Seoul

Seoul is best understood through neighbourhoods with distinct day and evening personalities. Pair nearby districts and allow the route to move between historic, creative and contemporary areas.

Group the days by side of the river. North of the Han sits the historic core — Gyeongbokgung and Changdeokgung, the hanok lanes of Bukchon, the converted alley houses of Ikseon-dong and the food rows at Gwangjang and Namdaemun — with Hongdae and Euljiro carrying the evenings. South is Gangnam and the towers along the river, a different city that rarely earns a same-day crossing.

The transport network handles long connections well, but the most memorable parts of a day often happen on foot between markets, cafés and smaller streets. Buy a Tmoney card at any convenience store on the first morning: it costs a few thousand won, works on every bus and subway line and in the shops, and removes the one real source of friction in a city where transport is otherwise cheap and excellent.

The edges are closer than they look. Bukhansan and Inwangsan both rise straight out of the built city and are reachable by subway and a bus, which makes a half-day walk with a view back over the whole basin one of the easier things to add to a Seoul week.