South Korea

Seoul

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  • Population:9.6M
  • Timezone:KST
  • IATA:ICN

Overview

Seoul is South Korea's hyper-modern capital — a city where 600-year-old royal palaces and hanok lanes sit beside neon shopping districts, all-night nightlife and the global engine of K-pop, K-drama and Korean food.

Travel

Seoul is one of the world's great around-the-clock cities and considerably older than its skyline lets on — a capital of roughly ten million on the Han River, ringed by granite mountains close enough that you can be walking a proper trail within an hour of leaving your hotel. What makes it unusual is not that the Joseon past and the hyper-modern present coexist, a line written about half the capitals in Asia, but how little distance separates them: a six-hundred-year-old palace and a street of themed cafés can be ten minutes apart on foot, and the transition between them is not signposted. The city rewards wandering far more than it rewards ticking things off, and it is laid out — and priced, and connected — so that wandering is genuinely easy.

Seoul's historic heart sits beneath the northern mountains. Gyeongbokgung, the grand main palace of the Joseon dynasty, anchors it — vast courtyards, a throne hall, the picturesque Gyeonghoeru pavilion over a lotus pond, and a colourful changing-of-the-guard ceremony at the gate; rent a hanbok (traditional dress) nearby and palace entry is free. A short walk away, Changdeokgung is the most beautiful of the palaces, its UNESCO-listed Secret Garden (Huwon) a masterpiece of Korean landscaping best seen on a guided walk. Between the palaces, Bukchon Hanok Village preserves hundreds of traditional tile-roofed houses on steep lanes with views over the old city, while nearby Insadong is the place for traditional crafts, calligraphy, ceramics and teahouses. Together they make a full, walkable day of old Seoul.

Frequently asked questions

Three full days covers the city without rushing: one for the palace quarter and the hanok lanes around it, one for the districts — Myeongdong, Hongdae and across the river to Gangnam — and one for a mountain or the riverside, finishing with a market and a bathhouse. Two days gives you a genuine first taste. Past four you are mostly revisiting neighbourhoods you liked or heading out of the city, which is no bad thing, since a great deal sits within an hour of it.

Diplomatic missions in Seoul

20 embassies based in this city, grouped by region.

Visaja keeps this page's contact details and visa guidance under continuous review — still, requirements can change at short notice, so confirm the essentials with the mission or the official government portal before you travel.