Hello everyone. This is Yong from Your Korea Friend. Are you wondering where to stay while traveling in Seoul? Are you having a hard time choosing your accommodation in Seoul because there are too many options? I understand. When I was living outside of Seoul, I had a hard time choosing accommodations every time I visited Seoul. I went and stayed in many different places here and there. And now I'm in Seoul and I do recommend locations to my friends who are visiting Seoul. So in today's video, I'm going to share with you my top 3 locations where to stay in Seoul. Also, I'll share with you where Koreans choose to stay for their vacations. But first, open the map of Seoul. I recommend using Google Maps. Open Google Maps and pin all the places where you want to go in Seoul. I have pinned it like this. These are the places where I think tourists might want to visit while traveling Seoul. As you can see, there are a lot of pins in the upper middle part of Seoul. And here are some orange pins and yellow pins. The color doesn't matter much so don’t mind it. I purposely done it to separate the neighborhoods. The three places where the pins are gather are near Hongdae, Myeongdong, and Gangnam. Yes. These are places you probably heard a lot in other blogs or videos as recommended places to stay in Seoul. Now you get why those blogs, videos and I are recommending these places. Because attractions are located nearby and the transportations are much comfortable here. So when you are choosing an accommodation in Seoul, it is better to choose the upper part of the river rather than the lower part, and try to go around these three locations. Now you might ask from these three, which one is the best? For that is really up to you to choose the location that suits you. Hongdae is the closest location to the airport out of the three. So it is a place where you can come easily by taking AREX from Incheon Airport. However, it is a little away from other attractions. It takes about 20 to 30 minutes to Myeongdong area and 40 minutes to an hour to Gangnam area. Since Hongdae is in the university district, there are many cheap restaurants and street shopping places and they are generally cheaper than other places. There are many foreigners and many staffs speaking English and understand English so you can visit without worrying too much about speaking Korean. However, Hongdae has the young vibe full of students, so it's crowded and can be noisy until dawn. I recommend Hongdae for those who are looking for a location close to the airport, an affordable place, or the young vibe of Korea. Myeongdong is the closest location to other attractions among the three. If you are planning to visit many attractions, Myeongdong is a good place to get your accommodation. Also it’s between Hongdae and Gangnam, so you can go both sites easily. There is no direct way to Myeongdong by taking AREX from Incheon Airport, so you have to transfer one's at Seoul station. Alternatively, you can take a bus and go straight to Myeongdong from Incheon Airport. Myeongdong is also known as a tourist town, because there are many tourists staying there since this is very convenient location for foreigners to stay. There are old restaurants that are good and many shopping malls, street and brand stores Some downsides are it’s a bit messy and don't have much of Korea feel, Korea vibe, and it's a little expensive. It is recommended for those who want to stay nearby the attractions and want to surrounded by English. Gangnam is far. It is far from the airport and far from attractions. However, because it is a place with many trends, there are restaurants, cafes and hot places everywhere. This is not a place where foreigners gather much, so language could be a little burden compared to Hongdae and Myeongdong. Also, Gangnam is expensive. So I personally don't recommend Gangnam as a place to stay except for those who want to visit trendy places in Gangnam area. If I were to stay in Seoul for a week or so, I will probably stay in Gangnam for a day or two to go to attractions near Gangnam area. But also going back and forth from Myeongdong to attractions in Gangnam area is also doable. By the way, I am referring to Gangnam as southeat part of Seoul, including Gangnam, Apgujeong, and Jamsil, not Gangnam Station alone. I went with three places that I recommend the most in Seoul. These places are famous places where Koreans also visit to hang out. So these locations are always crowded but safe. Also, these locations aren't like residential area, so you can't really experience the Korea living culture. There are also other locations such as Itaewon or Dongdaemun, but I wouldn't recommend them if this is your first time visiting Seoul. Because Itaewon don't have good transportation and Dongdaemun, rather to choose Dongdaemun, I'll probably choose Myeongdong because there are close by. Now, I'll tell you in top three locations where Koreans go for their vacation or staycation or holiday-cation or whatever for special cases. First is Yeouido. Yeouido has the luxurious hotels, expensive hotels. So people go there for their special events. They can enjoy pool, they have great Han River view. Sometimes people go there to party in an expensive hotel. Second place is Namsan, Seoul station. There aren't that many, but people go there especially in spring and fall foliage season to see the amazing view with N Seoul Tower. So that’s two. Third is Myeongdong. Koreans go there because there are a lot of hotels in different price range. There is a lot of option that they can choose from which that suits them. Also, there are a lot of attractions that people can visit during their stay in Myeongdong. So Yeouido, Namsan, and Myeongdong are top three places. I'll be doing a part two of where to stay in Korea to show you guys around other places, other locations so that you can see what other options are there too. Types of accommodations. My friends asked me which one to choose. Hotels, Airbnbs or guest house. Hotels are most expensive. If you can afford hotel, then I'll probably go with hotel. But if you think hotel is a little expensive, then you can choose Airbnb because with the price of hotel, you can get much nicer place with Airbnb. Guest Hosue is the cheapest. You can probably get one for like 20 bucks a night or something. But downside is that you have to share a room with other people. This is it for today's video. It is very difficult to choose accommodation when traveling. Once again, I'll be doing a part two of where to stay, showing you around other places so that you can see which other options there are. Also, I'm thinking of visiting hotels and other accommodation myself and give you all the reviews. If there is a hotel you like to know about, please leave a comment and I'll try to go there first. Thank you so much for watching. And please give it a like and leave us a comment to support us. And don't forget to subscribe our channel for more Korea travel tips. I'll see you in the next video. Thank you. Bye.
