The Ultimate 4-Day Seoul Itinerary
Seoul was definitely one of my favorite cities I ever visited. I had a very similar feeling to when I was in Tokyo, which is that you’re in a different world. I think that comes a bit with the territory of visiting Eastern Asian countries, that are so culturally different than us here. Since I was coming from a long trip to the Philippines, I only had 4 days to spend in this amazing city and country. So, without further ado, this is my ultimate 4-day Seoul itinerary.
Before we start, here is my Vlog, already up on my Youtube channel:
The amount of days…
Four days seem like a short period of time to visit a city, but, in the end, I believe it was the ideal amount of time to spend in Seoul. At the end of the trip, I almost ran out of things to do. So, if you’re planning a tourism trip to Seoul, I really believe 4 days is the sweet spot!
Day 1
After a brutal red-eye flight from Manila, I landed in Seoul at 5 am. I’ll take this cue here to highly recommend you to get one of the limousine buses from Incheon to the city. It’s really easy to buy the tickets and they’re very punctual and comfortable. The bus you take will depend on which area of the city you’re staying at.
I arrived in Seoul on a Sunday, so, since I only had 4 days and palaces are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, I decided to go palace-hopping right off the bat (how crazy of me!).
Before starting all the walks, I had to fuel myself with some world-famous Korean pastries, so the first place I went to check out was the popular Knotted Cafe to have their yummy doughnuts.
To go palace-hopping, I recommend you buy a combination ticket that gives you access to the main palaces and gardens, and shrines. If you visit two of them, it’s already paid off.
We started with the Gyeongbokgung Palace, which I’d say it’s the biggest and main one. Try to get there when they’re doing a change of guards, as it’s really a spectacle. This visit took me a while because of how big this palace is, so, by the time I was done, it was already time for lunch.
On my way to lunch, I also strolled through the super cute Bukchon Hanok Village, which is a neighborhood with very traditional Korean houses and little streets. I also found the cutest shops, including the fragrance shop Granhand.
I really wanted to try something traditional and that was in the vicinity of the area where the palaces were, so I checked the Michelin guide and found this really traditional and highly-recommended Korean dumpling place that was SO good. Try to avoid going on a Sunday, because the lines were HUGE.
After lunch and a much-needed dessert, I headed to the second palace of the day: the Changdeokgung Palace.
Since I went to Seoul in the end of March, the palaces were full of cherry blossoms in full bloom and it was so beautiful to watch all that, and the people dressed in hanboks really added to the magic of the place! If you want to dress up to go palace-hopping, it’s good to note that if you’re wearing a hanbok, you get free access to all palaces (and it’s also very easy to find places to rent from in the vicinity of the palaces).
Day 2
Before coming to Seoul, I had seen so many TikToks about exploring Ikseondong and all the cute places and cafes in the area, so I decided to start my second day here.
It’s important to note that most of the cute coffee shops will only open at 10:30-11 am on weekdays, so make sure you don’t start your Mondays too early here.
Luckily, we found a really nice coffee shop (it became our favorite, and it wasn’t in any famous list) that was open early, called Cheese Industry. The whole cafe is farm-themed and the pastries are to die for. We went there 3 times, including one at night post Korean barbecue to have their cheesecake as dessert (so worth it!!!).
After that, we made sure to put our names down on the waitlist of the famous Shabu Shabu restaurant Oncheonjib and headed to kill some time until lunch by visiting the Jongmyo Shrine (included in our Palace-hopping ticket). Note that some places will only be open on certain days for guided tours, so make sure you check the times of these tours so you don’t wait too much.
I highly recommend you have lunch at Oncheonjib at least one day if you’d like to try a Korean version of Shabu Shabu. It was definitely the best restaurant we tried on this trip!
Of course, a dessert stop was mandatory after and in between every meal, so we went to try the famous matcha sponge cake at Cheongsudang, which was right across the street from the restaurant.
After that, we were fueled to head to some shopping neighborhoods. The first stop was Ssanzigil, which is a cute open-air vertical mall with lots of local artisanship stores.
Then we headed to the popular Gwanhun-dong neighborhood to explore all shops and buzzing streets.
As the evening fell, we headed to the busy streets of Myeongdong, with lots of shops (soooo many K-beauty and clothing shops) and food stands, where we found our favorite of the night: the Oreo churros.
We decided, then, to head to a neighborhood closer to our hotel in Gangnam (Cheongdam-dong) to have some drinks at the fancy Alice in Wonderland – which was totally worth it for just one drink (just one, because each drink is a whopping $35). And then we proceeded to have my most anticipated dinner as a K-drama fan: fried chicken and beer and soju.
Day 3
The third day started with an exciting visit to a Korean beauty clinic! Fun fact, aesthetic treatments in Korea are REALLY REALLY worth it, as they are only a fraction of the prices we find here in the USA. They’re also very no-frills, no luxury, and very straight to the point. If you watch my vlog, you’ll see that you wash your own face and go from station to station for each treatment you’re getting.
The Treatments
I chose the Muse clinic and did a Pico laser, InMode Lifting FORMA, and a Shurink. Of course, you can argue that these treatments require a few sessions before you can see actual results, but I’m very happy with the whole experience.
After my treatment, I went to meet a Korean friend and had lunch at an Udon place recommended by the Michelin guide (a very simple, traditional spot) called Hyun Udon.
After lunch, we headed to the Gwangjang food market and bought some treats even though our bellies were already full from lunch. It was so cool to see the different kinds of Korean food and try a few!
To complete our afternoon, we headed to Dongdaemun Design Plaza to see the beautiful building and to check out a David Hockney exhibition that was taking place.
We loved Ikseon-dong so much that we headed back there to have some beers at Art Monster and then some Korean barbecue. This was also when we headed back to Cheese Industry for a late-night (actually 9 pm) cheesecake.
Day 4
Even though this was not my laaaast day, it was my last full day. I was dying to try a traditional (but also cool) Jinjibang experience. I didn’t like the look of places in central Seoul too much, so I headed to the modern Aquafield in Goyang (about 1:40 from my hotel in Gangnam). I LOVED the experience and went for a post-Jinjibang Boba at the same mall.
After this relaxing morning, I headed back to central Seoul and filled my afternoon by going to the National Museum. The entrance is free and you can learn a lot of things about the history of the country and the Japanese occupation.
After that, we went back to (you guessed it!) Ikseon-dong for one more night of Korean barbecue!
Day 5 (bonus!!)
As I mentioned before, I only had half a day on my last day, before I went to the airport. I was staying at the Intercontinental COEX, which is right by the Coex mall. Because of that, I left this area for my last day.
I found a Knotted cafe very near my hotel and had some breakfast there, then headed to see the very impressive library inside the Coex mall.
After grabbing lunch at the mall, I realized that Seoul Sky was one of the only places I hadn’t visited, so decided to give it a try, and it was a very cool thing to do on my very last day to get a sight of Seoul from high up.
I filled the rest of my day by visiting a nice Shrine right in front of my hotel, then heading to the bus station to finally get my bus back to Incheon airport to head back home!
I really hope you guys love this 4 day Seoul itinerary post and get some insights for your trip to Seoul! Don’t forget to watch the vlog to get all the visuals!
xoxo
What do you think?