Seoul travel info

At 9am, the drums of the guard-changing ceremony boom in front of Gwanghwamun Gate while commuter buses roll down Sejong-daero behind it. Granite peaks rise over the palace roofs; turn your head and it's glass towers. Seoul is a 600-year-old walled capital where ten million people simply get on with their day, so the line between sight and neighbourhood blurs. Cram-school buses squeeze through the hanok lanes of Bukchon, and office workers sit on the stepping stones of Cheonggyecheon stream with their post-lunch coffee.

After dark the city gets busier, not quieter. In Euljiro's beer alley, plastic stools spill into the street, and pork belly spits over charcoal grills. Buskers plug in their amps outside Hongik University, and side-street cafés in Mangwon and Seongsu are still full at 10pm. Order fried chicken at 2am and it arrives in half an hour; the convenience stores never switch off.

Whether you've flown in from abroad or ridden the KTX up from Busan, you get around the same way. The subway reaches almost everywhere, one transit card covers bus transfers, and Naver Map or KakaoMap does the navigating. Google Maps won't give walking directions here, so that's the one thing to remember.

Incheon International Airport (ICN)

Gimpo International Airport (GMP)