Dodori Korea TripItinerary
Itaewon, Hannam and Yongsan: a day around the land you could not enter
There is a rectangle in the middle of Seoul that almost nobody living here has ever walked across. It was a Japanese army base, then an American one, for most of the last hundred and twenty years, and the neighbourhoods you have heard of - Itaewon first among them - grew along its fence because that is where they were allowed to grow. The army has gone and the land is being turned into a park. This is a day spent walking the edge of it.
Why these places are next to each other
Yongsan is flat, central, and sits between the old city and the river, which is exactly why armies wanted it. The Japanese Imperial Army built a garrison there in the early 1900s. In 1945 the United States Army took the same ground and stayed until the move to Camp Humphreys, and the land has been coming back to the city since.
That rectangle explains everything around it. Itaewon is Seoul's most international district because it spent decades serving a foreign base, not because of anything a tourist board decided. Haebangchon is called liberation village because people settled that hillside after 1945. Hannam-dong filled with embassies and diplomatic housing for the same reason, and the galleries and the money came later.
So the shape of this day is a circuit. You will not cross the middle, because for a century nobody could, and much of it is still fenced while the park is built. You walk the rim instead, and the rim is where all of it happened.
The route
- 1
Line 4 or 6, Samgakji station
The War Memorial, first and free
An enormous museum on the northern edge of the old base, and free to walk into. Start here rather than finish here, because it is the thing that makes the rest of the day legible: the ground you are standing on and the ground behind the fence are the same story.
The outdoor plaza with the aircraft and armour is free of the building entirely, and for a lot of visitors it is the better half. Give the inside ninety minutes if you want it and do not try to finish it.
- 2
About 20 minutes on foot, uphill and east
Haebangchon, for lunch
The name means liberation village, and it is not decorative. People settled this slope after 1945, and later arrivals from the north settled it again, on a hillside nobody else wanted because it is steep.
It is now a mix of that and the other thing: small restaurants, some of the best non-Korean cooking in the city because of who has lived here, and a view back down over the roofs. It is genuinely a hill. If knees are a consideration, take a taxi up and walk down.
- 3
Line 6 to Hangangjin, two stops
Hannam-dong, and the Leeum
Embassies, diplomatic residences, and the quietest expensive streets in Seoul. The reason to come in the afternoon rather than the evening is the Leeum Museum of Art, which shuts around six and is the single best building on this route: three of them, actually, by Mario Botta, Jean Nouvel and Rem Koolhaas, holding Korean antiquities in one and contemporary work in another.
Check the opening day before you plan around it, because like most museums here it closes one day a week. If you would rather not do another museum, the galleries and bookshops along these streets are the point on their own.
- 4
15 minutes on foot, downhill and west
Itaewon, for the evening
The strip that grew to serve the base, and the reason you can eat Turkish, Nigerian, Pakistani and Mexican food within a few hundred metres in a city that is otherwise not built that way. Some of those kitchens have been there for decades and were not opened for tourists.
Itaewon is also the one stop on this route with a complicated present. The base moved out, the crowd it served went with it, and the district has been rebuilding what it is ever since. That is visible if you look: closed shutters on one street and a queue on the next.
Come hungry rather than come to drink, and the evening is straightforwardly good.
The one you might do instead
The National Museum of Korea sits at the southern edge of the same ground, and it is the largest museum in the country. Admission to the permanent galleries costs nothing.
It does not fit inside the day above, and pretending otherwise would spoil both. It wants half a day by itself, and the honest advice is to give it a separate morning rather than to squeeze it in after the War Memorial. Two large national museums in one day is how people end up remembering neither.
The same thing as a table
| Stop | Getting there | Roughly |
|---|---|---|
| 1. War Memorial | Line 4 or 6, Samgakji | 10.00 to 12.00 |
| 2. Haebangchon | 20 min walk, uphill | Lunch, to 14.30 |
| 3. Hannam-dong and Leeum | Line 6, two stops | 15.00 to 18.00 |
| 4. Itaewon | 15 min walk downhill | Evening |
| National Museum | Line 4, Ichon | its own half day |
Times are the shape of the day, not a schedule. The two fixed points are the museums, which close in the early evening, and everything after that is flexible.
What this day is not
It is not the historic city, and it is not the new one either. If this is your first day in Seoul, the palace route is the one to take. If you want the contemporary city, Seongsu and Gangnam are the other direction. This is the third thing, and it is the one with the most history attached to the least famous ground.
It is not a bar crawl. Itaewon has that reputation and it earns part of it, but the interesting half of this district is at lunch and dinner rather than at two in the morning.
It is not Gyeongnidan-gil, particularly. The street had a few years of being the one everybody named, and rents did what rents do. It is a pleasant walk between stops one and two. It is not a destination on its own any more.
Practical notes
Yongsan Park is still being made. Parts of the returned land open for booked public visits and parts remain closed, and what is accessible changes. Treat the middle of the map as something to look at over a fence for now, and check the current arrangement before building a day around it.
Itaewon's side streets are narrow and steep. The main strip is wide and the lanes running off it are neither, and on a busy night that difference is the whole experience of the place. It is worth knowing where you are on an ordinary evening, and worth deciding before you go on a peak one. This site tracks how crowded the main areas are through the day.
Two of the three big stops are free. The War Memorial and the National Museum both charge nothing for their permanent galleries, which makes this the cheapest of the three routes on this site by a wide margin.
Base fare is 1,550 KRW, and this day uses Line 6 more than anything else. Buying a T-money card and getting your money back at the end is its own small decision.
Check today's holiday closures on the front page before setting out - both museums keep public-holiday hours. If this is your first day in Seoul rather than your third, the palace-to-evening route is the one to do first.
Quick answers: Itaewon and Yongsan
Why is Itaewon so international?
Because it spent decades serving the foreign military base next door. The US Army occupied the Yongsan garrison from 1945 until the move to Camp Humphreys, and Itaewon, Haebangchon and Hannam-dong grew up around its edges.
Is the War Memorial of Korea free?
Yes, the permanent galleries are free, as are the National Museum of Korea's. That makes this the cheapest of the three Seoul day routes on this site.
Can I visit Yongsan Park?
Only partly. Parts of the returned land open for booked public visits and parts remain closed, and what is accessible changes. Treat the middle of the map as something to see over a fence for now.
Is Itaewon busy at night?
On an ordinary evening it is a normal, lively district. The side streets off the main strip are narrow and steep, and on a peak night that difference is the whole experience of the place, so check the live crowd levels on this site before a big one.
Figures on this page come from Seoul city price index. Checked against the published source on the date below.
LAST VERIFIED 15 AUGUST 2026