11. Take a stroll around Heavens Park (하늘공원)
To get beautiful views of Seoul city, you can take the metro and visit Heavens Park (하늘공원). Our new Korean friend, Gitea, took us there – “tourists don’t really know about it, but it’s such a beautiful place”.
It is a bit of a workout to walk right up to the top, but it’s worth it for the pretty park and views.
Take a picnic, walk around, and enjoy the views and break from the busy city.
12. Check out the Games & Entertainment Centres
There is no shortage of epic gaming and entertainment arcades in Seoul. Korea is a gaming paradise; you are spoilt for choice with the most modern, fun, up-to-date games and activities.
We spent many evenings in a place called Dart Flex; which has many fun interactive games involving an electronic dart board. Darts, but way better.
Another tip – be sure to check out the different floors of the buildings in Seoul. Make sure you look up when you’re walking around the city because each floor can have a different activity on it. They really make the most of their space there. So be sure to keep your eyes peeled and explore the different levels. We came across this fun bowling alley on floor 3 of a random building. It had no windows and a crazy amount of flashing lights to put you off your game. Absolutely everything was illuminated, just wait for our highlights video. It felt like 9pm, but it was only 3pm.
Also talking of entertainment, you can go visit the gangnam style hands in Gangnam. They have a screen next to them where you can watch the music video… it’s pretty much playing 24/7.
13. Drink Soju
I was surprised to learn of the big drinking culture in Korea; drinking is an essential element of socialising. Peer pressure is a real thing here; we had no idea of this until we arrived. There’s some really cute bars around, most with adorable, quirky decorations.
Their high liquor consumption is pretty much entirely due to the country’s love for their fermented rice spirit, Soju. Soju is a clear, distilled liquor, and it’s very cheap; only 1600-2000 KRW for a 360ml bottle (roughly £1). Plus, drinking in public is legal here. You will often see people drinking in the street, wobbling around with what we dubbed “soju legs”.
Korea has a very respectful culture, especially regarding giving respect to elders, and this still very much applies within the realms of drinking. Here are a some rules and etiquette that we learnt on our first night:
- Don’t pour your own drink. When somebody pours it for you, hold the glass with both hands to show respect.
- When pouring someone else’s drink, especially an elder’s, hold the bottle with both hands.
- When you cheers, the youngest touches their glass at a lower point than the elders.
- Once you’ve said cheers, the youngest looks away and covers their mouth with their hand whilst they drink.
- Drinking snacks are common. Don’t be surprised when you get given some salty pretzels to go with your drinks. In fact, some places wont serve you unless you order food. Food and drink combinations go hand in hand here, so make sure you know the rules. Soju is great paired with the quintessential Korean BBQ.
You can also get many different flavours of soju; grapefruit being my favourite (green grape is also very good). Some also mix soju with beer – we called it turbo beer, but the Koreans call is somaek (soju + maekju (beer). Though most prefer it served neat and cold.
Another one of the most popular alcoholic drinks in Korea is a type of rice wine called makgeolli. You can see it in the golden bowls below. It’s a strange taste at first, almost like a cross between lemonade and milk. It definitely grows on you….
It’s also very rare to be approach by Koreans, so when this one with soju legs asked to be my friend at the end of the night – I was very flattered indeed.
14. Experience Sky Seoul at Lotte World Tower
The Lotte World Tower is the fifth-highest building in the world, and the experience at Sky Seoul takes full advantage of this. Even the elevator ride up is part of the whole experience because it’s one of the fastest elevators in the world.
Once you’ve shot up to the top of the glass tower, you can see the stunning panoramic views over the capital and surrounding mountains. If you’re brave, you can also walk onto the glass floor section, and peer at the city right underneath your feet. Be ware – it might make your legs turn to jelly.
15. Check out the Street Performers
Boy bands covered in make up dance in synchrony in the street here, worlds apart from English culture. Be sure to check out the street performers here, they are brilliant to watch. The most common place to see this is in the centre of Hongdae (Google Maps has it tagged as ‘Hongdae shopping street’).
16. Stroll through Bukchon Hanok Village
Bukchon Hanok Village is a traditional Korean neighborhood and also a popular tourist attraction. Here, you can learn arts and crafts from locals and even learn to play a traditional Korean instrument. On Saturdays, there’s also a market.
Wandering down the streets of Bukchon Village will make you feel as if you’ve stepped back in time. This village, situated in between Gyeongbokgung and Changdeokgung is home to roughly 900 Hanok (traditional Korean homes).
There is also a place nearby called Glo Seoul, with very pretty places to eat and drink.
There is no shortage of instagrammable spots.
17. Visit A Noraebang
Believe it or not but this is one of Leon’s all time favourite things: karaoke. I’ve never heard him sing anywhere apart from during karaoke. Not even in the shower! There is little in this world Leon loves more than karaoke. Well, he is in good company here because Koreans love it too. Here he is serenading me with Frank Sinatra; one of his favourite songs to sing. If you haven’t heard him, he’s actually really good!
Going out to sing and drink is a common pastime for many here. Sometimes the buildings have glass walls, so you can see people singing their hearts out from the street. Rooms with high-tech karaoke facilities are available to hire at pretty much any time, for groups of friends, families or colleagues!
Don’t know any K-Pop songs? No problem. Every Noraebang has a selection of popular English hits too.
Though navigating the Korean menus proved pretty difficult, but we got there in the end with the help from staff.
Here’s Tom with the most spirited and entertaining version of Micheal Jackson’s Bad I’ve ever heard. So bad in fact, it was great.
18. Attempt Escape from an Escape Room
For Leon’s birthday on 8th May, one activity I had planned was an escape room. They are pretty popular here and full of surprises and creativity. Unfortunately we didn’t escape in time because I had accidentally booked the most challenging level, oops… sorry Leon, but it was really fun regardless. Not wanting to be beaten, we were keen to do attempt another. So we tried a different one at Real Escape Challenge with a group of friends.
Not only did we escape, but we came 1st place in the monthly ranking. Though it was only 5th of the month! So we probably didn’t stay on there long.
Not wanting to tell you too much – expect the unexpected when you come to escape rooms in Korea…
19. Explore Jogyesa Temple
Located in the heart of Seoul (next to Insadong and Gyeongbok Palace), Jogyesa Temple is the perfect place to stop if you want to see a peaceful Buddhist temple in the middle of a bustling city.
Though it wasn’t that peaceful when we visited because we were there when Buddha’s birthday celebrations were going ahead. There was a band and singer, and it was being filmed on live TV. Thousands of colourful lanterns hung above the sky, each with individual’s wishes and dreams on. It was a pretty magical experience.
20. Get Your Fortune Read
The fortune telling industry is booming in Korea, it’s a staple of their culture. Some of the fortune telling process include palm reading, tarot, face reading, and saju (saju means analysing the cosmic energy at the hour, day, month, and year of an individual’s birth, and is based on Chinese astrological texts). Interestingly, mental health problems are not really spoken about widely, so people turn to fortune telling to help solve their life problems. Of course, we had to give it a go…
You will often come across these little fortune telling machines in the street. Find your star sign, pop in some money, and you will receive a small plastic ball with your fortune inside. You have to smash the ball open with the provided hammer to get inside. Of course, we couldn’t read any of it at first, but we did translate it. Though we didn’t think it sounded anything like Leon.
Without a doubt, Seoul is one of the most exciting, vibrant cities you can visit. There is so much to do here in this modern city, you could never be bored. The first two days were overwhelming, the huge language barrier, the culture shock, it was hard knowing where to start. I remember us three walking around for hours trying to find a place to eat on the first day, starving but overwhelmed and immobilised by choice.
There seems to be a huge emphasis on leisure activities here. As an occupational therapist, this was so great to see. Korean’s work hard, but they also play hard. It was really cool to see that they’ve really hit the nail on the head with having fun. It made me think about the town and in particular the street I live on at home, made up of mostly hairdressers (seriously, we have about 6 in very close proximity) and pretty bog standard cafes in comparison.
South Korea is also among the world’s most technologically advanced and digitally connected countries. Over the last hundred years it has undergone significant change and dramatic modernisation, with a huge technology boom and economic development. It’s a city that’s always advancing, it felt like they are miles ahead with technology. Things just worked there, and worked well. It felt like they were living in 3022, not 2022.
Well that’s a wrap for our Seoul travel blog. Hope you enjoyed it! If you haven’t already, hopefully my 20 suggestions will encourage you to visit Seoul and to take advantage of this incredible place. We will certainly be back in the future.
Our next destination on our round the world trip will be the USA. Blog coming soon 🙂
Leon and Amy’s Big Adventures 