Blog – Traveling Lawyer

An incredible journey into Seoul for a first time traveler to South Korea

March 27, 2025

As a veteran traveler, I am always excited for my first journey to a new country or a new city. Fortunately, I was able to explore two new countries and three new cities during a recent trek across the Pacific Ocean into Asia. I began my journey flying for the first time to South Korea. As someone who is a fan of the Olympics, I was excited to see the home of the 1988 Summer Olympic Games – Seoul. I began my flight in Seattle and after flying up the Alaskan coast, where I could see some of the most incredible mountain peaks, I then crossed the Bering Sea and started the trip back down the globe with seeing parts of Siberia out of the airplane’s right windows. Soon, we were beginning our descent, to avoid North Korean airspace our flight headed across the South Korean peninsula. I was shocked at the high number of mountains that dot the Korean countryside. Looking out the window, I could see many bridges crossing the valleys that were created by the mountain peaks.

Upon our gradual descent into Seoul Incheon Airport, I was totally shocked once again. This time, it was the vast number of endless skyscrapers that surround the metropolis. I had never seen such a large contingent of high rise apartments in such an endless quantity. No wonder Seoul, while not a geographic large city, has a population of over twenty million residents.

It was the afternoon of Christmas Eve in Seoul, and the airport was enjoying a quiet holiday. I barely saw any other passengers, except those from my flight as we disembarked the Airbus 330-900 and walked down the hallways to customs, enjoying the blue skies and sunshine of a December afternoon through the floor to ceiling windows of the airport. Even after traveling through customs, there was hardly anyone in sight. Such a contrast to the hustle and bustle of Seattle-Tacoma airport when I boarded the flight the morning of December 23. It is always a mindbender when crossing the international date line and landing one day in the future, even though the flight was less than 11 hours.

Seoul is blessed with an incredible modern public transportation system. One of the crown jewels of the system is a high speed train connection from the airport to the city center, which is about a 35 minute commute. After using the automated ticket dispenser machine to purchase a ticket, I took the steep escalator many stories underground. There, I saw for the first time, a hallmark of every Seoul subway or high speed train station, one of the emergency cabinets. These glass cabinets have oxygen masks, flame retardant, flares, and other supplies in the event of an attack on the rail system. Remember, there is only an temporary suspension of the fighting between South Korea and North Korea as no peace treaty was ever signed when the fighting ended in 1953. Now, over 70 years later, there are still many left over signs across the countryside.

As the sun was setting, I took the train into the city center, the train is an express train with limited stops between the airport and the city center. It was a beautiful nearly entirely above ground commute as the sun was setting, crossing over multiple rivers into the city. Upon my arrival into Seoul, I experienced my first unexpected adventure. I had planned to use my credit card at the automated ticket machine to purchase a subway ticket to my hotel which was located across the main river of Seoul in the part of the city known as Gangham. Many may remember the song in the mid 2010s by Korean pop artist, Psy – Gangham Style. The song is memorialized outside the largest mall in Gangham with a gold statute of the hands doing the Gangham style dance. Unfortunately, the ticket machines for the subway differed from the airport express train ticket machines. The subway machines only accepted cash! As I had neglected to exchange any money at the airport, here I was on Christmas Eve only hours into my first ever trip to South Korea with US Cash and credit cards.

As it was Christmas eve, there was no one who worked for the subway to be found. The subway required a radiofrequency card in order to pass through the entry points to access the subway. Luckily, I had remembered that Uber worked in Seoul. So I opened my Uber app and I was nearly immediately connected with an Uber driver who would drive me the 3 miles to my hotel. I was almost in shock when it said the 3 mile trip would take 90 minutes and only cost $7 US Dollars! I’ve paid double for movie tickets that don’t even last that long.

After some of the most insane traffic jams I’ve ever been a part of, including navigating through many bicyclists and motorbikes. We finally made it to the Hilton Garden Inn Gangham. This hotel is at an incredible location, as the subway is the most common form of transportation around the city, it is within a block of the nearest subway station. Each and every person that I met that worked at the hotel displayed incredible customer service and was proud to showcase Korean hospitality.

In addition to being able to check out over 70 channels of Korean TV, I could not believe watching people play chess is a tv show in Korea, I took advantage of some of the incredible views out of the windows of the hotel.

One of the highlights of the hotel is the incredible breakfast buffet. In addition to multiple chefs present who are cook American breakfast items, there is a large amount of Korean specialties, including Kimchi. I also learned that ice cream is a popular breakfast item, as there was an ice cream bar with many different flavors that I had never come across in the US.

This was only the beginning of my journey to South Korea, as I was ready to begin my adventures in this land which honors its past but is also on the cutting edge of innovation and the future.