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Claire has been obsessed with South Korea since the lockdown, when Netflix kept pushing a K-drama called Crash Landing on You at her. Fifty-odd K-dramas later, she had a pretty good idea of what makes Korea, Korea, and really high expectations. So after a month in Japan we hopped across for ten days.
It turned out to be one of the most special trips we've done, and not in the way we expected. Seoul has the skincare and the street food, Busan has the coast, but the place that stole our hearts was a little old town most people only see on a day trip.
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Our 10-day South Korea route at a glance
Seoul: palaces in a hanbok, Gwangjang Market, Hongdae, Myeongdong and Gangnam
Gyeongju: a night in a 150-year-old hanok, royal tombs and Bulguksa Temple
Busan: the Sky Capsule, Gamcheon Culture Village and K-BBQ by the beach
Full honesty: we did this the other way round, arriving in Busan on a ferry from Japan and working our way up to Seoul. For a first trip we'd flip it, which is how we've written it here. Fly into Seoul, take the KTX bullet train South, and fly home from Busan, with no backtracking.
Seoul: where to stay
If it's your first time, stay in Myeongdong. It's super central, packed with shops and street food, and easy for the subway. Hongdae is trendier and younger, with live music and cafés. Insadong and Bukchon have hanok stays and quiet, historic streets, and Gangnam is the luxury option, but it's a long way out.
We did three nights in an Airbnb in the Jongno district, then three at Slow Vibe Myeongdong, a converted mansion with little rooms, shared bathrooms and a lovely garden, literally across the road from Myeongdong Shopping Street. It cost us about $78 a night. Claire also pinned the Mercure Ambassador in Hongdae for its spacious rooms.
How to get around (read this one)
To be honest, this was the one thing about Korea that caught us out. Google and Apple Maps basically don't work. You need Naver for getting around the city and KakaoMap for the metro. Download them before you fly: Naver's sign-up code never reached us once we'd landed.
You also can't tap a foreign bank card on the metro or buses. Buy a T-money card at any convenience store, top it up with cash, and get one each. Tap in and out on the buses, and remember the subway stops around midnight. Uber works perfectly when you need it. Almost every sign is in Korean (our washing machine was an adventure), so sort out an eSIM like Holafly (code RHETTANDCLAIRE) before you land. You'll use a lot of data.
Gyeongbokgung Palace in a hanbok
In our hanbok at Gyeongbokgung Palace
This was one of the absolute highlights of our time in Korea. Korea really encourages tourists to wear the traditional hanbok, and wearing one gets you free entry into the palace. We booked ours on GetYourGuide that morning, which worked out cheaper than walking in: about $30 for the two of us.
The changing of the guard at Gwanghwamun Gate
Get to the gate early for the changing of the guard at 10 am or 2 pm. It lasts about 20 minutes, and if you're as short as Claire you'll want a spot at the front. It's closed on Tuesdays. Everyone was so happy and dressed up, and the tiny kids in hanbok are the cutest thing you'll ever see. We lost track of time and had to race back to return ours, so give yourself longer than you think. From about 4:30 pm the tour groups thin out and the light gets gorgeous.
Bukchon Hanok Village
Bukchon Hanok Village is close by, and it's beautiful: traditional houses on hilly streets. But it's a real neighbourhood. There are men holding signs asking you to be quiet, so we whispered the whole way, and visitors now have to be out of the main streets by 5 pm or risk a fine. Go earlier than we did.
Gwangjang Market: one of the best we've ever been to
Street-food tteokbokki. It really is spicy
Seoul's oldest market started out selling silks and hanboks in 1905. Today it's one of the best food markets of all our travels. You sit right at the stall, the food goes down in front of you, and it was still heaving at 9 pm. Our order:
Kalguksu: hand-cut noodle soup from the ladies Netflix made famous, about ₩8,000 a bowl
Mayak gimbap: tiny seaweed rice rolls with sesame oil and a wasabi-style sauce
Jajangmyeon: noodles in black bean sauce. Claire had been dreaming of this since a K-drama, and it was a flavour bomb
Mandu: dumplings the size of your fist
Tteokbokki: chewy rice cakes in a sauce that really is spicy
Hongdae: start late
Claire in one of Hongdae's neon arcades
We didn't start until about 3 pm, and that's the right way to do Hongdae, because it only gets better as it gets dark. First stop was a banana-milk coffee from a convenience store. It sounds wrong and it's surprisingly good. Then Olive Young, probably the main reason we came to Korea in the first place. Sheet masks are about a dollar each. Pack an empty suitcase.
Korean BBQ: pork belly on the grill
After that it's the shopping streets, arcades and photo booths (get the translate app out, and yes, it will try to give you bigger eyes), then all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ. Grill the whole cut, snip it up with scissors, wrap it in lettuce with rice, garlic and kimchi, and dunk. Finish with hotteok, a molten brown sugar pancake for about $2 that's better than any pancake of my life, and K-pop hopefuls performing on the street. There's even a convenience store ramen library with over 230 flavours, open all night.
Myeongdong: the sheet mask trap
Claire making friends at Cat's Sarangchae
You'll say "I'm just browsing" and walk out with 17 sheet masks, four serums and a new pair of glasses. Well, I did. Optometrists here can make up your prescription in about an hour, and they have strong opinions about which frames suit your face. Two things we'd recommend: the night market (the egg bread is incredible), and the cat café, Cat's Sarangchae, a very calm break from the overstimulation outside. It's the only kind of animal café we'd support.
Gangnam and the Han River
Gangnam is a long metro ride, and it's where you'll see the Porsches and the dogs in prams. We walked around Seokchon Lake, so blue we were convinced it was dyed, with the Lotte Tower behind it. Coffee is Gangnam-priced: $12–15 for a coffee and a sandwich. Starfield Library at COEX is as impressive as the photos, and most people come to this side of the city for the beauty treatments, like a scalp spa at Eco Jardin or a colour analysis.
Starfield Library at COEX
A lesson from us on Hangang Park: it runs for kilometres along the river. You want the Banpo section, where you can rent a picnic blanket, eat a bowl of ramen and watch the Rainbow Fountain. We went to the wrong section, it was 6°C and it would've taken another 51 minutes to get there, so we gave up. Don't be us.
More time? A DMZ tour takes a whole day, so we skipped it, and we'd have loved a baseball game. Claire's pinned a sunset hike up Namsan and the old city wall walk too.
Gyeongju: don't make it a day trip
From Seoul it's about two hours on the KTX, and we paid $34 each. Book ahead! We bought at the station, got the last few seats on the train and sat apart, and some people stood the whole way.
Inside our 150-year-old hanok in Gyochon
Gyeongju was the capital of the Silla Kingdom, and it's known as the museum without walls. Most people pop in from Busan for the day. Claire spotted that it's on the same train line, so we stayed, and it was the best decision of the trip. We stayed in a 150-year-old hanok in Gyochon, the traditional village, with a mattress on a heated floor, a yard and a beautiful old gate that tourists kept taking photos of. That listing has since gone, but Yeonyijae and Hanok Dasi Bom are similar, and Hanok Sohwa is the treat-yourself option.
Eating in Gyochon: bibimbap and all the side dishes
Next door was a 300-year-old restaurant, where we had bulgogi with rice cakes and bibimbap, and Woljeonggyo Bridge was 50 metres from our gate. It's stunning at sunset. Walk the huge grassy royal tombs and Cheomseongdae Observatory, then do what our host told us: pick up Korean fried chicken and take it to his cocktail bar, Bar Boon. Four cocktails later, we were very happy.
A Silla gold crown at the Gyeongju National Museum
The next day we caught the bus to Bulguksa Temple, a UNESCO site with huge peaceful grounds, and it was free. Then the Gyeongju National Museum, one of the coolest we've been to, with 5th-century gold crowns and armour. Donggung Palace was the one let-down: there's no palace left, just foundations, a few rebuilt halls and a pond. It's meant to be lovely lit up after dark, but we went back to our bridge instead. Prefer a private driver? That works too. Claire says she could've stayed five days.
Busan: the sky capsule and Gamcheon
It's only 30 minutes from Gyeongju on the KTX, and just $8. The two best areas to stay are Gwangalli, where we had a little high-rise Airbnb right on the promenade, and Haeundae, which is a bit more premium. Gwangan-ism and Kent Hotel Gwangalli are good for the first, L7 Haeundae for the second. Go for Korean BBQ on your first night. K-BBQ and soju are to Korea what pizza and pasta are to Italy.
The Sky Capsule on the cliffs at Haeundae
The Sky Capsule at Haeundae Blueline Park is arguably the best thing to do here: a tiny carriage crawling along the cliffs at 4 km/h for 30 minutes, about $15 for the two of us, one way. Forest on one side, ocean on the other. Afterwards, ask the staff about the forest trail back, which is much prettier than the promenade.
Gamcheon Culture Village
Gamcheon Culture Village is colourful, quiet, and a mission to get to. Google said 90 minutes by train, so we took an expensive 30-minute Uber. Look out for the ceramic jars of fermenting kimchi on the rooftops, and eat at the little restaurant at the bottom of the hill, with short rib patties, spicy beef stew and views of the whole village. Getting home was a bus and two packed trains, 80 minutes in peak hour, and the ATM there wouldn't take our cards, so carry cash.
Our lunch at the bottom of the hill in Gamcheon
To be honest, we didn't fit in much of Busan. It's massive and very spread out, and next time we'd book a Busan highlights tour to save the headache. Jagalchi Fish Market and Hwangnyeongsan's sunset views are on our list.
What we'd do differently
Skip the ferry. The overnight ferry from Osaka to Busan looks great on TikTok. It's 18 hours, and a couple's room was $365. Our video has the full story, but we'd fly.
Come later for the blossoms. We were in Seoul from 28 to 30 March, and they were days away from opening. It also snowed. Aim for the first half of April.
Book a hotel with breakfast if you want something savoury in the morning. It's surprisingly hard to find outside one.
Expect the odd smell. One con in Seoul: some drains are open to the road, and you will catch a whiff. Everyone online talks about it. They're right.
Before you go
Most Western passports get 30–90 days visa-free. Twenty-two countries, including the UK, US, Canada and Australia, are exempt from the K-ETA until 31 December 2026, and at the time of writing 2027 hasn't been confirmed, so check k-eta.go.kr before you book. Everyone else applies there for about ₩10,000. If you don't hold a K-ETA, fill in the free e-Arrival card in the 3 days before you land.
The airport bus from Incheon (about $12 each) beats the metro: they even handle your bags. And don't forget travel insurance. Healthcare in Korea is excellent, but it isn't cheap for visitors. We've used SafetyWing for years.
What it cost us: about $200 a day for two, once you take out the ferry that got us there, so roughly $2,000 for the 10 days. Hostels and market meals will bring that right down.
Spring blooms in Gyeongju
Final thoughts
Claire came with sky-high expectations, and somehow Korea met them. It's the old and the new side by side: a palace in the shadow of skyscrapers, a 150-year-old house with underfloor heating, a noodle lady who's been on Netflix. If you only have time for one thing we've said here, make it this: don't just go to Seoul and Busan.
Start with our free Essential South Korea Guide, and if you want the whole trip planned for you, our South Korea Destination Guide has the day-by-day route, Claire's map of 100+ places and 29 hand-picked stays. Kamsahamnida!
