Seoul Travel Guide: Palaces, Hanok and a City Underground

See & Do

Four palaces, one of them a UNESCO site

Gyeongbokgung was built in 1395 as the first royal palace of the Joseon dynasty and burned to the ground in the Imjin War in 1592. The better visit is Changdeokgung, finished in 1405 and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which most of the kings actually lived in despite Gyeongbokgung's superior rank. Go at first entry and book the rear garden slot rather than turning up.

A village of 6,100 people that takes 6.4 million visitors

Bukchon's hanok date from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and survived the redevelopment that flattened most of the old city. In 2024 the village recorded 6.4 million visitors against roughly 6,100 residents, which explains the quiet-hours signs. Go before 09:00 and treat the side alleys as somebody's front door, because they are.

Namsan, the hill the city reads itself against

Namsan Seoul Tower sits on the summit at 236 metres and was the country's first tower built to carry several broadcasters at once, which is why it is the silhouette on every postcard. Walk up through the park rather than queue for the cable car: the view of the basin, the river and the ring of mountains explains the shape of the place in one look. The Han below is lined with riverside parks that fill at dusk.

The comparison everyone makes is Tokyo, and the gap turns out to be money rather than scale: the Tokyo guide prices that city at USD 4,097 a month against Seoul's 3,577.

Eat

Korean food is priced for a city that eats out constantly, and the cheap end is genuinely cheap.

What a meal costs

Numbeo's 27 October snapshot puts an inexpensive restaurant meal at 12,000 won, about USD 9, a three-course dinner for two at 90,000 won, about USD 67, and a cappuccino at 5,494 won. Nomads.com's medians agree line for line: dinner USD 9, coffee USD 4, beer USD 4, cola USD 2. A sit-down lunch rarely breaks USD 10.

How to eat here

Barbecue is the social format and the expensive one, so do it once at lunch when the sets cost half. The everyday meal is soup, rice and a table of banchan that refills without asking. Convenience stores are a real kitchen here, and subway concourses sell better food than most airport terminals.

Where to Stay

Hotels and leases price very differently, and that gap is where budgets go wrong.

What a bed costs

Nomads.com's medians are USD 99 a night for a hotel, about USD 2,970 across thirty nights, and USD 168 a night for an Airbnb. The Airbnb figure is the one that catches people: it prices a month above the city's nomad tier.

Seongsu-dong, and one stop further out

Nomads.com names Seongsu-dong the best neighbourhood to stay and Sillim-dong the one to watch. A studio in the centre runs USD 887, and Numbeo's 27 October one-bedroom in the centre is 1,232,641 won, about USD 921, so the two datasets sit within five per cent on the same question. For the rest of the month, see the Seoul cost breakdown.

Logistics

Incheon is the international gateway and Gimpo takes the domestic traffic; the airport rail link runs into the centre and the subway does the rest. A single ride is 1,550 won, about USD 1, and a monthly pass is 62,000 won, about USD 46, the best purchase in the city. Taxis start at 4,800 won and the average trip is USD 2, so install Kakao T for late nights.

Cards work almost everywhere and tipping is not a thing. Tap water is safe, soft at 51 mg/L and not fluoridated. Carry your passport anyway.