Seoul Travel Guide: 24 Hours in Seoul

Seoul Travel Guide & Places to Visit in Seoul in 24 Hours:

More precisely, Seoul in 24 Hours!

Seoul Travel Notes

We titled it this way because this is Our last article is not a city guide because a huge city like Seoul cannot be visited in 24 hours.. This one will be a 24-hour Seoul diary!

On the way from Istanbul to Manila we had exactly 24 hours in Seoul between the two transfers, and the weather was minuscule. We tried to spend these 24 hours in the most efficient way, regardless of the 16 degrees.. We studied our lesson well before we left, and we researched a lot about what can be visited in Seoul in 24 hours, what places we should visit in what order.. In the end, we would see Seoul with the eyes of the world and we did not want to waste our time.

For those who want to make a flight transfer in Seoul, here is our 24-hour travel diary!

There are two airports in Seoul. If you are going to transfer with Asiana Airlines like us, you will land at Incheon Airport. There are two types of subway from here to downtown Seoul. One is the express, and the other is the normal speed city metro that everyone uses.. We were in the center of Seoul in about 45-50 minutes by city subway.

You can buy a daily subway ticket to visit the city.. You’ll use the subway a lot since you’re already here, hop around, like us.. In South Korea, Google Maps works for public transport but not while walking. Before you go, you can try to download the Maps.me application and download the Seoul and Incheon map within the application.. We tried Maps.me on our previous trips and were very pleased.

Seoul is neither too cheap nor too expensive.. We can say that it is in the setting of an average European city.. You can bring Euro or Usd with you from Turkey and exchange it easily in Seoul.. 1 Euro average 1300 Won. For the sake of simplicity, when we talk about the prices in Seoul, we will say the prices in Euros, we left the city before we could think about the other way around!

Before we went, we read that no one speaks English in Seoul, but to our head. everyone was chattering if there was no work to come. Maybe they have learned in recent years, but we have never had any problems with communication.

Seoul is a crowded city of about 11 million, but it is also very organized.. It seemed to us that the chaos in Asian cities did not exist here. Lonely people are a complete cell phone addict.. For the first time, we saw a nation that is more fond of mobile phones than Turks, which is interesting (the author stuck the needle on himself and the bag on someone else, don’t be fooled)!

Yes, we have come to the most painful part, being in Seoul in winter time! When we looked before we left, the weather in Seoul was showing -16 (minus 16 in writing) on ​​the day we were going to transfer, and frankly, we didn’t “do it” very much, after all, we are people living in Munich… But that was not the case… Thermal underwear, layered socks, two coats of clothing. We froze despite the layers of gloves and sweaters…We may not have seen such a cold in our entire life.. It was such an ugly weather. Seoul has been the city where the weather has hit us the hardest so far.. So beware of what’s coming in winter, don’t come without your underwear…..! Those who will come in the summer should not feel sorry for the extreme hot weather in Seoul, it is better than freezing somewhere in the winter..!

There is nothing to say about visas, South Korea does not want a visa from us.. You can also show your return ticket and enter the country comfortably.. In fact, we think that even if you do not have a return ticket, they will check one or two and put you in.

The flight to Seoul takes 10 hours on the way out and 12 hours on the way back.. We did not know whether we would have come to visit Seoul privately if we had not visited Seoul under the pretext of transferring it like this, but a 24-hour tour was enough for now.. It created the feeling of a crowded European city rather than an Asian city.. but a part of us also loved Seoul.

If we have poured out our hearts, we can come to the point!

You will transfer in Seoul and you have time, but you have time to take the city by yourself. If you don’t want to travel, then we have a very ideal offer for you.. Participate in free city tours organized by Incheon Airport for transit passengers. For this, all you need to do is click on Asiana Airlines’ website after purchasing your ticket, and then click on the reservation link it directs and make a reservation for the city tour at the time that suits you.

According to your transfer time, it takes from 4 hours to 9 hours. they have tours. At the end of the tour, they will drop you off at your airport terminal.. Thus, you can visit the main points of Seoul for free and not get tired.. We wanted to participate in these tours at first, but then the idea of ​​traveling the city independently prevailed and we gave up, frankly.

Accommodation in Seoul for those with 24-Hour Connections

Asiana Airlines sometimes offers long connections depending on your ticket class. can provide free hotel accommodation. Our ticket class was not suitable for this, so we booked a hotel near the airport.. Make sure to call Asiana Airlines at least 3 days before your flight and check this.. If you don’t force them, they won’t suggest it to you on their own.

We arrived in Seoul around 8 am and our flight to Manila was at 8 am the next day.. That’s why we had to book a hotel to sleep at night.. If your transfer time falls completely during the day, you will not need to book a hotel anyway..

We stayed at K-Gueshouse Incheon Airport, which is about 10 km from the airport in Incheon.. We leave the link here.

Normally 30 Euros per room per night, but since we went just at Christmas time, it increased to 40 Euros.. If you want a cheap place and close to the airport, you can choose this place.. We came by taxi to be fast. It cost about 8 Euros from the airport to the hotel. If you book a hotel in the center of Incheon, you can also easily use the subway.. It takes about 10 minutes from Incheon airport to the center. A one-way ticket is around 3 Euros on average.

I guess that’s all we have to say about Seoul.. Now we can move on to what we did in 24 hours and our Seoul Travel Notes!

08:00 – We landed at Incheon Airport.

09:00 – We left our bags at the airport hotel where we will be staying and rushed to the subway.

10:00 – Our first stop, Gyeongbokgung Palace

Gyeongbokgung Palace, We can say that it is a must for a tourist going to Seoul. You can think of this palace as the Eiffel of Paris and the Leaning Tower of Pisa.. The entrance is about 3 Euros and you need to spare at least 2 hours to visit the whole thing.

We didn’t have that much time, so we just looked around.. We loved the big, wide and colorful door you see in the photo.. Here’s the website if you want to check it out before you go.

By the way, right near Gyeongbokgun is ‘Tongin Traditional Market’, one of Seoul’s street food heavens.. If you are traveling in nice weather, we think you can have your lunch here.. You can go in cold weather, but it will be a bit of ‘fast and furious’..!

11:00: Our next stop is Bukchon Hanok Village and Changdeokgung Palace

We reached our second stop, Hanok Village, in about 15-20 minutes on foot from

Gyeongbokgung. Do not worry when we say we have arrived, this is not a single building, but rather a region with houses bearing the traces of Korean culture.. It is also located between Changdeokgung Palace and Gyeongbokgung. Excuse me, our buttocks froze beautifully while we were wandering around here…! Nevertheless, we came to Seoul once in our lives, of course we did not leave without visiting.. ‘Hanok’ is the name given to Korean traditional houses.

Did we like this village-like place? We loved it, but because the city is also very much inside, the chaos of the city travels here with you.. That’s why we shouldn’t expect a very different environment.

Our next stop from here was Changdeokgung Palace, which we reached on foot.

Changdeokgung Palace is another stop in Seoul. ‘Eiffel’. He also has a huge garden. We didn’t spend much time here because we were too cold, so we threw ourselves into a nearby cafe.

14:00 Hongdae District – Café HoHo Myoll and Raccoon Café

strong>Hongdae area is the youth zone and we liked this place the most in Seoul. We may be a little disappointed in Munich, but we are still young..!

There are many ‘concept cafes’ in Seoul. One of the indispensable things for us when visiting a city is to visit the unique cafes of that city, before we go, we pinned these two cafes and took our breath in Hongdae where these concept cafes are located.

From the subway ‘Sangsu’ stop, you will reach a region with hundreds of concept coffee shops, hamburgers, rice shops, bars and scientific venues.