5 days in Seoul

Oh, Seoul sounds like an amazing destination for your upcoming trip! Fall is such a beautiful time to visit South Korea. As for your accommodation, have you considered staying in the Myeongdong area? It's a vibrant and central neighborhood with plenty of shops, restaurants, and easy access to public transportation. There are several hotels and bnbs in the area that might suit your needs.

When I used to travel there on business I'd stay at the Grand Hyatt across from the Namsan Botanical Gardens and the Seoul Tower. It's an upscale area and not far from the popular Itaewon shopping district.
The area in the vicinity of the American Embassy is quite pretty too, and is located about a block away from a large green space with the National Palace and several other impressive museums.
Taxi's are the best way to get around, though you're well advised to try to avoid the morning and afternoon rush hours - traffic in Seoul is murder.
If you have military privileges the Armed Forces Rec Center runs the Dragon Hill Lodge which is quite nice - offering American style accommodation at reasonable (by Seoul standards) prices.
Edited to add: Research flights between Gimpo (the city airport in Seoul) and Haneda (the city airport in Tokyo), both of which are much closer to their respective metro areas than their large international counterparts at Incheon and Narita. Would save you a lot of transit time and generally simplify your logistics I think.

Public transportation there is very good and in English so that is very helpful. When we were there we stayed downtown close to a metro stop and approached it similar to any Europe trip and had no issues. Do look into their FREE walking tours that the tourist office gives. There are many to choose from and we did a couple and really liked them. They are senior citizen volunteers who speak good English and love showing off their beautiful city. We loved Seoul and hope you have a great trip!!

Thanks everyone! Will check into those suggestions, appreciate you pointing me in a direction.

I don't have the names at hand, but some of the ancient home/city relics in the downtown national park are quite special, but have limited daily capacity to protect them. If this might be of interest, I'd be sure to find out how to book them in advance. Unless you had relatives who served there, the DMZ doesn't interest me very much. It's not exactly next door. This type of attraction, even the walk-in events, can be very very crowded with locals on weekends, so plan your time.

Back when I was in there for business in 1990, flying to or from the DMZ actually caused annoying interest from security people at the airport. We flew "through" a DMZ-related airport, I think because they were Bartered air tickets, and we got the third-degree in Seoul. No military business involved.

I forget if you still can't drink the water there.

I spent a few days with a friend in Seoul in 2019 and had a wonderful time! We stayed at the Metro Hotel, located in Myeongdong. We were very happy with the hotel - friendly, helpful staff and comfortable rooms. It’s located in a busy area with loads of restaurants, coffee shops (they love their coffee in Korea!), and shops. It was walking distance to some of the sights we wanted to see, and just a block or so to the subway system (easy to use to get to other sights and activities).

We hired a private guide for a one-day tour. She was excellent! It was totally worth the very reasonable cost - a private vehicle and driver (not the guide) to navigate the terrible traffic, an efficient plan to see everything we wanted to include, and a lunch at a hole-in-the-wall dumpling restaurant (only locals and us!). We also took an evening food tour that was also a lot of fun (and delicious). Unfortunately, I could not find websites for either of these companies. Maybe they didn’t survive the COVID years.

We went to the DMZ with one of the companies that offer tours. It was probably not the best tour I’ve ever had, but did the job. I believe that you need to go there with one of the approved companies. The one we used was Koridoor:
https://www.koridoor.co.kr:5033/idx.asp

I used Lonely Planet’s guide for Korea. There might be recommendations for private guides in there. I have had good luck with their recommendations in several countries. I’ve also found good ideas on TripAdvisor. Here’s a website that I found helpful for Seoul:
https://www.worldnomads.com/explore/eastern-asia/south-korea/top-things-to-see-and-do-in-seoul

Have a wonderful time. I hope to go back and see more of Korea someday.

Thanks Renee, this is great information! Much appreciated.

Just got back from 10 days in Seoul and loved it. We stayed at the Fraser Hotel (there are two – either location is great – Central Seoul or Namdaemun). We could walk everywhere we wanted to go – Namsan, Namdaemun, Cheonggyechon (the stream), the palaces Deoksugung and Gyeongbokgung, Kyobo bookstore, Insadong shopping area, City Hall area, the central train station, etc., etc. We took buses or the subway to places that were farther out (to the place we met for the DMZ tour, for example). There was a very busy bus stop right across the street from the Central Seoul Fraser Hotel, with buses that could take you anywhere you wanted to go. We used Google Maps and the Kakao Bus app.

https://www.frasershospitality.com/en/south-korea/seoul/fraser-place-central-seoul/

We liked being in that area, as it was central but quiet (except sometimes during the day, when there were a lot of protests – peaceful, but a lot of people, and buses couldn't get through, so we took the subway those days). Insadong would also be a nice place to stay.

We've also stayed at the Lotte Hotel – more upscale, but we got some kind of deal (this was in 2003).
I've heard good things about the Grand Hyatt (mentioned above, I think; I can't see previous responses when writing this, frustratingly), and it was also featured in the recent Netflix hit "XO Kitty". Just for fun I looked up the prices (b/c in the series it was the home of a super-rich family) and the rates were far lower than the Grand Hyatt at SFO. Korea is a good bargain!

We also used Koridoor for the DMZ/JSA tour (which was my 4th visit, at least).

I especially liked Insadong and the palaces and museums. And all the little restaurants! We sometimes just wander around Insadong or Namdaemun areas and find a place that looks good. Missing the food already :-)

The War Memorial of Korea Museum and the National Museum are interesting if you like history.

We are going back next year and plan to go to Legoland Korea, take a high-speed train, and perhaps visit Jeju Island. In the past we have visited Seoraksan Mountains (beautiful!), Sokcho on the eastern coast, and Gyeongju (via high-speed rail), which has the famous Bulguksa temple, etc. but I wouldn't recommend it if you're short on time. Oh, we love the folk village in Suwon outside of Seoul – Min Sok Chon – but it's not necessarily easy to get to. The farmers' dance is always entertaining, and they have some great food there, including some open-air restaurants.

Great recommendations, thanks so much!

Hi, ORDtraveler! yes, I love the folk museum in Suwon, but both times I've gone recently (2003 and 2007, so I guess it's not that recent, haha) we've kind of gotten stranded out there. I think both times we took a bus out to Suwon. I have a photo of us (my whole extended family) in 2007 waiting and waiting and waiting at the nearby bus stop in Suwon for a bus to take us back to Seoul. We ended up talking to the Koreans who were also waiting, and eventually a bus came.

In 2003 my husband and I – this was silly – took a bus or taxi (can't remember) out to Suwon during a major rainstorm, and of course there was nothing going on (no entertainment like the farmers' dance or anything), but we could wander around the old houses – got soaking wet – then had steaming hot dolsot bibimbap at the restaurant at the folk village, while trying to dry out our backpacks, jackets, umbrellas, etc. A good memory. Oh, but then we could NOT find a taxi or bus to take us back. There were some taxi or bus drivers eating at a restaurant at the folk village, but none of them understood English. I finally called a relative who talked to one of them and somehow we got back to Seoul.

All that to say, I don't know how to get to Suwon reliably, haha, but I'm sure you could check TripAdvisor or one of the many online communities and ask there. I joined a Facebook group called "South Korea Travel Planning" and there is some excellent and up-to-date advice in that group, and you can always ask a question. For example, even my brother (fluent in Korean) wasn't sure how to take a taxi in Korea anymore, now that everyone uses KakaoTalk apps w/Korean credit cards, but people in that group offered multiple ways to call a taxi, for the rare times the excellent public transport isn't convenient.

Following this thread as we are planning approximately a week long stop over in Seoul in 2025 on our way to Japan.

A few people have recommended Myeongdong or Insadong as areas to stay, and I would concur. They are both central, lots of places to eat, nightlife, etc. Make sure you stay near a subway station. The Seoul subway system is fantastic.

I know you have a list already but recommendations would be: Insadong, visit a palace or two, Seoul Tower, Myeongdong, there are fun dog/ cat/ meerkat cafes, Gangnam, Itaewon (the main expat area), Cheonggyecheon Stream, National Museum of Korea, War Museum, Bukchon Folk Village, Hongdae (university district), and day trips up to Bukhansan National Park (just north of the city) and the DMZ. If of interest, walking a bit of the Suwon Wall (south of the Han River) is interesting. Be sure to check out the Han- lots of parks and paths along the way. The DMZ is incredibly interesting, although we found the guides themselves to vary drastically.

I lived in suburban Seoul for 4 years, so happy to answer any questions. Korea (and Japan) are both fantastic places.

The transportation system in Seoul is fabulous. I think that I only took 1 taxi in over 5 weeks there years ago. I also took public transport to the Korean Folk Village (train then bus). I stayed at a guest house ran by Holt International so I'm not much help on the hotel front.

Great information everyone! I just got home from a month in Africa so am starting to finalize plans for this South Korea and Japan trip. I see the DMZ/JSA tours are still closed. I’m hoping they will start back up this next year. Anyone have any thoughts or inside info on if that might happen?