Saturday Itinerary in Gangnam
Sometimes you just want to run away at the last minute with your friends to enjoy a night out in Seoul. You don’t feel like making a big deal of it, you just want to hop on a bus and go. This is what that might look like if you live in Pyeongtaek and get the urge to splurge in Gangnam.
12:00 Randomly decide to go to Seoul = Decisions don’t cost a thing
While judging an English and Korean speech contest for PIEF Songtan, I decided to go to Seoul for no particular reason. I justified the trip by calling to make a reservation at Nostimo. Honestly, I needed to visit Nostimo to show support for – and meet – my online friend Todd Sample whom I have conversed with for years but never met IRL. Todd has always been super supportive of the unique international restaurants starting up in Pyeongtaek. It’s a truly perfect day when you can justify your random decisions like this.
3:00 Depart Songtan Bus Terminal = 4,100 won (per person)
Finished up at the speech contest and then went to Songtan Bus Terminal and bought tickets to Gangnam (Nambu Bus Terminal). I had to chill out and watch TikToks while waiting for the bus to arrive since I never checked the schedule and I had 30 minutes to kill. Since Panda Mart is in the same building as the Songtan Bus Terminal I bought some extra masks as well.
3:50 Arrive at Nambu Bus Terminal
My partner (who gets sucked into all these trips) and I nap all the way to Seoul. Naps are so much better than driving or standing on a subway. The Nambu Bus Terminal is small and located above an entrance to the Orange Seoul Subway line. The location is very useful for catching public transit to other parts of Seoul. However, I’m lazy and it’s the weekend so I didn’t bother with using public transit in the city.
3:55 Catch a taxi at the taxi stand. Show the driver the hotel name and address in Korean (Never show them English.) = 5,000 won (2 people)
Taking a taxi is easier (and often about the same price) and more enjoyable if you are with other people. Every bus terminal and subway has a taxi stand nearby. I’m in Seoul to relax and enjoy my day and my time matters so I don’t even look sideways at the Subway entrance. I show the bus driver the Naver listing and tell him where we are going in Korean. He doesn’t bother to read or listen and we sit there for a while, that is annoying. So, I take my phone back and tell him which subway station is near the hotel and he takes us to that subway station.
4:20 Arrive at the Hotel Star Gangnam = 55,000 won (3 People)
I booked this hotel on my handphone using book.com. I did it while walking on my way to eat lunch with the other judges from the speech contest. That is how easy the app is to use if you are already signed-up. I sorted by price and found something cheap and in Gangnam. I find booking.com to be the most reliable website for last-minute books. Sometimes when you book last minute you show up and they have no idea you are coming because the staff never checked their email. It still happens with booking.com but it happens less than with other western websites offering Korean bookings.
Hotel Star Gangnam turned out to be a great deal. The hotel offered all of the items we expect in our hotel experience such as complimentary:
- toothbrush and toothpaste
- bottled water in the mini-fridge
- hairdryer in the room
- hotpot and instant coffee
- small fridge
- small towels (don’t expect large US towels)
The room itself included
- control over my room temperature with English translations
- privacy entrance and public entrance
- firm/hard beds (we like this)
- A double bed and a single bed
- Large TV with an expanded cable package
- Friendly and helpful front desk staff
- massive bathtub
While headed to Seoul a friend messaged to see if we wanted to hang out so we chilled in the room until she showed up. Turned out having that extra bed booked came in handy. With three people sharing the cost, it was only 18,000 won a person for the night. That’s cheaper than a hostel or guesthouse and Hotel Star had better amenities. This is why I love Love Motels and Hotels. Most are quite nice. Super happy with my choices.
5:00 head out to walk to Nostimo and eat dessert = 12,000 won (3 people)
Nostimo is on the same main street as Hotel Star Gangnam but about an hour walk away. We decided to just walk there and explore the city on the way. We spent three hours walking through the side streets of Gangnam eating and buying desserts before dinner. Here are two of our favorite places:
These egg tarts are a buttery, flaky dream come true.
This gelato was like being back in Italy and I need to go back to have all the flavors.
7:45 Arrive at Nostimo = 99,000 won (3 People)
We arrived at Nostimo a little before our reservation and they were able to seat us. We were glad they were able to take us early since we had been walking for a few hours and – despite all the desserts – were ready to eat everything on the menu.
We ordered a number of dishes to share and had them bring out the appetizers first. The Greek food was brilliant. There were many flavors that made us excited about what would come to the table next. We thought we were being smart by not ordering too much, but then we just ended up adding things to our order because we were like, “I’ll bet blah blah will be amazing if it has as good as what we just tried?” Let’s just say that any ideas of a budget went out the window. We didn’t need that kind of negativity on a night out in Seoul where they anoint food with dill and lemon.
8:45 Catch a Taxi back to Hotel Star Gangnam = 7,000 won (3 people)
After we finished we walked out to the main street and hailed a taxi. We were thinking about getting fried chicken because that is just what you do in Korea, but then we all got to the hotel and immediately fell asleep. Fried chicken will have to wait for the next trip.
A Lazy, Short Sunday Morning in Gangnam
8:30 Wake-up hungry and needing brunch
Of course, we woke up with food on the mind. So I put brunch into Naver and it said that bills across the street from Hotel Star Gangnam was open. The pics looked great and it was about 90 feet away from our beds so that seemed like a winner.
9:00 Arrive at bills for breakfast = 55,000 (3 people)
Turns out bills is pure culinary magic and fancy AF. It felt like I was transported back to Seattle and brunching with lawyers and techies. This makes sense since bills (they don’t capitalize the name in their branding) is in a WeWork space. It felt nice to have that sense of home. Additionally, the menu could have been straight out of Pike’s Place Market. So friggen good. Take all my money.
For some, this place might be expensive. To me, it’s perfectly priced for the location, level of service, and quality of the menu. In fact, I thought it was almost cheap after tasing my coffee and the eggs benny. However, if you are used to more of the US diner-style breakfast experience you are going to be PISSED about the pricing and think the food is weird. Not judging, it’s just facts and that’s ok. Thankfully the world is filled with different things for different people.
10:00 Leave and go walk around Gangnam
I didn’t have anything in particular that I wanted to see in see in Gangnam so my partner and I walked around a bunch and looked at things until we felt like going home.
12:00 Get tired of walking and catch a taxi to Nambu = 6,000 won
Waved down a taxi, took about 2 minutes. Told the taxi Nambu Bus Terminal and we were off.
12:20 Lotteria for snacks = 6,300 won
We are hungry again but we have a bus to catch so we get some snacks at Lotteria
12:40 Catch the bus back from Nambu Bus Terminal to Songtan Bus Terminal = 4,100 won
We are tired so we nap on the way home.
TOTAL SPENT: 85,000 won per person
I feel quite happy with that. It was my ideal weekend. I ate everything I wanted to eat. Chilled with my friends. Didn’t have to drive. Got some naps on the bus. Highly recommend this kind of lazy weekend.
Lanae Rivers-Woods moved to Korea in 2011 where she lives in the countryside with her family, friends, and puppies. She holds a BSSW (Bachelor’s of Science in Social Work), a MAIT (Master’s of Arts in International Teaching), and registered by the Pyeongtaek Korean Times with the Korean government as a Cultural Expert.
Ms. Rivers-Woods used her 15 years experience as a social architect, UX/UI designer, and technology consultant to found South of Seoul in 2015. South of Seoul is a volunteer organization that leverages technological tools to mitigate cultural dissonance in multi-cultural communities.
Through South of Seoul, Ms. Rivers-Woods works with independent volunteers, non-profit organizations, businesses, local & federal government, universities, and US military organizations to develop solutions to support English speaking international residents in rural South Korea.
Additionally, Ms. Rivers-Woods founded the South of Seoul smart phone app available for Google Play and iPhone. The app provides information a resources for those living and traveling in South Korea.
When she isn’t in South of Seoul development meetings or working her day job, Ms. Rivers-Woods loves to be outside at skate parks, the beach, or playing in the mountains.
