Seoul, South Korea trip - November 2023

My husband and I have been making our way around Japan during our stay here, but haven't been doing any international travel in the rest of Asia. I actually haven't been to any other country other than Japan and the USA myself lol. 

We planned this vacation with our friends during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend as a quick 4-day trip to accommodate some work schedules. I didn't play an active role in creating an itinerary for our time there, so this post will mostly be a photo dump rather than informational. I honestly have almost 0 details from the things we did (especially as most things were unplanned/spontaneous), so as I wrote this post, I realized it's largely unhelpful except as a small memory for myself.

We flew out of Terminal 3 at Haneda, so we were able to take advantage of the TIAT lounge. While there is often a line to get in, for some reason it's not always super crowded inside. 

Flights were booked with Asiana Airlines into Gimpo Airport, and I was surprised that there was actually a meal provided on the flight since it was only a couple hours long!

There were 6 of us, so we hopped in a large taxi after exiting at Gimpo and were able to get to Myeongdong for about $60. We arrived pretty late at night and immigration took quite a bit of time, so it was good to have that option since I think the last bus had already left. We got to the hotel after midnight.

We stayed all 4 nights at Ibis Styles Ambassador Seoul Myeongdong which is pretty conveniently located and right next to a small 24 hour convenience store.

Day 1 

My husband and two of our friends had made reservations to do color matching, but the other three of us opted out, so we headed out a bit later and started with a coffee shop next to the hotel. 

After that, we went to exchange money and then to a convenience store to buy T-money cards and load some credit onto them so we could catch the subway.

I followed our friends around while they went to get their sim cards (not needed for me and my husband since we have T-mobile) and then just walked around the area a bit until it was time to meet up with the group.

Meanwhile in a different part of Seoul...

My husband and our two other friends were each getting their color matching one-by-one, and I was grateful that they took photos, so I could see part of the process.

We managed to find each other outside of Myeongdong station and killed some time in the large HBAF store (one of many) where there were a lot of displays and photo spots. 

With the group all together (now 8 of us), we set off down the street to look for a place for lunch. 

A little more shopping and browsing in Myeongdong.

After briefly returning to the hotel to regroup and grab my coat, my husband and I headed out by ourselves for about a 25 minute walk

to reach the League of Legends Park which is on the third floor of an unassuming building.

As the sun was setting, we took our chances and hopped on a bus to meet up with the group again for Namsan/Seoul Tower.

After riding the gondola up, we were able to see the tower lit up at night. It was really windy and cold up there, but with a nice city view.

We returned to ground level and found a K-BBQ chain for dinner that accommodate our group with a short wait. 

Myeongdong shopping area was more alive at night with some food vendors which was good for an after dinner snack to finish out the day.

Day 2

One of our friends had arranged a cooking class for this day, so we headed out to Mangwon for the meeting spot in the morning. The host greeted us and two other groups before guiding us through the market and explaining the different items for sale. 

She also allowed us about 10-15 minutes to go back and browse on our own and make purchases before heading to the cooking studio a short walk away. 

Our course included 3 different items and we each had our own cooking station with ingredients and utensils prepped by the staff. A recipe book was also provided for our use at home. 

First, we prepped our bulgogi meat which needed a bit of time to marinate and then we started on a seafood soondubu jjigae which we ate in a separate dining area after carefully following the instructions and preparing it.

The next two dishes were cooked to be eaten together. First we got the bibimbap toppings ready and then cooked our bulgogi in a pan. 

It was legitimately a lot of food, and it was a good experience to cook with step-by-step oral instructions, even more fun as a group. 

We did more exploring, shopping and browsing in Hongdae and some of the areas within walking distance, ending with a coffee shop break. 

We ended up at another K-BBQ place for dinner but this one seemed to specialize in pork compared to the beef focus on the previous night's meal. 

We returned to the hotel through the subway system and had a relatively early night. 

Day 3

We weren't all meeting up until lunch, so my husband and I started at the coffee/pastry shop near the hotel and then went to go wait in line for the Kyoja Myeongdong restaurant to open. Our friends had passed it earlier and wanted to try it since there were a bunch of Michelin star awards on display. We got in line at about 10am on a Saturday (30 minutes before it opened) and were maybe the 7th party. There are a lot of seats on the inside, and I think we still might have been able to be seated even if we had showed up 20 minutes or so later, but the line would he been much more intimidating. 

We got one of everything that was on the menu during this season. My husband particularly enjoyed this and I think it was worth the wait. The turnover seems pretty quick though because there aren't very many menu items, you pay when you order and the food is easy to eat. 

Next on the list was a visit to Gyeongbukbung Palace. Lots and lots of people dressed in traditional clothing, especially women in hanbok. We almost felt out of place in street clothing lol. 

We didn't end up paying to enter, but the group split up a bit and my husband and I went to the Folk Museum that's on the palace grounds with free admission. 

For slightly obvious reasons, the next thing I did was go to one of the Korean jimjilbang spas with two of our friends. My husband and the other two opted out and went straight to Coex mall. 

The plan for us was to get a Korean body scrub/seshin. The place we went to was nearer to Coex and not too tourist friendly, but still a unique experience. A lot of it seems to be like an onsen except there's definitely some etiquette differences that we picked up on aside from the body scrub itself. There were 2-3 women in the bath area who had tables laid out for the scrub or massages and you pay them in cash after. The spa also had a multi-gender clothed relaxing area which different temperature rooms or an open floor for relaxing/napping or eating from their small cafe. 

We walked to Coex Mall to meet up with the others at Starfield Library and then the Gangnam Style statue which is just outside one of the mall exits. 

Dinner was fried chicken (finally!) at a nearby BHC location and enjoyed sharing two of the sets. 

That was the last thing I did for the day except for a brief return to the HBAF store to pick up some last minute omiyage to pack. My husband and two of our friends ventured out in Myeongdong to get more chicken and drink a little later into the night. 

Day 4

This was our last day, but our flight out wasn't until later at night, so we still had plenty of time. We got a little bit of a later start and then caught a bus over to Majang Meat Market. 

It wasn't very busy while we were there and lots of the vendors noticed and called out to us, so it was a bit difficult to choose which to go with. We ended up with one closer to the end who spoke some English and helped set us up on the second floor cooking/eating area which has a separate fee. 

On the bus on the way back, we stopped for a little while at Seoul Central Market. Again, it wasn't very busy, so we were able to casually browse and walk around a bit.

Lastly, we returned to Myeongdong to be close to the hotel for the final hours. 

Since it was the weekend, the streets were much more alive with food vendors, even during the day and it was a bit hard get from one area to another. We did some small final omiyage shopping and tried to spend the last of the cash we had exchanged. 

The hotel staff helped us call a large taxi to take us back to Gimpo Airport and fortunately had advised us about the traffic, so we were sure to allow a little extra time to get there. It's not very busy in Gimpo, but since it's an international flight, and we all had lounge access, we didn't mind being a little early and not rushing about. 

It was a short but pleasant trip to Seoul. We didn't do any exploring outside the city, but I didn't have anything in S. Korea on my bucket list, so I was glad to get there at all and happy to have our group of friends to help pass the time. I did often feel more uncomfortable there than I ever was in Japan, but this is likely to the larger language barrier. I put as many hours into Duolingo as I could once we booked the trip, but I still didn't feel ready. 

I likely won't seek out travel to S. Korea again, but I know we likely missed doing a bunch of stuff, so let me know what I should look out for if I happen to be in the country again! I had put a call for suggestions on my IG story but no one responded 😅