Kamsa-hamnida!
 

Wife and I just returned from our first trip to Seoul, and I just wanted to say kamsa-hamnida to the Korea experts here, especially mikesaidyes who kindly answered a few PMs for me. We absolutely loved Seoul and had a great trip! Advice I got from you all really helped -- upon arrival we knew just what to do: Global ATM for won, then to the GS25 by door 10 for T-Money cards, and then bus 6015 which dropped us off right in front of our hotel (BW Kukdo, just outside of Myeong-dong).

Everything in Korea was great: the people were nice, the weather was cool and comfortable, the Metro system is perhaps the best I've seen anywhere, there are clean public restrooms everywhere you go, the food is cheap and really good; I could go on but you guys know all this already!

Two brief stories that illustrate some of why we liked it there so much: we're on the Metro, and it's crowded so we're standing. My wife is holding her backpack with one hand and the overhead handle with her other hand. An ajumma is sitting directly in front of her, and I notice that she starts saying something to my wife and gesturing at her backpack. We don't speak enough Korean to understand, so I thought that perhaps my wife was inadvertently hitting the lady with her backpack or something. But no, it turned out that she was offering to hold my wife's backpack on her lap! Which she did for about the next 10 minutes until we got off.

The other story is when we went to the Seoul Olympic Park, and we visited the Olympic Museum. Admission is free, and they don't even solicit donations. On our way out, the young lady at the front desk stops us and hands us a nice shopping bag with two Seoul Olympics logo mugs and two nice little notepads! When was the last time you visited a free museum and they gave you a gift just for stopping by? Fantastic!

We can't wait to return. ^^^

Cool! Good to know about the Olympic Museum; I didn't have time to visit during my short stay in Seoul so maybe next time!

Where did you stay, which hotel? Was this award trip?

We stayed at the Best Western Premiere Hotel Kukdo, which is just outside Myeong-dong. It was not an award trip; we found reasonably priced tickets on Delta several months earlier and we had always wanted to go to Korea, so off we went. We stayed in Seoul the entire time. I didn't want my initial post to go on too long as a trip report so I didn't include too much detail about our daily activities, but we managed to hit many of the major tourist destinations in Seoul: Gyeongbokgung Palace, Jogyesa Temple, Bukchon Hanok, Gwangjang Market, Noryangjin Fish Market, Myeong-dong for shopping, the Seoul Olympic Park, and a few others. We even made it to the Bauhaus Dog Cafe! Of all the places we went only the Palace had an admission fee, and that was just 3,000 KRW (under $3).

Glad you enjoyed your trip! I'm always happy to answer questions or even take someone out on the town!

Hello, Michael! We were thanking you when we arrived at ICN from Detroit -- it was crowded and we were pretty cross-eyed after the 13 hour flight, but we knew exactly where to go and what to do which was a huge help. We could have used your assistance in Gwangjang -- hard to tell what some of those food items are without reading Korean and we didn't want to end up with a plate of chicken feet...;) Can't tell you how much we liked Korea -- we really didn't want to leave and we even made sure to keep enough KRW so we can hit the ground running next time.

I miss Seoul. :(

I'm going Wednesday for 3 weeks and CANT WAIT! I was there last Christmas for 8 days and was astounded. Spent the whole time in Seoul because I hadn't been to korea in about 15 years and was "afraid" to venture out not speaking any Korean and traveling as a solo female. How wrong I was so I'm correcting it this year by adding Gyeongju, Busan and Jeju -- also bringing my 87 year old mom as this country is something she needs to see again. Staying at the IBIS Insadong which is a great hotel. I love the location, it's reasonably priced, great amenities in rooms including a safe, refrigerator and hot water pot/tea, free shuttle bus to much of Seoul, and excellent staff (highly recommend this IBIS in Insadong).

if anyone has any other suggestions of towns/areas outside of Seoul I would appreciate the input. We may have 2 days for an additional site. I was thinking of Icheon as we are interested in pottery. Also interested in ceramics, art, architecture and poking around where the people live. Not much interest in hiking or nature.

Trying to get to the Tadao Ando/Turrell Hansol Museum in Gangwon-do outside Wonju but too difficult to book from USA. If anyone knows of a good ENGLISH SPEAKING travel agent in Seoul I would be most appreciative of a post or PM with details.

Thanks and happy travels to all.