I only saw Hongdae in snippets when I tried to recall my time visiting the famed district in Seoul for almost a decade. But I remember having a good time there. So when Fafa suggested staying in Hongdae for the second leg of our Korea trip, I agreed.
I also remember eating fried chicken and getting drunk on soju one night with my best friends there. A snippet of memory that I will forever cherish. And I wanted to relive it again, this time with Fafa.
Our stay in Hongdae turned out to be one of the highlights of the recent Korea trip; we liked it even more than Myeongdeong.
RYSE, Autograph Collection
Firstly, I think it was because of the hotel. We booked the Ryse hotel months in advance and got a good deal. It was topped up with an upgrade to a higher floor after Fafa told them it was our anniversary. He wasn’t lying, but I was still surprised he mentioned it because those moves had always been mine, never his.
We ended up getting a room with a floor to ceiling windows overlooking Hongdae. We never closed the window, greeted morning and night by the breathtaking Seoul city skyline.
Dining and Drinking in Hongdae
Then – and I believe this is even more important than the hotel stay – the endless choice of scrumptious food. There were more food choices in Hongdae compared to Myeongdeong. At least the ones with less than 15 minutes que because this body wasn’t built to stand still in -15 degrees weather for a long time. We had K-bbq, Dakgalbi, Dakbal (twice), Korean fried chicken (thrice) and at Ssada Gimbab (also thrice) while staying in Hongdae. Everything was absolutely delicious.
Then there were plenty of coffee shops, including a few Starbucks and one Starbucks Reserve for a short stop in between shopping.
Shopping in Hongdae
Yes, shopping is another reason why Hongdae is a good choice to stay at during your trip to Korea, even for someone who’s not that into shopping like me. I ended up buying a plastic bag full of K-Beauty products from Olive Young and an edgy oversized jacket from Aland that Fafa has been dying to borrow.
I also got Fafa and myself a matchy Hongdae-Seoul exclusive Nike sweatshirt as an anniversary gift.
Then there are other smaller-ish reasons why our stay in Hongdae was memorable. There were plenty of bus routes if you prefer to take the bus instead of the train, like us. The central location.
Though not as many as in Myeongdoeng, there was a variety of street food to snack on continuously. Then there were street performances, Saju-Tarot reading and everything in between.
My favourite, though, was the never-ending photobooth stores, including a free one inside Nike Hongdae.
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