3 Nights in Seoul: Maps, Drone Parks, and the One-Drink Rule

In Seoul, a restaurant full of aquariums wouldn't sell me a few cakes unless I also ordered a drink I didn't want. That, and Google Maps being unable to give walking directions in 2026, were the two things about South Korea — my 84th country — that I didn't see coming. Everything else in our 2 full days was easy to like: the most comfortable bus of my life, a stone bathtub, Seoul from almost 500 meters up, and the golden Gangnam Style hands at COEX.

South Korea has about 51 million people, and roughly half of them live in and around Seoul, which the Han River splits into north and south. Fun fact: "Gangnam" literally means "south of the river". PSY's Gangnam Style, a satire of that district's lifestyle, became the first YouTube video to hit 1 billion views in December 2012.

We came from Taipei as part of our month-long Asia trip. As a Ukrainian passport holder, I needed a proper visa for this one — details in the practical notes at the end.

#Incheon Airport to Seoul by limousine bus

Our flight landed at Incheon at 21:45, and we took an airport limousine bus into the city. It was the most comfortable bus I've ever been on: the seats reclined almost flat.

Our apartment was near Hwagok station in western Seoul, 5 stops from Gimpo Airport on Line 5 — handy for our morning flight to Osaka 3 days later. Its highlight was a huge bathtub made of stone. It took 30 minutes to fill. We filled it anyway :)

#Why Google Maps doesn't give walking directions in Korea

After China, where Google doesn't work without a workaround, Korea's internet felt free — nothing blocked. And yet Google Maps was half-broken. Places showed up, some outdated or missing, but it couldn't route us on foot. For Europeans who use Google for everything, that's a bigger deal than it sounds. (Yes, I still use it, even after Google deleted 10 years of my Location History.)

The reason is a law, not a bug. Korea restricts exporting detailed map data, citing national security — the Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. Google asked for the data in 2007 and in 2016 and was rejected both times. After a third request in 2025, the government approved it in February 2026 — 1:5,000-scale data under strict conditions: processing on servers in Korea run by a local partner, military and sensitive facilities blurred, and the right to revoke the approval. When we visited in August, walking directions still didn't work for us.

So we switched to Naver Map, and it did the job.

#The one-drink-per-person rule in Korean cafes

This one I found much harder to accept. In about three places in Seoul, ordering a drink was mandatory for every person. The most memorable was a restaurant full of aquariums and fish, somewhere inside Lotte World — I never pinned down exactly where. I just wanted a few cakes, nothing else, and was told a drink per person is the policy — a minimum order. I could have bought $100 worth of cakes and would still have had to add a drink. I was upset, honestly a bit angry. In my personal opinion, it's unacceptable to force a paying customer to buy something they don't want.

The rule is common enough to have its own sign: 1인 1음료, "one person, one drink". Korean cafe guides explain it as paying for your seat — owners don't want one Americano holding a table for hours. Some places reportedly accept a dessert instead of a drink; ours didn't. I get the logic. I still think cakes should count :)

My impression was also that eating and drinking are more separated in Korea than I'm used to: you eat in one place and go somewhere else for coffee. I might be wrong — 2 days is not a study.

#Gyeongbokgung and the changing of the guard

Gyeongbokgung, the largest of Seoul's five Joseon-era palaces, sits in the middle of downtown, with glass office towers right behind its walls. We caught the royal guard-changing ceremony in front of Gwanghwamun, the main gate: drums, banners and guards in bright red, blue and green robes, watched by a crowd with phones up.

Inside the grounds, the five-story pagoda of the National Folk Museum of Korea made the best backdrop of the day.

#Gangnam, COEX and Starfield Library

We spent a day with my friend Stefan. That's his nickname for Ukrainians — his Korean name is hard for us to pronounce. He showed us around Gangnam, and only then did I learn the song was really about this district. Outside COEX there's even a monument to it: two giant golden hands in the horse-riding dance pose. The 5-meter bronze sculpture was unveiled in 2016 and is designed to light up and play the song when its sensors detect people nearby.

Inside the COEX mall is the Starfield Library — a free, open reading space in a 2,800 m² atrium with 13-meter bookshelves. Spoiler: many of the "books" up high, where nobody can reach, are reportedly just decorative boxes.

#Seoul Sky at Lotte World Tower before sunset

So much for being tired of towers after Taipei :) Lotte World Tower is the tallest building in Korea — 555 meters, 123 floors — and its Seoul Sky observatory takes the top seven, 117–123, with a glass floor on the 118th. We went up 1–2 hours before sunset, which I'd recommend: daylight views first, golden light later. There's plenty of space to walk around and even places to eat up there; we skipped the food.

#Flying a drone in Seoul

I wanted aerial shots of the Han River and its bridges, and finding out whether that's legal was surprisingly hard. Clear information online was scarce, and a few Redditors said flatly: don't fly in Seoul. Reddit isn't a source of truth, but I decided not to find out the hard way.

The official picture, as far as I can tell: VISITKOREA's drone guide lists airport control zones, parts of downtown Seoul, the DMZ and areas near military facilities as no-fly zones, and says you need permission from the managing agency before flying in parks. Back in 2016, Seoul's city government put it more bluntly: the north bank of the Han is a no-fly zone, and most of the south bank is restricted airspace.

The legal option is the Hangang Drone Park in Gwangnaru Hangang Park, between the Gangdongdaegyo and Jamsilcheolgyo bridges. It's one of 3 designated drone parks in Korea where you can fly without prior approval — in practice, just a public park for flying drones. According to the city, you book a free slot online and check in at the information center, and it's open 8:00–18:00 from April to September.

I didn't book ahead. I got there, guided by Google Maps, in what I thought was the last opening hour — and found out the park had actually closed two hours earlier. Google Maps being wrong about Korea again, same as with the walking directions.

#Is Seoul worth visiting?

Yes. Seoul impressed me a little less than Japan, which became the highlight of the whole trip (more in my Kyoto and Tokyo post), but more than the other countries on this trip. It's a very advanced city, and — as I wrote on Instagram — beautiful and diverse. It also didn't feel more expensive than Warsaw.

#Practical Notes

• Visa: at the time of writing, Ukrainian citizens aren't visa-exempt for Korea, so K-ETA isn't an option. I applied in person at the Korean embassy in Warsaw for a C-3-9 short-term tourist visa — and unlike the other visas for this trip, it came without a sticker in the passport.
• Fill in the free e-Arrival Card online up to 3 days before landing. Skip the paid lookalike sites.
• Airport Limousine lists 17,000 KRW from Incheon to downtown Seoul. Buy at the airport booths or kiosks, or pay on board with cash or T-money — not a bank card.
• Cafes: expect one drink per person. If you only want dessert, ask before you sit down.
• Drones: Hangang Drone Park (Gwangnaru) is the one spot where you can fly without prior approval, open 8:00–18:00 April to September — check the current hours before you go, ours had closed early. For anywhere else, zones and flight approvals are on the Drone One-Stop portal.
• Sockets are Type C/F at 220 V, so European plugs fit without an adapter.
• An Airalo eSIM worked without issues, same as in Taiwan.

On August 14 we took the 8:10 flight from Gimpo to Osaka and went on to Kyoto. Google Maps got the last word at the drone park. I'm still not over that drink :)