2026/06/30
ADVERTISEMENT
Scenes from Goblin, Squid Game, and Extraordinary Attorney Woo were shot on real Seoul streets you can walk today. This location-by-location guide covers every major filming site — Seoul and beyond — with transit directions and practical details.
Where the Screen Ends and the Street Begins
Somewhere in Seoul right now, a drama crew is probably setting up a shot.
That is not an exaggeration. K-dramas shoot almost entirely on location — real cafés, real bridges, real alleyways. Unlike a Hollywood studio tour, there is no ticket gate between you and the actual set. The set is just the city.
This is what makes K-drama travel different from any other screen tourism. When fans visit the Platform 9¾ barrier at King's Cross in London, they're visiting a prop. When you walk Deoksugung Stone Wall in Seoul, you're walking the same unaltered street where Gong Yoo and Kim Go-eun filmed under autumn leaves.
By 2025, the travel industry had a name for it: set-jetting — booking trips around filming locations from a favorite show. Korea has become one of the top set-jetting destinations in the world, driven almost entirely by streaming.
What follows is a working guide to the sites that are still accessible in 2026, organized by location and show, with everything you need to plan the visit around them.
The Goblin Walk — Deoksugung Stone Wall
Right in the center of Seoul, just outside 덕수궁 (Deoksugung Palace, one of the five grand royal palaces of the Joseon dynasty), a narrow tree-lined path runs along an old stone wall for roughly one kilometer.
It is, by most measures, an unremarkable city walk. Then 도깨비 (Goblin: The Lonely and Great God, 2016–2017) happened.
The drama used the wall's canopied stretch — golden in October, bare and dramatic in November — as the recurring backdrop for the central romance between an immortal goblin and his mortal bride. The scenes were quiet, slow-paced, and flooded with natural autumn light. Korean viewers immediately recognized the street. International fans made it a pilgrimage.
What surprised many first-time visitors is how intact it remains. No commercial overlay, no souvenir stalls, no "filming site" signs in three languages. It's still a sidewalk. Office workers use it as a shortcut. Couples walk it on weekend evenings.
이상한 변호사 우영우 (Extraordinary Attorney Woo, 2022) returned to the same stretch in episode 10, when characters Jun-ho and Young-woo walk it at night. Come in mid-autumn, after 7 p.m., and the overlap between that scene and the actual street is striking.
Getting there: City Hall Station (Seoul Metro Line 2), exit 2. Five-minute walk along the palace wall. Free, no entry required, open at all hours.
900 Hanok Houses on a Hill — Bukchon Hanok Village
Between 경복궁 (Gyeongbokgung Palace) and 창덕궁 (Changdeokgung Palace) in central Seoul, a hillside neighborhood called 북촌 (Bukchon — literally "north village") holds roughly 900 surviving 한옥 (hanok, traditional Korean timber-and-tile houses).
During the Joseon dynasty (1392–1897, roughly contemporary with Tudor through Stuart England), this was where aristocratic 양반 (yangban) families built their homes close to the royal courts. The layout of the streets, the curve of the tile roofs, the rhythm of the alleys — all of it has survived.
For K-drama location scouts, Bukchon is a recurring address. Goblin, 개인의 취향 (Personal Taste, 2010), and 상속자들 (The Heirs, 2013) all used the village's steep alleyways and tile-roofed gates.
The single most photographed spot is Bukchon Hanok Village Alley No. 11 — a rising stone path with a row of hanok walls on both sides and the tile roofs of both palaces visible simultaneously at the crest. The composition is so clean it looks fabricated. It isn't.
The practical reality worth knowing: Bukchon is not a museum. People live here. The alley that appears in your camera roll is also someone's front door. Seoul's city government has posted quiet hours (before 10 a.m., noise levels are especially regulated), and the neighborhood association has asked visitors to speak softly and avoid large group photography in residential sections.
Come before 9 a.m. if you want the alleys to yourself. The light is better anyway.
Getting there: Anguk Station (Seoul Metro Line 3), exit 2. Ten-minute uphill walk. Free to enter. Wear comfortable shoes — the inclines are steeper than they look on maps.
Squid Game's Real Addresses — Tapgol Park and Beyond
오징어 게임 (Squid Game, Season 1, 2021) is the most-watched Netflix series in history. Its filming locations are scattered across Seoul, but two are particularly accessible.
탑골공원 (Tapgol Park, in the Jongno district) is where the recruiter approaches Gi-hun with the fateful slapping game. The park is a pocket of green in a dense neighborhood north of the Han River — surrounded by older apartment buildings and traditional tea houses.
What the drama didn't spotlight is what makes the park worth a longer visit regardless: this is where the 3·1 독립운동 (March 1st Independence Movement of 1919) was declared, when Korean independence activists read the Declaration of Independence to a gathering crowd under Japanese colonial rule. The octagonal pavilion where that happened still stands in the center of the park.
The subway scenes — specifically Gi-hun's commute — were filmed at a platform on the northern branch of Seoul Metro Line 1. The specific station has been identified by location hunters as 쌍문역 (Ssangmun Station), though the set design also composites elements from nearby platforms.
Getting there: Tapgol Park — Jongno 3-ga Station (Lines 1, 3, and 5), exit 1. The park entrance is directly outside. Free, open daily.
The River That Runs Through Every Show — Hangang Park
한강 (the Han River) bisects Seoul east to west for nearly 40 kilometers. Its banks are lined with a continuous chain of riverside parks, and those parks have been a default setting for Korean dramas since at least the 1990s.
이태원 클라쓰 (Itaewon Class, 2020), 웨이트리프팅 요정 김복주 (Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo, 2016), 스물다섯 스물하나 (Twenty-Five Twenty-One, 2022) — the list of shows that have filmed along the river is essentially a catalog of the past decade of Korean TV.
The reason isn't just visual. Han River parks are where Seoul residents actually spend leisure time — cycling, picnicking, watching the lights reflect off the water at night. Dramas use these parks not as landmarks but as shorthand for ordinary life: a couple sitting on a plastic mat with a convenience-store cup of 라면 (ramyeon, instant noodles cooked in a small pot), or sharing 치맥 (chimaek — fried chicken plus 맥주 maekju, beer — a pairing so culturally embedded it has its own compound word).
Both of those rituals are easy to replicate. Most Hangang parks have a GS25 or CU convenience store right on the riverbank where you can buy everything you need.
여의도 한강공원 (Yeouido Hangang Park) is the most accessible and most frequently filmed section. It has the widest green space, the best view of the Seoul skyline, and a ferry dock if you want to cross the river at sunset.
Getting there: National Assembly Station (Seoul Metro Line 9), exit 4. Five-minute walk to the river. Open 365 days, free.
Love Locks and a Citywide View — N Seoul Tower
남산 서울타워 (N Seoul Tower, also called Namsan Tower) sits on the peak of Namsan — a forested hill rising 265 meters above central Seoul. From the observation deck, the Han River, Bukchon, Gangnam's glass towers, and the palace complexes all appear simultaneously.
별에서 온 그대 (My Love From the Star, 2013–2014) and 꽃보다 남자 (Boys Over Flowers, 2009) both used the tower in their most overtly romantic scenes, cementing a tradition that was already growing: couples attaching padlocks to the fence railings around the base as a pledge of permanence. The railings are now dense with them — thousands of locks in every color, some labeled with dates that go back years.
You can bring your own lock or buy one at the gift shop near the cable car station.
The tower is reachable two ways: the 남산 케이블카 (Namsan Cable Car), which runs from the base near Myeongdong, or on foot through the Namsan forested trail (about 30–40 minutes uphill from the cable car base, mostly paved).
Autumn leaf season — roughly late October through mid-November — produces the best light for photographs about an hour before sunset. Summer evenings offer the clearest views of the Han River when the humidity drops after 8 p.m.
Getting there: Myeongdong Station (Seoul Metro Line 4), exit 3. Bus 03 runs directly to the cable car terminal. Cable car is ₩9,000 one way for adults; tower observation deck is separate (approx. ₩21,000 for adults in 2025 — confirm current prices at the ticket booth).
Beyond Seoul — Filming Sites Worth the Trip
Three destinations outside the capital stand out as genuinely worth building into an itinerary.
Jumunjin Beach, Gangwon Province. 주문진 해변 (Jumunjin Beach) sits on the east coast, about three hours from Seoul by train or bus near the city of Gangneung. In Goblin, this is where the female lead stands at the shoreline holding a red scarf, waves breaking behind her. The beach is unremarkable in the best possible way — wide, relatively undeveloped, no large hotels blocking the horizon — which is exactly why it photographs like a drama still. A designated photo zone now marks the approximate filming position. On clear days the light off the East Sea is unusually sharp.
Suwon, Gyeonggi Province. 수원 (Suwon) is 30 minutes south of Seoul by subway, close enough for a half-day. The city holds filming locations from 스물다섯 스물하나 (Twenty-Five Twenty-One), 사랑의 런어웨이 (Lovely Runner, 2024), and 우리의 블루스 (Our Beloved Summer, 2021). 수원 화성 (Suwon Hwaseong Fortress), the UNESCO-listed 18th-century wall that rings the old city center, appears in several scenes and is a legitimate historical site independent of any drama connection.
Jeju Island. 제주도 (Jeju Island), a volcanic island roughly an hour by flight from Seoul, has appeared in dozens of dramas precisely because its landscape doesn't look like the Korean mainland. Crater lakes, columnar basalt sea cliffs, tangerine orchards, and open coastal roads — Boys Over Flowers and 따뜻한 바람 (Warm and Cozy, 2015) both used Jeju's coastline for scenes that needed visual scale. A rental car is more or less essential; public transport on Jeju covers the main towns but not the filming site roads.
Practical Information
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Entry fees | Most outdoor sites (parks, streets, riverside paths) are free. Royal palaces charge approximately ₩3,000 (about $2.20 USD) for adults. |
| Hanbok benefit | Wearing 한복 (hanbok, traditional Korean formal dress) grants free entry to all five grand royal palaces, including Gyeongbokgung. Rental shops cluster near Anguk Station. |
| Transit | T-money card (available at any subway station convenience store) works on all Seoul buses and trains. Load with cash as needed. |
| Navigation apps | 카카오맵 (Kakao Map) and 네이버 지도 (Naver Map) are more accurate than Google Maps within Korea for transit routing and walking directions. Both have English interfaces. |
| Best arrival time | For Bukchon and Gyeongbokgung, arrive before 9 a.m. to beat tour groups. Han River parks are best after 6 p.m. on weekdays. |
| Residential courtesy | Bukchon is a living neighborhood. Noise-sensitive residents have formal protections. Speak at conversation volume, do not block narrow alleys for extended photo sessions. |
Why the Location Never Looks Exactly Like the Scene
Every location visitor has the same experience at some point: standing on the exact spot, and finding it slightly off.
The light is different, or the season is wrong, or the angle the director used isn't physically reachable from the sidewalk. Sometimes a building has changed color. Sometimes there's construction scaffolding where a character stood.
This is not a failure of the location. It is proof that the drama was made with care.
K-dramas treat location the way a cinematographer treats natural light — as something to be read and used, not manufactured. Long takes, wide framing, no artificial sweetening of the space. The location is absorbed into the story rather than dressed to look like something else. That is why, over time, a street begins to feel like a character.
The gap between the filmed version and the real version is part of the experience. You're not there to reconstruct the shot. You're there because something in that scene made you feel something — and that feeling, it turns out, lives in the actual place.
덕수궁 돌담길 in October, with dry leaves skating across the stone path — you don't recall the scene so much as re-enter it. That's the thing about walking these streets rather than watching them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to book in advance to visit K-drama filming locations in Seoul?
For outdoor sites like Deoksugung Stone Wall, Bukchon's alleys, and Hangang Park, no reservation is needed — they are public spaces accessible at any hour. The royal palaces (Gyeongbokgung, Changdeokgung) do not require advance tickets but can sell out on-site during peak seasons, particularly spring and autumn. Purchasing palace tickets through the official Ticketlink or the Korea Tourism Organization portal the evening before your visit avoids the queue. For N Seoul Tower's observation deck, same-day tickets are generally available, but weekend evenings fill quickly during October and November.
How much does a K-drama filming location tour cost in Seoul?
Self-guided visits to outdoor locations are effectively free. Budget ₩3,000 to ₩4,000 (roughly $2.20–$3.00 USD) per royal palace, and approximately ₩21,000 ($15 USD) for N Seoul Tower's observation deck. The Namsan Cable Car costs around ₩9,000 ($6.60) one way. Hanbok rental for a half-day typically runs ₩15,000–₩25,000 ($11–$18) near Anguk Station and includes palace admission. Guided filming location tours through operators like Viator or KKday run approximately $30–$60 USD per person for a four- to six-hour group itinerary.
What's the best time of year to visit K-drama filming locations in Seoul?
Mid-October through mid-November is the peak season for Deoksugung Stone Wall and Bukchon — the golden and red foliage matches the autumn aesthetic that K-dramas rely on heavily. Spring (late March to mid-April) brings cherry blossoms to Yeouido Hangang Park, recreating scenes from Weightlifting Fairy and similar shows. Summer evenings (July–August) work well for Han River park visits after the heat breaks around 7 p.m. Winter, while cold, gives you Bukchon nearly to yourself on weekday mornings and produces the gray, quiet atmosphere used in slower drama episodes.
Can foreigners visit K-drama filming locations without a guide?
Yes, and most experienced K-drama travelers prefer it that way. Every major filming site listed in this guide is reachable by Seoul Metro with a T-money card. Kakao Map and Naver Map both offer English-language routing. For Bukchon specifically, the Seoul city government publishes a free downloadable walking map in English that marks the main alleys and hanok gates. Guided tours are worth considering for filming sites that require driving outside Seoul — Jumunjin Beach in Gangwon Province or scattered Jeju Island locations — where public transit coverage is thin.
What does "chimaek" mean, and where can I have it like in the dramas?
치맥 (chimaek) is a compound of 치킨 (chikin, Korean-style fried chicken) and 맥주 (maekju, beer). Korean fried chicken differs from American versions in that the pieces are typically double-fried for a thinner, crispier coating and served with pickled radish cubes and two sauce options — soy-garlic and sweet-spicy. The Hangang River parks are the canonical chimaek setting: order delivery to the park through apps like Baemin or Coupang Eats, or pick up from one of the riverside convenience stores. Yeouido Hangang Park has several dedicated fried chicken vendors operating from small kiosks near the water on weekend evenings.
Where outside Seoul can I find major K-drama filming locations?
Jumunjin Beach in Gangwon Province (the Goblin shoreline scene) is three hours from Seoul by intercity bus from Dong Seoul Terminal and is best combined with a visit to Gangneung city. Suwon, 30 minutes south on Seoul Metro Line 1, holds scenes from Twenty-Five Twenty-One and Lovely Runner near the UNESCO-listed Hwaseong Fortress. Jeju Island — roughly an hour by flight from Gimpo Airport — is the most common destination for dramas requiring dramatic coastal landscapes. Nami Island (춘천, Chuncheon) remains a popular day trip for fans of Winter Sonata, though it sits slightly outside the K-drama streaming era.
Is it disrespectful to visit residential filming locations like Bukchon?
Visiting Bukchon is not inherently disrespectful, but behavior matters significantly. The neighborhood receives millions of visitors per year, and overtourism has created real friction with long-term residents. The Seoul Metropolitan Government has installed noise-level signs, and local residents have publicly asked visitors to avoid taking calls at volume, playing drama soundtracks on speakers, or blocking alley entrances for group photography. Coming before 9 a.m. on a weekday minimizes both crowding and impact on residents starting their day. Treating the neighborhood as a living place rather than a set — which it always was — is the standard that earns continued access.
Every street on this list was someone's everyday life before a camera crew arrived. Walking them with that in mind changes what you see.
ADVERTISEMENT