South Korea Adventures: Namsan Seoul Tower

If you’re planning a trip to Seoul, odds are you know about Seoul Tower. In my opinion it is one of the hearts of Seoul as it can be seen from almost anywhere in Seoul and the suburbs of Seoul. Because of this, it is something that everyone should do.

My husband has gone once before while I was in America finishing school then he took me to celebrate our one year anniversary. Even though he had gone before, we found stuff that he didn’t know about when he first went. Instead of hiking up to Seoul Tower, we took the Namsan cable car. We walked from Myeongdong and took this little elevator up to the cable car boarding area where we purchased tickets, which were 8,500 won per round trip. If you aren’t up for hiking there, the cable car was worth it; it was convenient and the wait was fairly quick.

Once we got up there, we walked over to this little observation area that was at ground level with the tower. While up there, you can purchase a lock (or bring your own) and lock it to one of the many areas and leave a little memory there; we did this and it was fun to be able to leave a permanent memory in a new country that we are spending two years of our life. The view is also really great from there so if you’re afraid of heights, you can still get a taste of the view from here. There is also a gift shop, churro stand, and other restaurants that you can eat at if you please, we just got churros which were delicious. Also, it was here that he gave me my new wedding ring, one actually meant to last a lifetime. He said a beautiful little speech and made me cry happy tears and then presented my dream wedding set, it was absolutely perfect despite my hands feeling like icicles.

After a lot of looking from the bottom of the tower, we were about to leave when I noticed a ticket stand for the observatory deck. So we decided to do it. We got the two tickets, popcorn and two drink combo which was 21,000 won. We followed the crowd to get to the deck and we stopped by one of the stands to get our drinks and popcorn. We got the cheese popcorn and it was THE BEST, like seriously, THE BEST cheese popcorn I have ever had. I would go back just for the popcorn. Then we got in line and you take pictures before going to the elevator. The elevator wait wasn’t that long either and they played a little show of going into space on the ceiling of the elevator. We arrived at the deck and the view was even better than from the ground. Mark didn’t enjoy it as much as the height was a little too much; but I enjoyed it and loved that I could see little cities in the mountains outside of Seoul, Lotte Tower, Yongsan Garrison, and so much more. The windows also had little tidbits of information throughout which is helpful if you don’t know a lot about the area. After we made our way around the tower, we saw another picture booth where you could don traditional clothing and take themed pictures. So we did that and got copies of both pictures. They were about 12,000 won each if I remember correctly and they come in little cardboard frames. I don’t think I’ve ever bought pictures like that, but now that we’re home, I find that I’m glad we did.

If you decide to or can go, Seoul tower is very easy to get to by walking, subway, bus, or taxi. While I was back in America, my husband and some friends walked to Seoul tower and you can walk from Itaewon, Myeongdong, and probably other areas but I don’t yet know those. Otherwise, subway and bus directions can be found at VisitKorea as well as other information to help plan your trip. I’ve heard they also have a pretty good, fancy restaurant if you want to make a fancy date out of it, we didn’t because Mark had other plans for food :).