that in general, with one exception, all the western-style food we had in South Korea was quite average. Like not bad, but of course I am used to eating western food and have a lot of references to compare it to.

For dinner at Gwangjang Market we tried a lot of different small dishes from different stalls. We ate some chicken twice, since those where really crispy (and chicken is always good). We ate some kind of pancake thingy at one stall, which we have had more often in Korea and we knew we liked. At one stall where you could sit down (which is very nice because the benches are heated and I love having a warm butt), we had some japchae, and tteokbokki. The japchae here was different than the other japchae we had, and we ordered it because we loved the japchae so far, but I was not a big fan of this japchae in particular. The tteokbokki was good though. At another stall we also ate some dumplings, which were good as well.

Eating Japchae with my mom

I have heard before that Gwangjang Market is kind of a tourist trap, and that tourists get scammed a lot. We did get scammed there by a guy selling grapes, because my mom was an overly enthusiastic buyer. But my parents really did not care about getting scammed. (She bought grapes for 10.000 won while around the corner someone was selling them for 5000 won, and I think even that price is quite high for grapes). But besides that, I really did not feel like it was a hostile environment. The vendors at Gwangjang Market probably also need to pay more rent because of the popular location, so I think it is fair that it tends to be more expensive.

Day 22

We started our last full day in Seoul with an amazing Korean breakfast at our hanok stay. You can see the picture below, it has all kinds of Korean food. It had this healthy green soup that I for once enjoyed. It had the Korean pancake thingy plus japchae, which were both hits with my family. It had Korean beef, and of course rice and kimchi. Also it had some sort of dessert, which was nice to finish the meal with. Overall, I absolutely loved this breakfast, it was so good and I miss it so much.

Korean Breakfast at Rakkojae Hanok Stay

I actually don’t really remember what we ate for lunch, but I think we ate something quick in Starbucks, so not really worth mentioning. However, for dinner at the Hyundai Department Store food court I had some great ramen. Sorry Korea, but I think Japanese food is just superior. I think this was the best ramen I had in my life. Great last meal in South Korea!

Ramen at Hyundai Department Store Food Court