Gay Seoul is one of the planet’s many underestimated travel locations, overlooked continuously for the a lot more well-known East Asian next-door neighbors. Better known for Samsung and governmental tensions with North Korea, there’s a thriving queer scene right here hidden inside ordinary picture â you just need to know where to look!
Hectic and utterly obsessed with manner and technologies, the dynamic city of Seoul is greatly standard, with calm palaces, temples and hill trails. Skyscrapers overshadow elegant hanbok (standard wooden houses), environmentally friendly rooms and cycle channels soften manufacturing hard borders, and K-Pop may be heard blaring on virtually every road spot.
Seoulites have actually a great deal to be proud of inside their 24/7 area â where you are able to get whatever you decide and want, whenever you want â as well as their homosexual world listed here is not an exception. We want the culture in particular will be much more acknowledgingâ¦
South Korea as one has actually a far less accepting view of its LGBTQ community than a good many rest of Asia â although the strength of conservatives and Christian fundamentalists wanes slowly, things are still perhaps not where they need to be.
LGBT recognition has, however, rapidly cultivated in earlier times decade, especially in younger years, compliment of international influences, more queer activities, and a higher presence associated with the regional LGBT community, such as ârather notoriously â celeb
Hong Seok-cheon
, being released in public areas.
A lot of in Korea believe obtained never ever satisfied a gay individual, and it’s really a topic infrequently talked about, with political events staying away from discussion of LGBT legal rights and many men and women burying their own minds when you look at the mud.
As a visitor, you may be extremely unlikely enjoy any outright discrimination but be aware, a lot of queer residents lead dual resides and succumb on the daunting societal force to maintain their sex private.
Southern Korea is undoubtedly one of the most old-fashioned countries in Asia, but actually right here, truly officially unlawful is discriminated against based on intimate orientation. Still, a lot of people in the LGBT society nonetheless face problems yourself and work, indicating Gay Korea provides a considerable ways to visit still to capture up with their more modern neighbors â Japan, Taiwan, Thailand and more and more Vietnam.
The gay world in Seoul, however, is continuing to grow each year and has a good amount of fabulous queer fun available. Global party kids selecting combined foreign/local enjoyable will want to check out the well-known Homo Hill in Itaewon, very long of homosexual night life, but residents are more inclined to frequent the central district of Jongno.
Similar to skyscrapers, the bustle of Insadong and street barbecues, there’s really a hidden-in-plain-sight gay world here with bars, karaoke bones, homosexual hot rooms and cafes than we can easily depend.
Few vacationers actually venture to Gay Jongno but know if you are doing that when you look at the taverns and groups, you certainly will often be welcomed with a smile. Unfortunately, exactly the same cannot be stated for Seoul’s gay hot rooms and sail organizations scene, which actively discriminate against and bar whoever is non-Korean â regardless of what familiar with customs and/or vocabulary you’re.
We hope this changes in the near future and possess suggestions that might help, but in this value, the homosexual world in Seoul nevertheless really has some developing to perform.
Nonetheless, with more than 10 million individuals, Seoul is one of the biggest metropolises in the world possesses something for everyone. Foods, style, tradition, history and wild nightlife â this sprawling city has all of it!
In this article we are going to include…
Destinations in Seoul
Obviously, being homosexual cannot establish which destinations we need to see in each town, and the majority of queer people will simply need to investigate top factors to see in Seoul the whole day!
You will find such to complete here â but we found our favorite memories were roaming through getting missing on back-streets, going to all unusual cafes, hitting up Lotte World and wandering through layout studios!
One of the recommended guidelines we can provide for exploring Gay Seoul is pre-order a travel SIM card for simple airport collection and activation when you appear you will not shell out tons of money in worldwide roaming fees.
Get restaurants referral and reservations on travel, public transport guidelines up-to-the-minute, club orifice several hours, and, if it’s your own thing â access to homosexual hook-up software to find out more regarding regional world.
Portable data is quickly, low priced and available all over the place in Asia, so it is no surprise many people elect to remain connected and acquire from the beaten track (without previously worrying all about obtaining lost). So why hold off?
Pre-order the number one neighborhood SIM credit today to own it available when you appear.
Nonetheless â it will help having some notion of what is going on, thus here are the most useful activities to do in Seoul, according to all of us!
Things To Do in Seoul
Conventional Korean Bathhouse
Not inside gay spa? Uncover a unique and family-friendly a portion of the Korean culture in an attractively adorned and standard Korean-style bathhouse. Unwind from a tense day of sightseeing â or night or partying â in a conventional oak lumber sauna, and revel in use of all hot rooms and steam rooms such as different sodium and minerals remedies to suit your skin.
For lots more lavishness, then address yourself to a massage therapy, facials or body scrubs? Although the bathhouse is actually available 24/7, definitely book ahead any special treatment options in order to prevent at a disadvantage.
Cheonggyecheon
A landmark of the latest metropolitan restoration and ecological restoration, this park area features a revived / âday-lighted’ flow with paths, bridges & greenery.
Myeong-dong
A diverse purchasing & everyday worldwide eating location, the busy Myeong-dong is actually packed with intercontinental style brands, luxury department stores, and homegrown beauty products stores.
Janet’s Cooking Studio
Collect more than simply images because of this wonderfully special industry tour and conventional Korean cooking concept with Janet, a Korean chef been trained in new york.
This knowledge just isn’t about simply ticking down vacationer must-dos, but instead explores the actual Korea through Janet’s beautiful food fixation â which stands out through whether the woman is presenting you to definitely sellers in another of Seoul’s few staying neighborhood street marketplaces or cheerful brightly while exposing to you personally how to come up with the most perfect Bulgogi Lettuce Wrap back her expert cooking area.
Janet has actually also worked with the UN promoting Korean as well as tradition â which means you merely learn she’s the real thing! You will leave Seoul with the ability to identify strange ingredients in a Korean industry in order to whip up some delicious traditional dishes â whilst studying exclusive reputation for Korea and enjoying Janet’s warm personality.
A sort and loving soul who’s truly passionate about exactly what she does, we can not recommend Janet’s Cooking Studio extremely adequate.
Fireman Show
An extraordinary screen of acrobatics & dance, this much-acclaimed tv series makes use of a mixture of overall performance types to convey the pressures to be a fireman. Weird, we realize, however you will understand why if you’re indeed there.
Observe amazing acrobatic lifts and flips, and find out about the necessity of fire security and consciousness â being a non-verbal show, it really is well-suited for every vocabulary speakers. Feel the affirmative fuel produced from the melodramatic yet funny performers that portray lively figures.
Bukchon Hanok Village
A lovely history town with a satisfied 600-year history dating back to to the 14th millennium. Fill the camera with selfies featuring narrow roadways layered with restored old-fashioned homes.
Fancy Museum
a weird art gallery of entertaining erotic art, this will be Seoul’s very first therefore much only museum for adults â but the audience is sure other individuals are excitedly becoming in the pipeline. See physical stories of enthusiasm and desire unfold prior to your sight, get the opportunity to try your own hand at pole dance â when you yourself haven’t currently â and see the many minutes of newlyweds’ existence through entertaining artworks.
You’ll find six-themed galleries, each with a silly interest so that you could get a hold of â and trust us, homosexual, directly, or unicorn â¦You won’t ever have seen everything such as this prior to!
Lotte Business
No visit to Seoul could be complete without a trip to Korea’s leading theme park, Lotte World! Lotte World passes are amazingly marked down exclusively for international site visitors, therefore do not miss out the chance to visit this enjoyable two-part theme park with backyard thrill trips and a âMagic Island’ palace location.
Throughout colder months, just take a coat or enjoy the adrenaline-charged interior destinations into the âAdventure’ area, plus sign up for the numerous parades and programs. If you’d like to carry out even more, there is certainly a Lotte community + Aquarium combination admission to also includes a trip to the world’s largest ocean environment tank at the Lotte globe Aquarium, featuring over 650 marine varieties across 13 specific areas.
Jongmyo
A UNESCO community history site and shrine to Joseon dynasty leaders & queens. Ritual ceremonies nevertheless occur as of this Confucian shrine dedicated to Joseon dynasty royals. Nowadays Jongmyo is the ideal getting away from the urban busyness and an intriguing looking into Old Seoul.
Café Onion
Serving post-industrial decay realness, this Uber-hip style cafe in Seongdong-gu is largely how we would picture Chornobyl to get if Brooklyn hipsters moved in. Serving cool baked creations and niche coffee mixes, this place is definitely worth the trip over to find out â if only to realize your monochromatic Instagram dreams.
In addition they already have a far more conveniently labeled as Café Onion Anguk in Jongno-gu, except in a transformed traditional building/temple, basically just as remarkable.
Seoul’s Palaces, Temples & Industries
Spend on a daily basis sightseeing and ticking off Seoul’s most widely used web sites. The President’s pad, Blue House (or Cheongwadae), the altering from the guards in the dazzling Gyeongbokgung Palace and Changdeok Palace and visiting the nationwide Folk Museum for more information on Korea’s rich record from the dynasties around the present-day.
In addition not to ever be skipped may be the comforting Jogyesa Buddhist Temple and bargain hunting in the famous Namdaemun industries.
Korea Rail Pass (KR PASS
)
Find South Korea outside of Seoul by traveling on over 80 paths and over 600 stations using the Korea Rail Pass. Get endless tours on most Korail trains for 3 or 5 straight days or any versatile 2 and 4 days because of this discount that is limited for international nationals.
Meerkat & Friends
An oh-so-Seoul âcafe’ which acts no food and only bottled products buts lets you get up near and personal with semi-tame meerkats, raccoons, wallabies, cats, foxes plus. With areas in Hongdae and Myeongdong, its touristy and unusual, this is exactly why we are obsessed!
Discover Seoul Pass
Get easy access to a mixture of 35 leading Seoul attractions together with the find Seoul Pass. Choose from 24/48/72 hours pass to delight in discounts and freely customize your Seoul journey with this particular flexible entrance ticket and transportation credit from Seoul Tourism Organization, solely open to foreign vacationers.
ZenKimchi Korean Food Tours
If you should be like united states and planning your visit to Korea for food by yourself, then you will like to prevent the touristy areas/ terrible dining encounters and choose for a totally immersive knowledge to help make the the majority of Seoul’s food scene.
Thankfully, Joe, who has been running
Korea’s longest-running meals blog, ZenKimchi,
for over 15 years, has established a distinctively crafted trip to aid people experience with korean food. Is obvious, by this, we mean the guy becomes no kickbacks from the restaurants and goes because he could be genuinely fanatical regarding fare they serve, unlike less scrupulous workersâ¦
We decided on their Korean BBQ trip and had a memorable night finding Korean dining decorum, savoring the greatest charcoal grilled pork of our own existence, admiring fulfilling talks with various individuals from worldwide â and obtaining some tipsy over a Korean alcohol concept in a secret club!
It is also ideal for some pre-drinking before venturing out to Homo Hill, or for unicamente travelers just who might or else battle to encounter Korean BBQ like this.
There clearly was numerous trips offered, but each one is run by enthusiastic professionals who get best interests in your mind. Therefore, if you want to get-out here to see Seoul as an area â whilst having a ridiculous quantity of enjoyable, ZenKimchi Korean foods Tours provides one thing obtainable.
Gay Annual Events In Seoul
Korea Queer Movie Festival (KQFF)
A yearly occasion in July dedicated entirely to assessment homosexual, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer flicks. KQFF is used annually since 2001 utilizing the reported goal of motivating assortment in Korean culture while increasing LGBT individual liberties and acceptance.
Very critical Asian forums of international LGBT film/video, and in case your own dates coincide if a means to encounter a more sophisticated degree of gay existence in Seoul.
I’M Seoul
Korea’s biggest routine celebration brand, I WILL BE launched in 2015 and it has fast be probably the most well-known routine occasions across Asia. Now, I’M consistently attract numerous gay travelers from across Asia additionally the globe to Gay Seoul.
I WILL BE carries 3 days of nightclub parties, swimming pool parties and after-parties filled up with songs and also the hottest dudes. You can expect an unforgettable knowledge about a killer DJ line-up from around the world and super go-go males on-stage. Normally used in August, I WILL BE is actually completely well worth planning a vacation around.
Korea Queer Festival Celebration | Pride Parade
Korea’s largest LGBT event, this annual contemporary Korean festival, whoever theme is LGBT legal rights, has numerous shows, such as a pride procession, film event occasions, art, talks and nightclub celebration occasions.
The event can last for per week or two and usually happens in late will to early June. The parade that was banned in 2015 attracted intercontinental focus on the function, with most of it being crucial regarding the development made relating to LGBT legal rights in South Korea.
Again occurring, there is today some service from smaller Korean governmental events and famous people, but significant parties while the government at large take a simple stance. Unlike numerous
various other Pride festivals worldwide
, the Seoul Pride Prade actively restricts the power of attendees to just take pictures or video clips and requires photo-takers to blur participants’ confronts before posting pictures online.
This is done to decrease the possibility of unintentional excursions of members just who however face considerable discrimination in Korean culture. Whilst the organizers have actually large intends to develop case on the biggest in Asia, Seoul’s Queer customs Festival shows in several ways, South Korea is within the Stone Age.
120,000 LGBT individuals honestly took part in 2018 â the most significant ever â but 200,000 signatures had been additionally gathered to cease the Parade, and 1000s of anti-LGBT protestors proved.
Still, it is incredible observe NGOs and brand names acquiring up to speed as the occasion expands. In a nation in which modesty around outsiders is vital and intimate inclination just isn’t something you should be flaunted, we can merely wish increased visibility as time goes by helps brand-new years of South Koreans feel safe enough to end up being whom they truly are.
Gay-Friendly and Gay Hotels in Seoul
Although Korea and Seoul may be much less politically progressive and gay-friendly than, say,
Bangkok
,
Tokyo
or
Taipei
, it’s still secure to assume queer tourists have no issues checking just about any lodge in Seoul. Unfortunately, but there are not any specifically gay motels in Seoul to check into.
Seoul is actually an international mega-city with a lack of area, so place sizes tend to be smaller compared to almost everywhere otherwise in the field â but as a number of gay men learn, it isn’t all about dimensions, but exactly how make use of it! We’re writing on design, efficiency and views, darling!
That being said, everyone likes to end up being enclosed by people with usual passions, and as such, there are some popular gay-friendly motels in Seoul which happen to be hot areas for gay people to stay â either for their place or their own design and inclusive vibes.
Hotels near Homo Hill, the foreigner-friendly queer enclave in Itaewon, are incredibly popular with homosexual people â specifically tourists just who only talk English but Jongno for the Nagwon-dong community, is truly the gayest area of Seoul, though a lot more popular with natives than site visitors.
You could also consider residing in the tourist-popular Myeongdong / Seoul main, often said to be one’s heart of Seoul or even in the world-famous Gangnam section, a.k.a the âBeverly Hills of Seoul.’
The next hotels in Gay Seoul have all had a glowing suggestion from gay people in earlier times, but of course,
you can find a huge selection of some other hotels in Seoul
if normally not exactly what you are actually trying to find.
Whether need a fun and personal hostel, an affordable destination to freeze after a night of partying or an ultra-chic designer solution to drink cocktails and surround your self with fantastic folks â Gay Seoul features some thing for everyone!
Gay-friendly Hotels in Itaewon
Hamilton Resort ââââ
A landmark in Seoul’s Itaewon, this relaxed lodge in a modest redbrick building is a moment’s walk from the train place with unfussy spaces, no-cost Wi-Fi and helpful employees.
You rarely need to leave with eight various food options, such as a glossy Italian restaurant, 2 LGBT-friendly nightclubs, an outside roof share â well-liked by peacocking muscle mass gays-, a 24-hour sauna, a health club, plus a small shopping mall.
Recently renovated from top-to-bottom and still just this short stumble from Homo Hill, HOMPA by Le Queen and Club HIM.
internet protocol address Boutique Hotel ââââ
Based out of Seoul’s cosmopolitan shopping and entertainment section, Itaewon, IP Boutique Hotel, gift suggestions a brand new life style knowledge for homosexual guests. Featuring exemplary layout and spectacular atmosphere, the hotel provides 133 guestrooms, a café bistro, and limitless utilization of their particular well-equipped physical fitness place.
Exemplary worth, IP Boutique resort is a quick walk into the usually Homme homosexual bar and Club HIM by Pulse, increasing its homosexual popularity.
Resort ITW âââ
(Temporarily or once and for all closed. Knowing something, kindly advise an edit.)
A clear, contemporary, appealing resort in Itaewon with prices as good or better than most other locations in Seoul. We enjoyed it was within convenient strolling distance from the homosexual restaurants, bars, and shops that make Itaewon such a pulsating and appealing section of Seoul. Hotel ITAW is, however, up a steep slope and found on a narrow one-way road which is frustrating after every night of consuming.
Sp@Itaewon Guesthouse âââ
(Temporarily or completely shut. Once you learn anything, kindly suggest an edit.)
An ideal hangout your social traveler with personal spaces, affordable dorms, and standard BBQ