Palaces and old quarters

Five Joseon palaces still sit in the middle of the modern city, with lived-in hanok neighbourhoods in the gaps between them. What makes Seoul unusual is not that they exist but that you walk to them from a subway exit.

Wearing hanbok gets you into the four main palaces free. The rules are stricter than most people expect — check before you rent.

27 courses

Full day

Jongno, Seoul

Anguk & Insadong in a Day

A temple, a craft market, a hanok neighbourhood and a palace — all on foot. After you arrive you never touch the subway again.

4 stops4h 42m

Full day

Jongno, Seoul

Gwanghwamun & Gyeongbokgung

The square, the palace, and the museum beside it. All three are adjacent, so there's almost no travel between them.

3 stops4h 13m

Half day

Yongsan, Seoul

National Museum & Hangeul Museum

Two museums five minutes apart on the same grounds, both with free permanent galleries. Don't try to see everything — pick a floor and do it properly.

2 stops4h 5m

Half day

Yongsan, Seoul

War Memorial Half-Day

A big exhibition centred on the Korean War. Indoors is free, and there are real aircraft and tanks in the yard outside.

1 stops2h 30m

Half day

Gangnam, Seoul

Gangnam & COEX Half-Day

A thousand-year-old temple between glass towers, a giant library inside a mall, royal tombs in an office district. What's worth seeing in Gangnam is older than you'd expect.

3 stops2h 42m

Full day

Suwon

Suwon Hwaseong in a Day

A UNESCO fortress whose walls you can walk along the top of. An hour from Seoul, with the wall and the palace on one line.

2 stops4h 20m

Full day

Paju

Paju: The Border and the Art Village

The furthest north you can go without a permit, and a village built by architects. Two places with nothing in common, in one day.

2 stops4h 50m

Half day

Jongno & Jung-gu, Seoul

Ikseon-dong & DDP After Dark

Start in hanok alleys, end under the lit curves of a Zaha Hadid building. A century-old lane and contemporary architecture, two subway stops apart.

2 stops2h 42m

Half day

Jung-gu, Seoul

Deoksugung & Jeongdong Half-Day

Starts at the one palace where Western stone buildings stand among wooden halls, then follows the stone-wall road to a museum of art and a museum of the city. All three connect on foot, and most of it is free.

3 stops3h 39m

Full day

Yongin

Korean Folk Village Day

A whole Joseon-era village, with tightrope walking and horseback martial arts a few times a day. The performers stay in character, so you can talk to them.

1 stops4h

Half day

Jongno, Seoul

Seochon Lanes Half-Day

The lanes west of Gyeongbokgung. Quieter than Bukchon, and still dense with people who actually live there. A market and one hanok fill a half day.

2 stops1h 44m

Half day

Jongno, Seoul

Gwangjang Market & Naksan Wall

Start in a market that has run for over a century and end on a wall-topped hill at sunset. Begin late afternoon and you catch both at their best.

2 stops2h 55m

Half day

Jongno, Seoul

Daehangno & the Naksan Wall

Start on a street with a hundred small theatres and climb to the old city wall. Whether or not you see a play, going up near sunset puts the whole city below you.

2 stops2h 32m

Half day

Jongno, Seoul

Jongmyo & Sewoon Plaza

A UNESCO-listed royal shrine and an elevated walkway built out of a 1968 arcade. Six hundred years and sixty sit on either side of one road.

2 stops2h 40m

Full day

Gangneung

Gangneung: Ojukheon and the Beach

Two hours from Seoul by KTX and you are on the east coast. One very old house, then a 1.8km beach — one of the few sea days you can actually do and return the same day.

2 stops3h 20m

Half day

Gongju

Gongju: Gongsanseong Fortress

The royal fortress from Baekje's Ungjin capital period. The 2.6km wall above the Geum River takes a little over an hour to walk round.

1 stops1h 30m

Full day

Jeonju

Jeonju Hanok Village

Around 700 hanok houses, the largest such quarter in Korea. Unlike Bukchon it was developed commercially, so it is busy. Early morning or a weekday gives you a different place entirely.

3 stops4h 18m

Full day

Gwangju

Asia Culture Center and Yangnim-dong

See a vast cultural centre buried underground, then walk a hillside of red-brick missionary houses. The 1980 uprising is layered into both.

2 stops4h 50m

Half day

Namwon

Gwanghalluwon, Namwon

A garden built as the Milky Way brought down to earth: three islands in a pond and an arched stone bridge across. Also where the Chunhyang story begins.

1 stops1h 30m

Half day

Gyeongju

Bulguksa, Gyeongju

An eighth-century Silla temple. Wooden halls sit on stone terraces, and two very different pagodas stand side by side in the main courtyard.

2 stops2h 55m

Half day

Gyeongju

Daereungwon and Cheomseongdae

Twenty-three royal tombs sit like grass hills in the middle of town, with a seventh-century observatory a few minutes' walk away. Best near sunset.

2 stops1h 50m

Full day

Andong

Hahoe Folk Village, Andong

A Joseon-era clan village inside a bend of the river. Not a reconstruction — most of the houses are lived in.

1 stops2h 30m

Half day

Gangneung

Seongyojang House, Gangneung

A Joseon aristocratic house lived in by one family for three centuries. It is a home, not a palace, so everything is sized to people — which makes it read nothing like the royal compounds.

1 stops1h 20m

Full day

Buyeo

Buyeo: The Baekje Capital

Sabi, the last capital of Baekje. A hill fortress and an ancient pond within walking distance of each other, both part of the UNESCO Baekje Historic Areas.

2 stops3h 10m

Full day

Gwangju, Gyeonggi

Namhansanseong Fortress

A UNESCO World Heritage site where twelve kilometres of wall follow the ridgeline. A village still lives inside it, so it reads less as a fortress than as a town on a mountain.

1 stops3h