Busan-Seoul Day 6: Namsan, N Seoul Tower & Myeongdong

We woke up at 8am and brought our clothes for washing before having breakfast at Cafe Stanford (we timed it in such a way that our laundry would be done by the time we finished breakfast).

Cafe Stanford

Breakfast buffet

Our table

Littlest had cereal and orange juice almost everyday while the Mum-in-law had rice

My choice of breakfast

The variety of food was limited and the taste was so-so, at times terrible. The two older kids felt that it was not worth it to wake up early for it. Since our package only came with breakfast for 4 persons, we allowed them to sleep in for the rest of the mornings while the rest of us went for breakfast.

We returned to the room and got ready for our visit to Namsan. Although the Hubby and I have previously visited Namsan Park in 2013, we wanted to bring the kids and Mum-in-law, as you can't say you've visited Seoul unless you've seen the famous N Seoul Tower on Namsan! It has been featured in many K-dramas, including Kpop Demon Hunters! 😄

We planned to take the Namsan Cable Car as we had done in our previous trip. I guided our group to the cable car base station based on memory from seeing the route on Google Maps (I have very good navigation skills you see, no need live navigation) 😁

We walked past the Bank of Korea Money Museum, which was a super cool building

Slight climb up a slope to reach the inclined lift

There was a super long queue at the lift so I asked the Mum-in-law if she preferred to wait or climb the stairs. She was game to climb the stairs but then regretted later because it was a lot of stairs! 😅

Climbing the first flight of stairs, which was still doable

Halfway point photo with the Namsan Moon;
We wouldn't have gotten a photo if we didn't climb the stairs! #silverlining 😅

We climbed more stairs before we reached the ticketing booth, where we bought tickets for the Namsan Cable Car. It cost us ₩15,000 per adult and ₩11,500 per child under 12 years old. 

Lo and behold, we had to climb more flights of stairs because the lift was reserved only for PWDs! 😅 It was not an issue for me (since I exercise everyday and can consider it a part of my usual exercise), but not easy for my Mum-in-law! 

Entrance at the 3rd Floor!

Queuing to board the cable car

Managed to find a good spot near the window

View of the cable car station

View of Myeongdong from the cable car

On arrival at the peak station, we found ourselves climbing more stairs before we reached the top of Namsan! 

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Love locks were everywhere on Namsan

Photos with N Seoul Tower

Namsan Octagonal Pavillion

Trees at the peak

Enjoying the view

Family photo!

Beautifully painted stones

Geographical marker that indicates the geographical center of Seoul!

Love locks tree and bending bench

View from the top

Lookout to the park below

Family photo taken by a kind Ajumma

I found some nice pins from the gift shop to add to my collection!

The Boy was fascinated by the brick walls, which reminded him of the Great Wall of China

Photo of my kids

We spotted a lift and took it down to the first floor.

This path leads to a bus stop where you can take the bus if you preferred not to take the cable car

Photo with the Littlest

Unsure about the significance of the pandas...

We bought snacks from BHC Chicken

When we have finished exploring, we returned to the cable car station.

Got a good view of the N Seoul Tower on the way to the cable car station

Riding the cable car

Goodbye Namsan! 👋🏻 

We decided to take the inclined lift down as the queue was short.

Squeezing onto the lift as we travelled down

We walked for about 5-10 minutes to our favourite Gimbap Cheonguk at Myeongdong for lunch. 

Hubby discovered this restaurant by chance and we have loved it ever since

Traditional Korean restaurant

Bibimbap

Gimbap and soups

The gimbap was so good! One of the best I've eaten! 👍🏻 The meal was also inexpensive and definitely value for money! Highly recommended by my foodie family 😃

After a satisfying lunch, we proceeded with shopping! Obviously. We're at Myeongdong! 😆🤭 I couldn't wait to introduce the Mum-in-law to the 12-storey Daiso that we had visited on our last trip! There was long queue for the lift so I made the crazy decision to climb the stairs all the way to the 12th floor (and clock my exercise at the same time)! 😅 While the Mum-in-law and Littlest waited for the lift, the Eldest decided to join me and regretted once she reached the 5th floor... 😬 We made it to the top though and worked our way back down... 😃

Littlest had a lot of fun shopping because this mummy bought everything she wanted (everything was so cheap!!!)

We hauled our Daiso shopping loot back to our hotel so that the Eldest and I can continue our round two of shopping at Olive Young!

The Eldest's favourite store in Korea and possibly the whole world!

Mum-in-law was feeling tired (and a bit unwell) after all the shopping so she didn't join us for dinner. The Hubby decided on a Korean BBQ restaurant near our hotel.

Excited for our meal!

We ordered chicken since that was on their signboard!

The Boy and Littlest's favourite steamed egg (a must at every meal!)

Yummy beef soup

The Boy loves the cheesy bread!
He ranked it at the top of his list of favourite food in Korea!

It has been a long day and we couldn't wait to sink into our beds! Good night Seoul and see you tomorrow! 😴

Continue to >> Busan-Seoul Day 7: Gyeongbokgung & Hongdae
<< Back to Busan-Seoul Day 5: KTX Train to Stanford Hotel Myeongdong

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Busan and Seoul, South Korea as well as other travel itineraries!

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Busan-Seoul Day 5: KTX Train to Stanford Hotel Myeongdong

We had simple bread and cup noodles for breakfast in our hotel room before we checked out at 9.15am. The jumbo taxi we had booked via the hotel picked us up at 9.30am to take us to Busan Station. We paid ₩60,000, which was pricey but worth it for the service, comfort and convenience.

Busan Station

Huge signboards with English, Chinese and Japanese words

On arrival at Busan Station, we looked at the Information Board for information on our KTX high speed train to Seoul. The staff informed us that details on the track number will only be available 15 minutes before our departure time.

Since we had time, we explored the station in search of food to bring onboard the train for our lunch.

There's a food court at the 2nd floor

We bought food and milk tea from Eggbox

It was soon time to head to the platform and we headed to our train. We had booked our first class tickets directly on the Korail website (28 days prior) and paid ₩83,700 per adult and ₩53,800 per child. The difference between regular and first class was ₩23,900 per ticket, which we thought was reasonable since first class had wider seats, more leg room and a complimentary snack box each.

Boarded our train and headed to our preassigned seats

We departed Busan at 11am sharp

Getting our FREE bottled water for 1st class passengers from a vending machine

Free KTX snack box for 1st class passengers

Getting ready to watch my K Drama

Eating my toast from Eggbox while enjoying the beautiful view

It was interesting that no one came to check our tickets. Probably an honour-based system. After travelling for 2 hours 45 minutes, we arrived at Seoul Station at 1.47pm.

Seoul Station

We joined the very long queue for taxis (at least 20 people) and eventually got into two regular taxis. At ₩10,000 per taxi, the price was very reasonable for the journey to our hotel.

After previously staying at PJ Hotel in 2013, Solaria Nishitetsu Myeongdong and Lotte Hotel World in 2023, we decided to stay at Stanford Hotel Myeongdong this time. The hotel lobby was located at the 9th floor of the building so do look out for the lifts behind the Apple Store. 

Stanford Hotel lobby

We had booked 2 Family Twin Room at S$311 per room per night (inclusive of breakfast for 2 adults per room, more details in the next post). It was much more expensive than our stay at Lotte Hotel Busan but at least each room can accommodate up to 4 adults, which was very comfortable for our family of 6. Our rooms were also much bigger than the Myeongdong hotel we had stayed in our previous trip.

Two double beds

Sofa area

View of Lotte Department Store and surrounding streets from our room.
We could see the Christmas lights at night.

Complimentary snack pack from Stanford Hotel

Very small cupboard and wardrobe

Good size bathroom with bathtub

Breakfast info in the lift (left) and water dispenser just outside our room (right)

The hotel also had a laundry room and a gym. The first thing we did after unpacking was to do our laundry! There were laundry facilities within the hotel for the convenience of guests. We loved the convenience so much that we did our laundry every morning during breakfast.

Each load of washing cost ₩3,000 and you pay by inserting cash into the machine

Good size gym for a 3-star hotel

Our only complaint about the hotel, other than the price, was the inability to adjust the temperature in our room, making us feel very hot during the afternoon due to the afternoon sun. Thankfully it was much cooler and comfortable at night.

Exterior of Stanford Hotel (left) and the hotel's main entrance (right)

After a long day of travelling, we had dinner at a restaurant just next to our hotel.

153 Gupo Noodles

Self ordering and payment kiosks at each table; very convenient! 😅

Various noodles and pork with rice; food was decent but not the best we've eaten.

After dinner, we walked and shopped at the nearby Myeongdong area as we had done previously.

Streets of Myeongdong behind our hotel

So many people in Myeongdong!

Huge HBAF Almond Store in Myeongdong!

The Boy wanted to try the grilled lobster with cheese! He loved it! 😃

We loved Artbox!
There were many outlets in Myeongdong area alone because they were so popular!

Artbox photobooth

Choosing our iron-on patches for our keychains
(These photos were obviously by the Boy 🤪)

This time I made a keychain for myself too! 😁

Super cute Wiggle Wiggle store!

Wiggle Wiggle photobooth

We were feeling hungry after covering almost the whole of the Myeongdong area and had fried chicken from Kkanbu since the Hubby really liked it since our last trip.

Looking forward to our meal!

Beer from the tap, Korean fried chicken and cheese sticks

We returned back to our hotel after a fulfilling supper.

Beautiful Christmas light up at Lotte Town Myeongdong!

Even though we had walked a lot, a check on my Huawei smart watch showed that I had not hit my exercise target of 45 minutes! Since we had feasted a lot, I decided to exercise in my room to hit my target! 😅 Yes I've become that person; however it was the reason why I did not gain any weight after our trip 🤭

Looking forward to exploring more of Seoul! 😁

Continue to >> Busan-Seoul Day 6: Namsan, N Seoul Tower & Myeongdong
<< Back to Busan-Seoul Day 4: Jagalchi Market & Gamcheon Culture Village

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Visit MADPSYCHMUM TRAVELS for the rest of my posts on 

Busan and Seoul, South Korea as well as other travel itineraries!

Please also follow my travel adventures on Instagram via the hashtag #madpsychmumtravels!