Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Historic sites & memorials
서울특별시
In the Bukhansan foothills of Seongbuk-gu, Jeongneung is the tomb of Queen Sindeok, second wife of King Taejo, founder of the Joseon dynasty. Once a royal tomb in the heart of the capital, it was pushed out by political rivalry and neglect…
Historic sites & memorials
서울특별시
In Gongneung-dong, Nowon-gu, Seoul, next to the national athletes' training village, lie two Joseon royal tombs. Taereung belongs to Queen Munjeong, third consort of King Jungjong, and Gangneung to her son King Myeongjong and Queen Insun.…
Fortresses
서울특별시
Between the apartment blocks of Pungnap-dong in Songpa-gu runs a long, grassy ridge. It looks like an embankment, but it is a massive rammed-earth wall built by the Baekje kingdom on the bank of the Han River. As excavations have continued…
Historic sites & memorials
서울특별시
A few minutes' drive from Gangnam's office towers, stone officials, warriors, horses and sheep stand in rows on grassy mounds among the pines. Heonilleung is the joint name of two royal tombs where King Taejong, the third ruler of Joseon,…
Viewpoints
서울특별시
On a cliff above the Han River in Heukseok-dong, Dongjak-gu, Hyosajeong takes its name from a pavilion built by No Han, a minister under King Sejong, in memory of his mother. The current building dates from 1993, but the spot was long prai…
Churches & monasteries
서울특별시
In Donam-dong, Seongbuk District, a royal temple sits on the slopes of Bugaksan between high-rise apartment blocks. Heungcheonsa was founded by King Taejo, the first ruler of the Joseon dynasty, to pray for the soul of his queen, Queen Sin…
Zoos
과천시
Seoul Grand Park lies in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, but is run by the City of Seoul. It brings together Seoul Zoo, the largest zoo in Korea, a botanical garden, themed gardens and forest trails. The facilities are spread around a central…
Theme parks
과천시
Seoul Land is an amusement park inside Seoul Grand Park, at the foot of Mt. Cheonggyesan in Gwacheon. It opened in May 1988, just before the Seoul Olympics, and is often described as Korea's first theme park. It is usually less crowded tha…
Viewpoints
서울특별시
Seoullo 7017 is a sky garden built on an old overpass that once carried cars across the tracks at Seoul Station. On a road 17 m above the ground, hundreds of round planters now line the walkway, with the railway and the old Seoul Station b…
Gardens & parks
서울특별시
Seoul Forest is a large park in Seongsu-dong, Seongdong-gu, where the Han River meets the Jungnangcheon stream. It opened on 18 June 2005 and covers about 1.16 million m², making it Seoul's third-largest park after World Cup Park and Olymp…
Museums
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At the end of the Deoksugung stone-wall road stands a red-brick facade with three round arches: the Seosomun main building of the Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA). The front is a 1928 courthouse, and behind it sit modern galleries for contempora…
Gardens & parks
서울특별시
Seoul Botanic Park, opened in May 2019 in Magok, Gangseo-gu, combines a botanical garden with a public park. It covers 504,000 m², about the size of 70 football pitches, and most of it is a park you can walk around for free; only the green…
Gardens & parks
서울특별시
Seoul Children's Grand Park in Neung-dong, Gwangjin District, opened on Children's Day in 1973. About 530,000 m² of woods and lawns hold a zoo, a botanical garden, an amusement park and an open-air stage, and because entry to the park is f…
Museums
서울특별시
Right in front of Gyeonghuigung Palace, a short walk west of Gwanghwamun, the Seoul Museum of History traces more than 600 years of the city, from Joseon-era Hanyang to the boom years of modern Seoul, under one roof. Admission is free, and…
Gardens & parks
서울특별시
At the far south-western edge of Seoul, in Hang-dong in Guro-gu, Seoul's first city-run arboretum sits between apartment blocks and a railway line. Pureun Arboretum opened in 2013 on former rice fields, laid out around a reservoir, and gro…
Other
서울특별시
Old film cameras, brass ornaments, everyday objects from modern Korean history, second-hand clothes and bags – Seoul Folk Flea Market in Sinseol-dong, Dongdaemun-gu, lives up to the local saying that it has "everything except what it doesn…
Museums
서울특별시
A grey, 102-metre frigate is moored on the bank of Mangwon Hangang Park. Seoul Battleship Park brings together three retired navy vessels, the frigate ROKS Seoul, a Chamsuri-class patrol boat and a Dolgorae-class submarine, and lets you wa…
Nature
서천군
On a seaside knoll in Seo-myeon, Seocheon, the Maryang-ri Camellia Forest is a rare camellia wood on Korea's west coast. Some 80 camellias, kept to 2–3 m by the sea wind, cover the hill, and from the Dongbaekjeong pavilion on top you look…
Old towns & squares
서울특별시
Seochon is an old Seoul neighbourhood between the western wall of Gyeongbokgung Palace and Inwangsan Mountain. Its name means "west village", and behind the palace wall you will find hanok alleys, a small market and houses where painters a…
Viewpoints
화성시
This cable car crosses 2.12 km of open sea between Jeongok Port in Seosin-myeon, Hwaseong, and Jebudo Island. Its name, Seohaerang, combines the characters for islet (seo), sea (hae) and wave (rang). At low tide endless mudflats stretch ou…
Churches & monasteries
경주시
Seokguram is a hermitage belonging to Bulguksa temple, halfway up Tohamsan mountain in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province. Its artificial grotto, assembled stone by stone from granite in the Unified Silla period, houses a seated Buddha. T…
Coast & islands
강화군
Seongmodo lies just 1.2 km across the water west of Ganghwa Island, and since the Seongmo Bridge opened in 2017 you can drive straight onto it. Bomunsa Temple on its seaside cliff, a Buddha carved under a rock "eyebrow", the Minmeoru mudfl…
Gardens & parks
서울특별시
In the heart of Jamsil, beneath the soaring Lotte World Tower, lies a lake lined all the way round with cherry trees. Seokchon Lake Park, officially Songpa Naru Park, turns a lake left behind by an old branch of the Han River into a walkin…
Historic sites & memorials
서울특별시
Halfway up Inwangsan in Seoul, at the top of a steep flight of steps above the Guksadang shrine, two boulders 7–8 m high stand shoulder to shoulder. People say they look like monks in long robes, so they were named Seonbawi, after seon, th…