Seoul is the capital of South Korea, not North Korea, a distinction worth stating plainly before anything else. It runs on the Korean won (KRW), not yen or yuan, and a T-money card gets you across the whole city for a few thousand won a day. Google Maps still doesn’t give usable walking directions here, so put Naver Map or KakaoMap on your phone before you land. Most major tourist nationalities can enter through 2026 with just a passport, no K-ETA, though that waiver has a firm end date.

Two days in Seoul is enough to skip the version everyone already does. This weekend keeps the palace and Bukchon, cutting them entirely would just be a different kind of tourist trap, but it routes around the tour buses into Ikseon-dong’s hanok cafes, a Gwangjang Market dinner instead of a restaurant reservation, and a jjimjilbang instead of a hotel bed on night one. Day two swaps Myeongdong’s chain stores for Seongsu’s converted warehouses and Hongdae’s actual indie scene after dark.

Seoul is the capital of South Korea, not North Korea, worth stating outright before anything else. It runs on the Korean won (KRW), not yen or yuan, and a T-money card covers the subway, buses and most taxis for a few thousand won a day. Google Maps still won’t give you usable walking directions here, so get Naver Map or KakaoMap installed before you land. Most major tourist nationalities can enter through 2026 with just a passport, no K-ETA, though that waiver has a firm end date.

Everyone’s Seoul photo looks the same: the palace guard change, Myeongdong’s neon, an N Seoul Tower sunset. Skip past all three for a day and the city gets stranger and better, a wine bar inside a century-old hanok, a bathhouse you sleep in instead of a hotel, a warehouse district nicknamed after Brooklyn, a fish market that starts before sunrise. Prices run in Korean won (KRW), not yen or yuan, and this is not a cheap city.

Seoul is the capital of South Korea, not North Korea, worth stating outright before anything else. It runs on the Korean won (KRW), not yen or yuan, and a T-money card covers the subway, buses and most taxis for a few thousand won a day. Google Maps still won’t give you usable walking directions here, so get Naver Map or KakaoMap installed before you land. Most major tourist nationalities can enter through 2026 with just a passport, no K-ETA, though that waiver has a firm end date.

Seoul is the capital of South Korea, not North Korea, worth stating outright before anything else. It runs on the Korean won (KRW), not yen or yuan, and a T-money card covers the subway, buses and most taxis for a few thousand won a day. Google Maps still won’t give you usable walking directions here, so get Naver Map or KakaoMap installed before you land. Most major tourist nationalities can enter through 2026 with just a passport, no K-ETA, though that waiver has a firm end date.

Seoul is the capital of South Korea, not North Korea, worth stating outright before anything else. It runs on the Korean won (KRW), not yen or yuan, and a T-money card covers the subway, buses and most taxis for a few thousand won a day. Google Maps still won’t give you usable walking directions here, so get Naver Map or KakaoMap installed before you land. Most major tourist nationalities can enter through 2026 with just a passport, no K-ETA, though that waiver has a firm end date.