1. Another good cafe area for a day of working and drinking coffee: Apgujeong. Close to Gangnam, this area is home to some really nice places to work. My favourites are Manufact Coffee Roasters, (on the 4th floor of Queenmamamarket, and The Pancake Epidemic, which serves crazy good Stumptown coffee. To get there, take Line 2 to Seoul National, then transfer and go four stops on Line 3 to Apgujeong Station.
2. Heyri Art Valley is a little town full of artists about 5km from North Korea. It’s a very cool place to take a day trip to from Seoul. A pretty unique experience, made even cooler by the fact that you can see North Korea for part of the bus journey along the coast. To get there, check out this blog post.
3. Suzie Q in Hongdae. It’s a cosy little bar run by an older gentleman called Kyu Nam Jo. He has a massive collection of records, and next to him sits a box where you can place song requests, all of which he reads through and plays (if he has the record, which he probably does). For a night of good music, you can’t do much better. You can find it here.
4. The weather is cold and tea is hot. If you want a traditional Korea teahouse experience, one place you might like to try is Moonbird Teahouse. This place is down a few tiny alleyways and lies behind a fairly nondescript door. It’s cosy, hidden away, and a pretty unique experience. To get there (good luck), head out Exit 6 on Anguk Station, head down the main street of Insadong, and take the fourth little side street on your left.
5. Delicious Japanese food right near UP. There’s a Japanese ramen joint a few minutes from UP that’s worth checking out. If you turn left out of UP, cross the road at the end of the street, and head around the corner which has a KFC, there is a little block of shops nestled just around that corner. At the far end is the Japanese restaurant, which has big, hot bowls of ramen for around 6000 won.
