Like a phoenix, Seoul’s premier palace has risen several times from the ashes of destruction. Hordes of tourists have replaced the thousands of government…
Must see attractions in Seoul
- Top ChoiceGyeongbokgung
- Top ChoiceChangdeokgung
The World Heritage–listed Changdeokgung is the most beautiful of Seoul's five main palaces. You must join a one-hour guided tour to look around. English…
- Top ChoiceLeeum Samsung Museum of Art
Amid the celebrity-owned apartments on the leafy southern slope of Namsan is Korea's premier art gallery. Beautifully designed and laid-out, it balances…
- Top ChoiceDeoksugung
One of Seoul's five grand palaces built during the Joseon dynasty, Deoksugung (meaning Palace of Virtuous Longevity) is the only one you can visit in the…
- Top ChoiceNational Museum of Korea
This vast and imposing concrete slab of a museum takes visitors on a fascinating journey through Korea's past from prehistory all the way to the Korean…
- Top ChoiceWar Memorial of Korea
This huge museum documents the history of the Korean War (1950–53) using multimedia exhibits and black-and-white documentary footage, along with artefacts…
- Top ChoiceBongeun-sa
Located in the heart of ritzy Gangnam, the shrines and halls of the Buddhist temple Bongeun-sa, with its tree-filled hillside location, stand in direct…
- Top ChoiceDongdaemun Design Plaza & Park
Designed by the late Zaha Hadid, this neofuturistic cultural complex was commissioned to replace the Dongdaemun Stadium, built during Japanese rule in the…
- Top ChoiceNoryangjin Fish Market
Providing terrific photo opportunities, Korea's largest fish market supplies every kind of aquatic life form to restaurants, fish shops and the general…
- Top ChoiceNamdaemun Market
You could spend all day in this swarming night-and-day market and not see it at all. The largest market in Korea, each section has hundreds of stalls,…
- Top ChoiceSeodaemun Prison History Hall
Built in 1908, this former prison is a potent symbol of Korean suffering at the hands of Japan during colonial occupation in the early 20th century…
- Top ChoiceCheong-gye-cheon
With its landscaped walkways, footbridges, waterfalls and a variety of public artworks, such as the enormous pink-and-blue shell entitled Spring in Cheong…
- Top ChoiceN Seoul Tower & Namsan
The iconic N Seoul tower (236m), atop the city’s guardian mountain Namsan, offers panoramic views of this immense metropolis from its observation deck…
- Top ChoiceBukchon Hanok Village
Meaning ‘North Village’, Bukchon, between Gyeongbokgung and Changdeokgung, is home to around 900 hanok, Seoul’s largest concentration of these traditional…
- Top ChoiceTangent
Hyundai Development Company commissioned Daniel Libeskind to work with Seoul-based firm Himma on its headquarters opposite COEX Mall. The result, Tangent,…
- GTop ChoiceGyeongui Line Forest Park
This 6.3km park, named for the former Gyeongui Line (on which it was built), is a narrow, long green space that runs along the discarded railroad tracks…
- KTop ChoiceKorean Stone Art Museum
A score of centuries-old stone sentinels stand guard on the hillside at this terrific museum overlooking Seongbuk-dong. A road winds through sculpted…
- KTop ChoiceKorea Furniture Museum
You need to apply several days in advance via a reservation page on the website to visit this museum, but you absolutely should to admire the fabulous…
- STop ChoiceSeoul K-Medi Center
Learn about the history and practice of traditional Korean medicine at this impressive facility styled to resemble Bojewon, a clinic from the early Joseon…
- ITop ChoiceIhwa Mural Village
High on the slopes of Naksan is one of the city's old daldongnae (literally ‘moon villages’) where refugees lived in shacks after the Korean War. Sixty…