Explore
206 places across Japan and South Korea
Bukchon Hanok Village
Six hundred traditional houses on a hill between two palaces.
Café Onion Seongsu
A bakery inside a factory nobody bothered to redecorate.
Seongsu-dong
Shoe factories turned into flagship stores and pop-ups.
Ihwa Mural Village
A hillside village painted to keep it from being demolished.
N Seoul Tower
The whole city, from a hill in the middle of it.
Gwangjang Market
Sit on a plastic stool and eat mung bean pancakes.
Noksapyeong & Itaewon
The hill of small bars behind Itaewon.
Common Ground
Two hundred shipping containers stacked into a mall.
Naksan Park & City Wall
Walk the old fortress wall above the rooftops.
Changdeokgung Secret Garden
A royal garden you can only enter with a guide.
Ikseon-dong
A 1920s hanok block of alleys barely wide enough for two.
Dongdaemun Design Plaza
Zaha Hadid's silver landscape in the middle of Dongdaemun.
Mangwon Market
The market Seoul actually shops at.
Yeonnam-dong
A disused railway turned into a long thin park, with cafés either side.
Starfield Library, COEX
Thirteen-metre bookshelves in the middle of a shopping mall.
Inwangsan & Seonbawi
A shamanic rock shrine on a granite mountain above the city.
Gyeongbokgung Palace
The main royal palace, with Bugaksan directly behind it.
Euljiro 3-ga
Unmarked bars above lighting shops and print workshops.
Deoksugung Stonewall Walkway
The walled lane every drama couple ends up walking down.
Gyeongnidan-gil
The hill behind Itaewon where DanBam would have been.
Cheonggyecheon Stream
The sunken stream where every drama argument happens.
Seokchon Lake
A lake loop under cherry trees, with the tower behind it.
Haeundae Cinema Street
A coastal promenade that doubles as a film set.
Gamcheon Culture Village
A hillside of pastel houses stacked in terraces.
Haeundae Beach
Korea's most famous beach, under a wall of skyscrapers.
Huinnyeoul Culture Village
White houses on a cliff, with a path along the sea below.
Jagalchi Market
Korea's biggest fish market — buy downstairs, eat upstairs.
Gwangalli Beach
A lit suspension bridge across the whole horizon.
Haedong Yonggungsa
A temple built onto the rocks, with waves underneath it.
Songjeong Beach
Busan's surf beach, a few stops past the crowds.
Bosu-dong Book Street
An alley of second-hand bookshops since the war.
Busan Cinema Center
The world’s longest cantilevered roof, covered in LEDs.
Momos Coffee
A roastery that produced a World Barista Champion.
Taejongdae
Cliffs, pines and a lighthouse at the end of the island.
Cheongsapo Daritdol Skywalk
A glass walkway out over the water in a fishing village.
Nami Island
The tree-lined lane that started the Korean Wave.
Petite France
A pastel French village on a Korean hillside.
Jumunjin Breakwater
Korea's single most famous drama location, on a working pier.
Changgyeonggung
The quietest of the five palaces, with a glass greenhouse.
Jongmyo Shrine
A hundred-metre hall of absolute plainness.
Gwanghwamun Square
The city’s central axis, aimed at the mountain.
Jogyesa Temple
A working temple in the middle of the office district.
Insadong & Ssamziegil
A spiral of craft shops off the antiques street.
Unhyeongung
A royal residence, free and usually empty.
Tongin Market
Buy brass coins, fill your own lunchbox.
Seochon Village
Bukchon’s quieter, more lived-in twin.
Bukchon Hanok Steps
The stepped lane with the city behind the roof tiles.
Samcheong-dong
The road up the side of the palace wall.