"Return to Seoul" Top 5 Page for this destination Seoul by Ewingjr98

Seoul, with 12 million people, is the 4th largest city in the world and it is surrounded by mountains and farms. Even though Koreans flock to the city during the week to work, they flock to the national parks on the weekends to hike. Within Seoul, you have modern skyscrapers next to 800 year old palaces. There are military installations (both US and Korean) beside beautiful parks.

Bukchon Neighborhood

The capital of South Korea, Seoul is a very modern city with a relatively high standard of living compared to other east and southeast Asian nations. There is a lot to see and do across the spectrum of Korean history (palaces & fortresses), Buddhist temples, parks (like 1988 Olympic Park), hiking, culture, great restaurants, and lots of nightlife...

I absolutely loved the city of Seoul and all that it offered. Almost every weekend, I got to go sightseeing, visit the parks and historic sights, or just wander through different neighborhoods.

While in Seoul, I also visited Busan, Incheon, Songtan, Suwon, and the North Korean border at the DMZ.

From Korea, I also made side trips to:
Fukuoka and Okinawa, Japan
Taipei, Taiwan
Saigon and Hanoi, Vietnam
Hong Kong and Macao, China
Singapore
Johor Bahru, Malaysia
Bangkok, Thailand
Angkor Wat, Cambodia

At the Joint Security Area in the DMZ

After nine years, I finally returned to Seoul, one of my favorite cities in the world.

We flew into Inchon Airport from Tokyo and took the new Airport Express into the city for just a few thousand Won. When we arrived, we checked into our centrally located hotel, stopped by the War Memorial, and decided to grab a few beers in Itaewon. We spent about 45 minutes exploring the area, then we had some mandu and teriyaki chicken from a small shop on food vendor alley. We stopped for beers at two of my favorite bars from my previous time in Seoul: Seoul Pub and Scrooge, then we had another late-night snack on food vendor alley (mandu soup) before retiring for the night.

On Tuesday, we started our day with kimbab, then we hiked Namsan to Seoul Tower. We walked down the mountain's north side to Myeongdong, then did some shopping in Namdaemun before shopping at Kyobo bookstore, then visiting Insadong. We had dinner at a great Kalbi restaurant in Gangnam.

Wednesday began with kimbab from the restaurant called Kimbab Heaven, then we visited Changdeokgung, the Secret Garden and Gyeongbokgung. We also wandered around Bukchon where we had lunch at a great local restaurant. It began to rain, so we stopped for a beer at a bar next to the park along Cheonggyecheon stream. For dinner we went to Noryangjin Fish Market.

On Thursday we had lunch in Itaewon before heading up to the DMZ for a tour of the North Korean tunnels and Panmunjom. We had dinner at a crappy cafeteria while on the tour, then we went back to Itaewon to enjoy a few beers and a snack.

Friday was spent at Dongdaemun and the surrounding area, including a great lunch of seafood stew, before catching a flight home.

• Pros:Good food (even kimchi!), many great sights, friendly Korean people
• Cons:The overpowering aroma of hundreds of people who had kimchi for breakfast all crammed into an air-tight subway car