By Amaya Marley Mansur, Shanto Dylan Mansur, and Elisabeth Fahrni Mansur
During Covid lock-down, Amaya (10) and Dylan (12) familiarized themselves virtually with South Korean food, fashion, and facial care. While sharing their fascination with their mother Elisabeth over a bowl of creatively enriched instant ramen in early 2023, the idea of a visit to the South Korea capital city of Seoul arose. We’re excited to share with you our travel experiences and favorite activities from a ten-day exploratory city trip planned and led by sibling tweens.
Finding our way around
The public transportation system in Seoul is amazing. Buses and the subway are low-cost opportunities to get anywhere, avoid rush hour traffic, and style-watch. Transport cards, which also work for the airport shuttle bus, are available in convenience stores at every corner of the bustling city. Within a day, Dylan familiarized himself with the Naver Map App that gives easy-to-follow directions even for non-Korean speakers. He got us to all the places we wanted to visit, usually opting for the route with the fewest changes. Relying on our mobile phone for navigating the city meant that we had to make sure it was fully charged in the mornings. An extra power bank came in handy. There is free WiFi in most public spaces, shops, and even on buses and subways, so we could have managed without the local SIM card that we purchased on arrival at the airport.
Within a few days, we became familiar with the short local bus ride from the Seokgye subway station to our fifty-dollars-a-night Airbnb in a quiet residential area, the bus drivers, and the local street vendors. The politeness of Seoul residents and their genuine care towards others impressed us, although verbal communications were slightly limited. We witnessed how an elderly man losing his balance as the subway jerked to a halt remained completely unharmed thanks to the many helping hands of bystanders that reached out to prevent his fall. No matter your age, it’s advisable to hold on well as public transport tends to be a bit rough with abrupt stops or turns. And the roads are quite uneven, so watch your step and wear good walking shoes.
Since we live in Bangladesh, several other things that positively impressed us about Seoul might seem perfectly normal to other travelers. Public restrooms are conveniently located, clean, and free of cost. Tap water is safe to drink.
Meticulously curated green spaces and spacious parks, often with a play area, exercise machines, and even shoe-duster machines – a first for us – offer welcome respite within and around the busy city.
Soul food
Korean cuisine was one of the main reasons for Amaya and Dylan’s desire to visit Seoul. They were keen to taste all the different foods they had read about or cooked at home. We generally chose small, well frequented local eateries. If we couldn’t figure out the items on the menu, we would just point at dishes on neighboring tables that looked good. We loved the hidden drawers in restaurant tables where napkins, chopsticks, and spoons are kept, and the complimentary chilled water served in most places.
Our most enjoyable dessert experience was shaved ice with fresh strawberries, a typical Korean dessert, at Sul.bing cafe near Korea University. On some days, we opted for a selection of ready-made food from convenient stores, many of which have a place to heat the food and a seating area where you can eat it. Kimbap, a triangular rice patty wrapped in seaweed with various fillings, and honey-butter flavored potato chips were our convenient store favorites.
A royal entry – Gyeongbokung Palace and Bukchan Hanok Village
Out of the many palaces in Seoul, Amaya and Dylan chose the Gyeongbokung Palace because of its proximity to the Bukchan Hanok Village. We walked from the subway station past the Daeung-Jeon and Jogyesa temples to the palace grounds. Like many other visitors, Dylan and Amaya got dressed up in a rented Hanbok – the traditional Korean dress – for the occasion. Amaya felt like a princess in her flowing gown and hair decorations. We had fun taking pictures and watching others having their pictures taken, while strolling around the palace buildings and surrounding flower gardens.
Once the Hanbok enthusiasm wore off, we returned the costumes and wandered through the nearby Bukchan Hanok village. Despite the touristy feel, the traditional houses arranged in tight rows on a steep hill are well worth a visit. Amaya was excited to test the first photo-booth that we encountered: an entirely automated set-up for having your picture taken in goofy outfits and poses. All three of us enjoyed this introductory experience on our first day in Seoul.
Local riverside markets – Dongmyo – Gwang-jchang
The Dongmyo flea market was a chance discovery when we were searching for a tackle store. The first time we arrived in the late afternoon as vendors were packing up and several stores had already closed. The second time we got there in the morning with the hustle and bustle in full swing. The flea market is set up on the main street that ends at the river front. You can continue strolling through the adjacent market streets all the way to the Gwangj-chang market, through sections offering vintage collectibles, shoes, and pets (quite appalling and sad). We liked the Dongmyo market area in particularly because it felt much more local than other markets we visited that are geared mostly to tourists.
Game time – Arcades of Hong-dae
Hongdae is a hip and pricey part of town. We went there on a Sunday, ideal for style-watching due to the large weekend crowds. Amaya’s tip for Hong-dae is to “Look at the styles here and then go shopping for what you like at the underground markets around Myeongdong, where things are way less costly.”
The main attraction for the kids were the game arcades, of which Hongdae has many. Dylan particularly liked shooting popguns, Amaya preferred the virtual reality sword challenge, and both enjoyed the dancing-to-K-Pop-songs-game together. We also came across arcade games at Noryangjin, N Seoul Tower, and in Seoul Land, and claw-machines are common in shopping centers. But the Hongdae arcades made for the best game time.
Given our interest in marine wildlife and fishing, a visit to the largest fish and seafood market in Seoul seemed appropriate. We got there in the morning when things were not at all busy and took our time walking up and down the lanes to see what was on offer in the tanks (alive), freshly iced on display, and dried in packages or hanging from the ceiling. The diversity was impressive, ranging from seaweed and sea cucumbers to rays, puffer fish, king crabs, and many other shellfishes. Besides the fish stalls, we found stores offering whole-sale prices on kitchen utensils and condiments that we bought for taking back home.
Speaking of fish, we visited the aquarium in the Starfield Coex Mall. That was by far the weirdest display of aquarium fish we’ve ever experienced, with a lot of other aquatic wildlife on display – including manatees, small-clawed otters, Siamese crocodiles, beavers, penguins, rays, sharks, as well as prairie dogs. Many of the tanks were overstocked and floating dead fish indicate lacking maintenance. The educational texts did mention conservation investment, but no specifics as to how this aquarium contributes to marine conservation in South Korea or elsewhere. The comparatively expensive entrance fee was not worth it, and we do not recommend visiting this place.
The wild side – Seoul Grand Park
We reached the Seoul Zoo by subway and bus. Taking the ski lift up the hillside to the entrance was a great experience and well worth the expense. The ride gave us a moment to catch our breath (and have a snack) while taking in the amazing view of the distant city scape, the diverse vegetation in the large park area (which includes the botanical garden), the amusement park in the distance, and animals in their enclosures from above. We then walked down through the zoo, selecting enclosures with animals we wanted to see guided by the clear and helpful signage. Among our favorite sections were the aviaries with birds of prey and large wetland birds. The big cat exhibitions were spacious, and we appreciated the signage about the tiger habitats, threats, and distribution. The leopard crossing overhead through a tunnel-like structure, roaring, and pacing above our heads across an impressive mountainous backdrop was the highlight for us. We could have spent an entire day exploring the zoo.
Dylan and Amaya had never been to an amusement park of this size before, and one of their wishes was to ride on a roller coaster. Seoul Land made this wish come true. There were lots of rides catering to different ages, with minimum heights defined for each. Besides the roller coaster and the swinging pirate ship – which they rode twice – Dylan’s favorite was the bumper cars, and Amaya dared a ride on the crazy scary Twister. We were there on a Monday, so no weekend crowds with a maximum ten minutes wait for getting on any of the rides. The entrance fee seemed steep, but considering that there are no additional charges for rides it is reasonable. Towards six in the evening it got chilly, so we left Seoul Land and walked to the subway station at the main gate, from where it was an easy way back. We could have easily spent a full day at the amusement park, too, and the Modern Art Museum in the same park looked very promising.
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South Korea is next on my list of “new countries”. My younger son is obsessed with all that plastic-wrapped junk food from the 7-11 too. It was a big feature of our trip to Japan a few weeks back.