Travel Planning to Seoul, South Korea

See the lovely neighbourhood of Insadong

Being referred to as the traditional neighbourhood of Seoul, Insadong offers visitors the opportunity to transfer back to a time when women wore hanbok and men rode horses. There are a lot of wooden tea houses, traditional souvenir stores and street vendors selling traditional snacks. If you visit Insadong on Sunday, the streets become traffic free and there are a lot of street buskers performance that you can enjoy. One of the must visit place for tourists in Insadong is the Ssamziegil.

Ssamziegil is a shopping complex which houses over 70 stores that sell various items ranging from fashion and art to food and accessories. If you are interesting in finding traditional kind of souvenirs just like this traditional hanbok pouch, you should definitely make your way to Insadong. 

Eat the famous Jeonju bibimbap

South Korea is famous its bibimbap (re: mixed rice). It is basically a bowl of rice which is mixed together with a variety of ingredients such as beef, sauteed vegetables, gochujang (chilli pepper paste) and soy bean paste. A raw egg will be served on top of the ingredients. If you would like to try bibimbap, you can try out bibimbap at Gogung Myeongdong. You can try two variety of bibimbap here. One is Jeonju Bibimbap (which is served cold and it has raw beef in it) while the other is Dolsot Bibimbap (which is served on hot-stone bowl and the cooked beef). 

If you don't really like eating raw stuff, just stick to dolsot bibimbap. Don't forget to give their makgeolli (re: rice wine) a try. 

Stay the night at Lotte Hotel Seoul

Lotte Hotel Seoul (double room starts from $252) is located within walking distance from the main shopping districts in Seoul, Myeong-dong and Dongdaemun. The bedrooms provided by the hotel is known for its huge space. A continental buffet breakfast is served every morning and I heard it is quite good. Tips: Request for the room facing the road as it offers more interesting view from your window. 

Flight deals to Seoul 

A return flight from London to Seoul starts from $778.

A return flight from New York to Seoul starts from $1,067.

A return flight from Los Angeles to Seoul starts from $893.

A return flight from Paris to Seoul starts from $508.

A return flight from Berlin to Seoul starts from $733.