City: South Korea
Top Things to do in South Korea
Top Hotels in South Korea
The 10 Best Things to do Good for a Rainy Day in South Korea, South Korea
Coordinates: 36°N 128°E / 36°N 128°E / 36; 128
Restaurants in South Korea
1. Myeongdong NANTA Theater
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 519 reviews
Reviewed By Pioneer301303
This is my second time to watch NANTA show. I bring my little one with me this time. He enjoyed it so much, and ranked it as his most favorite activity of his holiday in Seoul. Thank you for the great performance by the black team!
2. National Museum of Korea
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 2,362 reviews
This is the largest museum in Korea with over 220,000 objects in its collection. It has six permanent exhibition galleries such as Historical Gallery and Fine Arts Gallery. It also has special exhibition halls, a children's museum, outdoor exhibit areas, restaurants, cafes, shops and other amenities. *Admission: Free to Permanent Exhibition & Children's Museum(changeable after 2010)*Hours: Tue/Thu/Fri: 9am-6pm, Wed/Sat: 9am-9pm, Sun/holidays: 9am-7pm, closed Mon & January 1st
Reviewed By Janet1016 - Ottawa, Canada
I think it's awesome when a Museum offers free admission, especially to International travelers who can then learn all about a Country's Culture. My husband, son and I spent a week in Seoul, our very first trip to South Korea and visited the National Museum of Korea on our second day. It's a vast building, and one of the largest museums in Asia. We took the MRT to get there and it was a nice walk from the MRT station to the Museum. The Museum offers one hour free English language tours which we took. Our Guide was very friendly and personable and spoke English very well. There are also maps of the Museum available in English and they also detail the top sights if you have a limited amount of time to spend. I was fascinated most by the Gold Crowns and Caps, so delicate and ornate and so different from say English Crowns. :) The Museum houses many, many of Korean's National Treasures and it's really awe inspiring to get to see them and learn South Korea's history. You could spend a couple of days going through here no problem, plus there is another Museum on the grounds as well that is devoted to the Korean Language, the National Hangeul Museum. There is a large Food court area within in you get peckish and it serves really lovely meals. This is a great spot to visit if you're in Seoul. Go!!!!
3. The War Memorial of Korea
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 4,269 reviews
Poignant exhibits, war memorabilia, art works, and military equipment make this a perfect place to learn about Korea’s history of war, most notably with North Korea. Kids will enjoy the display of actual tanks and airplanes.
Reviewed By Culinary-Consultants - Ferrara, Italy
As a veteran I am a lover of places that price and honor, the fellow and good military men and women of the past and present; Men and Women who gave the ultimate sacrifice for the sake of freedom and liberty. In this vein, I dedicate part of every travel we make with our company to search for Memorials and Museums of War. The War Memorial of Korea as expected for the history of this country, is no disappointment. It opened in 1994 on the former site of the army headquarters to exhibit and memorialize the military history of Korea and it holds an exquisite collection and memorabilia of several past wars ranging from prehistoric times with very rudimentary weapons; passing with extreme detail throughout the Korean War and the ROK Armed Forces until more modern conflicts and the presence of South Korea as an allied in the United Nations. 13,000 items are displayed in six halls under different themes and about 100 large weapons are displayed in the outside exhibition area on the lawns around the building. Outside the building premises you can see a great variety of mobile units such as fixed-wing air-crafts like the De Havilland Canada U-6A Beaver, the Curtiss C-46D-20-CU Commando, also the Fairchild C-123J built in 1956 as a C-123B and later converted to a C-123J in the 1960s. Helicopters are also in the premises, such as the Bell AH-1J “International Cobra”, also the Bell UH-1B Iroquois, even Russian units as the Sikorsky H-5H Dragonfly and the Sikorsky HH-19B Chickasaw. But there are more mobile units such as armored vehicles, artillery and anti-aircraft guns. Missiles and several other maritime vessels like the Hurricane Aircat Air-boat used by ROK special forces during the Vietnam War and much more well kept pieces of war history are exhibited here at the War Memorial of Korea. The place definitely has been groomed to detail and has also a special glow about it; meaning a building with a soul. I truly recommend this place for the lovers of War History and War Artifacts and here you will also find a special place for the special connection we have with those who gave it all for the sake of freedom in South Korea and everywhere else.
4. The Independence Hall of Korea
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 129 reviews
Reviewed By janellim2016 - Augusta, United States
Lots of sculpture art, walking trails, indoor/outdoor exhibits. There are multiple buildings in a large complex. It’s easy to spend hours taking in the sights.
5. Gyeongju National Museum
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 578 reviews
Reviewed By TravelerTrecker
This is large, impressive museum dedicated to the Silla culture. It has several buildings that are very well organized following a chronological order and with dedication to several aspects of the life of the Sillas including domestic and common aspects and royals features. The exhibit on the tomb treasures is impressive! Curation is excellent! Labels are in Korean and English. The Silla's bell is just beautiful. The bell is outside the museum and the exhibit is great, with excellent illumination. At night is really beautiful! We did not have to pay. It was a Korean holiday when we visited and because of this, the museum closed one hour later! We visited the museum in the afternoon. We spent 3 hours at the museum. when we arrived to the museum, it started to rain; rainy days are perfect for museum visits. The rain lasted for two hours; when we went to see the gardens, it was dry and pleasant. Because the museum closed late at 700 pm, we were able to see many sculptures, pagodas, and the bell located in the museum gardens with almost nobody around. The gardens looked beautiful at sunset. Lightning was really good. We learned a lot! The museum deserves at least 3 hours. We visited on September, 2019.
6. Seoul Metro
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 12,699 reviews
Reviewed By 277vincentm - New Orleans, United States
Normally I don’t review public transportation systems. They’re not something to see or do: they’re a means to get to something you want to see or do. The exceptions—the times when a public transportation system actually IS an attraction—are pretty obvious: San Francisco’s cable cars, Valparaiso’s ascensors, Taipei’s Maogong Gondola, Innsbruck’s Nordkettenbahnen, etc. Kiev’s Arsenalna Metro station is a bona fide attraction--biggest elevator in the world. But most public transport runs from boring to aggravating. Horse-drawn carriages, pulled rickshaws, the elephant rides at the Amber Palace, and the camel rides in Giza, are things to do, not public ways of getting around. But the Seoul subway system is not only an excellent public transport system, but one that adds flourishes of art and culture as well. Here I’ll just note one impressive engineering detail, one cultural artefact that any major museum in North America would give its eye-teeth to get; and a travellers’ tip. Engineering: Walk up to the tracks and no further. A platform-long, floor-to-ceiling transparent panel runs alongside the track. Its doors slide open only when a train has stopped, and those trains stop so accurately that the entire entrances to the cars, and not an inch more or less in either direction, are accessible. This of course prevents your being jostled off the platform, or accidentally falling onto the tracks just as the train roars into the station. A few months ago a fellow committed suicide by jumping in front of an arriving train in San Francisco’s BART system. Naturally all the commuters in that station at the time was horrified: this was REALLY going to delay them. In fact, the entire system shut down for an hour. Had the same fellow attempted the same suicide in Seoul, he’d have been out of luck, or maybe in luck, but still alive either way. In theory I suppose you could install a shield like that in existing subway systems like BART; but I suspect the tricky 21st century engineering bit isn’t the plastic wall: it’s the stopping of all trains at precisely the right spot on the rails. No system dependent on human drivers could do that. Culture: If you take time to look around when you’re at a Seoul station, you can see some remarkable things. At one station I was sitting on a curving multi-colour bench backed by an artsy wall and thin trunks of mature bamboo, with an old wooden beach chair and a Western-style toilet integrated into the seating for humour (Bench and Bamboo photo). Sitting there, I noticed a polished black objet d’art atop four mythical Korean lions in the middle of the pedestrian traffic, with four red-taped stanchions alerting folks to walk around it (Objet d’art photo). Every time a train came in, scores of folks would swarm out, making for the exits, without even glancing at whatever it was. I got up and found a tiny plaque stating that it was an ancient Korean sundial. And what an exquisite bronze sundial! Instead of just a flat dial, it has a central semi-sphere circled by a flat perimeter dial as well. I believe that the yellow-edged gnomon is a modern recreation. The astronomical engravings and calligraphy were in pristine condition, with just two or three tiny chips along the outer edge (Sundial photo). The most astonishing thing, other than it being in the middle of a Metro station walkway, was its casting date: 1435 C.E! That was during the reign of Sejeon the Great, who revolutionized Korea’s writing system, and sponsored the golden age of ancient Korean science. Jang Yeong-sil was a scientist who used an iron printing press decades before Johannes Gutenberg, and invented improved rain gauges, water gauges, water clocks, and a wide range of astronomical instruments, including sundials. Jang and his co-scientists created the “angbu-ilgu” (“pot-shaped sun clock staring at the sky”). There’s one at Gyeongbokgung, out in the sun, a fitter place for a sundial than down in a Metro station, but exactly the same as this one! To put the antiquity of this sundial into perspective: in 1435 the richest, most cultured, and most powerful state in Western Europe was the Grand Duchy of the West (stretching from Friesland and Flanders through Burgundy to the Alps, but long gone by 1500); the most powerful state in the Indian subcontinent was the Vijayanagara Empire (the first Mughals wouldn’t show up till the next century); the Eastern Roman emperor still reigned in Constantinople; the princes of Muscovy were still under the Tartar Yoke; the Incas were nomadic tribesmen who hadn’t even founded Cuzco yet; and Henry the Navigator’s captains were still struggling to get past the Western Sahara on the African coast. To put the location of this sundial into perspective: Can you imagine transferring at a Berlin U-Bahn station and seeing a 1455 Gutenberg Bible on display in the middle of the traffic flow as you head to the other line? Or spotting a 1434 Jan Van Eyck painting hanging on the wall at London’s Bond Street or Embankment station? They’ve actually got a 1434 Van Eyck in London, but it’s prominently displayed at the National Gallery, not down in a Tube station! And yes, I did discover cultural touches at several other stations, though not at all. Traveller’s Tip: Whether you’re landing in Incheon or Gimpo, the 5000-won “All Stations” ticket will get you and your luggage from the airport to whatever Metro station is nearest to your hotel: that’s less than 4 Euros, and slightly more than 4 US dollars.
7. Trickeye Museum Seoul
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 1,527 reviews
The Trickeye Museum is "one of a kind" painting gallery, which combines art with hi-end technology - so-called AR (Augmented Reality) effect and 2D/3D illusions. Instead of merely viewing paintings (as in a typical art gallery), visitors can interact with the paintings using newly developed Trickeye Camera application to make pictures alive in order to be a part of the artwork and record it on video or make a picture. Moreover, there is the Ice Museum located in the Trickeye Museum, items in which are fully made out of ice such as iced TV, ice kitchen, ice slope etc. With one admission ticket you can enjoy both "Trickeye Museum" and "Ice Museum". To ensure that even its busiest customers have time to enjoy the fun, the museum stays open each day all around the year from 9 AM until 9 PM (last admission by 8 PM), making it a popular date and hang-out place. Outside of the main exhibition hall there is museum café, which exclusively serves Latte with Your picture from the phone on it.
Reviewed By daniellY8742XD - Miami, United States
Me and 4 other friends from University decided to visit the Trickeye Museum in Hongdae. You have to download an application that is called "TrickEye" in order to see the illusions and special effects. Free Wifi is provided. We had a lot of fun, it was a different experience seeing dinosaurs, sharks and artists coming out of the wall and interacting with its surrounding. It took us about 1-2 hours because we really enjoyed the special effects and made a lot of video and photo material.
8. Icheon World Ceramics Center
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 24 reviews
One of Korea’s oldest and most prized art forms is ceramics and at Icheon World Ceramics Center (about an hour from Seoul) you can see more than 500 different creations. It is a great place to buy ceramics at heavily discounted prices and there are even classes teaching visitors how to make their own work of art.
9. Jeju NANTA Theatre
10. KTX (Korea Train Express)
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 1,090 reviews
Reviewed By parkj001
I took two trips on the KTX, one to Gwangju and the other to Daejeon. It was a very comfortable ride and they were always on time!
