SEOUL · SOUTH KOREA
Palaces, street food, and the border up north.
Hanbok mornings at Gyeongbokgung, Gwangjang market food and soju after dark, the K-pop trail through Gangnam, and the day trips out to the DMZ and Nami Island. Every great Seoul day, in one place.
Only in Seoul
Three things you can only do here.
City tours and river cruises turn up in every capital. Standing at the world’s last Cold War border, walking the K-pop trail where the music is made, and wearing hanbok through a six-hundred-year-old palace do not.
Since 1953
The DMZ & the JSA
The peninsula is still split along the 38th parallel, and the strip between the two Koreas is the most fortified border on earth. Tours run north to the Third Infiltration Tunnel, the Dora observatory looking straight into North Korea, and the blue huts at Panmunjom where the two sides still meet. There is nowhere else like it.
- 1 Best DMZ Tour Korea from Seoul (Red Suspension Bridge Optional)
- 2 DMZ Tour: 3rd Tunnel, Option(Suspension Bridge, Boat) from Seoul
- 3 DMZ tour south Korea from Seoul (NK experience hall, defector)
Hallyu, at the source
The K-Pop & BTS trail
Seoul is the home studio of the Korean Wave. Guides take in the agency buildings in Gangnam, the BTS landmarks, a dance lesson and the styling salons behind the look, then the cafes the fandoms made famous. The music plays everywhere in the world; this is where it is actually made.
- 1 Full Day Tour In The Soop BTS Ver in PyeongChang Filming Location
- 2 Seoul: Kpop Dance Class Including Video Shooting & Editing
- 3 ARMY Must Visit BTS Tour in Seoul
The Joseon court
Hanbok at the palace gates
Rent a hanbok and Gyeongbokgung waves you in for free. Dressed in the colours of the old court, you walk the throne hall and pavilions the Joseon kings raised six hundred years ago, and catch the changing of the royal guard at the main gate. The most photographed morning in Seoul, and a properly local one.
- 1 Seoul: Gyeongbok Palace, Bukchon Village, and Gwangjang Tour
- 2 Best Seoul City Tour (Gyeongbokgung Palace,Insadong,Namsan Tower)
- 3 Small-Group Royal Palace and Seoul City Tour (hotel pick-up)
Start here
The one nearly everyone books first.
Of everything in and around the city, more travellers begin with this than anything else. If you lock in just one thing before you fly, make it this.
The big-hitters
Seoul's Most Popular Tours & Experiences
Gyeongbokgung, the DMZ, Gwangjang Market, a Han River cruise and the K-pop trail. The things almost every first trip is built around.
Where to start
The Seoul a first trip is built around.
The island and the fortress, the markets and the cooking class, the river by night and the K-beauty lanes. The handful of days most visits are planned around, and the best way to do each.
Beyond the city
How far do you want to go?
Some of the best days near Seoul are not in Seoul at all. Three directions out of the city, each an easy day return by coach or train.
After dark
The city has a second shift.
When the palaces lock up, Seoul gets going. Soju and grilled pork belly under the orange tents of a pojangmacha, milky makgeolli down a Jongno backstreet, and the bars of Hongdae that never quite bother to close.
Soju tastings & pub crawls →The table
Seoul eats late, and shares everything.
Korean food is built for the table: charcoal BBQ you grill yourself, mung-bean pancakes and mayak gimbap down the aisles of Gwangjang Market, tteokbokki straight off a street cart. Food tours work the stalls and grills locals actually queue for, and a cooking class sends you home able to make it.
Food & market tours →The river
The whole city bends around the Han.
The Han River splits Seoul north from south, half a mile wide, ringed by eleven riverside parks and bridges that light up after dark. Sightseeing cruises, dinner boats and the rainbow fountain off Banpo Bridge all read the city the way it likes to be seen, from the water.
Han River cruises & boat rides →On screen
You have seen these places before.
Goblin and Crash Landing on You, Itaewon Class and Parasite, and a hundred K-dramas besides were shot across the city. Location tours walk you between the staircases, cafes and palace walls you half-recognise, with the scenes that made each one famous.
- 1 Full Day Tour In The Soop BTS Ver in PyeongChang Filming Location
- 2 From Seoul: Nami Island, K-drama Garden & Rail Bike Day Tour
- 3 Seoul: MBC Insider Live K-Drama Rehearsal & VIP Studio Tour
Day one
See the whole city before you choose.
The Seoul City Tour Bus and the half-day orientation runs string the big sights together, Gyeongbokgung to Namsan to the river, with commentary and a ticket good all day. The fastest way to get the lie of the land on a first morning, and to work out what you want to come back to.
See all 25 city tours →By landmark
Pick a Seoul landmark.
Each one is its own half-day. Gyeongbokgung for the palace and hanbok. The DMZ for the border. Namsan for the tower and the view. Nami Island for the tree tunnels. Gwangjang for the market food. Suwon for the fortress wall.
By type
Or pick how you want to see it.
On foot with a guide. By bike along the river. Hands-on in a cooking class. Through the old palace quarter, out on a Han River boat, or bar by bar over soju after dark.
Plan it
Three perfect days in Seoul.
First time in the city? Here is a long weekend that hits the essentials without a wasted hour.
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