Seoul: Gwangjang at eleven, a jjimjilbang at noon, a three-star counter at eight
9 playbooks shared · added to 28 trips
- 10:15 am1Gwangjang Market: bindaetteok, mayak gimbap, yukhoe, in that orderSeoul
Jongno 5-ga exit 8, on a weekday before noon — many food stalls take Sunday or Monday off. The central aisle nearest the exit is the tourist gauntlet; the yukhoe alley on the north side is where Seoul actually eats, and raw beef with a raw egg yolk and sesame oil at 11am is better than it sounds. Ask the price and check the posted board before you sit: the market got publicly hammered in 2024 for short-weighing tourists, and prices are now displayed precisely so you can point at them. One mung bean pancake feeds two. Cash or a Korean transfer. Verified 2026-09-06: the dry-goods and textile halls run about 08:30–18:00 and the fabric and hanbok vendors close Sundays, while the food alley itself is open daily until roughly 23:00 — so the evening is not shut, it is simply a drinking crowd rather than an eating one. The 10:15 weekday slot is still the right one for the yukhoe and bindaetteok stalls.
11 min by train or taxi · 6.5 km - 11:55 am2Line 1 down to YongsanSeoul
Straight down Line 1, no changes, about fifteen minutes. Buy a T-money card at any convenience store for 3,000 won and load it there — transfers inside 30 minutes are free, and it also pays for buses, taxis and half the vending machines. Contactless foreign cards still do not work on the Seoul metro gates.
17 min by train or taxi · 11 km - 12:30 pm3Four hours at Dragon Hill SpaSeoul
Out of Yongsan station, cross the plaza, it is the enormous pagoda-looking thing — open 24 hours, about 12,000 won for a day pass before 20:00 and 14,000 won at night, weekends and holidays. The wristband they give you is your locker key and your tab: everything inside is charged to it and you settle on the way out. Rules that matter: shower and scrub thoroughly before you get into any tub, the bathing floors are nude and single-sex, the cotton shorts and tee are the uniform for the mixed floors upstairs, and no swimsuits anywhere. Baked eggs and a cold sikhye in the salt room is the canonical order. Tattoos are not an issue here, which is not true of every jjimjilbang. Verified 2026-09-06: open 24/7, so the 12:30 arrival needs no booking; entry 12,000 won daytime (05:00–20:00) and 14,000 won 20:00–05:00 and at weekends. The cost on this stop is the pass plus what you charge to the wristband inside, not the pass alone.
8 min by train or taxi · 4.8 km - 4:20 pm4Leeum, because the permanent collection is freeSeoul
Closed Mondays. The permanent collection — the celadon and the Joseon painting in the Mario Botta rotunda — has been free since 2021, but you still need to reserve a timed slot on their site, and evening slots go last so book that morning. It is a genuinely steep ten minutes uphill from Hangang-jin exit 1, and it puts you a five-minute walk from dinner. Verified 2026-09-06: closed Mondays and on Seollal, Chuseok and New Year's Day; open 10:00–18:00 with LAST ENTRY 17:30. The 16:20 arrival is fine, but anything later than 17:30 is not, so this stop cannot slip. The permanent collection is still free with a reserved timed slot.
8 min by train or taxi · 4.4 km - 6 pm5The counter at Mosu SeoulSeoul
One seating, one menu, and the reservation is the hard part: bookings open on CatchTable at the start of the month for the following month and are gone in minutes, so set an alarm rather than trying your luck. Ask for the counter, not the room — the whole point is watching it happen. Wine pairing roughly doubles the bill; the non-alcoholic pairing here is not a consolation prize. Smart casual, no shorts, and do not be late for a fixed seating.
8 min by train or taxi · 3.2 km - 9:20 pm6A last drink in GangnamSeoul
A zero-waste cocktail bar that keeps landing on the Asia's 50 Best list, which means walk-ins queue. Message them for a table when you book dinner and hold it loosely — after a three-hour tasting menu there is a real chance you would rather go to bed, and this is the stop to drop without guilt.