Seoul Impromptu Trip: Day 1

4 DAYS / 3 NIGHTS IN SEOUL

Last February, my friend and I had an impromptu trip. I was ecstatic! We chose Seoul, South Korea. Take note, this was not planned, no promo ticket nor travel fair packages, but we only spent Php 20,000 each. Okay, so that's not as cheap as others would have spent, but it's fairly doable.

Well, first thing's first, apply for a visa. You'll find my free and easy guide on how to apply for a tourist visa here. After claiming our visa from the embassy, we booked ourselves two tickets to South Korea.

OUR “PLAN”

Touring Seoul and a theme park was our target and we were very excited to experience snow for the first time. Unfortunately, the snow ended 3 days prior our arrival (aww shux!). It was just ironic being there on winter time and it wasn't snowing (Tip: It snows until 2^nd week of Feb, if you're lucky until the 3^rd week). In the end, our supposed snow adventure ended up a shopping tour, which was a win-win for us! Yay!

We booked ourselves a room thru Airbnb and we scored a good deal. Our place was located near Dongmyo Shrine (Tip: Myeongdong would be a better location but more expensive). We were able to rent an entire place to ourselves. What's good about places in Airbnb, the rooms come with a kitchen and laundry area and having a microwave and electric stove/kettle was really convenient when you're trying to save on food cost. Some have freebies and other amenities you wouldn't find in hotels. It may not be as classy as hotel rooms, but it didn't matter because we're out most of the time.

 Our Apartment

DAY 1

Our first day was a definite adventure. Since this was a spur-of-the-moment trip, my good friend “planned” our itinerary as we go, and it all worked out for us.

Arrival was smooth and on time. We ate lunch at the airport and bought our transportation card. We took the Airport Bus (Red Bus) to Seoul and found out how far our place was. Our stop was the last stop of the Airport Bus , approximately 3 hours from Incheon International Airport to Dongmyo Bus Station. We experienced a bit of a jam inside Seoul, so it's best that we ate at the airport.

Arrival

After settling in, we went to our first destination. We went to the Seoul City Tour Bus departure point where we bought our tickets. It's at Gwanghwamun Station near Koreana Hotel. This is where the tours around the city start. The routes to choose from can be found on their website.

Dongmyo Shrine

 

Our bus left Gwanghwamun Gate at exactly 8pm to start the tour. Every seat in the bus has it's own headset to listen to an audio tour guide. We went on our first stop at Mapo bridge, and then to the next and then our 20-minute stop at Banpo Bridge, Hangang River. It was beautiful. The floating island was amazing. We went to Gavit to take pictures with its beautiful LED facade.

Since it was freezing at the bridge we went to CNN Cafe for coffee. Without noticing the time, on our way back to the bus, we saw it driving away and we ran to it. We were in a major disbelief that our bus left us, but I'm glad to be with someone who handles situations like this calmly. We were nowhere, at least it felt like it, we didn't know where to go but thankfully there was a busy road under the bridge not so far from the parking lot of Some Sevit Compound. We were able to flag a taxi and went to our next stop: Namdaenum night market.

Continue To >> Seoul Impromptu Trip: Day 2

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