How to spend your first day in Seoul, Korea for first time Visitors. South Korea Travel

Seoul, South Korea is a beautiful but massive city with so much to see, it’s almost impossible to decide what to do on a short trip there. We recently spent a few days in Seoul on our very first visit to the city. It can feel overwhelming when you first arrive but we spent the day coming up with a great itinerary to get acquainted with the city without trying to do too many things in one day. Keep read for all of our advice on how to spend your first full day in Seoul.

This is our first time here and we'll be exploring Seoul. We explored Seoul, South Korea and gave our first impressions of this massive city. We start things off in the Insadong neighbourhood where we make our way through the tiny streets of Ikseondong Hanok Village. We eventually make our way to Cheonggyecheon (the stream that goes through the city) and to Myeongdong (pedestrian shopping area). We also stop for some beer a KFC (Korean Fried Chicken) at a place called BHC Chicken.

We've made our way to South Korea for the very first time. We've landed in Seoul and we can't wait to see what the city has to offer. We're checking a bucket list item off of our travel list, visiting Korea. We have been so pumped to come to Korea for a very long time. This is a brand new country for us, we've never been here before. We are in the main city of Seoul. We are starting things off in the Insadong neighbourhood, which happens to be where we're staying. It's so cute around here. There are all these little alleyways and pedestrian-only streets. We arrived in the evening and found the nighttime was much busier. It seems pretty quiet around in the morning.

Explore the Insadong neighbourhood

These alleys are a series of shops, boutiques, and restaurants. We noticed in the evening there were are lines to get in some restaurants, which seems to be part of Korean restaurant culture. There are some well-known popular restaurants around here. You come, you line up, you wait for your table. We’ve never seen so many lineups for restaurants in any place we've ever been. This area of the city is called Ikseondong Hanok Village, it’s fun and fascinating to walk around these old and historic streets.

Where to stay in Seoul?

Being such a big city, it’s difficult to pick a neighbourhood. We decided on Insadong and after staying there we definitely feel like we made a good choice. It’s well located, easily walkable and close to public transit as well. We stayed at the Ibis Ambassador Seoul Insadong. It was well priced with large rooms, good wifi and free breakfast.

However, there are loads of amazing hotel options to chose from all over the city:

Booking.com

Visit Cheonggyecheon

As we make our way through the city we eventually come across a stream with a river walk. It’s pedestrian only . We did not expect to find this in the city. So far, this city is an amazing mix of modern meets historic. It feels like a surprise everywhere. One thing we always love in big cities is when they mix in nature like this. You have nature, you have a river. It looks to be a man-made and groomed-out city. The skyline in the background makes for an exceptional city. We have to think, of all the Koreans that live here, they must absolutely love this. If we lived in this city, we'd be here all the time. It would be an amazing spot for a picnic in the summertime.

After visiting the stream we make our way down to one of the busiest parts of the entire city to an area that is called Myeongdong. This is a very busy area and there are loads of people here. In this area you’ll find a lot of very popular restaurants and shopping. You’ll definitely see some international brands your recognize as well as some Korean brands. This is also a very popular area for street food with carts set up on most of the streets serving loads of amazing Korean food.

This area is thankfully pedestrian only making it a bit easier to make your way through the crowds without having to worry about dodging vehicles as well.

Try KFC (Korean Fried Chicken) and beer

Korea has loads of amazing food to try. Some you might be familiar with if you’ve ever eaten at a Korean restaurant, but there’s lots of dishes that haven’t really made their way outside of Korea and are a must try while visiting Seoul.

However, being your first day and just getting your feet wet in Korean culture, you may want to start your Korean food adventure with something pretty familiar but with a Korean flare.

We came over to a place called BHC Chicken to get some chicken (KFC or Korean Fried Chicken) and beer. Fried chicken and beer are a thing here in Korea and that’s gonna do the trick for us. If you do not know, we love fried chicken and beer. We are drinking a beer called Cassi. It is one of the most popular domestic beers in Korea.

We wait awhile for our chicken and discover it’s a huge portion when it arrives. We ended up going for half and half. It is spicy on one side and just the regular Korean fried chicken on the other side (no sauce). They do provide you with some plastic gloves because it can get very messy. The saucy, spicy version is not too hot but it is one of those spices that comes on afterwards. The first thing that you taste is a sweet sauce. It is sweet and spicy at the same time and is very crunchy on the outside as well. The regular fried chicken tastes great as well. There is a spice on that even without a sauce. It is so tender. It is a lot better than the KFC we’re used to! On our recent travels all over the world, Korean food has been something that has been standing out to us for a while now. So the fact that we are here in the city trying the food, is something very exciting.

Don’t forget this when going to Korea

One thing we NEVER travel without (and you shouldn’t either) is travel insurance. We spent a long time shopping around/researching travel insurance and eventually we settled on SafetyWing. Nowadays this is the only insurance we use as the prices are great and it’s so easy to set up. It’s great for digital nomads like us as it will auto renew each month when you’re continuously travelling but it’s also easy to set up for a short period as well.

Learn more and sign up for SafetyWing here

Things to know before visiting Seoul

One thing to be aware of is that Google Maps does not entirely work here. It’ll open up and you’ll see restaurants and things but we do not think that everything is on there. You also cannot map anything out so getting directions when you are walking is just not possible through Google. We also downloaded a map called Naver which works a little bit better and it will provide directions. But most location points on the map is in Korean. We sometimes find something on Google Maps and then try to find it on the other map to get directions but that can be a bit complicated and cumbersome.

The other thing to be aware of is the prices. We have a little bit of sticker shock as we have just come from spending many months in Southeast Asia where the prices are a lot cheaper. Although we expected Seoul to be a little expensive once we arrived we found that the prices were going to be higher than our initial expectations. For instance, last night we went out and got a pizza for $25 dollars and it was an average size pizza. Western food in Korea can definitely be more expensive than Korean food so try to eat as much of that as you can!