Seoul
Seoul Hotel & Transportation
This was our first time traveling to South Korea and we didn’t know what to expect (except that it would be cold lol). Since we’re traveling with out 4 year old, we decided to stay at Lotte Hotel World (booked through hotels.com). It wasn’t cheap but it was soooo worth it. First off, the hotel is attached to their theme park, Lotte Adventure World, and we got a room with a view directly into the park (which was such a unique experience). We went to the theme park for one full day (with one in and out pass so Emi could nap). The tickets to the theme park are discounted when you purchase as a hotel guest (but the tickets are cheap already and the discount is only about $6 per ticket). The park is a lot of fun (though not quite Disneyland so temper your expectations).
But I think the best thing about the hotel is that it’s connected to four department stores, the subway station, and a bus terminal. The department store directly connected to the hotel is somewhat upscale but also features local brands, the next one over had a Muji and a grocery store at the bottom (which was essential since we don’t like to go out to eat for every meal), the one next to that was all Western luxury brands (eh, I can get those at home), and the furthest one was more our speed with a mix of high and mid-level brands (and there’s also an aquarium that we didn’t have a chance to visit). There are also a ton of shops, snack shops, and restaurants on the subway basement level. For the first couple days we lived like moles and did not step outside at all (which worked out for those days since it was raining and freezing). And right outside two of the department stores was their amazing holiday display (pictured above). The hotel room itself is quite nice, with a queen and twin bed, a desk, a luxurious bathroom, and the standard mini fridge and other essentials. The room was also decorated with Lotte’s character friends (I think they call them Kakao characters?) and the bear, Ryan, quickly became our favorite.
When we weren’t staying near the hotel, we caught a couple buses and a train to visit various kid cafes in Seoul. Kid cafes are basically indoor playgrounds for kids, with a cafe portion for parents to rest and chat with other parents. Each kid cafe usually has a physical activity portion, like a trampoline park or obstacle course, a game with a projector (usually in the ball pit area), and a pretend or dress-up area.
Tmoney card featuring our favorite, Ryan, with a DJ Ryan key chain
We got around Seoul using a TMoney card that we got from the airport (ask information but at Icheon arrivals, there’s a bookstore that sells them and that can add money to it. All trains and buses take the card (except for the airport bus which takes you into the city in about an hour and a half). The Tmoney card was essential for getting around and I highly recommend getting one. You can add money to the card at any subway station. We also relied on Naver (download the app) to get around and find the restaurants and kid cafes we wanted to go to. Google is crap in Korea and don’t rely on it. Reviews and ratings are only provided by foreigners and are often times outdated. If we found something we wanted to go to in Google, we would copy and paste it into Naver to see the most up to date information and the navigation to get there. Naver will also accurately tell you the train and bus schedules.
Oh and Google Translate was my best friend in Korea. There are some English speakers but not a lot. And with T-Mobile I had free international coverage so I didn’t have to purchase any internet for my phone (it’s up to a certain data limit so as long as you weren’t streaming when out and about it should last over a week. You can buy additional coverage after you use up your quota, which I did towards the end of my trip in Japan).
Seoul Shopping
Since I have a 4 year old I sadly could not do a whole lot of shopping. I sneaked in short time slots of shopping while my husband kept her entertained. But still it was probably for the best (for my wallet anyway). I didn’t really purchase much except for a bit of makeup (but passed on the famous Korean skincare because my skin is pretty finicky and I didn’t have the time to really do the research). I loved Olive Young, which is their affordable beauty and skincare chain that’s everywhere—there were three in our hotel’s vicinity. But they also sell up-scale beauty products at the department stores, and mid-range ones at the supermarket. I bought mostly lip products because wow Korean lip products (especially their lip tints) are the best.
Other than that I didn’t buy anything else in Korea because even though I was tempted by their trendy items, I knew it just wouldn’t work with my usual daily minimal style and it would probably be too warm for California winters—it was all winter clothing in Korea rn. I was tempted by some puffy nylon bags that are oh-so trendy right but the majority of you guys talked me off that ledge (and a good thing too because I reeeaaaally don’t need another plastic bag). I also looked at some platform Ugg mule dupes but again didn’t commit because I wasn’t sure it would translate to my real style. And talking about style…
Seoul Bags
These are just some of the things I noticed about what women are wearing in Seoul or more specifically carrying in Seoul. The designer top bags I saw in Seoul were from Dior, Louis Vuitton, Celine, and Goyard. Of these the top was the Dior Book Tote (in all sizes and colors) and the Goyard canvas totes. There were zero Loewe’s and hardly any Hermes. And of the Celine bags, most were made from the current Triomphe logo brown canvas, with exception of a couple of light-colored nano belt bags.
And of course there were the ubiquitous nylon puffer bags worn by both women and men. Insta-friend S sent me this article from Vogue about this trend here, which I found pretty interesting. She also mentioned that “everyone in Korea has the same stuff at the same time [which is great] because of [the availability of] different price points, but [she] dislikes the status attached to what level [one] purchases.” And I found that to be somewhat true: the bags were fairly homogenous. So much so that I started to want the same things (hence the need for a poll about the puffer bag and platform uggs). As a matter of fact, as I was composing this post the picture below popped up in my Insta Stories from eggcanvas (a Korean-American New Yorker) that basically sums up the trends I saw around Seoul:
Anyway we had a blast at Seoul and we would definitely like to go back in a couple years! Since this is quite a long post, my recap of Tokyo (with a requested rundown of what I know about secondhand shopping in Tokyo) is coming up soon!