Things to do with kids in Seoul

1) Visit the palaces

Seoul is home to a few palaces. It would be nice to get your child to experience the palace environment and the ceremonies that are being held there.

One of the palaces that I took my 3 girls to was the Gyeongbukgong Palace. The palace was beautiful. It has a large compound for your children to roam around. We also get to witness the guard-changing ceremony.

2) Visit the Hanok villages

Visiting the hanok villages is another experience that you should let your child experience. My children loved it as the building structures are something that they have not seen before. They also get to enter some of the houses that has been converted to house art pieces.

3) Ski Resort

Almost all children would love this. I mean, who does not love snow. The only downside is that you can only do so during the winter season. My children are 2, 4 and 7 years of age and I took them to the ski resort. I think my 2-year-old was the youngest one to ever don the ski outfit that we rented from the ski shop as the owner took a photo of her (actually of the whole family). Plus, the outfits were brand new! 

Since my girls are still very small, especially Ulfa and Nuha, we decided to go snow sledding instead of skiing. I mean, honestly, how are we going to ski with a 2-year-old. The resort that we went to was the Elysian Gangchon Ski Resort. It has both a sledding area and a ski area.

4) Lotte World

Lotte World is an indoor theme park. It will be comfortable to go here even during winter.

Picture taken from english.visitkorea.or.kr

5) Everland

Everland is a theme park that is mostly featured in movies. Some of the rides may be closed during winter. However, there will be an area for snow sledding that is opened during winter.

Picture taken from http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/

6) Nami Island

Nami Island became popular thanks to the movie Winter Sonata. It is a beautiful island. Even my children loved it there. They especially loved the ever-friendly resident squirrels.

Seoul Day 4 and Day 5

On Day 4, we decided to visit the famous Namdaemun Market. Mind you, we were bracing the winter cold with 3 kids and no stroller at all.

Myeongdong is very near Namdaemun. However we did not want to walk so we took the train from Myeongdong to Hoehyon, which is only one stop away.

We went there in the morning so there were plenty of ahjummas doing their morning marketing. At first I was not very impressed as they sold pretty much the usual souvenirs for tourists. So we shopped for souvenirs to bring back for our family and friends.

Then... I saw all the cute kids' stuff - from the boots to the cool skirts! That definitely unleashed the ahjumma in me. We bought cute boots for the kids. They cost about S$18 - S$20. Not extremely cheap but totally worth it for me! They are Made in Korea afterall (as the shopowners would tell you when you quote an extremely obscene price to them).

Where I bought some of the clothes for the kids.

Walking with kids in an open area in the winter cold without stroller is not easy. We had to cross over to the other side to rest at the cafe and have some hot chocolate. Well, partly because my younger 2 kids fell asleep. So hubby had to carry one while I had to hold the other. So we took our time. Had hot chocolate and doughnut. This became our daily snack every single day. (This is something the kids and I miss about Korea - having doughnut and hot chocolate in winter.) We took quite some time at the cafe. After that we continued to shop at Namdaemun.

The thing about Namdaemun is that when the sun sets, the area is converted into mini eateries. You see tables and stools being set as the people get ready to enjoy their night snack and soju. So we headed back to Myeongdong, bought some snacks and went back to the hotel.

Pretty uneventful day, but well, we did love Namdaemun.

So for the next day, we decided to return to Namdaemun again to finish our shopping. We bought plenty of kids clothes. They really have beautiful clothes for kids. Sadly, as it is winter, most are winter wear and  not appropriate for Singapore's weather. Nonetheless, we still managed to get what we need and plenty of nice shoes for the kids.

Thereafter we proceeded to Itaewon for our dinner. This time round we went to Kervan, a Turkish Restaurant. Expensive but worth it.

Day 1 Seoul

From Hong Kong, I booked a flight to Incheon Airport, South Korea.

We took the Hong Kong Express flight, which is a budget flight. We only paid S$835 for all 5 of us. This is inclusive of 40kg check-in baggage. Hong Kong Express does not offer online seat selection so we made sure that we reached the counter at least 2 hours before departure (we arrived 2hrs 30mins before departure) as we wanted to ensure that we got to sit together (since we were travelling with small children). We saw 2 other couples before us. Thankfully we were early as shortly after, the queue started to get really long with other passengers checking-in.

We got our preferred seats. It was a small plane. During check-in, the staff asked us whether we had a return ticket back to our home country as it is their policy to ensure that we have that. So we showed them the itinerary for our AirAsiaX flight back to Singapore from Seoul. The staff then took down the details.

Although checking-in was at Terminal 2, our departure gate was at Terminal 1. So we took the shuttle to Terminal 1. You can only do so at 7 a.m. as it is closed before that.

Our flight with Hong Kong Express went on without delay and we reached our destination on time. The travel time was around 3h 20min. It was overall a pleasant flight.

At the departure gate

We reached Incheon Airport around 0935. At Incheon Airport, once you arrive, you have to take a series of escalators followed by shuttle train to reach the immigration counter. 

Upon arrival at Incheon, we spotted the snow covered ground as it was snowing the day before our arrival.

After collecting our baggage, we went to Dunkin Donuts to get some doughnuts as we were starving.

There are many modes of transportation from Incheon Airport to Seoul. Since we were with kids  and had quite a number of luggages with us, we opted for the Airport Call Van Service. It is located between Exit 12 and 13 (near Dunkin Donuts). We checked with the person at the counter and agreed on the fare of KRW78 000 to Pacific Hotel, Seoul.

Welcome to Seoul

Our hotel of choice was Pacific Hotel and it is conveniently located at Myeongdong area, extremely near Myeongdong subway station. We did contemplate on getting an apartment but the apartments near Myeongdong station were mostly fully booked. We did not want to get one further as it was winter and we were not sure if the kids could take long hours out bracing the winter cold. 

Once we reached the hotel, we checked into the hotel. Since we came from the high-end luxuries of The Mira (Hong Kong), the minute we stepped into the room in Pacific Hotel, our mood was slightly dampened. It looked a little run-down. We had them replace a chair as it was rather wobbly. But soon, we settled in just fine. We booked the deluxe twin room with breakfast. Our room had one double and one single bed. The room was also big enough to accommodate all five of us. I am really glad that we booked Pacific Hotel as it was very very near the Myeongdong Station and the shopping area of Myeongdong itself.

We took a short nap as I was rather dizzy from my travel sickness (yes, I have travel sickness). I did not take any medication as I was travelling with my kids and I needed to be fully awake to attend to their needs. When you are a parent, your child's needs come before yours.

When I woke up, we got our down jackets on and explored Myeongdong. My kids were immediately excited over the fact that there were mists formed when we spoke. 

We were soon dazzled by Seoul. Myeongdong at night was filled with lights. It was a shopping heaven. Hubby bought 2 pairs of Adidas shoes as they were rather cheap. We ate some street food. We had Hotteok, somewhat like a fried pancake with cinnamon, brown sugar and nuts as filling. My girls also ate this crepe where they spread nutella on and put banana and strawberry and cornflakes and then folded it. We also had some grilled octopus.

The streets of Myeongdong

Crepe with Nutella, banana, strawberry and cornflakes

grilled octopus

On the way back to our hotel, we grabbed the must-try-if-in-korea banana milk. 

Banana Milk

In our hotel room, we had the heater on when it was too cold. At night, we slept with the windows slightly opened to allow the cold winter air in to cool the room.

We were already loving our first night in Seoul.