Gyeongbokgung Palace and the changing of the guard
The guard ceremony runs in the forecourt on most operating days, and the palace waives admission entirely if you turn up in rented hanbok.
Seoul in pictures
Seoul
Nonstop from Pearson, then the subway does the rest
Destinations βΊ Asia βΊ Seoul
Seoul is one of the few Asian megacities you can reach nonstop from Pearson, and once you land, a subway network signed and announced in English does almost all the work. The catch is that the city runs on its own closed payment and mapping systems, so twenty minutes of setup at the airport saves you a lot of standing at gates looking confused.
Air Canada and Korean Air both fly Toronto Pearson to Incheon International Airport (ICN) nonstop β figure on roughly 15 hours westbound. From beneath the terminals, AREX (the Airport Railroad Express) runs into the city two ways: the reserved-seat Express Train goes straight through to Seoul Station with no intermediate stops, and the All Stop Train is an ordinary subway service that also calls at Gimpo International Airport (GMP), Digital Media City and Hongik University for Hongdae. Airport Limousine and KAL Limousine coaches cover the hotel districts the train misses. Incheon has two separate passenger terminals with a free inter-terminal shuttle between them, so check which one your ticket says before you work out where to pick up AREX.
The Seoul Metropolitan Subway β Lines 1 through 9 plus the Sillim, Ui-Sinseol, Gyeongui-Jungang and Suin-Bundang lines β is signed and announced in English and reaches almost everything a visitor wants. Pay with a T-money card (Cashbee is the equivalent alternative), bought and topped up at GS25, CU and 7-Eleven; the Korea Tour Card is a T-money variant aimed at visitors. City buses are colour-coded β blue for trunk routes, green for local feeders, red for suburban express, yellow for downtown loops β and transfers between bus and subway are free within a time window as long as you tap out as well as in. The Climate Card (κΈ°νλνμΉ΄λ) is Seoul's unlimited pass, covering the subway inside city limits and Seoul-licensed buses; only the 30-day version adds Ttareungyi public bikes, and the short-term tourist passes do not include them. Navigate with Naver Map or Kakao Map, because Google Maps has no driving navigation in Korea and its walking directions are patchy.
The guard ceremony runs in the forecourt on most operating days, and the palace waives admission entirely if you turn up in rented hanbok.
A covered hall of stall counters rather than a night market β sit down for bindaetteok and mayak gimbap at lunch, when the ajummas are cooking for locals.
Hillside lanes of real, lived-in hanok between the two big palaces, and the rare tourist sight that is a residential neighbourhood first.
The 24-hour bathhouse-and-sauna complex is the most ordinary thing Seoulites do that visitors skip; you bring nothing, since towels and the uniform are issued at the door.
The historic core: the main palaces, Jongmyo shrine, tea houses, craft shops and the hanok lanes of Bukchon. The best base for a first visit and for older relatives, because the headline sights are walkable rather than a train ride away. Two caveats β Bukchon itself is a steep hill of narrow residential lanes with signposted quiet hours and visiting restrictions, and Insadong's main street is squarely aimed at visitors.
Central, on subway Line 4, an easy walk to Namsan, a short subway ride to Gyeongbokgung, with airport buses stopping nearby and street-food carts filling the lanes every evening. Convenient and safe. But it is wall-to-wall tourists and cosmetics-shop touts, it is oddly lifeless in the daytime, and you will not meet many Seoulites here.
The student and indie music quarter west of the centre, with buskers, small live venues, vintage shops and β the practical bit β Hongik University station sitting on the AREX airport line, so the all-stop airport train reaches Incheon without a change. Yeonnam-dong just north is calmer and full of small restaurants. It is loud until very late; not a base for light sleepers or early risers.
South of the Han: business towers, wide boulevards, the big hotels, major hospitals and the Express Bus Terminal for trips out of the city. Sensible if you are here for work or want space and modern rooms. Be honest with yourself about the trade-off β the blocks are enormous, everything is a ten-minute walk from everything else, and none of the historic Seoul you came for is on this side of the river.
Samgyeopsal, unmarinated pork belly, is the everyday version; galbi, marinated beef short rib, is the occasion version. You grill at the table and the banchan side dishes are refilled free. Whole streets of it exist β the alleys around Jongno 3-ga, and the Mapo and Yeoksam grill districts. Many places have a two-portion minimum, so it is awkward as a solo diner and perfect for a family.
One of Korea's oldest permanent markets, at Jongno 5-ga on Line 1, and still a working market rather than a museum of one. Bindaetteok, mung bean pancakes ground and fried in front of you; mayak gimbap, tiny seaweed rolls; yukhoe, raw seasoned beef; and live octopus if you are that person. Sit at a stool at a stall counter. Bring cash β many stalls still prefer it.
Korea's single-dish specialists are the real eating. Samgyetang, a whole young chicken stuffed with rice and ginseng, eaten in the hottest days of summer on the theory that heat beats heat. Gamjatang, pork spine and potato, deeply restorative. Budae jjigae, 'army stew', built from spam and instant noodles near the postwar US bases and now a genuine comfort food. These are found in restaurants that serve one thing only.
Tteokbokki, chewy rice cakes in sweet gochujang sauce, is the national street snack. Hotteok, a griddled pancake filled with molten brown sugar, is a winter thing. Gyeranppang, egg bread, is a cold-morning thing. And chimaek β fried chicken with beer β is an institution, best eaten on a mat in a Han River park. Namdaemun Market and Tongin Market, where you buy from stalls using brass tokens, are the classic hunting grounds.
Gyeongbokgung Palace β Line 3 to Gyeongbokgung station puts you inside the walls without crossing a road. Catch the changing of the guard at the Gwanghwamun gate, then work through the grounds; the National Folk Museum sits within the same walls. Wear a hanbok rented nearby and entry is free, which is why half the courtyard is in costume. Note that it closes one day a week.
Walk ten minutes east and uphill into Bukchon Hanok Village β tiled roofs, sloping alleys, and real residents, so keep your voice down and respect the posted visiting restrictions. Continue into Samcheong-dong for galleries and coffee, then drop south into Insadong for tea houses and paper and ceramics shops.
Line 1 or 5 to Jongno 5-ga for Gwangjang Market at full volume. Eat standing or on a stool, then walk about fifteen minutes south into Euljiro, where old print-shop and hardware buildings hide bars up unmarked staircases β the district locals nicknamed Hipjiro.
Namsan and N Seoul Tower. The cable car station is a steep few minutes' walk up from Myeongdong station, or take the Namsan circular shuttle bus if the climb is too much. The whole basin and both sides of the river open up from the top, and the old city wall trail runs along the ridge.
Pick your Seoul. Line 2 to Hongik Univ. for busking, indie shops and Yeonnam-dong's back streets; or Line 2 east to Seongsu, where old shoe factories and warehouses have become coffee roasteries and flagship stores, and the pace is gentler.
Line 5 to Yeouinaru, or Line 7 to Ttukseom Resort (signed Jayang), for a Han River park. Rent a mat, order fried chicken delivered to the riverbank β this is a completely normal Seoul thing to do, not a tourist stunt β and watch the bridges light up. The Banpo bridge fountain runs on warm-season evenings.
About an hour south on subway Line 1 or the Suin-Bundang Line, so no advance booking and no tour needed. Hwaseong Fortress is a late-eighteenth-century city wall you can walk the entire circuit of, with gates, watchtowers and archery, plus the Haenggung temporary palace inside. It is the best value day out from Seoul and it is a normal working city, not a preserved set.
The ITX-Cheongchun train from Yongsan or Cheongnyangni reaches Gapyeong in about an hour; a local shuttle bus or taxi links the station to the Nami ferry pier and the garden. Tree-lined avenues, a small ferry crossing, and the Gangchon Rail Park rail bikes a few stops further up the Gyeongchun line if you have kids. Best in autumn colour; crowded on weekends.
You cannot go independently β access to the border area requires an organised tour booked in advance, and you must bring your passport. Tours run north from Seoul into Gyeonggi Province and typically cover Imjingak, the Third Infiltration Tunnel and the Dora Observatory. Access to the Joint Security Area at Panmunjom has been repeatedly suspended and reinstated depending on inter-Korean relations and has often been unavailable in recent years, so do not book anything that promises it without confirming directly with the operator. Sobering rather than enjoyable, and worth doing once.
Seoul is, in pure logistics terms, one of the easier major Asian cities to bring parents or grandparents to β and the reason is the subway. Lift access is the norm rather than the exception across the network, which is better than what you get in Toronto or London, and a large share of city buses are low-floor. Wheelchair-accessible call taxis exist and can be booked by foreign visitors, but they must be reserved in advance and waits can be long, so do not build a tight schedule around one. The realistic catch with the subway is not stairs but distance: the lift is usually at one specific numbered exit, and interchanges like Jongno 3-ga, Gongdeok and Express Bus Terminal involve corridors several hundred metres long. Check the exit number before you set off, not after. Getting in: nonstops run from Pearson, roughly thirteen to fourteen hours, and Seoul is thirteen hours ahead of Toronto in summer, fourteen in winter. Incheon is about an hour from the centre. Three options β the AREX Express direct to Seoul Station with reserved seats and luggage racks; the all-stop AREX commuter train, cheaper and slower, with no reserved seats or luggage racks and a busier arrival; or an airport limousine bus that stops at hotel doors. With parents and suitcases the bus usually wins, because it is one seat from kerb to hotel. Where it gets hard: the historic core is hilly. Bukchon, Ihwa, the Naksan wall and Namsan all involve real climbing, and Seoul does not soften those gradients. The palace grounds themselves are mostly flat gravel courtyards, but Gyeongbokgung is enormous and seeing it properly is well over an hour on your feet. Weather is the other honest warning. July and August are hot and humid, and the summer monsoon brings heavy, concentrated rain β Canadian government advice flags a rainy season running from roughly late June into August. Winter is properly cold with a dry wind off the continent. And spring brings yellow dust and fine-particulate pollution, which UK government advice describes as common, especially in spring β genuinely relevant if a parent has asthma or COPD, so pack masks and check the daily air index. The one thing I would tell every GTA family: watch the roads. Canadian government advice states outright that drivers frequently ignore pedestrian crossings, and delivery scooters ride on pavements at speed. A green walk signal is not a guarantee. Hold small children's hands at every crossing and look twice. Beyond that, Seoul is exceptionally child-friendly β nursing and changing rooms in subway stations and malls, priority seats at the ends of every subway car that are genuinely left free for older passengers, and restaurants that will find a way to feed a fussy four-year-old.
Korean won, and Korea is close to genuinely cashless β cards work in taxis, convenience stores, cafΓ©s and almost all restaurants. Two traps to plan around. Traditional market stalls and street carts are frequently cash only, so carry some notes for Gwangjang and Namdaemun. And foreign-issued cards are often rejected by the unmanned self-order kiosks that are now standard in fast food and many restaurants, and by T-money top-up machines β top up your transit card with cash at a convenience store counter and the problem disappears.
Not practised and not expected β restaurants, taxis, hotels, salons, tour guides, nowhere. There is no tip line on the card terminal. Offering one is more likely to cause confusion than pleasure, and staff may refuse it or come after you to return it. Just pay the bill.
220 volts at 60 hertz, and the outlet is the recessed European type with two round holes β Type C and Type F. Canadian flat-blade plugs do not fit at all, so an adapter is not optional. More importantly, 220V is nearly double Canada's 120V: check the label on every charger for a 100-240V rating. Phones, laptops and camera chargers are almost always dual-voltage and fine; hair dryers, straighteners and small appliances bought in Canada often are not, and will be destroyed.
Seoul's tap water is branded Arisu, is treated and continuously monitored to drinking-water standards, and the city states it is safe to drink straight from the tap. In practice almost nobody does β homes and offices run filter units, and every restaurant puts out free filtered water without being asked. Cooking with it, brushing teeth and giving it to children is completely normal. If you prefer bottled, it is in every convenience store on every corner.
Hangul is a genuinely logical alphabet you can learn to sound out in an afternoon, and doing so makes menus and signs suddenly navigable. Subway and major-sight signage is in English; spoken English is limited outside tourist areas, though younger Seoulites are often comfortable. One practical thing that catches every visitor: Google Maps has no driving navigation in Korea and its walking and transit directions are unreliable. Download Naver Map or KakaoMap before you fly, and Kakao T for taxis.
Violent crime is very low and both the Canadian and UK governments advise only normal precautions. The documented risks are petty theft and assault around nightlife venues β districts such as Itaewon and Hongdae are named in travel advice β with the standard guidance not to travel alone late at night and to use only legitimate taxis. Two things unique to Korea worth knowing. Foreign nationals are legally prohibited from taking part in political demonstrations, and protests are frequent around Gwanghwamun and City Hall, so walk away from them rather than through them. And periodic civil defence drills sound sirens and briefly stop traffic β that is routine, not an emergency.
April to early June and late September to early November are the two dependable windows. Cherry blossoms reach Seoul in early April and last barely a week. Jangma, the summer monsoon, delivers a large share of the year's rain from late June into late July, and August adds heat, humidity and the tail ends of typhoons. December through February is dry, bright and sharply cold with relatively little snow β a GTA traveller will find it familiar rather than shocking. March through May also brings yellow-dust and fine-particulate days, so check the air-quality forecast rather than assuming spring means clear skies.
Compare the ways to get there, then build a day-by-day plan.
Air Canada and Korean Air both fly Toronto Pearson to Incheon International Airport (ICN) nonstop β figure on roughly 15 hours westbound. From beneath the terminals, AREX (the Airport Railroad Express) runs into the city two ways: the reserved-seat Express Train goes straight through to Seoul Station with no intermediate stops, and the All Stop Train is an ordinary subway service that also calls at Gimpo International Airport (GMP), Digital Media City and Hongik University for Hongdae. Airport Limousine and KAL Limousine coaches cover the hotel districts the train misses. Incheon has two separate passenger terminals with a free inter-terminal shuttle between them, so check which one your ticket says before you work out where to pick up AREX.
The Seoul Metropolitan Subway β Lines 1 through 9 plus the Sillim, Ui-Sinseol, Gyeongui-Jungang and Suin-Bundang lines β is signed and announced in English and reaches almost everything a visitor wants. Pay with a T-money card (Cashbee is the equivalent alternative), bought and topped up at GS25, CU and 7-Eleven; the Korea Tour Card is a T-money variant aimed at visitors. City buses are colour-coded β blue for trunk routes, green for local feeders, red for suburban express, yellow for downtown loops β and transfers between bus and subway are free within a time window as long as you tap out as well as in. The Climate Card (κΈ°νλνμΉ΄λ) is Seoul's unlimited pass, covering the subway inside city limits and Seoul-licensed buses; only the 30-day version adds Ttareungyi public bikes, and the short-term tourist passes do not include them. Navigate with Naver Map or Kakao Map, because Google Maps has no driving navigation in Korea and its walking directions are patchy.
April to early June and late September to early November are the two dependable windows. Cherry blossoms reach Seoul in early April and last barely a week. Jangma, the summer monsoon, delivers a large share of the year's rain from late June into late July, and August adds heat, humidity and the tail ends of typhoons. December through February is dry, bright and sharply cold with relatively little snow β a GTA traveller will find it familiar rather than shocking. March through May also brings yellow-dust and fine-particulate days, so check the air-quality forecast rather than assuming spring means clear skies.