OBJECTIVE
Seoul is the capital of a country of 52 million people crammed into a peninsula roughly the size of Indiana, with the world’s 10th largest economy and a city proper of around 10 million. It is not remote, not overlooked, and not simple. It rewards people who do their homework and punishes people who rely on what a Delta phone rep told them six weeks ago — ask me how I know.
My July 2022 trip was partly to see Seoul itself and partly to reach the DMZ, 56 kilometers north of the city center, where the Korean War technically never ended. I had three days in and around the city before moving on to dive sites further south. Four days is enough to get your bearings, scratch the surface of the food scene, stand 200 meters from North Korea, and make at least one genuinely stupid mistake. I managed all four.
TERRAIN
Seoul is enormous in a way that doesn’t fully register until you’re riding a bus back from the DMZ and the city just keeps appearing, block after block after block, for what feels like 45 minutes straight. The metro area sprawls across both banks of the Han River, ringed by mountains on three sides, flat and dense in the middle. Summers are hot and humid — I was there in July and it hit 32°C (90°F) most days, with 90-percent humidity that turns any kind of physical effort into a full cardiovascular event.
The subway system is the main artery. It is, without exaggeration, the cleanest subway I have ever been in across 40-plus countries — you could eat off the platform floor. Signage is in Korean and English throughout, which takes most of the guesswork out of navigating. The catch: you need a T-money transit card, which you buy first and load separately with cash only. The vending machine has an English button but it will not tell you this. The young guy working the convenience shop next to the machines will, if you ask him — which I did, after 15 minutes of standing there like an idiot.
Above ground, GPS apps occasionally put you on the wrong side of a large intersection. I crossed the same underpass five times in one evening trying to find a bus stop. Budget for that kind of friction.
LOGISTICS
Getting there: I flew DTW–LAX–ICN (Incheon) on Korean Air in July 2022. The LAX international terminal was still the LAX international terminal, renovation rumors notwithstanding. Incheon is one of the better-organized large airports in Asia — clear signage, fast immigration once you have your paperwork sorted (more on that below).
Entry requirements in 2022: South Korea required a K-ETA (Korea Electronic Travel Authorization) for visa-exempt nationalities, including Americans. It is a separate app-based application with a fee. When I went, Delta’s phone support told me I could sort the visa out on arrival in Seoul. That was wrong. I found out at the LAX departure gate with 45 minutes to wheels-up, submitted the K-ETA on my phone while the gate agent — who came around the counter to help me find the right app, which says something about Korean hospitality right there — waited for my approval. It came through with about 10 minutes to spare. Do not do this. Apply for the K-ETA before you leave home, and verify current entry requirements directly with the Korean embassy or consulate, not a call center, because whatever applied in 2022 may not apply today.
Accommodation: I started at the Courtyard Marriott Seoul Pangyo — clean, comfortable, solid breakfast, about 30 minutes from the city center by subway. Moved to the Moxy, a Marriott property in the city center, for the last two nights. The Moxy room with a “superior king upgrade” was smaller than my bedroom at home. Nobody goes to Seoul to sit in their room, so this is a minor complaint. Both properties ran roughly $120–180 USD per night in July 2022.
DMZ tour: Book in advance through an organized tour operator — you cannot access the DMZ independently. My driver Mr. Eric picked me up at the subway exit, connected me to the shuttle, and our guide Sadie (who had enough energy to power a small city) handled the rest. Full-day tour including the Third Infiltration Tunnel and the observatory: approximately 120,000 KRW (~$90 USD) in 2022.
Getting around: T-money card loaded with 30,000–50,000 KRW (~$23–38 USD) will cover most of a day’s transit. Buses run frequently and connect to areas the subway misses, but the route-finding requires patience. Naver Maps is the local standard — Google Maps works but is less reliable for transit routing in Korea.
CONDITIONS
July is the beginning of monsoon season. The forecast called for 90 percent chance of rain on my DMZ day. It was 32°C and sunny all morning. The rain arrived in the evening during the food tour, suddenly and without apology — we scrambled to buy umbrellas from a street vendor and kept moving. If you run hot, July is a genuine endurance test. Pack light, carry water constantly, and accept that you will sweat through everything you own before 10am.
Crowds at the major sites are real but manageable. The subway at 8am on a Sunday was nearly empty — pedestrians at a crosswalk waited patiently for the walk signal despite zero cars on the road in any direction, which threw me, coming from a city where jaywalking is practically a competitive sport. The Changdeokgung Palace is closed on Mondays. The Joint Security Area at Panmunjeom was closed entirely for nearly a year in 2022 due to COVID restrictions — check current access before you book the DMZ tour specifically for JSA.
COVID protocols in July 2022 included mandatory masks on aircraft and a Q-Code health declaration required before passing through immigration. Failing to complete the Q-Code added at least 30 minutes to my passport control wait. The requirements have changed significantly since then — check the current rules before you travel, and don’t take the airline’s word for what Korea requires at the border.
VERDICT
Seoul earns its reputation and then some, but it will find your gaps fast — the visa nearly kept me off the plane entirely, the transit card machine doesn’t explain itself, the palace was closed on Monday, the GPS put me on the wrong side of the street, and I ended a 16-hour day eating beef jerky from my bag in a hotel room because I’d missed dinner. None of that actually matters, because the subway is genuinely extraordinary, the people are patient and helpful in a way that repeatedly surprised me, standing 200 meters from North Korea in a tunnel dug for invasion is something you don’t forget, and the food and drink this city offers — from a soju-and-beer combination at a sidewalk table with a 19-year-old Spartan and an Apache helicopter pilot to raw beef tartare and live squid in a market alley — is worth the whole flight. Go. Just sort your K-ETA before you leave the house, verify whatever entry requirements are current at the time you’re reading this, and check the palace hours before you walk 20 minutes uphill in 32-degree heat. The city will handle the rest.
Got specific questions about Seoul, the DMZ tour, transit logistics, or how to not almost miss your international flight over a visa app? Drop them to Ask WildWilliam — I’ll give you a straight answer.