Going on vacation to Seoul. (need recommendation)

[SamanosukeShiva]

I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner, but anyway, I'm going on vacation to Seoul, South Korea. I know there are a few of you who lives there or been there. Any recommendation of places to visit and more importantly restaurants to go to?

Thanks.

[Viq]

Someone living in Seoul will be able to offer better advice, but I can recommend a couple places.

- Namdaemun Market is a fun place to do some shopping, and to get some delicious street food.

- Gyoungbokgung is the an old palace in the middle of the city. It was absolutely gorgeous when I went.

- Insa-dong is a fun, smallish shopping district near Gyoungbokgung. Myoung-dong is nearby too, but I wouldn't recommend it as much.

- If you like arcades, especially playing fighting games, then Green Arcade is a must.

If you have the chance to leave Seoul and head south to Gyoungju or Busan, I could give a lot more info about those places (currently living in Busan).

[MaachaQ]

I'm in Chuncheon, about an hour out of Seoul by train. I've never really done much of the tourist-y stuff, but I know a lot of good museums...

If you happen to head out my way, I run a Cat Cafe here, and I could recommend a decent number of local restaurants. Chuncheon's specialty is dakgalbi, but there are other good foods around too

[Viq]

Holy shit, you run a cat cafe? I'm totally going to go visit during winter break.

[Cletis]

Korean BBQ is awesome, cook your meat in the middle of the table.

And check out the DMZ. I thought it was eerie.

[MaachaQ]

Holy shit, you run a cat cafe? I'm totally going to go visit during winter break.

We opened about a month ago ^^ Not very busy yet, need to do more advertising, but we're doing OK. We even have Root Beer! We have a SodaStream machine and I got my sister back in the states to send us the syrup, since Root Beer is almost non-existent in this country...

I posted more pics over in the pets thread, but heres a new one, Bhumi is such a ham


And seriously, the dakgalbi is really good. There's a restaurant on the 1st floor of our building where we eat probably once a week.

[SamanosukeShiva]

Arrived in Seoul yesterday, I'm staying in Classic 500 in Starcity, probably one of the nicest hotel I've been in, (toilet bowl with a remote control/seat warmer/tv, wat?). We went to some museum, and visited literally every food stall we came across that night, and even shop at local groceries store. I felt like a kid in a candy store in that groceries store, they have more varieties of products than wholefoods that I've been in the US. Today, we went to ate lunch at a Michelin starred Korean BBQ it was really good, and we we're suppose to go to Lotte World afterwards but said fuck it, cause we're too sleepy because we ate too much haha, so we went back to the hotel and crashed. Still have 3 more days in Seoul, looking forward to more exciting stuff!

[Viq]

If you want some ideas for food for the next couple of days, ask someone at the hotel to guide you to the nearest restaurant that would serve:

Gamja-tang (감자탕) and/or Haejang-guk (해장국) - Soups made with a combination of soy bean sprouts, cabbage, potato (for the first one), and pig spine
Jjuggumi (쭈꾸미) - spicy grilled baby octopus
Bossam (보쌈) - Can pick either beef or pork usually, and you just get a plate of sliced meat, a plate of kimchi, and a bunch of stuff to wrap it up with
Milmyon (밀면) / Naengmyon (냉면) - cold noodle dishes, usually a little spicy
Kalguksu (칼국수) - a traditional noodle soup. If you go to Gyoungbokgung (the palace) there is a restaurant near the east entrance called Hwangsaengka Kalguksu (활생가칼국수) that was delicious when I went. They have really good dumplings too.

If you want desert, of course it has to be Patbingsu (팟빙수), which is shaved ice, red beans and ice cream normally. Different places have all kinds of wacky variations. I prefer the kind where they hollow out a watermelon, and then stuff it back up with watermelon balls and shaved ice (수박빙수).

There's too much awesome food in Korea, but that's what I have off the top of my head right now. I added names of the foods in Korean in case you just want to show it to someone at the hotel to make it easier.

[Blackmagik]

Im curious, Is it easy to get by without any understanding of Korean?

[Viq]

All public transit stuff is written and/or announced in multiple languages, and a lot of restaurants will have things like picture menus ready to go. Hotel staff, most people at the airport, and people at touristy places will speak English pretty well. Outside of those places, finding someone who speaks English can be hard at times.