Three days in Seoul: a first-time itinerary that is not a checklist
Grouped by neighbourhood rather than by attraction, so you spend the days walking rather than crossing the city — palaces, markets, a mountain and a river.
Updated
Group by area, not by fame
The commonest mistake with a short Seoul trip is building a list of famous sights and visiting them in the order they appear in a guidebook. The city is large, the sights are scattered, and a day assembled that way is mostly spent underground.
Seoul rewards the opposite approach. The parts worth seeing cluster tightly — palaces and hanok streets in the north, markets and the old downtown in the centre, the river and the newer districts to the south — and each cluster is genuinely walkable once you are in it.
Three days divides naturally into those three, with one subway journey at the start and end of each rather than six in the middle.
Day one: the palace quarter
Gyeongbokgung is the largest of the palaces and the obvious starting point. The changing of the guard happens at set times through the day and is worth timing your arrival around. Our guide to hanbok rental explains why so many visitors are in costume and how it gets you in free.
North and east of it, Bukchon is a residential hanok neighbourhood on a hill. It is beautiful and it is somebody's street — the signs asking for quiet are there because tour groups made it necessary.
Insadong runs south from there and is the traditional-crafts street: tea houses, paper, brushes, ceramics, and a great deal aimed squarely at visitors. It is still a pleasant walk and the tea houses are real.
The area covers a full day comfortably at a walking pace, and every part of it is within twenty minutes of the next on foot.
Day two: markets and the old centre
Gwangjang market is the food market — see our street food guide for what to order — and mornings there are less frantic than evenings.
Myeongdong is the shopping district and the cosmetics centre of the city, dense and loud and worth an hour rather than an afternoon. Namdaemun nearby is an older and more workaday market.
Namsan and the tower sit above all of this. The cable car is the easy way up and the walk is genuinely pleasant if the weather is reasonable. Going up near sunset gets both the day and the night view for one trip.
The Cheonggyecheon stream runs through the middle of this area, below street level, and walking a stretch of it is the quietest half hour available in central Seoul.
Day three: the river and whatever you have missed
The Han river parks are where the city relaxes, and hiring a bicycle or simply sitting with convenience-store food is a legitimate way to spend an afternoon rather than a consolation prize.
South of the river, Gangnam is newer, wider and more corporate; north-west, Hongdae is the university district and the best evening in the city if you want music and crowds.
This is also the day to leave Seoul if you would rather — our day trips guide covers what is reachable and back within a day, and the DMZ tours run from central Seoul in the morning.
Keep something in reserve. Three days is enough for a first impression of Seoul and not enough to finish it, and a trip planned to the last hour leaves no room for the thing you find on the way.