Seoul: hanbok at the gate, two palaces, and Euljiro on plastic stools
9 playbooks shared · added to 19 trips
- 8:30 am1Rent the hanbok before anything elseSeoul
Take the full-day rate (about 30,000 won), not the four-hour one — four hours runs out somewhere between the two palaces, and the hanbok is the thing that makes both gates free. Pick a proper full-length outfit; the novelty 'fusion' dresses get turned away at the ticket window as not counting. Most shops store your bag and pin your hair for a few thousand won more, which is worth it because you cannot carry a daypack in this. Verified 2026-09-06: the hanbok free-entry rule still stands — visitors wearing hanbok enter Gyeongbokgung free (adult ticket otherwise 3,000 won). It covers the palace grounds only; it does NOT cover the separately ticketed Huwon tour at Changdeokgung.
11 min walk · 850 m - 9:10 am2Gyeongbokgung from the 09:00 opening, then the guard changeSeoul
Closed Tuesdays, and that one fact breaks the entire day — check the weekday before you plan anything else. Entry is 3,000 won, or free in hanbok, which is the whole reason the rental comes first. At the opening bell walk hard LEFT to Gyeonghoeru and the Hyangwonjeong pond: every tour group turns right for the throne hall, and the water sits empty for twenty minutes. Then come back out to Gwanghwamun for the Sumunjang changing of the guard at 10:00 — it repeats at 14:00, and does not run on Tuesdays either. Verified 2026-09-06: closed Tuesdays (if a Tuesday is a public holiday it closes the next business day instead). Opens 09:00 year-round; closing is seasonal — Jan–Feb 17:00, Mar–May 18:00, Jun–Aug 18:30, Sep–Oct 18:00, Nov–Dec 17:00 — with last admission one hour before closing. Adult 3,000 won, free in hanbok. Sumunjang changing of the guard 10:00 and 14:00, Wednesday to Monday.
8 min walk · 550 m - 10:45 am3Bukchon, but the lanes nobody policesSeoul
Bukchon-ro 11-gil is the lane in every photograph and it is now a managed zone with posted visiting hours, marshals and residents who will absolutely tell you off — people live behind those doors and the signs asking for quiet are not decoration. Walk it once, quietly, then go uphill off Gyedong-gil instead: same rooftops, real neighbourhood, nobody counting heads.
12 min walk · 900 m - 11:55 am4Lunch out of a brass tin at Tongin MarketSeoul
Upstairs at the info counter you buy an empty brass lunch tin and ten brass yeopjeon coins for 5,000 won, then walk the aisle filling it a coin at a time — tteokbokki, jeon, fried things — and eat at the communal tables. The coin cafe is closed Mondays. Rice and soup are cash, not coins, which is the bit that trips everyone up at the first stall. Verified 2026-09-06: the market itself runs about 07:00–21:00, but the dosirak coin cafe on the second floor only serves roughly 11:00–16:00 and the coin exchange window closes earlier still (about 14:30), so the 11:55 slot works and a late lunch does not. Closed Mondays; some listings also give the third Sunday of the month. One correction: the tray is plastic, only the yeopjeon coins are brass.
12 min walk · 850 m - 1:20 pm5Changdeokgung, and the Secret Garden ticket you must have already boughtSeoul
Closed Mondays — which, with Gyeongbokgung shut on Tuesdays, means this day only works Wednesday to Sunday. Hanbok gets you into the palace free but NOT into Huwon: the Secret Garden is a separate 5,000 won timed, guided, capped ticket, and the English-language slots go first. Book it on the palace website up to six days ahead; the small same-day allocation at the gate is gone before 10:00. Verified 2026-09-06: closed Mondays (opening instead on a holiday Monday and closing the next non-holiday day), so the Wednesday-to-Sunday rule above holds. Palace 09:00 to 18:00 Sep–Oct (18:30 Jun–Aug, 17:30 Nov–Jan), last admission an hour before. Huwon is guided-only and capped at 100 per session — 50 sold online from 10:00 exactly six days ahead, 50 at the gate on the day — 5,000 won on top of the palace ticket, and hanbok does not cover it.
14 min walk · 1.0 km - 3:10 pm6Ikseon-dong, one turn off the main stripSeoul
Jongno 3-ga exit 6 drops you at the mouth of it. This was a 1920s speculative hanok estate built as cheap housing, which is why the alleys are barely shoulder-width — at weekends they move single file, so come on a weekday. Return the hanbok on the way in if your shop is a Jongno one. The courtyard tea houses one turn off the main lane cost half what the photographed ones on it do.
8 min by train or taxi · 4.1 km - 6:20 pm7Nogari and beer on a stool in EuljiroSeoul
Euljiro 3-ga exit 4, then the alley of plastic stools that materialises around 18:00 and is packed away by midnight. Manseon Hof is the original: dried pollack grilled over a burner at your table, gochujang mayo to dip, and beer that costs less than the fish. You sit outdoors in any weather — in January they hand out blankets and nobody moves inside.
8 min by train or taxi · 3.2 km - 8:20 pm8A bar behind an unmarked doorSeoul
The joke of Euljiro is that the good bars are on the third floor of tile-and-tool wholesale buildings, up a freight lift that looks decommissioned, behind a door with no sign. Nothing is findable by map pin and that is deliberate. Ask the table next to you at the nogari alley which building, then take the lift to whichever floor the noise is coming from.