I confess: I’m not into K-pop. I’ve never watched KPop Demon Hunters and, until very recently, I’d never tried a single Korean skincare product. I can say, wholeheartedly, that I’m a big fan of Korean cuisine – but as for visiting South Korea? Taking a pilgrimage halfway across the planet solely to indulge in fried chicken and barbecue seemed, to me, unreasonable.
But a new Virgin Atlantic direct route from Heathrow has transformed the one-time 24-hour slog into a singular 14-hour flight. Thus, I subsequently found myself standing in a pocket of mandated quietude in Seoul’s Bukchon Village, watching visitors shuffle by in traditional dress, as an official silence warden shushed a tour group. I was bemused, but it was immediately clear: Korean culture buff or not, there’s more to Seoul than bouncy earworms, Squid Game and face cream.
In any case, South Korea hardly needs me as a cheerleader. The country is experiencing an unprecedented travel boom, with Western arrivals surging by 17 per cent in early 2026, driving a record 6.77 million foreign visitors in the first four months alone. This interest is fuelled nearly entirely by ‘Hallyu’ – the global Korean Wave – and its diverse cultural exports spanning everything from the Oscar-winning thriller Parasite to snail mucin skincare and humble instant ramen.
Eighty per cent of the country’s tourists head straight to Seoul, the futuristic megacity of 10 million people that still, somehow, feels totally grounded in its 600-year-old dynastic heritage. Sliced down the middle by the glittering Han River, it’s characterised by endless skyscrapers, a weird and wonderful techy undercurrent and an unimaginable number of coffee shops, sitting among ancient pine-forested mountains, winding alleyways and the spaceship-like frame of Zaha Hadid’s Dongdaemun Design Plaza.
It’s these contrasts that I found most striking. The old rubs right up among the new in a breathless, lurching heave. Seoul is twice as densely populated as London, but with no defined centre, it functions more like a constellation of distinct, unique neighbourhoods. There’s Hongdae, the neon-glowing student hub packed with buskers, late-night bars and thoroughly Instagrammable cafes; Seongsu, a once-gritty industrial district of shoe factories, now dubbed the “Brooklyn of Seoul”; and the sleek, luxury enclave Gangnam – made famous, of course, by the 2012 Psy hit Gangnam Style.
But while it looks like a concrete jungle up close, take a wider view and you’ll see that the city is surrounded by a natural fortress of eight mountain ranges. In Seoul, you are never more than a short metro ride away from a peaceful mountain trail. Jetlagged and dazed, I took a mere 20-minute walk from Itaewon’s thick-and-fast tangle to the base of Namsan mountain, where I emerged, to my delight, through a cloud of falling cherry blossoms into the idyllic Outdoor Botanical Garden. Twenty minutes in the opposite direction and you’re leaving the skyscrapers behind again for Namsan Tower, where you can take an scenic hike up 1,000 steps to a reward of mega views and cold Korean beer.
