Seoul, South Korea 5D/4N Itinerary

I started the year 2017 with a wonderful adventure. I, along with my sister and some friends, travelled all the way to South Korea to experience the chilling Winter breeze for the first time. I never thought I'd be walking all over Seoul, not in the immediate future anyway. But because of a very cheap airfare promotion by Cebu Pacific Air, the travel dates of which coincidently matched the South Korean Winter months, deciding whether or not to go was easy. You have to understand that booking these promo tickets would require you to make a decision in a matter of minutes since it sells out very fast. So really, the decision to take them were more because of the spur of the moment.

I will be creating a South Korea Travel series which would document the highlights of our trip, but for now, I'd like to share with you our travel itinerary during our stay in Seoul.

Day 1: The Arrival

We departed Cebu City for Incheon International Airport at 5:40pm and arrived at 11:30pm. Prior to the trip, we already made transportation arrangements that would bring us to Seoul. The cold winter breeze surprised our summer accustomed skin. Seoul is approximately 1 hour away from the airport. We got settled in our AirBnB rented room, which was very nice and located in the heart of Seoul.

Day 2: Going Around the City

We spent the entire morning (most of it, at least) getting used to their transport system which is complex yet surprisingly organized and tourist friendly. We then met other Filipino's who are currently residing in Seoul. They were nice enough to offer to be our guide for the day. We hopped from one palace to another, since they are just a quick walk away from each other. We also visited the National Palace Museum of Korea. We were going to visit other places within the area but a lot were closed at the time. Please note that this day happened to be the Chinese New Year's Day so it was technically a holiday. This saved us a lot of money from paying entrance fees in the palaces though. During holidays, entrance fees in the palaces are free to all. We had dinner at Dongdaemun where I had my first ever Sangyeopsal and Soju experience (more on Korean food in future posts!). Afterwards, we went strolled Dongdaemun's shopping district and proceeded to see the architectural wonder, the Dongdaemun Design Plaza.

Day 3 - Nami Island and N-Seoul Tower

It started to snow during our third day in Seoul and I was glad that it also happened to be the day we went to Nami Island. We were ecstatic because it was our first time to actually experience snow. It made the situation far more perfect since we get to see snow, for the first time, in such a remarkably beautiful place. Nami Island is well known as the shooting location of a popular Korean Drama, Winter Sonata. Our trip to Nami Island was some sort of magical, except for the unignorable fact that we were freezing cold. Brrrrrrrrr. We had planned to go to Petit France afterwards, a mock-up France village that's themed after the popular children's book The Little Prince. Unfortunately, the roads were blocked by snow so the bus couldn't get through. We went back to Seoul and traveled to MyeongDong where we walked up a steep path to reach the cable car which would take us to N Seoul Tower. The cable car ride was not scenic at all, because the snow was blocking the view. The tower was a bit hard to spot because of the heavy snow. It was also way too slippery. Nevertheless, it's an awesome place to visit since it showcases a great night cityscape of Seoul. After exploring the area for a while, we went back to MyeongDong and strolled its seemingly endless shopping streets.

Day 4 - Everland

Day 4 began with us watching Ms. Universe 2016 live from the Philippines. We waited for it to be finished before we went on with our plans for the day. We went to Everland, one of South Korea's best theme parks. We enjoyed the day as kids and ate a lot of food/candy there as well. Oh and by the way, they have a live panda. You've read that right, a panda. It's also important to mention that the snow from yesterday was now starting to melt, just when we thought it couldn't get any colder. Some rides were closed because of the snow. The theme park was huge! We didn't even get to see everything because we decided to leave due to it being crazy ass cold. We went back to Seoul and had a very late dinner at Itaewon, Seoul's party district.

Day 5 - Shopping Time and Goodbye 

 During our previous days, we agreed not to buy anything yet since our last day in Seoul would be dedicated to shopping, purely shopping. We started early and went to MyeongDong. We shopped through underground shopping centers, etc. K-Beauty overload. You get the idea. After MyeongDong, we went to Lotte Mart to buy some "pasalubong" or keepsakes for our friends back at home. The food and treats choices in Lotte Mart is so wide. Our flight back to Cebu is scheduled at 10pm so we had a lot of time to go around. We arrived in Cebu the following day at 2 in the morning.

So that's it for the summary of our South Korea Winter trip. We know our Seoul itinerary could have been better but due to weather conditions, we're just glad we made through the trip without getting hypothermia. We're happy with what our trip had become anyway. Once again, separate posts will be created for some of the highlights of our trip. Watch out for my Korea Travel Series!

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