Since I’ve essentially neglected this blog since I made it last summer, it’s time to start catching up on a few blog posts! As a quick little recap, I’ve been spending this whole year working remotely and staying in month-long Airbnbs in different countries instead of renting an apartment in the States. My goal for the year was to spend less in each country than what I would’ve spent to continue living in Manhattan, which – spoiler alert – has not been very difficult. Here’s where I’ve stayed so far and and where I currently am for my final month:
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October- Palermo, Sicily
November- Vienna, Austria
~holiday break at home~
February- Seoul, South Korea
March- Kyoto, Japan
April- Hanoi, Vietnam
May- Phuket, Thailand & Seoul (again)
~USA break for weddings & family time~
July- Mediterranean family vacation
August- Avignon, France
September- move back to NYC🕺
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I was BEYOND excited to get back to Seoul earlier this year as I had been once before in 2022 when I initially became interested in solo traveling and absolutely loved it. My month there this February surpassed my expectations which were already extremely high – I cannot stress how safe and content I felt there (emphasis on safe). I think what I enjoy the most about the city is how well they are able to blend modernity with their traditional cultural aspects and architecture. South Korea is one of the four Asian Tigers (along with Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore), meaning they underwent rapid industrialization comparatively recently before diving immediately into the technological wave. This means that the plethora of beautiful palaces and hanoks still present in Seoul are old old while the rest of the city was developed very recently and looks very new.
I stayed at a BnB-style Airbnb near Dongdaemun Design Plaza, which I was initially opposed to because I wanted to have an entire apartment unit to myself like I have for the other months I’ve been abroad this year. However, I am so happy with how my experience there turned out and would 100% recommend it to anyone staying long term. I paid $700 for the whole month, which was several hundred dollars cheaper than the next cheapest apartments I found. I still had my own bathroom, but shared the kitchen and laundry room with the other guests. It really felt more like a small hotel than anything else though, and the owner was incredibly sweet and spoke English, Chinese, and German in addition to Korean. **Side note – there are 4 cats that were taken in by the owner and live at the property, so be aware of that if you’re allergic (it was literally my dream come true).
I essentially spent the whole month cafe hopping, shopping, visiting historical sites, and getting various Korean beauty treatments. If you’ve never seen pictures of videos of a Korean cafe, then you probably wouldn’t even believe how eccentric and over-the-top they are. The majority of them have unique themes and are literally made to be instagram-worthy, so there is no shortage of quirky cafes to visit there. I tried to choose new ones each day to work from since I had so many on my list to visit, but I still ended up frequenting many of the same ones in the neighborhoods I liked the best. I’ll make a separate blog post dedicated to my favorite cafes in Seoul and link it here when I post it, but here is a guide map of several of them on my Thatch page.
Though I loved everywhere I visited within the city, my favorite neighborhoods are Sinsa-dong, Hannam-dong, and Seongsu. Seongsu is known as the “Brooklyn of Seoul,” and I can personally confirm that it does indeed give that vibe. It is where most of the city’s pop-ups set up shop and also has great vintage shopping. Sinsa-dong is located near many of the med spas in Gangnam that you would likely visit to get any Korean beauty treatments done at and also has several of my favorite clothing stores and cafes. Hannam-dong is a very high-end neighborhood and is fun to window shop in. Although I didn’t list it as one of my favorite neighborhoods, I also love Anguk due to its traditional feel and proximity to several popular tourist attractions (Gyeongbokgung Palace and Bukchon Hanok Village).
Public transportation in Seoul is amazingly extensive and super easy to use. The hardest part of figuring out how to use the metro is buying the metro card itself. Though Seoul is a very modern and technologically-centered city, foreigners will need to purchase a physical metro card. To do so, you need to visit a 7-eleven and ask an employee to purchase a “T-Money” card. Additionally, you can only load it using cash. Though slightly inconvenient, this is easy to do. There are plenty of well-marked machines in each station for you to reload your metro card at and you can change the settings to English so it should be very straightforward. In terms of actually using the metro, the Kakao Metro app is the best way to navigate it and it has an English setting.
I’m writing this blog post from New York and let me tell you, it has been such a reverse culture shock coming home and feeling like anything I’m holding could just be stolen right out of my hands. It is common practice in Seoul to hold your table at a cafe or restaurant by setting your phone, laptop, or even a singular credit card down on a table before walking away to place your order (the U.S. could literally never). I could walk home alone at 3am with headphones in and not fear for my safety which was SUCH a foreign feeling to me because I would never do that in Manhattan (or anywhere else in the U.S. for that matter). Of course, bad things can and do happen everywhere though, so don’t completely let your guard down when visiting. Sexual assault is often taken more lightly than it is in the U.S. or in other western countries and you’ll have less credibility as a foreigner, so females should still carry a Birdie (or something similar) just in case. Even with this knowledge, I genuinely felt the safest I have ever felt as a solo traveler in Seoul (along with everywhere in Japan and Singapore) so this is just something to be wary of.
Here’s a quick mention of a handful of my absolute favorite shops, restaurants, and cafes:
Cafes-
- Rain Report (Seongsu location)
- Cheongsudang (Insadong location)
- Grey Lab
- Nuldam Space
- 1in1jan (Eunpyeong Hanok Village)
Restaurants-
- The Butcher’s Monk (Hannam-dong)
- Ssong Thai (Itaewon)
- Marie Jongseok (Insadong)
Shopping-
- Tamburins (a Seoul must)
- Gentle Monster (another Seoul must)
- Sappun
- Avie Mua
- Musinsa Standard
Overall, my time in Seoul made February my second favorite month of the whole year (only behind March in Japan) and I would HIGHLY recommend it as a first solo travel destination. For other pics and reels from my trip, you can check out my instagram @hrbrowngoes!
