11D10N Seoul - Busan Itinerary Plan

Alright folks! I promised that I will upload the original itinerary (for super humans) created by my sisters En & Poh. They spend a few months to make plan and research this, hopefully this can help some of our friends out there who are planning to go to South Korea soon.

Day 1

- N Seoul Tower

Observatory: 10:00-23:00
Restaurant: 11:00-23:00
Teddy Bear Museum: 10:00-22:00 (Last entry: 21:00)
Directions: Chungmuro Station Line 3 or 4,(exit 2,to the right of Daehan Multiplex entrance). Then take Bus 2 (08:00-24:00/5min intervals) or Bus 5 (07:30-23:50/15min intervals) to N Seoul Tower.
Fare: 550won
Teddy bear Museum: 8,000won
Observatory + Teddy bear Museum: 14,000won

- Myeong dong
Opening hours: 10am to 10pm everyday
Direction: Exit 5, 6, 7, or 8 – Myeongdong Station Line 4

Day 2

- Seoul Grand Park

Directions: Seoul Grand Park Station, Line 4, Exit 2
Entrance fee: 

Zoo : Adult(Age 19 or older) 3,000 won, Teenager(Ages 13-18) 2,000 won Children(Ages 4-12) 1,000 won
Dolphin Show : Adult 2,000 won / Teenager 1,500 won / Children 1,000 won
Theme Garden: Adult(Age 19 or older) 2,000 won(group of 30 people or more 1,400 won) / Teenager(Ages 13-18) 1,500 won(group of 30 or more people 1,100 won) Children(Ages 4-12) 1,000 won(group of 30 or more people 700 won)

- Gwacheon National Science Museum

Entrance fee: 4,000won
Directions: Seoul Grand Park Station, Line 4, Exit 5

- Garosugil
Directions: Sinsa Station (신사역) – Line 3, exit 8 (10 minute walk)

- War Memorial of Korea
Opening hours: 9am-6pm
Directions: Samgakji station Line 4 or 6. Exit 12

- Cheonggyecheon Stream& Cheonggye plaza
Directions: Line5 , Exit 5 Gwanghwamun
City hall, Line 1&2, Exit 4

- Chungdong Church
Directions: Line 1 or 2 to City Hall Station.
5 minutes’ walk towards Ewha Girl’s High School from Exit 1
Exit 11, 12 or 2. Walk toward Dunkin Donut then turn right, following the palace wall until you reach the church. The church is opposite Seoul Arts Museum and Chungdong Theatre.

- Seoul Museum of Art & Seoul Plaza
Directions: City Hall, Line 1&2, Exit 1
Go to the right and turn down the first street on your left before Deoksugung palace. Keep goin for 5min. The museum is on a small hill to the left.

Gwanghwamun Line 5, Exit 5
Go stragight until reaching seoul plaza, cross the road, go towards Deoksugung palace n turn right immediately after the palace’s main gate.

Day 3

- Samcheongdong
Directions: Anguk Station (안국역) – Line 3, exit 1

- Changdeokgung
Directions: Exit 3 – Anguk Station Line 3. Walk straight for 5min.
Exit 7 – Jongno 3(sam)-ga Station Line 1, 3 or 5. Go straight along Donhwamun-ro Street for 10min.
Regular Tour (Changdeokgung Palace): 3,000 won
Huwon Tour (Secret Garden area): 5,000 won

- Bukchon Hanok Village
Opening Hours for Bukchon Traditional Culture Center: Mon~Fri (9:00 ~ 18:00)

Directions: Exit 2 – Anguk Station Line 3. Walk straight for about 300m.

- Cheongwadae
Directions: Exit 5 - Gyeongbokgung Palace Station Line 3. Walk 10 minutes.

- Gwanghwamun
Directions: Gwanghwamun Station (광화문역) – Line 5, exit 2

- Jongmyo Shrine

Entrance fee: 1,000won
Guided Tours :English – 10:00, 12:00, 14:00, 16:00
Directions: Exit 11 – Jongno 3 (sam)-ga Station Line 1.Walk for 7 mins from station.
Exit 8 – Jongno 3 (sam)-ga Station Line 3 or 5. Walk for 7 mins from station.

- Gyeongbokgung
Entrance fee: 3,000 won
Opening hours: March to October 09:00-18:00
Closed on Tuesday
Directions: Exit 5 – Gyeongbokgung Station Line 3

- Ilsan Lake park
Directions: Jeongbalsan Station Line 3, Exit 1 or 2. Walk along Jungangro-1261 beongil street or Jungangro-1275 beongil for 10min.

- Insadong& Nakwon dong
Directions: Exit 6 – Anguk Station Line 3. Walk straight 100m & turn left.
Exit 3 – Jonggak Station Line 1. Walk 300m straight, turn left. then 100m straight & veer left into Insa-dong alleyway.

- Itaewon
Directions: Exit 1 - Itaewon Station Line 6

Day 4

- Everland/Lotte World

Everland: 10am to 6pm

Directions:

1. Exit 10 – Gangnam Station Line 2. Take bus 5002 to Everland. (Travel time: 50 min)
2. Exit 1 – Gangbyeon Station Line 2. Take bus 5800 to Everland. (Travel time: 50min)

Entrance Ticket: 40,000won

Lotte World: 0930-2200
Directions: Line 4 to Dangkogae (Dongdaemun Stadium) then Line 2 to Jamsil
Ticket: 38,000won

Day 5

- Petite France
(entrance fee: 8,000won, open all year round) the same day via the shuttle bus ( just show the ticket). Time table for shuttle bus from Gapyeong Station to Petite France :
0910 till 1810, every hour ( journey: 30 mins)

- Jade Garden
(operation hour : 0900-1900), entrance fee: Apr-Nov : 8,000won / Dec-Mar :6,000
Gyeongchun line Gulbongsan station, Exit 1, you will see Jade Garden Free shuttle at your right. Time table from subway station to Jade Garden is from 1045, every hour till 1645.

- Dongdaemun
Operating hours: 10.30am to 5.00am
Closed on Monday & some public holidays.
Directions: Exit 8 or 9 - Dongdaemun Station Line 1 or Line 4

Day 6
- Namdaemun market
Directions: Hoehyeon Station (회현역) – Line 4, exit 5

- Naksan Park

Hyehwa Station (Seoul Subway Line 4), Exit 2.
Go straight for 200m, then turn left onto Dongsung-gil Street.
Go straight for 200m, then turn left at Lock Museum.
Go straight for 50m, then turn right onto Naksan Gongwon-gil Street.
Follow the same street up the hill for 300m to arrive at Naksan Park.

- Yangpyeong Railway Bike
Fee: 29,000won (4 person)
From Cheongnyangni Station, take a train to Yongmun Station (용문역).

Day 7

- 63 City & Yeouido Park
Directions: Yeouido Station (여의도역) – Line 5, exit 3 or Yeouinaru Station (여의나루역) – Line 5, exit 1
Free shuttle bus to 63 city. @ bus no.62

- Hongik University Street (Hongdae)
Directions: Exit 6 – Hongik Univ. Station Line 2

- Trick Eye museum
Entrance fee: 15,000won
Operating hours:9am-9pm
Hongik University Station (Seoul Subway Line 2), Exit 9.
Go straight 150m, cross the road, and turn left onto Hongik-ro Street.
Go straight 120m, and turn right down the second side street (in between TONYMOLY and Holika Holika).
Continue going 100m to arrive at Trickeye Museum on the right.

- Metro Spa Cabin
Directions: Chungmuro Line 3 & 4 , Exit 8
Walk straight 50m to world pet 1 building. Metro Spa Cabin is on 4F of the building.

Day 8
- Gwangjang Market
Directions: Jongno 5-ga Station (종로5-가역) – Line 1, exit 8 or Euljiro 4-ga Station (을지로4가역) – Line 2, Line 5, exit 4.

- Ewha University Street
Directions: Ewha Woman’s University Station (이대역) – Line 2, exit 2

- Sinchon Street
Directions: Sinchon Station (신촌역) – Line 2, exit 2

Busan
- Seomyeon
Directions: Busan Station Line 1. To Seomyeon Station.

- Gwangalli Beach
Directions: Gwangan Station, Line 2, Exit 3 or 5. Walk 5min.

Day 9

- Haeundae Beach
Directions: Line 2, Haeundae station. Walk 10min.

- Centum City
Directions: Line 2, Centum station.

- Heosimcheong spa
Directions: Line 1, Oncheongjang Station. Exit 1 to street level. Cross the street using pedestrian overpass. At the traffic light, turn right. Then another right at the woori bank. Begin looking for the hotel Nongshim on the left side of the road. Heoshimcheong is behind the hotel. Take escalator to the spa.
Entrance fee: 8,000won
Opening hours: 5.30am-10pm

Day 10

- Taejongdae
Shuttle bus fee: 2000won
Directions: From busan station. Bus no. 88 or 101
Bus bound for taejongdae No 8, 13, 30, 88, 101

- Jagalchi Market & BIFF Square
Directions:Jagalchi station, Line 1.

- Gwangbokgong Street
Directions: Jagalchi station, Line 1, Exit 7

Day 11

- Busan Tower
Directions: Nampo Station (Busan Subway Line 1), Exit 7.
Upon exiting the station, turn left onto Gwangbok-ro Street (광복로).
Go straight 160m to arrive at Yongdusan Park (escalator on the right).
Observatory: 09:00-22:00 (ticket office closes at 21:45)
World Musical Instruments Museum: 10:00-18:00

Admission Fees
Observatory
Adults (ages 16+): 4,000 won / Group: 3,500 won
Children (under 16) & Seniors: 3,500 won / Group: 3,000 won

The Museum of Musical Instruments of The World
Adults (ages 16+): 2,500 won / Group: 2,000 won
Children (under 16) & Seniors: 2,000 won / Group: 1,500 won

Integrated Tickets (Observatory + Museum)
Adults (ages 16+): 5,000 won / Group: 4,000 won
Children (under 16) & Seniors: 4,500 won / Group: 3,500 won

Tadaa~~ happy planning and hope you guys have fun in South Korea :) Bye!

*disclaimer: The information provided may change overtime, please double check from the official KTO site for confirmation* 

11 Days Korea Trip - Seoul & Busan Part 7 (Taejongdae, Jagalchi Market, BIFF Square, Busan Tower)

Day 10

Our trip to Busan was rather relaxed. I wanted to see more nature and beautiful landscape because we had plenty of city view is Seoul previously. And so our first stop in the morning was beautiful Taejongdae!

A little bit of introduction to Taejongdae before pictures...

Designated as a Busan monument, along with Oryukdo Island, Taejongdae (태종대) represents Busan, and is especially famous for its rock beach. Featuring its highest peak at 250 meters, there are forests of pine trees and other 200 varieties of trees. Taejongdae was named after the 29th king of Silla Kingdom BC57-AD 935), King TaeJong Mu-Yeol (604-661). King TaeJong had traveled to many places but this was the place he enjoyed shooting arrows.

Under the lighthouse of this resort is a rock called Sinseon Rock, named after the myth that gods and goddesses came down here to relax. At this rock is a figure called Mangbuseok, named after the story of a woman who waited for her husband who had been taken to Japan. Taejongdae is also famous for the ritual of praying for rain, performed when there are droughts, and rain on the 10th of lunar May is called the 'Taejong Rain'. On days with clear skies you can see Japan’s Tsushima Island from the observatory.

I am telling you this place is a MUST VISIT if you are coming to Busan! Even though it is not very easy to get to (it took us like 1 hour ++ to reach this tourist hotspot), but I believe the scenery and breathtaking view will be worth the bus rides.

Tickets to for the shuttle bus (2000won each)

It is highly recommended that you buy the shuttle bus ticket which allows you to hop on and off the attraction sites. Be reminded that this place is humongous so if you don't have the ticket and decide to WALK... it's going to be really hard and sweaty especially during the summer.  

Breathtaking isn't it?

Reason for the awkward hand was to prevent my cap from flying away since the wind was pretty strong

Found this really neat old telephone booth~ you know how we all have fantasies of making a phone call from the red phone booth? Well mine's just going to be an aqua coloured one :)

Lighthouse to warn the boats of the cliffs and rocks... 

I'm the Princess of the World! Just kidding :P

Look at all the tiny miniature people down there at the rocks/cliff 

Posing with the lighthouse

Selfie from inside the lighthouse

I really can't get enough of the scenery and landscape of Taejongdae. One of the highlights of our 11 days Korea Trip.

Selfie combo! I was going crazy will all the beauty around me

We were in Taejongdae till about lunch time... outside of the park there are many seafood restaurants and most of them sells the famous Galchi Jorim (hairtail braised in spicy sauce).

Galchi Jorim - the soup is wonderful but beware of tiny thin bones!! Not suitable for young children

Grilled jalchi and some other fish~ it was one of their signature dish.. I honestly liked this better than the stew :)

After a full lunch (we ordered 3 person's portion and had no idea it was that much!) and another hour travelling back to the city, we have reached BIFF square by mid afternoon.

They have this thing that looks like it's from the Hollywood walk of Fame

The whole street pavement lined with star's signage

Traditional korean sweet - Dragon Beard Candy with peanut fillings

5000won for this pack of 10 sweets

Ajusshi that praised our Korean haha! Very nice and cheerful :)

Enjoyed by Korean celebrity too!

Famous hotteok at BIFF Square! Really yummy and better than the Myeong dong one! The line for this is very long

Busy making hotteok for the long line of hungry customers.

Hot hot hotteok! (1000won each)

 After walking arounf BIFF square and getting our foodie goodies, we walked into Jagalchi Market which is very close by and immediately the stench of sea creatures hit us.

Look at the gigantic clam at the side!! The sight of it creep me out at first! 

Actually our initial plan was to have a raw fish meal at Jagalchi Market as we have read many people blog about seafood being very fresh there... but the stench was too much for us to bear and it wasn't dinner time yet (besides we already at a bunch of snacks on the streets). So we retreat from the market and went back to the streets and this was were we found a shop that sells korean traditional stamps for cheap!!

The machine that carves the pattern on the stamps

Stamps beginning from 2,000won (RM7) to 40,000won (RM 124)

All of us bought a name stamp for ourselves and one for sister in Malaysia. I bought the 5000won one and had my English and Korean name carved on it :) I think this is a very special gift/souvenir for friends and loved ones rather than the overrated and common keychains.
(P.S: Do not buy the stamps in Insadong as it is twice more expensive than in Busan!)

The rest of the night we took a break as we were quite tired from all the walking in the morning and ate instant noodle at the hotel haha!

Day 11

Today is the last day for us in Busan before our 4pm flight back to Malaysia. Since we had the whole morning, after checking out and placing our luggage at the Busan Station, our last stop was to be Busan Tower.

I personally liked Busan Tower because it is not as expensive as N Seoul/Namsan Tower (4000won vs 9000won). And it still provided a lovely view for us to admire - definitely suitable for the budget conscious group.

where we stored our luggage before heading to Busan Tower

Busan Tower is also in an area called Yongdusan Park

Love tags here unlike in Seoul Tower where they have love locks instead

I have no idea who the guy beside me is haha

You can see the whole (?) of Busan from here

more selfies at Busan Tower <3

Me just chilling at the observatory

WE LOVE BUSAN TOWER

That is all from our 11D10N Seoul & Busan Trip! Hopefully these posts help give some light into places of interest in Korea for those who are budget conscious. Honestly this trip wasn't too expensive and way better than joining overpriced tour groups with not much flexibility on schedule. If you don't mind getting lost once in a while, speaking broken Korean and walking a lot, backpacking in Seoul & Busan is definitely possible :)

Until my next trip! Bye bye :)

11 Days Korea Trip - Seoul & Busan Part 6 (Busan Aquarium, Haeundae Beach & Market, Gwangalli Beach)

Day 9

After 8 days in Seoul, our journey takes us to the second largest city in the land of K-pop - BUSAN!

Busan, also referred to as Pusan, is Korea's second largest city with close to 4 million people. It lies in the southeast of South Korea and serves as the country's main port for international cargo, as well as for passenger ferries to Japan and Jeju (Cheju) Island. Its geography includes a coastline with superb beaches, scenic cliffs, and mountains which provide excellent hiking and extraordinary views. Hot springs are scattered throughout the city. There are many steep hills, creating an unusual mix of mountains and ocean.

After all the hustle and bustle of the city, it was pretty refreshing to be somewhere closer to the sea :) and so our first stop was Busan Aquarium!

It was very hot and sunny when we arrived at Haeundae Beach where Busan Aquarium was located, and therefore in our attempt to escape from the summer heat, we went underground into Busan Aquarium. Entrance fee was pretty expensive which is 24,000won about RM75!

Lot's of mirror to make the area look bigger/wider

With the sharks!

Sharks beneath me! Beware!

Stingrays :)

I really don't have to say much about this aquarium as it was nice (shark and sting ray feeding shows, other feeding show, penguin feeding show) but not quite there to shout about unless you pay extra to dive with the sharks. We could finish roaming the entire ground in just less than 1 hour I reckon. So if you are tight with money, I will not recommend this place as there are many other bigger and more impressive aquariums out there.

Coming out from the aquarium we were hungry and therefore searched for food... but before that we roamed into the Haeundae Market.

Ajumma cleaning sea urchins... it look disgusting (I'm so sorry!) 

Eels are said to be good for men's stamina (what about women LOL)

Seafood/creatures... many of which I don't know about :P

You can smell the seafood before you step into the market

Haeundae Beach on a sunny day

what are these called again? Mussels?

Look at all the people behind us, the water was pretty cold although it was summer

And we went into a restaurant to eat Budae jjigae!

Budae Chigae was invented during the famine years of the Korean war and post-war period. Koreans managed to use leftover meat discarded or handed-out from the U.S. army bases to make this dish ("Budae" means military base and "Chigae" means stew in Korean). It's a recent invention with a thousand variations, but it's mostly a lip-smacking mixture of Western meat, ramen noodles, vegetables, and spices.

Lunch time yum yum :)

After walking some more and snapping pictures at Haeundae Beach, we went to another beach which is famous for the scenery of its bridge at night - Gwangalli Beach.

Gwangalli Beach (광안리해수욕장) is 1.4 km long, 64m wide, and is famous for its fine sand. This area has undergone a water cleaning program, and as a result, the water of the beach is pristine. The clean waters of this area also attract many fishermen. You can prepare raw fish dishes on the spot, right after you have caught the fish.

I was pretty excited to come here because this is where Yoon Han and Lee Soyeon from wgm Season 4 came during their Busan Trip!

I just love the interaction between this couple :)

Hand in hand on Gwangalli Beach <3

When we arrived, it was already evening and getting darker, we waited till about 8pm to see the Gwangalli Bridge light up.

Sisters playing games on the beach to pass time

Gwangalli Beach has light up! It was really a beautiful scene... I just love the peace and relaxing feeling

For dinner, we entered into a restaurant selling Dwaeji Guk bap (pork rice soup). In Busan, this is suppose to be a very famous dish and one of the must try Busan food.

The seasoning in the middle of the table is supposed to be mixed into the Gukbap

The soup is milky white because of hours and hours of boiling: warning to those who don't favour strong porky smell, this dish is not for you

Me and sis before mixing the rice into the savoury soup

I mixed rice, deonjang (soy bean paste) and baby shrimps into the soup! Delicious :) 

Dinner marked the end of our first day in Busan as we were tired from all the walking and getting lost.