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Ring the Bosingak Bell: One of Seoul’s Most Overlooked Experiences
Most people, locals and tourists alike, walk right past Bosingak Belfry (보신각 터) in downtown Seoul and don’t even realize they can do more than just take a photo in front of a beautiful traditional pavilion. Sitting in the middle of busy Jongno, surrounded by office buildings, traffic, restaurants, and shops, the traditional pavilion can almost feel like a little historic island in the modern city. Most people don’t even really pay attention to this historic site until New Year’s Eve when tens of thousands of people descend on the area to watch as the bell is rung 33 times at the stroke of midnight. But what most tourists and…
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A Guide to Gwangju’s Art Scene: Museums, Studios & Public Art Beyond the Biennale
Gwangju is a city in Korea with an immensely important history when it comes to democracy in South Korea, but when I sat down to write the Gwangju travel guide, I realized that there’s one side of the city for some travelers, and there’s another side that is for a different traveler. It’s great to mix and match to be sure, but an art lover could travel to Gwangju and easily fill an entire weekend on a whimsical artistically inspiring adventure. This guide is for those people that are looking to visit Gwangju and be inspired artistically. My main Gwangju guide covers the bigger picture, the May 18 history (which…
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Gwangju Travel Guide: Democracy, Art & Kimchi in One of Korea’s Most Overlooked Cities
You might think of Seoul for palaces, Busan for beaches, and Jeju for nature, but what comes to mind when you think of Gwangju? For a lot of international visitors, the answer is probably not much, and that’s exactly why I think Gwangju deserves more attention. If you live in Korea like I do, you’ve probably heard of their heroic democratization movement, but aside from that, what is actually there? I’ve now visited Gwangju a few times, and every trip has revealed another layer of the city. This is one of the most important cities in Korea for understanding the country’s modern democracy, but it’s also an incredibly creative place…
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The 5.18 Democratization Movement Archives In Gwangju: A Complete Visitor Guide To Korea’s Democracy Museum
I came to Korea 20 years ago, and over those years I had heard pieces of the story of May 18. I knew about the Gwangju Democratization Movement, called the Gwangju Uprising more often in those early years after I’d arrived, had read bits of the history, and understood that it was an important moment in Korea’s fight for democracy. But learning about what happened while actually standing in Gwangju hits different. The events of May 1980 are really not such a distant history and this was made especially clear to me when martial law was declared in South Korea in December of 2024. One of my first thoughts was…
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Jeju Stone Park: The Complete Guide by a Local (Hours, Museums, and the Seolmundae Halmang Myth)
Honestly, the name Jeju Stone Park just doesn’t tell you enough about what you’ll be able to learn and take away from a visit here. You might go thinking you’ll see a collection of interesting volcanic rocks, maybe some dol hareubang statues, but the park is far more than that. Officially called the Jeju Stone Culture Park (제주돌박물관), it showcases the relationship between Jeju’s landscape, people, mythology, and history and after visiting three times, I can tell you, it’s a must visit. Jeju is often called the “Island of Stones,” but that phrase means much more after a visit here. Lava stone has formed the island’s fields, walls, homes, graves,…
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Dolcori Forest Jeju: Hours, Tickets, and What to Really Expect at Korea’s New Cat Park
When the cats are meowing, my daughter will find them. A new cat-themed park and tourist site opened up on Jeju Island recently so of course, as cat lovers, we had to go check it out. Not real cats mind you, but a whole experience built around five feline characters. It’s called Dolcori Forest (돌코리숲), and it opened in Andeok-myeon, Seogwipo, at the end of April, 2026. The park was built by Smilegate, the gaming company behind titles like Lost Ark, through its subsidiary Cat Park Museum, and it’s the company’s first major offline entertainment project. It’s cute, it’s quirky, and if you love cats as much as my daughter…
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AMORE YONGSAN: Custom K-Beauty At Amorepacific’s Flagship In Seoul
The Amorepacific headquarters in Seoul, Korea is one beautiful building. I’ve visited many times for the Amorepacific Museum of Art, but on a recent visit, I was drawn upstairs to AMORE YONGSAN, the newly reopened and reimagined Amorepacific flagship store. There are plenty of places to go throughout the city for K-beauty shopping, but since Amorepacific owns famous Korean beauty brands like Sulwhasoo, Laneige, Innisfree, COSRX, AESTURA, and HERA among many others, it’s here that you can find some pretty unique experiences along with your beauty shopping needs. You can have your skin analyzed and learn what it may look like in the future, get your scalp checked, create a…
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The Statue of Peace in Korea: Who Is The Girl You Keep Seeing?
You might walk past her without realizing it. Maybe you’re heading to Gyeongbokgung Palace or Insadong when you notice a small bronze girl sitting quietly on a chair, barefoot, fists clenched, staring straight ahead. Maybe you’re visiting a temple in Gunsan and see a barefoot girl standing alone. Or perhaps you’re on a DMZ tour at Imjingak when your guide points out a pair of girls. I’ve lived in Korea for many years and have passed these statues in parks, visited museums dedicated to this history, attended the Wednesday Demonstrations, and even met some of the women these statues are devoted to. More recently, though, I’ve noticed how many visitors…
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Make Your Own Perfume in Seoul: The .NOTE Seongsu Perfume Experience
Seongsu is one of those neighborhoods in Seoul where I always think I can fit in just one more place. One more pop-up. One more shop. One more cafe. And then I’m exhausted. Seongsu-dong is one of those districts in Seoul that is a blast, but your feet will be screaming at the end of a visit. Having visited Seongsu many times, one of the biggest tips I can give anyone planning a day in the neighborhood is to intentionally work places to sit down into your time there. There can be a lot of walking, a lot of standing in lines to get into pop-ups, shopping, and if you…
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Jeju Green Tea Fields: A Local’s Complete Guide To OSULLOC and Beyond!
Jeju Island grows tea all over, a lot more places than most tourists visiting the island ever realize anyway. When I see everyone’s Jeju itinerary, I almost always spot a full day centered on the most popular Korean green tea brand OSULLOC (오설록). OSULLOC built the museum and the marketing that made Jeju green tea fields famous worldwide, and it has absolutely earned the reputation it has. But OSULLOC is only one option when you’re looking for Jeju green tea fields. Across the island there are tea fields with mazes for kids, one with a volcanic cave you can visit, and others that are maybe just a bit more pleasant…
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The OSULLOC Tea Factory In Jeju: A Quieter Green Tea Experience
When most people think of visiting OSULLOC in Jeju, they picture the famous Tea Museum on the island’s west side. It has become one of Jeju’s best-known attractions, with tour buses arriving throughout the day and visitors lining up for green tea ice cream and souvenirs. But there’s now another OSULLOC destination, one on the east side of the island. It’s new, it’s open, and most people don’t know it exists yet. There are far more tea fields on Jeju Island than most visitors realize, so it’s no surprise that the Hannam area remains off the radar. The Hannam Tea Fields in southeastern Jeju are now home to the new…
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SONDLE: The Hidden Korean Designer Brand In Insadong Turning Heritage Into Wearable Art
Walk down the main Insadong street, the most popular spot for buying Korean souvenirs in Seoul, you’ll see vendors selling the same T-shirts from shop to shop covered in Korean flags, cartoon tigers, and the word “Seoul” or “KOREA”. There are some antique shops in between, a few design shops too, but if you want to get something truly unique in the area, you need to know where to go and SONDLE is one of the shops you’ll want to tag for a visit. Tucked away just off the main shopping street is a small shop that most visitors would walk right past without ever knowing it was there. Inside,…
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Acorn Caricature: Seoul’s Nostalgic Answer to the Photobooth
I started noticing these cute little whimsical caricature studios popping up all branded the same and started wondering where these sort of nostalgic photobooths got their start. If you have spent any time scrolling Seoul travel content lately, chances are you have seen one of their caricatures. They are hand-drawn portraits, a little exaggerated like your favorite caricatures from younger days at carnivals and festivals, a lot charming, and usually captioned with someone gushing about how fast it was done. That is Acorn Caricature (도토리 캐리커쳐) and also recognized on Instagram as Uncles Painting. It has become a favorite souvenir from Korea among not only tourists, but locals are also…
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Why Is Everything So Sweet? 11 Korean Foods That Surprise Foreigners
Coming to Korea, I thought I knew how to spot sugary food. I certainly didn’t expect so many Korean foods to be sweeter than the versions I grew up eating. I grew up in the United States, after all. We practically invented neon-colored cereal, frosting that glows in the dark, and desserts so sweet they make your teeth hurt just looking at them. Suffice to say, I thought I knew what to avoid. In Korea, however, it isn’t usually the brightly colored desserts that catch me off guard. It’s the perfectly innocent-looking savory foods. The garlic bread. The sandwich. The pizza. The salad of all things. Foods that have absolutely…
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Sulwhasoo Perfecting Line Review: Veil Primer, Tinted Cream & Cushion Airy
I’ve been using Sulwhasoo for over a decade now, and it wasn’t until I hit my later thirties, heading into my forties, that I really understood why so many Korean women swear by this brand for the long haul. I’ve seen Sulwhasoo products sit on my mother-in-laws bureau for years. I’ve written before about how much I love the First Care Activating Serum VI and my consistent trips to the gorgeous House of Sulwhasoo in Bukchon, but until recently, I’d never actually tried anything from their makeup lines. I’ve always been strictly a skincare girl with this brand. That changed when I signed up for Sulwhasoo’s supporters program here in…
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The Underwater Tomb of King Munmu and the Yangnam Columnar Joints: A Gyeongju Add-On
Most people heading to Gyeongju are going for the tombs, the relics, the sites with history from 1,000 years ago, but there is a coastal stretch of Gyeongju that I like to add whenever there’s time and a part of it has history dating back millions of years! Worth the Gyeongju detour are: the underwater tomb of King Munmu (경주 문무대왕릉), a submerged royal burial site believed to hold the remains of Silla’s 30th king, and the columnar joints in Yangnam (양남주상절리군), a series of hexagonal volcanic rock formations formed millions of years ago as lava cooled and cracked. Neither site takes long to see, but a trip to the…
