A December Seoul, South Korea trip!

On my first few days, I did a LOT of sightseeing! 

I first visited the Myeongdong district for some retail therapy and let me tell you… Seoul is a shopper’s DREAM. There are SO many cute things, ALL the famous Korean beauty products, independent and unique items literally everywhere. There are underground shopping malls too, which are almost like cities in their own right. Myeongdong has everything, and it was a great area to explore! 

I then went to another famous shopping district, called Dongdaemun. This area is even bigger, and I did not have time to see everything before it got really dark, sadly! But this district is home to more than 30000 stores and over 25 malls, so if you need anything just go here- you are sure to find it! I went down quite a few streets and 4 malls. 

On day 2, I first visited the beautiful National Museum of Korea and spent a good few hours here, and I can definitely recommend a visit to this museum. It is free and the building is modern and new, with a great layout inside. The gardens around it are beautiful as well. I walked around the gardens for a few photos and then at 1 pm, I joined a guided tour around the museum. The guide was good (although slightly difficult to understand at times) but he was friendly and more than happy to answer questions. The museum specifically has a lot about Korean ancient and modern history, beautiful artwork, a section of general Asian religions and countries and other beautiful crafts.

After the museum visit I went to the famous Gangnam district, which is definitely the richest in the city. The other areas, while some stores were new, I found that the majority of the buildings looked a bit run down and the streets were quite dirty. In Gangnam, this was not at all the case- all buildings looked new and modern, skyscrapers which were definitely maintained and a lot less litter. And there were so many fancy cars too. This was also a good area for shopping, so I did a lot of window browsing (yeah, fancy area means fancy stores aka Prada, Louis Vuitton etc. so a bit above my budget haha) and walked along the main boulevard a bit further away to a less expensive area , although still still within the Gangnam district. 

On day 3, I visited a traditional Korean public bathhouse (jjimjilbang) and what an experience this was! I went to one called Spa Lei, and was there for 5 hours. Its a slightly complicated process so I want to talk about it :)

First of all, what is a  jjimjilbang? In general terms its a bathhouse, but it is also much more than that as they are in big buildings across multiple floors. They are also open 24 hours. The facilities at each one will vary depending on which one you go to. However, in general they will have a restaurant, rest areas, sleeping areas for overnight guests, and numerous different types of baths and saunas (herbal and mineral/stone based). Some even have cinemas, entertainment areas and gyms inside too, so going to a jjimjilbang is a full day experience for sure. 

Koreans take their personal hygiene very seriously, and its customary for them to visit at least once a week. The entry fee to a jjimjilbang is in the range from 8000-20000 korean won (6-12£), which usually gives you access for 12 hours and a fee of 1000 korean won for each hour thereafter- so going to a bathhouse like this is also super cheap for all the facilities you get to experience!

Any treatments you will want does cost an additional fee, however compared to Denmark and the UK I thought these really cheap! I got a manicure for just 25£ and a full body scrub for 15£! The lady who did the scrub was thorough and my skin was slightly sore to the touch afterwards, however it was so worth it- so much dead skin came off and I have never felt so clean or had such smooth skin!

Because this was my first experience, I choose Spa Lei specifically because it was for women only (although other ones are still gender segregated). As it is a bathhouse, you guessed right- once inside by the changing rooms, you strip down to your birthday suit (also while having the treatments!) and that is how you walk around throughout the rest of your time there. 

Spa Lei was great and I can highly recommend it- I have listed the facilities below: 

Baths- Foot bath, lower body bath, seawater bath, two large hot jacuzzi baths, massage baths with water jets and an outside heated open water bath.

Saunas- A traditional Korean Bulgama, which is basically like an oven- super hot and dry. I could not spend a lot of time in here! Other saunas include a wet sauna and an infrared one

Mineral saunas include a charcoal room and red clay room

Restaurant and a small shop

Two rest areas and one sleeping area

Massage and wellness areas for facials and body treatments

Nail salon

There was also a “get ready” room as I call it, with hair dryers, beauty products and female hygiene products at your disposal. The actual spa was beautifully decorated with mirrors, chairs and everything throughout, and drinking water fountains and a small shop.

While the staff was not very good at english, they were still super friendly and helpful. 

I definitely had a great day and experience, and I would recommend anyone visiting Korea to try this if you want the traditional Korean experience, If you are still undecided due to the getting naked part, honestly take my word for it- you will be fine. It might be nervewrecking the first 5 minutes, but everyone else is naked there too! Trust me, no one will care what you look like. Just enjoy yourself and have a lovely time being pampered like I did! :) 

Day 4 then arrived, which I started with a trip to the famous Starfield Library and I can definitely recommend this as well! It is so beautiful, particularly in December because of the Christmas lights- it is home to more than 50000 books and magazines, the majority in one of 3, 13 meter high beautiful wooden pillars. This library is also inside a huge shopping center, so if shopping is needed I can definitely also recommend a visit to the center as well.

After this I made my way to a free walking tour I had booked. It was just the guide and another lovely girl from Bulgaria named Nasia who were also joining. On the tour we saw the beautiful Changdeokung Palace, which has absolutely beautiful architecture from 600 years ago. It was really big and I can definitely recommend visiting. The tour then continued to Ikseon-dong, which is also a must-visit area. The tiny streets are so cute and brings a unique atmosphere, with so many unique stores and restaurants. The same thing can be said for the last stop on the tour, which was the area of Insa-dong. 

After the tour, I went on a hike along the beautiful fortress wall of Seoul (called Hanyangdoseong). The full walk was quite long so I just did the section through Naksan Park as it was getting late at this point, but I can fully recommend also doing this and the full hike. The stretch through Naksan Park is quite high up and you get the most incredible views of Seoul, particularly at night when the lights are on. It was amazing to see!

On my last and 5th day, I met up with a photographer called Keith whom I was going to do a photoshoot with. We first went to the famous Bukchon Hanok village, which is unique in the way that it is a very antique part of Seoul with beautifully preserved original houses. The streets were cute and narrow and it is worth a visit. The views of the city from here are also great as it was quite high up. 

After this, I actually met up with Nasia again and explored Gwangjang food market. The amount of food stalls here was absolutely incredible, I don’t think I have ever seen so much food in one place. It was the weekend at this point and very crowded, so I will recommend going during the weekday instead of a weekend. They also had more than just food, like a few clothing shops and odd tinkerings really, but the food was definitely the main part. 

Nasia and I then parted ways and I went to see the beautiful Garden of Morning Calm. It took 2 hours from Seoul center with the public transport but OH MY GOODNESS was it worth it. During winter, they have a lighting festival going on and it was absolutely incredible to see and walk around the gardens. Every part of the park had the most beautiful lights of all the colours in the rainbow, with arches, animal figures, you name it. It it was REALLY busy and crowded, so there was about a 40 minute bus jam at the last part of the drive to the park, so if going I suggest also going on a weekday for sure. However, the good thing about the gardens is that it is also located near other attractions to see, such as Petite France and Nami Island. I sadly did not have time to see these, but there is a tour bus for 6000 krw taking you to all these places so if going (and I HIGHLY suggest you do), then get the day tour on the bus and make the most of it- I promise you will have an amazing time! 

And that was basically my Seoul trip! I had an absolutely amazing time and I want to go back for sure.