Gay Seoul, South Korea | The Fundamental LGBT Travel Guide!

Gay Seoul is among the planet’s many underestimated vacation places, overlooked constantly for the a lot more well-known eastern Asian next-door neighbors. Better-known for Samsung and governmental tensions with North Korea, there is a thriving queer world here concealed inside basic view – you just need to know where to look!

Busy and entirely obsessed with trend and innovation, the vibrant town of Seoul can profoundly traditional, with tranquil palaces, temples and mountain trails. Skyscrapers overshadow elegant hanbok (standard wood homes), green areas and pattern roads soften commercial difficult sides, and K-Pop tends to be heard blaring on virtually every street place.

Seoulites have too much to end up being pleased with within their 24/7 city – where you can get anything you want, whenever you want – and their gay scene here’s no exception. We want the society most importantly could be more acknowledging…

Southern Korea in general features a much less accepting view of the LGBTQ community than almost all of the rest of Asia – and while the potency of conservatives and Christian fundamentalists wanes gradually, things are nevertheless not where they need to be.

LGBT recognition has, but fast expanded previously decade, particularly in younger years,  courtesy intercontinental impacts, even more queer activities, and a higher existence of neighborhood LGBT society, including –rather notoriously – celeb
Hong Seok-cheon
, being released in public.

Lots of in Korea feel obtained never ever came across a gay person, and is an interest not often talked-about, with political parties preventing conversation of LGBT rights and several people burying their own heads inside sand.

As a customer, you might be incredibly extremely unlikely to see any straight-out discrimination but remember, a lot of queer locals lead double lives and succumb into the overwhelming societal stress to maintain their sex personal.

Southern Korea is unquestionably one of the more traditional countries in Asia, but actually right here, really commercially illegal is discriminated against on such basis as sexual orientation. Nevertheless, lots of members of the LGBT society nevertheless face problems yourself and work, meaning Gay Korea features a considerable ways to visit nonetheless to capture up with its more progressive next-door neighbors – Japan, Taiwan, Thailand and progressively Vietnam.

The homosexual world in Seoul, but is growing every year and has now numerous fabulous queer enjoyable available. Foreign party men interested in combined foreign/local fun should check out the popular Homo Hill in Itaewon, long of homosexual lifestyle, but natives may frequent the central area of Jongno.

Similar to skyscrapers, the bustle of Insadong and street barbecues, there’s really a hidden-in-plain-sight gay world here with pubs, karaoke joints, homosexual hot rooms and cafes than we can easily rely.

Not many tourists actually ever enterprise to Gay Jongno but determine if you are doing that inside the taverns and organizations, you will be welcomed with a smile. Unfortunately, equivalent cannot be said for Seoul’s homosexual hot rooms and cruise organizations scene, which earnestly discriminate against and bar whoever is non-Korean – no matter how acquainted traditions or even the vocabulary you are.

Develop this alterations in tomorrow while having ideas that can help, in this esteem, the homosexual world in Seoul still greatly has many growing doing do.

Nevertheless, with over 10 million folks, Seoul is amongst the greatest towns and cities on the planet and contains one thing for absolutely everyone. Foods, layout, society, record and wild lifestyle – this sprawling area has all of it!

Destinations in Seoul

Obviously, becoming gay will not determine which attractions a lot of us should see in each town, and most queer people only will need to read the leading items to see in Seoul every day!

There’s a great deal to-do right here – but we discovered well known thoughts happened to be roaming through acquiring lost on back-streets, visiting the unusual cafes, hitting-up Lotte business and roaming through concept studios!

One of the best guidelines we could present for discovering Gay Seoul is to pre-order a travel SIM card for easy airport pickup and activation the moment you appear which means you cannot spend tons of money in worldwide roaming costs.

Get restaurants recommendation and bookings regarding fly, public transport instructions up to the minute, club beginning hours, and, in case it is your own thing – the means to access gay hook-up software to find out more regarding the neighborhood world.

Mobile information is fast, cheap and readily available all over the place in Asia, making it no surprise a lot of tourists elect to stay linked and acquire off of the beaten track (without ever fretting about obtaining missing). So just why wait?
Pre-order the very best neighborhood SIM credit now to have it waiting for you once you appear.

Still – it helps to have some notion of the proceedings, so here are the greatest things you can do in Seoul, relating to united states!

Activities to do  in Seoul

Old-fashioned Korean Bathhouse

Not into the homosexual sauna? Uncover an original and family-friendly a portion of the Korean tradition in a wonderfully adorned and conventional Korean-style bathhouse. Relax from a stressful day of sightseeing – or evening or partying – in a traditional pine wood sauna, and luxuriate in the means to access all hot rooms and steam spaces including different salt and minerals treatment options for your epidermis.

For much more luxury, why don’t you treat yourself to a massage, facials or human anatomy scrubs? Although the bathhouse is open 24/7, make sure to book ahead of time any special treatment options to avoid at a disadvantage.

Cheonggyecheon

A landmark of the latest metropolitan repair and ecological restoration, this playground space has a revived / ‘day-lighted’ stream with paths, links & greenery.

Myeong-dong

A diverse shopping & relaxed worldwide dinner destination, the busy Myeong-dong is filled with worldwide manner brands, deluxe department stores, and homegrown cosmetic makeup products stores.

Janet’s Preparing Studio

Collect more than just photographs because of this fabulously unique market trip and standard Korean cooking course with Janet, a Korean chef trained in nyc.

This experience just isn’t about simply ticking off traveler must-dos, but instead explores the real Korea through Janet’s breathtaking food fixation – which shines through whether she is presenting you to vendors in just one of Seoul’s few continuing to be regional road markets or cheerful brightly while disclosing for your requirements how to come up with the most perfect Bulgogi Lettuce Wrap in the woman pro kitchen.

Janet has also worked with the UN to advertise Korean as well as culture – so that you simply learn the woman is genuine! Might keep Seoul with the ability to identify bizarre components in a Korean market and to make some delicious traditional meals – whilst studying the unique reputation for Korea and enjoying Janet’s hot character.

A sort and enjoying heart that is genuinely excited about exactly what she does, we simply cannot recommend Janet’s Cooking Studio highly sufficient.

Fireman Show

A remarkable show of acrobatics & party, this much-acclaimed tv series uses a combination of performance types expressing the pressures to be a fireman. Weird, we know, but you’ll see why whenever you are there.

Monitor amazing acrobatic lifts and flips, and discover more about the necessity of flame safety and consciousness – and being a non-verbal program, its well-suited regarding vocabulary speakers. Feel the affirmative power brought by melodramatic yet comical artists that portray vivacious characters.

Bukchon Hanok Village

A beautiful heritage town with a pleased 600-year history going back to your 14th century. Fill your camera with selfies featuring thin streets layered with restored conventional houses.

Love Museum

a quirky museum of entertaining erotic artwork, this might be Seoul’s first so much merely museum for grownups – but we are sure other people are excitedly becoming prepared. Enjoy physical stories of enthusiasm and desire unfold prior to your eyes, get a chance to try the hand at pole dancing – when you yourself haven’t currently – and find out different moments of newlyweds’ life through entertaining artworks.

You’ll find six-themed galleries, each with a unique interest to help you find – and depend on united states, gay, direct, or unicorn …You will not have seen such a thing like this prior to!

Lotte Globe

No visit to Seoul will be complete without a trip to Korea’s top theme playground, Lotte business! Lotte globe tickets tend to be remarkably discounted exclusively for overseas website visitors, thus never miss the opportunity to visit this fun two-part motif park with outdoor adventure flights and a ‘Magic Island’ castle area.

Throughout the colder months, simply take a coat or enjoy the adrenaline-charged indoor attractions inside the ‘Adventure’ area, plus attend the numerous parades and shows. If you’d like to do more, there was a Lotte globe + Aquarium combo solution to also incorporates a call to the world’s largest sea environment container within Lotte industry Aquarium, featuring over 650 marine species across 13 unique areas.

Jongmyo

A UNESCO World history web site and shrine to Joseon dynasty kings & queens. Ritual ceremonies nonetheless happen at this Confucian shrine focused on Joseon dynasty royals. Nowadays Jongmyo is the perfect escape from the metropolitan hubbub and an intriguing exploring Old Seoul.

Café Onion

Serving post-industrial decay realness, this Uber-hip style cafe in Seongdong-gu is actually how we would picture Chornobyl become if Brooklyn hipsters moved in. Serving cool baked projects and specialization coffee mixes, this area deserves the trip off to find out – if perhaps to comprehend all of your current monochromatic Instagram aspirations.

They also already have a far more conveniently labeled as Café Onion Anguk in Jongno-gu, except in a switched traditional building/temple, in fact it is just as amazing.

Seoul’s Palaces, Temples & Markets

Invest per day sightseeing and ticking off Seoul’s top websites. The President’s pad, Blue residence (or Cheongwadae), the switching in the protections in the spectacular Gyeongbokgung residence and Changdeok Palace and stopping by the nationwide Folk Museum to learn more about Korea’s rich history through the dynasties around the present-day.

In addition not to ever be skipped could be the comforting Jogyesa Buddhist Temple and bargain hunting from the popular Namdaemun Markets.

Korea Rail Pass (KR PASS

)

Find South Korea outside Seoul by taking a trip on over 80 routes and over 600 stations using the Korea Rail Pass. Take unlimited rides on most Korail trains for 3 or 5 consecutive times or any flexible 2 and 4 times with this specific rebate definitely limited for international nationals.

Meerkat & pals

An oh-so-Seoul ‘cafe’ which serves no food and just bottled drinks buts lets you wake up close and personal with semi-tame meerkats, raccoons, wallabies, cats, foxes and more. With locations in Hongdae and Myeongdong, it is touristy and strange, so in retrospect we have been preoccupied!

Discover Seoul Pass

Get effortless access to a combination of 35 top Seoul attractions because of the Take a look at Seoul Pass. Select from 24/48/72 hrs pass in order to take pleasure in discounts and easily modify your Seoul trip with this particular flexible admission solution and transfer card from Seoul Tourism company, specifically offered to foreign vacationers.

ZenKimchi Korean Foods Tours

If you should be like you and making plans for your trip to Korea for your food by yourself, then you’ll definitely wish to prevent the touristy areas/ bad dining encounters and opt for an entirely immersive experience to help make the most of Seoul’s food world.

Thankfully, Joe, who has been working
Korea’s longest-running food blog site, ZenKimchi,
for more than fifteen years, has generated an exclusively crafted concert tour to aid travelers experience actual Korean dinner. To-be obvious, through this, we mean the guy gets no kickbacks from the restaurants and takes you because he’s truly fanatical towards food they serve, unlike much less scrupulous providers…

We plumped for their Korean barbeque trip along with an unforgettable evening finding Korean dining etiquette, savoring a charcoal grilled pork of our life, admiring fulfilling talks with various folks from around the world – and receiving a tiny bit tipsy over a Korean alcoholic drinks class in a key club!

Additionally, it is ideal for some pre-drinking before heading out to Homo Hill, or for solamente tourists who might otherwise find it hard to discover Korean BBQ along these lines.

There can be a variety of tours on offer, but each is operated by passionate experts who have your desires in mind. So, if you wish to move out indeed there and watch Seoul as a regional – whilst having a ridiculous amount of enjoyable, ZenKimchi Korean Food Tours has actually something for you personally.

Gay Annual Events In Seoul

Korea Queer Film Festival (KQFF)

A yearly event in July devoted exclusively to testing homosexual, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer movies. KQFF might presented annually since 2001 making use of the mentioned purpose of promoting assortment in Korean tradition while enhancing LGBT individual rights and recognition.

One of the most vital Asian message boards of worldwide LGBT film/video, while your times correspond if a means to enjoy a very sophisticated amount of gay life in Seoul.

I’M Seoul

Korea’s largest circuit party brand, I WILL BE established in 2015 and it has rapidly come to be probably one of the most well-known circuit events across Asia. Now, I AM consistently encourage a huge selection of homosexual people from across Asia and the entire world to Gay Seoul.

I WILL BE claims three days of club parties, share events and after-parties filled with songs as well as the hottest men. You may expect an unforgettable knowledge about a killer DJ line-up from all over the entire world and very go-go boys on stage. Typically held in August, I AM is actually totally really worth planning a visit about.

Korea Queer Festival Celebration | Pride Parade

Korea’s largest LGBT event, this annual modern-day Korean event, whoever motif is actually LGBT legal rights, has many features, such as a pleasure parade, movie event occasions, art, discussions and nightclub party events.

The event lasts for weekly or two and in most cases happen in late might to very early June. The procession which was prohibited in 2015 lured international awareness of the function, with many of it being important of the development made concerning LGBT legal rights in South Korea.

Again happening, there is certainly now some help from smaller Korean governmental parties and famous people, but significant functions together with federal government at-large take a simple position. Unlike numerous
some other Pride festivals all over the world
, the Seoul Pride Prade actively limits the power of attendees to get photographs or videos and asks photo-takers to blur individuals’ faces before posting pictures using the internet.

This is accomplished to lessen the possibility of accidental trips of individuals who still face considerable discrimination in Korean culture. Whilst the organizers have actually large intentions to grow the big event with the biggest in Asia, Seoul’s Queer society Festival demonstrates in many ways, South Korea is in the rock Age.

120,000 LGBT people openly took part in 2018 – the largest ever – but 200,000 signatures were also gathered to stop the Parade, and many anti-LGBT protestors ended up.

Nevertheless, it is remarkable to see NGOs and companies getting onboard because event grows. In a nation in which modesty around outsiders is paramount and intimate choice is certainly not something you should end up being flaunted, we could merely wish improved presence down the road assists brand-new generations of South Koreans feel comfortable sufficient to be whom they’re.

Gay-Friendly and Gay Resorts in Seoul

Although Korea and Seoul may be much less politically progressive and gay-friendly than, state,
Bangkok
,
Tokyo
or
Taipei
, it’s still secure to think queer travelers will have no problems checking just about any resort in Seoul. Unfortunately, however, there are not any specifically gay motels in Seoul to check on into.

Seoul is a global mega-city with a shortage of room, so space dimensions are smaller than almost everywhere else worldwide – but as a lot of homosexual men know, it isn’t everything about dimensions, but exactly how you use it! We are making reference to layout, functionality and views, darling!

That being said, everybody loves to end up being surrounded by individuals with common passions, and as such, there are some popular gay-friendly hotels in Seoul which are hot spots for homosexual people to keep – either for their area or their own concept and inclusive vibes.

Resorts near Homo Hill, the foreigner-friendly queer enclave in Itaewon, are really popular with homosexual tourists – specifically tourists just who just speak English but Jongno during the Nagwon-dong neighborhood, is in fact the gayest section of Seoul, though very popular with locals than website visitors.

You could also think about residing in the tourist-popular Myeongdong / Seoul main, usually reported to be the center of Seoul or even in the world-famous Gangnam area, a.k.a the ‘Beverly Hills of Seoul.’

This amazing places in Gay Seoul have the ability to had a glowing referral from homosexual travelers in the past, but of course,
you will find hundreds of other motels in Seoul
if they are nearly what you’re looking.

Whether you desire a great and personal hostel, a cheap place to freeze after every night of partying or an ultra-chic designer substitute for drink cocktails and encircle your self with fabulous men and women  – Gay Seoul has one thing for everybody!

Gay-friendly Resorts in Itaewon

Hamilton Resort â˜†â˜†â˜†â˜†

A landmark in Seoul’s Itaewon, this calm lodge in a modest redbrick building is just a minute’s stroll from train station with unfussy spaces, free of charge Wi-Fi and beneficial staff.

You rarely should keep with eight various eating solutions, including a shiny Italian cafe, 2 LGBT-friendly nightclubs, an outside roof pool – favored by peacocking muscle tissue gays-, a 24-hour sauna, a fitness center, and also a tiny shopping center.

Lately refurbished from top-to-bottom nevertheless simply a brief stumble from Homo Hill, HOMPA by Le Queen and Club HIM.

IP Boutique Hotel â˜†â˜†â˜†â˜†

Based in Seoul’s cosmopolitan shopping and enjoyment section, Itaewon, IP Boutique resort, gift suggestions a life style experience for gay friends. Featuring exemplary style and spectacular atmosphere, the resort supplies 133 guestrooms, a café restaurant, and limitless usage of their own well-equipped fitness room.

Outstanding importance, internet protocol address Boutique resort is a brief walk for the definitely Homme homosexual club and Club HIM by Pulse, contributing to the gay appeal.

Resort ITW â˜†â˜†â˜†

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A clean, modern, attractive lodge in Itaewon with costs of the same quality or better than almost every other places in Seoul. We enjoyed it was within convenient taking walks distance associated with homosexual restaurants, bars, and shops which make Itaewon this type of a pulsating and appealing part of Seoul. Hotel ITAW is actually, but up a steep mountain and located on a narrow one-way street and that is challenging after every night of sipping.

Sp@Itaewon Guesthouse â˜†â˜†â˜†

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The most perfect hangout for social traveler with exclusive spaces, inexpensive dorms, and regular BBQ
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