20 Fun and Unique Things to do in Seoul

Seoul, the capital of South Korea has thriving traditions and culture. It has well preserved national monuments and palaces showcasing its long history, but in contrast it is also a megacity with rapid development and urbanization.

I was happy to travel to South Korea and I ended up truly loving it! Seoul is now one of my favorite cities and I definitely will be going back again and again. There is honestly so much to do there, however I have compiled a list of what I think are some unique things to do in Seoul!

1- Myeongdong Street

Myeongdong Street is a must when visiting Seoul! It is perfect for people watching, buying amazing skin care and beauty products, finding cute animal cafes and department stores and for street food! I had a great time spending an afternoon walking around all of the streets and just getting lost. It is also near  Namdaemun Market, which is worth a visit and you can buy anything you could imagine!

I stayed at this hotel on Myeongdong Street and it was seriously in the best location, a great price and very modern with nice amenities.

Click here to book the hotel I stayed in!

2- Street Food

You can’t go to Seoul with out trying some of its famous street food! I could write a whole post on all of the different varieties, but it is kind of fun to just figure out what you like when you are there! There are even places selling 12 inch ice-cream cones! They also sell adorable ice-cream in the shape of roses. Hot dogs covered in French fries, you name it!

3-Themed Cafes

Seoul is famous for all of its themed cafes and you could seriously just spend your entire trip going to different cafes. There is a cute monster one that sells crazy and adorable looking desserts! There is also a Lego one that sounded fun! There are tons of different animal cafes too including cats, dogs and even raccoons!

I tried out the Dog Cafe in MyeongDong. It was $9, but you also get a drink included and could stay as long as you wanted. I had so much fun because I am a huge dog lover! There were about 20 different dogs and they all seemed to be very well taken care of. I had so much fun getting to know all of them. If you sit down and put a blanket on your lap, the dogs will come to you and sleep in your lap!

4- Stylenanda Store

OK, so this is probably the most unique and cutest store I have EVER been to! The whole theme of the store is that it is a hotel and each floor is a different theme or level of the hotel. Everything is pink and adorable! It has a 1950s vibe and is also a perfect place for photo opps! There is even an adorable rooftop hang out area with pink pillows everywhere. They also have a cafe on the 6th floor serving up milkshakes and giant cotton candy!

Unique Things to do in Seoul

5- Balloon Installation

One of my favorite parts about a big city is just getting lost and discovering places you weren’t planning to. That happened to me when I came across this amazing balloon installation! It is near the Myeongdong area and is perfect for photo opps!

Located in the heart of Seoul, the City Hall is a government building for the Seoul Metropolitan Government. This City Hall opened in 2012 and took 4 years to build. It is a very impressive building so I can see why! It also contains multipurpose halls and cultural facilities for citizens. It is the perfect place to go for photos because the architecture looks so futuristic and the inside is beautiful and actually has the world\’s tallest vertical garden!

7- Folk Museum

This Folk Museum was actually right next to Gyeongbokgung palace and it was definitely worth a visit! There were also a lot of areas for kids to play in case you are traveling with family. They have created a replica of an old village and you can walk around and imagine what it would have been like in that time period. Definitely a really cool attraction.

8- Gyeongbokgung Palace

This palace is the largest of all five palaces in Seoul. Its location also makes for a beautiful setting as you can see the mountains right in the background. The palace area was so much bigger than I expected so definitely plan for at least a couple of hours. If you time it right, you can see the changing of the guards too which is really cool experience!

Try to get there right at opening if you can because it gets really busy at this palace! If you happen to be there in the afternoon like I was, a good photo tip is that the farther back you walk, the less people there will be!

You can see several palaces and other top highlights in Seoul on this tour. It is the perfect tour to see a lot of the highlights of Seoul in one day!

9- Dongdaemun Design Plaza

The Dongdaemun Design Plaza, also called the DDP, is a major urban development landmark in Seoul and one of my favorite places we visited. This landmark is the centerpiece of South Korea\’s fashion hub. It features a walkable park on the roof, large global exhibition spaces, futuristic retail stores and even a giant LED rose garden that lights up at night!

Unique Things to do in Seoul

10- Ikseon-Dong

Ikseon-Dong is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Seoul, still retaining much of its old architecture. However, it didn’t come into the spotlight until recently in the past few years. It started to become more “hip” and trendy. Among the old buildings are adorable stores, thrift shops and cafes.

I even found this really adorable cafe with hanging lights and umbrellas and I seriously loved it! Be careful not to get lost in this area of the city as there are many different pathways to take and some people in our group actually did get lost!

While we were in this area, we also tried a fried chicken restaurant named Chicken in the Kitchen. You may or may not know that Seoul is famous for their fried chicken. We ordered family style so we got to try lots of varieties and flavors- it was so good!

11- Banpo Bridge Rainbow Fountain

This bridge is actually in the Guinness Book of World Records as being the longest bridge fountain  in the world. At night, there are over 200 lights that create beautiful rainbows in the water. This was actually one of my favorite activities and I highly recommend it.

We took a boat ride, which luckily provided blankets because it was kind of chilly and as we got closer to the fountain, there was music that synchronized with the changing lights and movement of the water. It was so colorful and pretty and this would actually be a fun date night activity!

Definitely deserves a spot on this list of unique things to do in Seoul, South Korea!

12-Meet a Kpop Group

South Korea is famous for Kpop and there are many different places you can experience it including the MBC Broadcasting Station and SM Town.  We headed to JFLO Entertainment and we were able to meet one of their groups- an all male group named New Kidd. It was so fun to meet them and watch them perform. Kpop is a lot about the different characters or roles each person plays and entertaining. So not only do they sing, but they are really good dancers as well!

13- SM Town

SM Town was a really fun place to visit to get a peek into the Kpop world! You get to walk around the museum and see costumes. studios, a hologram theatre and a really cute cafe! Don\’t forget to stop at the top floor! They have the cutest cafe with adorable cupcakes and every variety of icecream cone you can imagine. They also had a really cute record shop area!

14- Namsan Seoul Tower

Namsan Seoul Tower is one of the tallest towers in Asia. It started out as a broadcast tower to send out TV and radio signals in 1969. Now, it has become one of the main landmarks in Seoul. It is a really great place to get panoramic views of the whole city. Photographing inside can be difficult due to the glare of the glass, but I found outside to be really beautiful as well high above the city!

15- COEX

Conveniently located in the heart of Gagnam, COEX Covention and Exhibition Center is Seoul’s largest convention center. The area is made up of 5 star hotels, Asia’s largest underground shopping mall, entertainment and an aquarium. I visited this library while I was at COEX and it was so impressive and definitely worth a visit!

16- Korean BBQ in Itaewon

Korean BBQ is a must while in Seoul! They cook the meat right in front of you and then  bring out many different sides. I especially loved wrapping the pork in a lettuce wrap. I put some garlic on it, green onions, chili sauce and then wrapped it up! Mmm it was so good!

Itaewon is a cool place in Seoul where you can meet people from many different countries and cultures. It is like a melting pot of all different kinds of restaurants from all over the world.

17- Lotte World Tower and Mall

Lotte World Tower is actually the 5th tallest building in the world! I was really excited to visit The Seoul Sky Observatory because the views look amazing and the whole area has glass views- including the floor! Unfortunately, the day we were supposed to go, it was raining too bad to see anything, but I definitely recommend going if you have good weather!

Next to the Tower is the Lotte World Mall. It is a huge 8 story mall with a variety of stores and shops. There is also a movie theatre and aquarium and the largest duty free store in Korea.  It feels very ritzy in the mall and they had this amazing golden staircase that was fun to photograph.

18- Rent a Hanbok in Bukchon Village

This was one of the most unique things to do in Seoul and probably my very favorite activity I did in Seoul! I took the bus from my hotel to Bukchon Village, this adorable small and authentic village just next to Insadong- the cultural hub. I found a place to rent a hanbok and the whole process was so fun.

There were so many colors and designs to choose from! If you paid a little bit extra, they would even do your hair for you. It was $15 USD to rent my  hanbok for two hours, including a free locker to store my items and hair pieces and a cute bag. This area is the perfect place to rent a hanbok because it is right by the very cute village and in between two palaces. And bonus, if you are wearing a hanbok, you get into palaces for FREE!

I highly recommend doing this Hanbok tour if you don’t want to go at it alone. It is so convenient because they will pick you up right at your hotel, take you to their shop, let you pick from tons of styles and designs and then you get a 4 hour photo shoot! That would be amazing because then you can get incredible pictures in your hanbok all over palaces and Bukchon village!

19- Changdeokgung Palace

Admittedly, I didn’t get to spend a lot of time at this palace, but I wanted to at least see part of it because I got in for free with my hanbok! The palace grounds are actually very huge! One of the things this palace is the most famous for are its secret gardens.

I really wanted to visit them, but you actually have to take a guided tour through them that only happen at certain times so make sure you plan ahead! This palace is also considered an UNESCO world heritage site!

NOTE: It is closed on Mondays.

Unique things to do in Seoul!

20- Unique Cooking Class at Tteok Museum

Our group headed to the Tteok Museum in Seoul to have a cooking class! I was very excited because I have never taken a cooking class on my travels before and it was really fun! It was a great way to learn more about the food and the culture of Seoul and I loved it.

We were able to put on their traditional dress- a sort of cooking type hanbok. Then we were provided with aprons. We had groups of 4 and we each got a whole little kitchen area to cook. We actually did everything from start to finish which was really cool. We made Bibimbap and it was really good! It is essentially white rice, with soy sauce, a fried egg, vegetables and beef with a special chili sauce.

There you have it! 20 unique things to do in Seoul, South Korea! What are you planning on doing?

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