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Some basic questions for a longer visit in July-August-September to Seoul and maybe surrounding Seoul area?
1. What is weather like at this time? How does it compare to USA? Which city/area in USA is most comparable with respect to weather?
2. What are most interesting things to do if time? I like
outdoor national parks, natural features, hikes:
spectating sporting events:
cultural/historical:
food:
any swimming options - lakes, yellow sea, river, or not:
experiencing what residents do:
essential tourist stuff:
3. What to avoid including overly touristed stuff?
Some basic questions for a longer visit in July-August-September to Seoul and maybe surrounding Seoul area?
1. What is weather like at this time? How does it compare to USA? Which city/area in USA is most comparable with respect to weather?
2. What are most interesting things to do if time? I like
outdoor national parks, natural features, hikes:
spectating sporting events:
cultural/historical:
food:
any swimming options - lakes, yellow sea, river, or not:
experiencing what residents do:
essential tourist stuff:
3. What to avoid including overly touristed stuff?
4. Any other useful, key info?
July/August - hot, humid...maybe like Washington DC in the Summer? September becomes very Autumn-like, maybe like Mid-Atlantic in September?
Outdoor events, there are mountains all over the place. Gazillions of trails and mountains to climb or hike. Saraksan might be the most popular one, but there are so many around.
Swimming, you could try Hamilton Hotel in Itaewon. Huge pool party, plenty of beer, and people all summer long, on top of a rooftop. For a beach, probably interesting at Busan, but crowded with people. There is also a Mud Festival on the beach, and that's a lot of fun, can't remember what time of year, might be more early Summer.
Food & Cultural, tons of it. Probably better to look at guidebook though, as you see what suits your own tastes specifically.
Make the hike to Seoul Tower, it is worth it and fun.
I would make sure to only swim in the ocean area's or pools, stay away from the rivers. They have been cleaned up more so since I was last there, but they are still very polluted.
Also check out Lotte World, the world's largest indoor theme park. Has some decent shopping and movie theater, but also a indoor ice skating rink open year round and fun indoor roller coasters.
The KTX (a bullet train) will take you from Seoul to Busan approximately 3 hours.
If you're just randomly trying to get around South Korea, you can easily get stuck just in the Seoul area alone for a couple hours. The KTX however takes you directly from Seoul Station to Busan Station, meaning its not as bad as it seems, comparitively to all the other options from Seoul.
Some basic questions for a longer visit in July-August-September to Seoul and maybe surrounding Seoul area?
1. What is weather like at this time? How does it compare to USA? Which city/area in USA is most comparable with respect to weather?
2. What are most interesting things to do if time? I like
outdoor national parks, natural features, hikes:
spectating sporting events:
cultural/historical:
food:
any swimming options - lakes, yellow sea, river, or not:
experiencing what residents do:
essential tourist stuff:
3. What to avoid including overly touristed stuff?
4. Any other useful, key info?
1. Seoul weather is very similar to New York weather in the summer - hot, humid, with much of the heat being trapped in. It can also rain (in torrents!) quite frequently over the summer. AC will be a godsend.
2. WATERPARKS!!! Check out Caribbean Bay, it's about 30 minutes outside of Seoul and you can get there easily & cheaply by bus. Korean schools typically only give 1 month of vacation in the summers, so these kinds of places get real busy towards late July and throughout August. Early July shouldn't be too bad. TEMPLE STAYS!!! There are many Buddhist temples scattered throughout the country (and in Seoul as well). Stay the night (or a weekend), take in Buddhist meals and rituals, and have a good time. Go to the ones in the mountains to make it feel more natural/authentic! CITY!!! I'm very partial to Lotte World located in the Jamsil neighborhood of Seoul. It was a beautiful lake that you can walk around in addition to the amusement park itself. Lots of Korean tourists go here. Other cool areas in the city worth checking out? Hongdae at night (live music, indie bands, definitely go check out Hongdae Park), rent out a bicycle and cycle along the Han River. there are bike rentals all along the riverfront.
3. I would avoid Itaewon like the plague. It's tourist-trap central. If you want to go where native Koreans go if they were on vacation, visit Insa-dong and Gyeongbokgung instead.
4. Don't bring drugs of any kind. You might think this is funny or said in jest, but that kind of **** will actually get you jail time here. be open-minded. it's different from where you come from. and try the street food. some of it's pretty darn good.
3. I would avoid Itaewon like the plague. It's tourist-trap central. If you want to go where native Koreans go if they were on vacation, visit Insa-dong and Gyeongbokgung instead.
I'd argue that insa-dong and gyongbokgung are even more popular tourist trap areas than Itaewon. Not that anything is wrong with being a tourist trap, but they are more tourist-oriented than Itaewon.
Itaewon is basically where expat english teachers, immigrants, businessmen, and u.s. military people congregate. Sure, you can do tourist things like buy t-shirts and such there, but it's not really a 'tourist' area, it's more of a 'foreigner' type of place that foreigners living in Korea go to when they are looking for foreign-geared restaurants, bars, pool tables, etc.
The below is taken from the Official Site of Korea Tourism Org.: Itaewon Special Tourist Zone Contrary to other posts above, Itaewon is indeed a very touristy area. But that's besides the point. I would recommend avoiding it anyway even if it wasn't touristy because it's not worth seeing if you want to learn about Korean culture.
Quote:
Introduction
Itaewon is a popular tourist and shopping destination for foreigners who visit Korea. There are over 2,000 stores clustered together with shopping centers, shops selling clothes, shoes, and bags, restaurants, recreation facilities, trading companies, travel agencies, and tourist hotels. The many English signs and many foreigners will make you feel as if you are in not in Korea.
Small-scale shops selling souvenirs were opened to the American army after the independence of Korea. Since then, shopping centers appeared to residing foreigners and tourists and with Seoul Olympics in 1988, Itaewon rapidly grew as the representative shopping town in South Korea. From the middle of 1990s, it changed from the American army centered street to global citizens’ street when more tourists came from Japan, Hong Kong, China, South-east Asia, Africa and Middle east region. In 1997, it was designated as a special tourist zone. Japanese and Chinese, as well as English, are available at most shops due to the fact that costumers are mostly foreigners, and all kinds of requests are made. Moreover, there are special restaurants to taste the unique foods of the world. There are Turkish, Indian, Pakistani, Swiss, and Thai, and of course, authentic American food as well.
Born again as one of world’s best tourist spots, Itaewon provides not only shopping opportunities but also the opportunity to see exotic and traditional Korean fashion and culture. There are many festivals held in Itaewon, such as “The World Festival”, in which shows off Korean culture as well as traditional cultures from around the world.
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