View from part of Gyeongbokgung Palace (left) and a view from my walk to Myeondong (right).

Seoul 101: Everything You Need to Know to Visit South Korea in 2024–2025

Seoul remains one of my favorite cities that I’ve visited. It has the history of Rome with the shopping of a New York with a cleanliness that beats out Toronto and food that isn’t even comparable to any of those examples. Seoul really just has something for everybody and should be high on your travel list. At the same time, Seoul can be an overwhelming visit with different norms than the U.S. and a language that you can’t just pretend to sound out (me gaslighting myself into thinking I could read the road signs in Montreal). Here, I’ve broken down everything you need to know to visit Seoul in 2024 and 2025 as well as some recommendations to get you started on your itinerary planning.

Traveling essentials

Mapping and Taxi:

• Apps: For some reason, Google Maps simply does not work in Korea. You need to have either Kakao or Naver Maps instead. I used Naver Maps which was useful but a little buggy. I highly recommend pinning the places you want to go to in the app so you can make sure to hit everything. Seoul is a big city — don’t underestimate the distance between things!
• Data: Make sure you have it! There are a lot of options here — extensions with your phone plan, buying a sim card in Korea, doing the eSim route, but you…