17 Free Things to Do in Seoul That You’ll Actually Love
[Last updated in September 2025]
Visiting Seoul on a shoestring budget is not only possible, but incredibly fun! In 2025, there are so many awesome free things to do in Seoul that I constantly wondered “how can this be free???” while exploring all the 17 activities listed here.
It comes as great news to budget travelers that the Korea is aggressively investing in tourism, and offering free attractions that go beyond what I’ve seen any other country do: free world class museums, beauty consultations, handcrafting workshops, hiking trails, and much more!
Here’s my selection of the best free things to do in Seoul, curated over the 5+ times I visited this amazing city over the past 2 years.
TL;DR? Here are my favorite free things to do in Seoul
🏛️ Best history/cultural experience: Street of Memories
💄 Best K-beauty experience: BeautyPlay (especially the Hongdae location)
🌳 Best park: Han River Banks (by Yeouinaru Subway Station )
🏙️ Best modern architecture: Dongdaemun Design Plaza
Free History and Cultural Experiences in Seoul
1. Visit Seoul’s world-class museums
Seoul is home to some of the most modern and well-organized museums I’ve ever been to, always featuring some kind of culturally relevant tech tool for visitors to play with.
It’s honestly amazing that, in most cases, not only is the entrance free, but some guided group tours at set times are also included at no cost. The National Museum of Korea even has free on-demand robot tour guides that move with visitors throughout the exhibits!
Some of the best free history museums in Seoul include:
- National Museum of Korea: One of the largest museums in the world, and also the best introduction to Korean history you’ll find!
- National Hangeul Museum (temporarily closed): The Korean alphabet is incredibly unique and clever, and in this museum you can learn everything about it!
- The War Memorial of Korea: Though we are in the middle of a ceasefire, the Korean War is still going on, and in this museum you can learn more about this complex conflict.
- Seoul Museum of History: Just like Korea as a whole, Seoul has an interesting history, and this museum is the perfect place to learn more about the city’s development into one of the world’s leading capitals.
2. Join a free cultural workshop hosted by Seoul Culture Lounge
Important experience details
📍 Location: Samil Building, Jongno District
🗓️ Booking: Online on their official website! Registration opens exactly a week before the workshop and gets fully booked incredibly quickly.
❤️ The best part? If you cannot grab a booking on time, you can just walk in for free activities such as bracelet-making and karaoke!
The Seoul Culture Lounge is a government-funded initiative that offers a wide range of workshops for foreign visitors to explore Korean culture. These include traditional arts like calligraphy and mother-of-pearl crafting, as well as modern K-pop-inspired experiences such as dance classes, makeup tutorials, and even baking sessions.
I joined a calligraphy class at Seoul Culture Lounge and was shocked to see that the free workshop was led by a local artist, and that I got to take home the beautiful traditional Korean hanging scroll I had crafted!
Apart from the class, which I had to book in advance, I also saw that the Culture Lounge itself also offers some genuinely fun walk-in activities, such as a karaoke box and materials to make friendship bracelets with the Korean alphabet!
3. Visit the iconic palaces of Seoul
Seoul is home to five iconic royal palaces! Though they do not usually offer complimentary entrance (tickets are around KRW 3,000 or ~USD2.5), there are 3 ways to experience the grandiosity of the palaces completely for free:
- Watch the changing of the guard for free: The Royal Guard Changing Ceremony at Gyeongbokgung Palace is a daily performance of a traditional Joseon Dynasty ceremony. The ceremony takes place outside the palace at 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM and is very interesting!
- Visit on the last Wednesday of the month: In Korea, the last Wednesday of the month is “culture day” and entrance to the palaces becomes completely free.
- Wear traditional clothing (Hanbok): Entrance to the palace is free for those wearing traditional clothing, and most visitors seem to take advantage of this offering! A 3-hour rental of the outfit costs on average USD 15-20 and is an incredibly fun experience to have in Seoul!
In all honesty, one of the most beautiful features of the royal palaces in Seoul is the entrance gate, so if you’re on a shoestring budget and don’t want to pay the entrance fee, you’ll have 80% of the palace experience just by heading to see the gate and the changing of the guard.
4. Have fun in 1970’s Seoul in the Streets of Memories
Important experience details
📍Location: 161 Sajik-ro, Jongno District
✅ Visiting tip: Grab their fun stamp bucket list in the visitor center to make sure you can distinguish the main exhibits – if you visit them all, they give out free candy as an award!
Streets of Memories is a free open-air exhibition by the National Folk Museum. There, you can actually experience what the 70s and 80s were like in Korea!
I mean, completely for free you can sing in a vintage karaoke, you can play in an arcade, you can use their photo studio, you can even go to the movie theater and actually watch an analog film screening!
My Korean husband was particularly mind-blown by the game room, and is planning to invite his friends over for unlimited free vintage video gaming!
Streets of Memories is a genuine hidden gem in Seoul!
Fun nearby stop: By the Streets of Memories, you can also find a series of hanok buildings that are a great photo spot. If your budget allows, you can take one of the many paid traditional Korean craftsmanship workshops available there!
5. Wander through Bukchon Hanok Village
Important experience details
📍Location: Bukchon Hanok Village
⏰ Hours: 10:00AM – 5:00 PM, closed on Sundays
❌ Important: Abide by the visiting hours and avoid making excessive noise when visiting, as many locals actually live in the traditional homes in the Hanok village.
All over the country, you can find neighborhoods with traditional Korean architecture called Hanok Villages. Beyond the dreamy buildings, these villages often offer fair-like activities, with street food and sweet cafes!
Korean couples love heading to these villages for a fun day or weekend! My fiancé and I love these villages so much that we took a day trip from Seoul to spend a night at a traditional hotel in the Jeonju Hanok Village and had a magical and romantic time.
Pro tip: A much smaller and lesser known hanok village worth checking is Iksun Hanok Village
Free K-Beauty Experiences in Seoul
6. Get a free skin analysis, personal color, and professional makeup at BeautyPlay
Important experience details
📍 Hongdae Location (my favorite): 363-16 Seogyo-dong, Mapo-gu
📍 Myeong-dong Location: Jung District, Myeongdong-gil, 73 3층
💻 Official website: https://beautyplay.kr/
If you can only get one K-beauty experience in Seoul, have this be it! BeautyPlay has lots of walk-in free beauty experiences that are actually worth your time – yes, even if you are a guy!
For free and without pre-booking, they offer an advanced skin analysis (wait times usually around 30-40 minutes), a mini makeup session (wait times usually around 15 minutes), and an AI-powered personal color analysis (wait times usually under 10 minutes).
Pro tip: Visit BeautyPlay at the very beginning of your trip to get all sorts of beauty analyses. That way, you’ll avoid overspending at Olive Young on products that don’t suit your complexion!
7. Get a free 15-minute makeup session and mini class at Olive Young Seongsu
Important experience details
📍 Location: 13 Yeonmujang 7-gil, Seongdong-gu
K-beauty has so many unique products, and for free at Olive Young you get to have some of them tested on your face by an actual makeup artist!
To book an appointment, you just need to go to the store and scan the QR code placed by the makeup table!
Whether you manage to get a slot for the free professional makeup or not, visiting the Olive Young in Seongsu is a must-stop for K-beauty in Seoul anyways! The store has many floors and features tons of fun products, a cafe, fitness space, and much more.
8. Get free samples and crafted experiences in pop up stores
Pop up stores are one of the things that make Seoul so fun and unique! They usually sell limited edition products and give out free samples, two things that Koreans absolutely love!
You can find pop up stores scattered around town, though the neighborhoods of Hongdae and Seongsu are well-known for having good ones. Some Instagram accounts, such as @pops.official_ and @popup.in.seoul, report on new pop up stores and are a great place to start your free sample scavenger hunt!
The best pop up store I came across in Seoul was in the iconic Dongdaemun Design Plaza, where I got free temporary tattoos and K-beauty samples personalized for my skin needs.
Parks and Hiking Trails in Seoul
9. Picnic and Walk along the Han River Banks
Important experience details
📍 Location: By Yeouinaru Subway Station (여의나루)
🍜 Spot to go for instant noodles by the Han River: 7-Eleven, though there are many others around Yeouido Hangang Park!
The Han River is a major hangout spot for Seoul locals, and for good reason!
The infrastructure is amazing for walking, biking, and even picnicking in the grass areas. This is one of my favorite date spots in Seoul, and my husband and I head there often to enjoy the river view and picnic alongside lots of other couples.
10. Walk along the Cheonggyecheon Stream
Important experience details
📍 Location: 1 Cheonggyecheon-ro, Jongno District
Cheonggyecheon Stream is a 11km (7-mile) long world-famous urban revitalization project in Seoul that is 100% worth checking out!
During the day, the vibe there is calming and family-friendly. At night, the whole stream is beautifully lit up and many local couples sit along the stream to share a cup of coffee and hang out!
11. Hike up N-Seoul Tower
Important experience details
📍 Location: 105 Namsangongwon-gil, Yongsan District
❄️ Caution: Weather in Seoul can be freezing! Make sure to dress appropriately during winter months
N-Seoul Tower (AKA Namsam Tower) is one of those must-do experiences in Seoul, and it comes as a surprise to many that you can visit it completely for free!
The hiking trail up Namsam mountain is really beautiful, well maintained, and free. The hike to N-Seoul Tower (N서울타워) only takes about 1h10min from the famous Myeongdong Station, and is filled with awesome views!
When you reach the top, you’ll find a stunning view of Seoul, fence filled with love locks left by couples, a selection of quick-bite restaurants, a big convenience store, and a nice gift shop!
You can enter the tower for free but it costs KRW 26K to go all the way up to the observatory.
Not a fan of hiking? Though not free, you can take affordable public transport all the way up! There is also a cablecar, but that comes with a price tag of KRW 15K for the roundtrip and possibly a long wait.
12. Visit the stunning Seoul Forest
I went to Seoul Forest (which is actually not a forest, but a park) with low expectations and was blown away!
There, I found interactive art/music exhibits, lots of beautiful walking paths, and many deer!!!
As someone who loves to casually come across animals, Seoul Forest is up there on the list of things I look forward to doing every time I visit Seoul.
13. Walk around Seokchon Lake and Lotte World
Important experience details
📍 Location: Can be accessed from many different points such as Jamsil Station
Seokchon Lake is my favorite place in Seoul to see cherry blossoms, but I love stopping by even after spring is over!
Along the lake, there are cozy steps where locals like to picnic and hang out! The view of the giant Lotte World amusement park is really nice.
At some points the walking trail around the lake gets close to the Lotte World castle, creating an awesome photo opportunity completely for free.
14. Hike up Bugak Palgakjeong
Important experience details
🚃 How to get there: Though the best way to get there is by car (here is the address!), it can still be reached by public transportation. You can get to the area by bus and walk 45 minutes uphill to Bugak Palgakjeong. The closest subway station is Hanseong University Station Line #4, and from there you can take Bus line 1111 or 1112 and get off at Seoul Dawon School.
Bugak Palgakjeong, located along the scenic Bugak Skyway, is a hidden gem in Seoul that a local recommended to us! It is a bit out of the way, but if you’re looking for a tourist-free thing to do in Seoul this might be it.
During the day, the views of all Seoul are beautiful, though sunset is the highlight of this spot.
Iconic Modern Architecture in Seoul
15. Visit the iconic Dongdaemun Design Plaza
Important experience details
📍 Location: Can be accessed from many different points such as Jamsil Station
Dongdaemun Design Plaza is internationally known for its futuristic architecture crafted by starchitect Zaha Hadid, which made me think that this building would be a bit of a tourist trap – and I couldn’t have been more wrong!
This building is free to enter, and is very much enjoyed by locals! My Korean husband used to head there during his college years to go to the movie theater, and there are lots of restaurants and activities inside.
Nearby: The area around the Dongdaemun Design Plaza is known for its affordable late night clothing shops (such as HelloAPM), but I did not find them good at all. One thing that is actually worth doing if you’re in the area is taking a look at the historic Heunginjimun Gate which is just a short walk away.
16. Wander through the famous Starfield Library in COEX
Important experience details
📍 Location: 513 Yeongdong-daero, Gangnam District
With all honesty, I find the COEX shopping complex and its instagram-famous Starfield Library to be overhyped, but it is still one of those postcard destinations in Seoul that people feel a bit of FOMO.
The good thing about it is that you can visit for free, and it is still accessible and comfy on cold and rainy days!
17. Explore nighttime Hongdae
Important experience details
📍 Location: Can be accessed many ways, but I usually reach it by heading to Hongik University Station
I am obsessed with the classic Asian street view of narrow streets filled with chaotic neon signs! In Hongdae, I get to experience that vibe: the streets are filled with young people, shops that are often budget-friendly, and street food!
One of my favorite things to do in Seoul is to walk along the streets of Hongdae and enjoy street artists, beautifully crafted superstores (such as the Kakao Friends Flagship Store), and small local brands.
The wrapup: best free things to do in Seoul
By now you should be convinced that a tight budget will not stop you from having incredible experiences in Seoul! The city is filled with interesting neighborhoods, free museums, and lots of nature to enjoy.
Seoul really proves that the best things in life are free.
Planning a trip to Korea? Check out our other helpful posts:
✅ 11 Romantic date ideas in Seoul
✅ Where to see cherry blossoms in Seoul
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