Seoul

A little background

Seoul has been a capital for more than six hundred years. In 1394 Yi Seong-gye, the founder of the Joseon dynasty, chose the site, then called Hanyang, for his new seat of government: a basin ringed by four low mountains, with the Han River to the south. Within a few years the city had its main palace, Gyeongbokgung, and a stone wall that ran over the ridges of all four mountains around it.

Much of what a visitor sees as old has been lost and rebuilt, sometimes more than once. The palaces were burned during the Japanese invasions of the 1590s; Japan's colonial rule from 1910 to 1945 demolished palace buildings and stretches of the wall; and in the Korean War the city changed hands four times between June 1950 and the spring of 1951. What followed was one of the fastest urban transformations anywhere. Seoul now has about 9.6 million people, and the capital area around it about 26 million, more than half the country.

That history explains the city a visitor meets. The old core is compact and walkable, but it sits inside a vast modern city, and restoration is still going on: the Cheonggyecheon stream, buried under a road for decades, was opened up again in 2005, and palace halls are still being rebuilt. Knowing which parts are old, which are reconstructed and which are new is half the interest of the place.

How Seoul fits together

The river is the first thing to understand. The Han runs west through the middle of the city and divides it in two. North of it lies the old Seoul: the palaces, the markets and the neighbourhoods a first visit is mostly about, inside a basin ringed by the four inner mountains the city wall once followed. Beyond them to the north rises the granite of Bukhansan. South of the river is the newer city, Gangnam and its neighbours, where many of the offices, hotels and shopping malls are.

The old city still has its gates. The wall that enclosed Joseon Seoul had four great gates and four small ones, and two of the great gates stand in the traffic today: Sungnyemun, better known as Namdaemun, the south gate near Seoul Station, and Heunginjimun, the east gate at Dongdaemun, which gave both districts their names. Sungnyemun was badly burned by an arsonist in 2008 and restored by 2013; it is another reminder that in Seoul old and rebuilt are often the same thing. Long stretches of the wall survive on the mountains, and walking a section of it is one of the best ways to see how the old city was laid out.

The metro ties it all together. Seoul's rail network runs to more than twenty lines, and the central ones reach every area on this page. The times in the panels are approximate journeys to City Hall, which is as close as Seoul has to a centre. The six areas below use the same names as the rest of our Seoul coverage.

Places you don't want to miss

Eight places that between them show most of what Seoul is: two palaces, a village of traditional houses, three very different neighbourhoods, a food market and a mountain in the middle of the city. Each has a guide of its own.

Gyeongbokgung Palace

Seoul's first palace: burned, stripped, hidden behind a colonial government building, and still being rebuilt. Go at opening, for the gate and the guard ceremony.

Changdeokgung & the Secret Garden

The palace the kings preferred, fitted to its hillside rather than laid over it, and behind it a royal garden with its own ticket.

Bukchon Hanok Village

Tiled-roof houses on the ridge between two palaces, where people still live. The busiest lanes have visiting hours; the quiet ones reward a morning.

Insadong

Tea houses, galleries and craft shops on one old street, where even the coffee chains write their signs in Korean.

Gwangjang Market

Seoul's great food market: mung-bean pancakes straight off the griddle, and prices worth knowing before you sit down.

Myeongdong

Street food and cosmetics in a crush after dark, and above it a red-brick cathedral and a quiet you would not expect.

N Seoul Tower on Namsan

The hill in the middle of the city, where beacon fires once told the capital the country was at peace. The view is the reason to go up.

Hongdae

The art-school quarter, where the pavement is painted red and anyone with a guitar can draw a crowd.

The four practical questions

Want the days planned for you? Seoul in five days is our day-by-day plan, with a three-day cut and a full K-pop day.

When to visit

April to June and September to November are the months to aim for. Seoul has four distinct seasons, and the two in between are the comfortable ones. The temperatures below are the Korea Meteorological Administration's monthly averages for Seoul, 1991 to 2020.

Two things are worth knowing about spring. The blossom date moves from year to year, so check the forecast before planning a trip around it. And on some spring days the air carries fine dust, some of it blown in from the deserts of northern China and Mongolia; Koreans check the air-quality forecast as routinely as the weather, and visitors with breathing problems should do the same. For the whole country, month by month, see our guide to the best time to visit South Korea.

Where to eat

Eat in the markets and the side streets, and let the dish lead. Seoul's food is at its best where it is cheapest and most crowded, and most of it is found by walking rather than booking.

The markets are the place to start. Gwangjang Market in the east is the city's great food market, with counters of mung-bean pancakes, noodles and rice rolls. Namdaemun Market, below Namsan, is older and more workaday, and Mangwon Market, near Hongdae, is a neighbourhood market where locals shop. In Myeongdong the stalls come out in the evening along the main streets.

A few dishes to look for: bibimbap, rice with vegetables and chilli paste; naengmyeon, cold buckwheat noodles, above all in summer; barbecue, which you grill yourself at the table; tteokbokki, rice cakes in a sweet chilli sauce, from the street stalls; and fried chicken with beer, a Korean evening in itself. Most meals come with small side dishes, banchan, that are part of the order rather than extras. Tipping is not expected.

Areas matter less for food than for sleep, but they have their characters: markets and stalls in Myeongdong and Dongdaemun, tea houses and traditional restaurants in Insadong, cafés and late barbecue in Hongdae, and the widest range of international food in Itaewon. For what to eat across the country, see what to eat in Korea.

Our full guide to where to eat in Seoul compares the six food areas and prices a meal. For the evening after dinner, with bars, live music and the late ride home, see Seoul nightlife.

Getting around

Take the train in from the airport, and the metro everywhere after that. Seoul's public transport is fast, cheap and clean, and signed in English as well as Korean.

From Incheon Airport. The AREX airport railway runs two services into the city. The express runs non-stop to Seoul Station in about 40 minutes, every 20 to 40 minutes; the all-stop train takes just under an hour and runs every 5 to 10 minutes, calling at Hongik University Station for Hongdae on the way. Airport buses run to most districts in about 60 to 80 minutes, depending on traffic, and a taxi into the centre is the expensive option.

The metro. Lines are numbered and colour-coded, stations have numbers as well as names, and every exit is numbered too: directions in Seoul are given as a station and an exit, and it is worth noting both before you set out. Pay with a T-money card, sold and topped up at convenience stores and station machines, which also works on buses and in many taxis. Short-stay visitors can buy instead a Climate Card tourist pass from the Seoul Metropolitan Government, giving unlimited travel on the city's public transport for one, two, three or five days. It starts on the day you charge it, and it does not cover every service, so check what is included before you rely on it.

Maps and taxis. Many visitors find the Korean apps, Naver Map and Kakao Map, more reliable for walking and transit directions than Google Maps; download one before you arrive. Taxis are plentiful and are most easily called with the Kakao T app.

On foot. Within the old city, walking is often quicker than the metro. Gyeongbokgung, Bukchon, Insadong and Changdeokgung are all within a few minutes of one another, and Myeongdong is a short walk south of them. Wear comfortable shoes: Seoul is a city of hills, steps and long station corridors. For trains between cities, transport cards and the rest, see getting around South Korea.

By bike. Riverside bike paths follow the Han through the city, and they are part of something much longer: the cross-country route that starts near Incheon, runs straight through Seoul and ends 633 km away on the south coast at Busan. We describe the whole ride in Seoul to Busan by bike. For riding in the city itself, where it works and where it does not, see Cycling in Seoul.

Day trips

Seoul is a good base, and several of the country's most interesting places are within a day's return. Our day trips from Seoul guide compares them properly; the short version is below.

The nearest are the easiest. Suwon, south of the city, has the eighteenth-century Hwaseong Fortress, a World Heritage Site whose walls you can walk; Incheon, to the west, was Korea's first treaty port and has its oldest Chinatown. The DMZ, the border with North Korea, lies to the north and can be visited only on a booked tour; it is the day trip many visitors come for. Further out, Nami Island and the gardens of Gapyeong reward an earlier start.

Before you go

Seoul is an easy city, but not a flat one. The old city is built on and around hills: the palace lanes climb, Namsan is a real climb, and many metro stations involve long corridors and stairs. Palaces and markets are crowded at weekends and on public holidays, when the city's own residents visit too. And summer is hot, humid and, in the monsoon, very wet; if you can choose, choose another season.

Seoul is also a city with quiet manners in public. People talk softly on the metro, the seats at each end of the carriage are kept for older passengers, pregnant women and people with disabilities, and queues are kept. None of it is difficult, and our guide to Korean etiquette covers the rest.

Set aside an evening, too, for a jjimjilbang, the Korean bathhouse: hot pools, sauna kilns and warm floors to rest on, and many are open 24 hours. Our guide to the jjimjilbang explains what happens inside and how to walk in without worrying.