Namsan ParkDirections to Namsan Park:Hoehyeon Area: Take subway line 4 to Hoehyeon Station and take exit 4, then walk for 20 minutes (or if you're like us, it would take four and a half times longer). Hannam Area: Take subway line 6 to Hangangjin Station and take exit 2. Then take bus #0014 and get off at Hyatt Hotel (Botanical Garden). Bus comes every 10 minutes and the bus ride takes about 10 minutes.
Twenty minutes by her legs she means! It took us an hour and a half up so many steps to get to N Seoul Tower with the help of too much excess fat weighing us down and too many autumn leaves making us stop, pant, strip, stare, and shoot, every few meters.
N Seoul TowerDirections to N Seoul Tower:By subway and cable car: Take subway line 4 to Myeongdong station and take exit 3. Walk about 10 minutes to the cable car station.By subway and bus #2: Take subway line 3 or line 4 to Chungmuro station and take exit 2. Hop on the Namsan Sunhwan Shuttle bus no. 2. You can also get on Namsan Sunhwan Shuttle bus no. 2 at Dongguk University station (line 3, exit 6).By subway and bus #3: Take Namsan Sunhwan Shuttle bus no. 3 from any of these stations: Seoul Station (line 1 or line 4, exit 9), Itaewon Station (line 6, exit 4), Hangangjin Station (line 6, exit 2).By subway and bus #5: Take Namsan Sunhwan Shuttle bus no. 5 from any of these stations: Myeongdong Station (line 4, exit 3), Chungmuro Station (line 3 or line 4, exit 2).
We did not go up the tower observatory (admission fee of KRW9000; open from 10AM to 11PM, or up to 12MN on Fridays and Saturdays), but instead took photos of trees and leaves, refueled at one of the restaurants, and sat around for an hour and a half before going off again to burn off our lunch calories, take a gazillion more photos of trees and leaves, and to find our third and last Namsan stop.
From N Seoul Tower it was an easy (but hard on our oldie knees) walk down paths and steps surrounded by leaves of many colors on the ground and on trees. In an hour or so, we found ourselves in small back roads surrounded by houses and no directional signs. We had to stop several times to catch open WiFi signals and find ourselves in relation to Namsangol Hanok Village.
Namsangol Hanok Village
28, Toegye–ro 34–gil, Jung–gu, SeoulWednesdays to Mondays 9AM to 8PMFree admissionDirections to Namsangol Hanok Village: Take subway line 3 or line 4 to Chungmuro Station, exit 3 or 4.
We eventually found Namsangol Hanok Village, a collection of five traditional Korean houses from different parts of the city that have been relocated at the foot of Namsan mountain. I was almost tempted to rent a hanbok from a shop just outside Namsangol Hanok Village, and pretend to be some ancient Korean in an ancient village. But I thought I'd soon feel silly and did not want to add more to the pile I was carrying, which was most of my Eskimo outfit.
South Korea Quickie 2014
Wisdom from the Road #22
Seoul: Lessons From My Seoul Airbnb Experience
Seoul: Gwangjang Market
Seoul: Namsan: Park, Tower, and Village (you're here!)
(more soon: Gyeongju and Busan)