Best Shopping Spots in Seoul

Shopping Itinerary suggestion while in Seoul...

If you only have a few days in Seoul and unable to visit all the shopping places, I would recommend the following in order of priority:

1. Myeong-dong - A Must if you are in Seoul. It is a one stop shop so you will find most stores there - Cosmetics, Fashion, Food. You can easily spend a whole day there.
2. Hongdae at Hongik University station - This is also a must see area of Seoul as it is full of unique and cute cafes as well as many little small clothing boutique stores in the small laneways. The best ones are found in the little laneways. You can easily spend a whole day there too from lunch all the way to dinner with cafes and shopping in between.
3. Garuso-Gil - This is probably now my favourite place to go due to it's classy and elegant Seoul local fashion boutique stores. I didn't list this as #1 or #2 because this is really just one street with many boutique clothing stores. There's many cafes there too but it is scattered around that main shopping strip. If you haven't been to #1 or #2 yet, you definitely need to hit those first. You can finish this street in maybe 2 hours. 🙂 I spent the whole afternoon including dinner there as I did love the clothing there. Two of my now favourite restaurant "Barun Table" and "Traditional Korean" restaurant are there too.
4. Dongdaemun - This is probably my least favourite of the shopping destination but it is a must visit if you are in Seoul after 8pm! Yes after 8pm. You get to see how the global fashion wholesalers work. It is truly an experience to see how they send shipment of clothing from this wholesale clothing district. This you can do after you have dinner on one of your night. They close at 5am!
5. Namdaemun - The place is mainly sell knick knacks of cheap stuff and reminds of a bazaar or market. The reason to visit is for two of their Kids wholesale markets. It is at "Porky Mall" and "Paint Town." Both buildings had some cheap and cool kids clothing. Worth a visit if you have time.
6. Lotte and Shinsegae - These are Seoul's department stores whereby you may find things that are up-market. I did buy some things there including food at their food court. If you have time, also worth a visit.

You could potentially spend a day in Myeong-dong, a day in Hongdae, then half a day walking around Gangnam (made famous by PSY Gangnam Style), then the other half shopping at Garuso-gil, then dinner at Barun Table or the traditional Korean restaurant also at Garuso-gil. That would take you to three nights. And on one of those nights, you can visit Dongdaemun. Rushed? Yes. But if you can fit all that in, it will be so worth it!

One last place I did also visit which I didn't dedicate a blog to is:

"Insa-dong" A little about it that place. It is filled with traditional shop houses worth a visit to sight-see and take a walk but not really a shopping destination as such. Baby Z loved their fried red bean bun. However strangely enough, I did buy a unique piece of clothing there. It's a skirt which draws inspiration from the traditional korean dress which is "boofy" and they designed a modern skirt similar to that but a little bit more casual. I took a snapshot from their website. I bought the same skirt and thought I would pair it with some midi jean jacket. 🙂 Check it out!