Itinerary & Hotel Astoria, Seoul

Hello, Now if you’ve seen the last post and am pretty much drawn by the beauty of Seoul and wants a piece of it, you can fly there, walk around on your own without joining any tour. Of course bear in mind, it means alot (and really ALOT) of walking because there is no tour bus to drive you around. But most places are quite near, except for Nami Island and Everland Amusement Park. It’s definitely not a problem to take the subway and move around in Seoul.

Here is our itinerary. (will update link to it as I put up new blog posts)

Day 1 (May 18)
Arrival and check into hotel. If you’re taking AirAsia X, you are most likely to reach at night at about 9ish local time.

Day 2 (May 19)
Paris Baguette Breakfast
Everland Amusement Park <–highly recommended, MUST ride T-Express
Shopping & eating at Gangnam area
Dongdaemun Market

Day 3 (May 20)
Nami Island &  Zipwire <– highly recommended for beautiful photos
Shopping & dinner at Myeongdong
Nanta Show (non verbal performance)

Day 4 (May 21)
Hollys Coffee Breakfast
Gyeongbukgong Palace
Tosokchon for lunch
Shopping at Insadong
Namsan Park & Seoul N Tower
Dinner at Hongdae area

Day 5 (May 22)
Namdaemun Market
Shopping at Ehwa Women’s University Street <– highly recommended for shopping
Banpo Bridge Rainbow Fountain

Day 6 (May 23)
Bangsan Market
Apgujeong Rodeo Street or you can go COEX for more shopping
Myeongdong <— highly recommeded for shopping
Hanok Village
Incheon Airport

Day 7 (May 24)
If you’re taking Air Asia X, you’re most likely to reach at 5am in the morning the next day.

 

Ok so this was our roughly planned, some impromptu detours in between itinerary. Wait actually not roughly plan. Planning a trip is very hard when you have so many places to go and you want to keep everything within the same route so you don’t waste too much time travelling on the subway.

For accommodations, we book for one of Benikea‘s chain hotel; Hotel Astoria. It is in Chungmuro and it’s located in Subway Line 3 and 4 (exit 4 will be the nearest to the hotel), making it more convenient to travel around without changing much subways. It is also just 5 mins walk away from Myeongdong, Namsangol Hanok Village and a 24hr Korean Restaurant with yummy shin ramyun with cheese and from Airport shuttle bus station (which is right infront of Hotel Sejong) and just 2 mins walk from a FamilyMart (like 7-eleven) and Paris Baguette (Korean chain bakery store) and Cafe Nescafe. So if you’re worried about not being able to find breakfast or supper, rest assured you’ll be able to find one, if not, more

 

I think we came out from Exit 7 or 8 of the station and ended up the opposite road, but there was a lift for our luggages. Hotel Astoria was just next to the brown building behind me. If you’re just walking,go out from Exit 4 of the station and you’re just another 50m away from the hotel.

Emmm, that’s how it looks like, on paper.

I will explain more about the Subway lines and how to buy the T-money in the next post. For now, about the hotel,  it looks clean and the receptionist tried very hard to speak English with us but made an effort. They were ok though and we could understand each other. The only downside of this hotel is that if you intend to stay there, make sure you get rooms at higher level. The hotel has 7 stories, try to get 5, 6 or 7 as there’s a club at level 2 and if there are other late night activities that may be noisy, it won’t disrupt your sleep. Ours were at level 6 and 7, we didn’t hear any loud music from the club so we’re safe. *phew*

We got 2 double beds, to fit 4. The room was tidy and the toilet was clean too. But it was a bit stuffy cause the aircon wasn’t working like how we wanted it. So we slept with the window open for some cool air.

You can book for the rooms either in the hotel’s website or through Agoda. Each of us paid about RM500-600 for 5 nights per person.

Ok that’s it for now, expect probably about 10 more posts about my Korea Trip 😉 Next will be A-rex and T-Money.

8 thoughts on “Itinerary & Hotel Astoria, Seoul

  1. hi! we are also going to stay at astoria hotel this october. May i request your comment on our DIY itinerary for 3nights-two days stay. Greatly appreciate your help.=)

    day 1:arrive 10PM at hotel-Dongdaemun Market
    day 2: Bukchon village-Chandeokgung Palace w/ Secret Garden Tour-Insadong-Gyeonbukgong-Namdaemun Market-Myeondong-Cheonggyecheon Stream and Cheonggye Plaza-Banpo Rainbow Bridge-Hotel
    Day 3: Korea House-Namsangol Hanok Village-Ewha university-Honggik University-63 building-Itaewon-N’Seoul Tower-Hotel-Airport by 1AM.

    Seoul City day pass or T-money card? We dont want to get tired walking i have with me senior citizen =). How can we reach Banpo bridge using subway. Thank you for the soonest reply! =)

    1. Hi Roma, that’s ALOT to do on 3 days. Any of the palace would take 3 hours at least. you can also just choose to go to namsangol because it is just behind Hotel Astoria and skip bukchon…
      Ewha is abt 30 min ride away from town and honggik is a little further.

      I would probably do 1 palace, (either changdeokgong or gyeongbukgong, (skip namdaemun, nothing in there) myeongdong or insadong, and banpo bridge. for day 2. The lighing show on banpo bridge is not 24/7. best would be to be there arnd 8pm.
      day 3, go to ewha / honggik (not too sure if elder citizen would like ewha or honggik cause its both very university-students-street and road is steep), back to namsangol then Ntower at night. Itaewon is not really on the way…

      Not sure about the city day pass or where exactly it stops but if u don’t want to walk so much, take taxi 🙂

  2. We are going to south korea this coming May for 5days 4 nights and we are going to stay at astoria hotel too. Can you help us plan DIY itenerary,and also what to take cab or subway or bus.thanks

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