Sambo Sikdang in Seogwi-dong, Seogwipo. Grilled tilefish 60,000 (M) / 70,000 (L), abalone hotpot 19,000, chari mulhoe and squid mulhoe 15,000 each. Open 8am to 9pm daily. Transcribed straight from the menu board photos.
Autumn in Korea is full of holidays: Chuseok has barely finished before two more national days arrive in October. The 2026 calendar lines up unusually—National Foundation Day on Saturday 3 October, Hangeul Day on Friday 9 October—so early October is expected to produce two separate three-day breaks. Here’s the thing: the weather is as settled as it gets, and domestic travel demand peaks at the same moment. Book rooms and KTX in September, and travel on the middle day.
Seongsu was a district of shoe factories and print shops; its red-brick warehouses now host the “pop-up capital,” with 468 pop-ups (26% of Korea’s) in the first half of 2026 alone. Here’s the thing: the flagships are not the whole point. Seoul Forest and its deer to the west, Ttukseom Hangang Park to the south, Eungbongsan to the northeast—when the lines wear you down, a 10-minute walk puts you under trees or by the river. Nine themes, only Google-verified places.
The first thing most visitors want to settle is the tipping rate, and for Korea the answer is short: you do not tip. Restaurants, taxis, salons—none of them. Leave notes on the table and staff may chase you down the street to return them. Here’s the thing: paying is not entirely simple. Upscale hotels and some restaurants mark prices “++”, adding 10% service charge and 10% VAT. That is not a tip, so there is no reason to leave cash on top.
Following the hairtail dumpling piece, the other face of Eolssu Bistro. A whole grilled okdom, jeon and namul, raw and blanched seafood, through to the set-meal shape that arrives with rice and soup. When showing Korean food to a visitor from abroad, this is the table that takes the least explaining.
Seoul has one of the densest metro networks anywhere, and actually riding it is not the hard part. Here’s the thing: what catches people out comes after boarding. You take an empty seat and feel eyes on you; you answer a call and someone says something. There is no rulebook, but a few unwritten lines that almost everyone observes—know them and you will blend in within a couple of days.
Euljiro is where you watch a Seoul neighborhood change in real time: unmarked bars on the 4th and 5th floors above hardware wholesalers, and a station that passed 70,000 daily riders in 2025 for the first time in 28 years. Here’s the thing: it is also disappearing—the old Eulji Myeonok block is an office site, Sampoong Sangga becomes a park in 2026. Nine themes—sights, food, shopping, beauty, wellness, walks, nightlife, play, art—with only Google-verified places.
People who run while travelling see a city twice: once as a visitor, once at the speed of someone who lives there. Seoul is unusually good at the second one. Here’s the thing: there is a river, and the paths along both banks run for tens of kilometres without a break. Late September to mid-October brings 15–20°C mornings, the best of the year. Bag in a subway locker, bath at a jjimjilbang afterwards—four routes and the practical bits, sorted.
Fourth floor, 133-10 Sajik-ro, Jongno-gu. Tue~Sun from 7pm, closed Monday. A cocktail bar working with seasonal Korean ingredients, and a particularly good place to take visitors from abroad.
Seoul is a city split by a large river, and the scale of it only registers from the water. Cruises leave from several piers, run about an hour, and the sunset departures—bridges lit as daylight goes—are the most popular. Here’s the thing: whether you have to take one is another question. Part of the same view is free from the riverside parks, bridge walkways give an angle boats cannot, and public water transport sometimes runs cheaper. Six things to check before you board, plus the alternatives.