Seoul With Kids Guide: What Really Works (And What Does Not)

Seoul is a city that has given our family two completely different travel stories.

The first time we went, I was two months postpartum. We had a two month old baby, the kind of trip that looked completely reasonable on paper and turned out to involve a diaper scavenger hunt across multiple Korean stores that I now tell with the retrospective laughter of someone who has been through it and out the other side. The second time, we had a toddler and a six-year-old, we were better prepared, and Seoul revealed itself to be one of the most extraordinary family travel experiences we have had anywhere in the world.

Both trips taught us something essential. This guide covers both of them; the challenges, the wins, the things we learned the hard way, and the things that Seoul does for families that genuinely made us emotional in the best possible way.

Start with the honest version first. That is always the best version.

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Navigate to where you want to go:

• Why Seoul is One of the Most Family-Friendly Cities in the World
• Trip One: Seoul with a Two Month Old — The Honest Account
• The Diaper Story (And What It Taught Us)
• The Nursing Lounge Experience: What Seoul Does That the US Simply Does Not
• A Note From a Postpartum Perspective
• Trip Two: Seoul with a Toddler and a Six-Year-Old — So Much Easier
• Where to Stay: Gangnam vs Yongsan District
• Getting Around Seoul with Kids
• Where to Get Everything You Need: Lotte Mart Zettaplex
• Things We Explored: Our Full Seoul Attractions Guide
  • Myeongdong: Street Food, Night Market & A Mama Spa Day
  • Gyeongbokgung Palace with Kids
  • Lotte World, Lotte World Mall & Lotte Aquarium
  • COEX Mall, Starfield Library & Bongeunsa Temple
• Food in Seoul with Kids
• Practical Tips for Families Visiting Seoul
• Final Thoughts

Why Seoul is One of the Most Family-Friendly Cities in the World

Before we get into the specifics of our trips, I want to make a statement that our experience across two visits has given me full confidence in: Seoul is one of the most family-friendly cities on this planet.

Not in the theme-park, built-for-children way. In the infrastructure-is-extraordinary, culture-genuinely-welcomes-families, the-kindness-of-strangers-will-disarm-you way.

We are talking about nursing lounges in department stores and malls that put every single public space in the United States to shame. A metro system with elevators at major stations and designated stroller areas. Hypermarkets the size of small towns stocked with every baby supply you could possibly need. A culture that treats the presence of children in public as completely normal — welcome, even — rather than something to be managed and minimized.

The city also has an energy that is genuinely thrilling at every age. The neon lights of Myeongdong, the grandeur of Gyeongbokgung Palace, the jaw-dropping scale of Lotte World, the unexpected calm of Bongeunsa Temple sitting right next to Asia’s largest underground mall. Seoul contains multitudes, and families who visit with open eyes leave completely smitten.

We did. Twice.

Trip One: Seoul with a Two Month Old — The Honest Account

Our first Seoul trip happened when Lucian was two months old. I was two months postpartum, navigating a new city, a new baby, and the specific kind of traveling-parent exhaustion that only people who have done it understand.

I want to be honest about this trip because I think there is enormous value in the real account, not the polished version. It was challenging in ways we did not fully anticipate. It was also remarkable in ways we did not expect. Both things are true simultaneously, and both are worth telling.

The challenges centered almost entirely on one thing: diapers that fit our two month old.

The Diaper Story (And What It Taught Us)

This is the story I tell most when people ask about our first Seoul trip, because it captures something true about the experience of international travel with a very young infant. And the gap between what you plan for and what you actually encounter.

Lucian was in newborn-sized diapers. We ran low. We went to a store to restock. The diapers there did not fit him. Korean newborn sizing runs differently from US sizing, and the smallest sizes available at the stores we tried were simply too large for our two month old. We went to another store. Same situation. A third. A fourth.

By the fourth store, the stress was real. Anyone who has been in the position of running low on the correct size diaper for a very young baby in a foreign country, without the language to explain the problem or the local knowledge of where to go next, understands exactly the particular quality of that stress.

And then something happened that I still think about.

In one of the stores we visited, a Korean woman noticed us (two clearly stressed foreign parents going through diaper packages and looking increasingly defeated). She came over and asked, in careful, broken English, if we needed help. We tried to explain the situation. She pulled out her phone. We pulled out ours. Through Google Translate, back and forth, we communicated what we needed: a specific, smaller size that we had not been able to find.

She picked up her phone and called a friend. Not to ask a general question, but to call a friend who owned another grocery store nearby and ask if they had the size we needed. In that conversation she had on our behalf, with a complete stranger’s baby’s diaper situation, she confirmed that they did. She gave us the address. She made sure we understood how to get there.

   

We thanked her (inadequately, I think, given what her kindness actually meant to us in that moment) and went to the store she sent us to. The diapers were there.

I have thought about that woman many times since. The instinct to help strangers who were struggling, the generosity of going beyond what anyone would have expected of her, the warmth of someone who saw a family in need and simply did something about it. That is not a Korean stereotype. It is a specific person who did a specific kind thing. But it also reflects something true about the quality of human interaction we have consistently experienced in Seoul.

What we learned from this, and what we want every family to know:

Korean newborn and infant diaper sizing can run differently from US sizing. If you are traveling to Seoul with a very young baby, particularly under three months, pack enough diapers from home to cover your entire trip, or bring a sufficient buffer and research in advance where to source the specific size you need. The place we eventually found everything on our second trip was Lotte Mart Zettaplex, the hypermarket near Seoul Station, which stocks the widest range of baby supplies we found in the city. More on that below.

For older babies and toddlers, this is genuinely not an issue. Standard sizes are widely available at many stores.

The Nursing Lounge Experience: What Seoul Does That the US Simply Does Not

Here is the other side of our first Seoul trip. This is the side that made me feel more supported as a new mother than I have felt in most public spaces in my own country.

The nursing lounges in Seoul’s department stores and shopping malls are not what you picture when you hear the phrase “nursing room.” They are not a single fold-down chair in a bathroom corner. Or a curtained alcove in the back of a store. They are dedicated, staffed, beautifully designed rooms. Literal lounges, that provide everything a nursing or bottle-feeding mother needs in a single, in a thoughtfully equipped space.

What we found in Seoul’s nursing lounges:

Private nursing areas with cushioned chairs, nursing pillows with disposable covers, and soft lighting designed for comfort and privacy. Full kitchen-style preparation areas with microwaves, hot water dispensers, UV sterilizers, bottle warmers, and baby washing products. Multiple diaper changing stations. Not just one, multiple, that were clean and well-stocked. High chairs for older babies who are eating solids. In some locations, a small play area for toddlers. At the better department store locations, a staff member stationed at the entrance to greet you, assist you, and ensure the space is sanitized between uses.

These facilities are located in department stores, major shopping malls, larger subway stations, and at Incheon International Airport. By the way the airport nursing rooms there are among the best-equipped we have encountered in any airport worldwide.

Coming from the United States, where nursing in public can still feel fraught with anxiety, where changing tables are sometimes in men’s rooms but not women’s rooms or vice versa, where the best you often hope for is a clean single-occupancy bathroom, the Seoul nursing lounge experience felt like a revelation.

I used these spaces throughout our first trip with Lucian, and each time I walked into one I felt the same thing: this is what it looks like when a society decides that supporting mothers and babies in public is simply what you do. Not a special accommodation. Not a minimum compliance gesture. A genuine, thoughtful infrastructure built around the real needs of real families and mothers.

It made a difficult trip significantly more manageable. And it made me genuinely emotional more than once (not blaming my postpartum mind on this either!).

A Note From a Postpartum Perspective

I want to speak directly to any mom reading this who is considering traveling postpartum, or who is wondering whether Seoul is manageable with a very young baby.

The honest answer is: it is more challenging than traveling with an older baby or toddler, for reasons that are largely specific to the newborn stage rather than to Seoul itself. The feeding schedule, the sleep needs, the equipment required are the layers of logistical complexity that does not exist later.

But Seoul, specifically, is one of the most supportive cities I have experienced as a postpartum traveling mother. The nursing lounge infrastructure removes one of the biggest anxieties of public life with a newborn. The culture’s genuine welcome of babies and young children removes the social anxiety that can make public spaces feel hostile to new mothers in some countries. The food is incredible and largely accessible even with hands that are often occupied with a baby.

If you are postpartum and considering Seoul: go. Go prepared (pack your diapers, know your Lotte Mart Zettaplex), go knowing it will be more work than a pre-baby trip, and go knowing that the city will meet you with far more support than you might expect.

And if you encounter someone in a store who asks if you need help — let them.

Trip Two: Seoul with a Toddler and a Six-Year-Old (So Much Easier)

Our second Seoul trip, with Maximus at six years old and a toddler-aged Lucian, was a completely different experience.

Not because Seoul had changed, although it always has something new to offer, but because we had changed. We were more prepared and familiar with the city. Having done more research (including reading other parents’ accounts that confirmed our first-trip diaper experience was not unique to us) also immensely helped. We knew where to go, what to bring, and how to pace the days around our kids’ needs.

The verdict: Seoul with older children is even more extraordinary.

The city is endlessly stimulating for kids at every age and interest level. Maximus, who at six had strong opinions about everything and energy to match, was utterly captivated. He was in awe of the scale of Lotte World, by the palace guards in their traditional uniforms at Gyeongbokgung, by the street food at Myeongdong’s night market, and by the sheer spectacle of a city that never seems to fully switch off. Lucian, as a toddler, was delighted by everything from a different perspective including all of the lights, the movement, the food and the people.

We left already planning the next trip.

Where to Stay: Gangnam vs Yongsan District

We have stayed in two different Seoul neighborhoods across our two trips. Gangnam on the first, Yongsan District on the second. Both areas gave us very different experiences of the city.

Gangnam

Gangnam is Seoul’s most glamorous district. It’s the one that, as the song suggests, has a very specific energy. Sleek, modern, affluent, commercially dense. The COEX Mall complex is here. Lotte World is here. Bongeunsa Temple, sitting incongruously calm between Gangnam’s glass towers, is here. For a family wanting to be at the center of Seoul’s contemporary scene with maximum access to shopping, dining, and major attractions, Gangnam delivers completely.

The everyday conveniences are excellent. You have access to pharmacies, supermarkets, restaurants at every price point, and public transport connections that get you anywhere in the city efficiently. On our first trip, with a two month old who needed regular access to supplies and quiet, Gangnam’s density of convenience was genuinely valuable.

Yongsan District

Our second trip, and our preference going forward, is Yongsan District. Located roughly between Gangnam and the older northern districts of Seoul, Yongsan has a slightly different character. This area is still very well-equipped with everyday conveniences, still excellent public transport connections, but with a somewhat more varied and interesting neighborhood feel than Gangnam’s polished commercial uniformity.

We stayed in an Airbnb in Yongsan and loved it. The space, the kitchen, the ability to be in a genuinely residential neighborhood while still being well-connected to everything Seoul has to offer was an ideal situation. This is our preferred setup in any city and Yongsan delivered it entirely.

Yongsan is also conveniently positioned for the Lotte Mart Zettaplex at Seoul Station. A known resource that, after our first-trip diaper experience, we now consider an essential early stop on any Seoul trip with young children.

Our recommendation:

For first-time families, Gangnam puts you close to several of the major attractions and has excellent infrastructure. For returning visitors or families who want a more local feel with equal convenience, Yongsan District, and specifically an Airbnb with a kitchen, is our preference and likely will be on every future Seoul trip.

Getting Around Seoul with Kids

Seoul has two primary transport options for families and both are genuinely good.

The Seoul Metro

Seoul’s metro system is one of the best urban rail networks in the world. It’s clean, frequent, air-conditioned, and very well-signposted in both Korean and English. For families, the metro is usually the most efficient way to move between neighborhoods, and the major stations on tourist routes have elevators and accessible gates that accommodate strollers.

A T-Money card (Seoul’s reusable transit card, available at any convenience store or station) covers metro, buses, and some other transport. Tap in, tap out. Children under 6 ride free. For older children, a child fare applies at approximately half the adult rate. You can advise that the T-Money card you’re purchasing is for a child, and the convenience store attendant will update that on the card, so you are only charged the reduced child’s rate.

Rush hour (approximately 7:30–9:30am and 5:30–8pm) is extremely crowded on major lines. With a stroller and young children, avoid these windows where possible. If you must travel during rush hour, have your carrier ready as a backup.

Uber (and Kakao T)

Uber operates in Seoul and is our reliable backup for tired evenings, airport journeys, trips with significant luggage, and any occasion when the metro feels like more effort than it is worth with a toddler who has hit their limit for the day.

Kakao T is the local equivalent, which is South Korea’s most popular ride-hailing app, and works very well. It requires a Korean phone number to set up, which can be a barrier for short-term visitors, so Uber is generally the more accessible option for tourists.

Both are affordable by Western standards and Seoul’s traffic, while busy, moves well outside peak hours.

Private Airport Transfer

Outside of those two main options to get around Seoul you can also go private. Book prearranged transfers to and from the airport. Sometimes this is the best convenience with young children, while navigation luggage.

Our honest family strategy:

Metro for daytime sightseeing when everyone is fresh and moving efficiently. Uber for mornings with heavy luggage, evenings when the children are done, and any journey that involves a specific destination that is awkward on the metro. Between the two options, we have never felt stuck or limited in Seoul.

Where to Get Everything You Need: Lotte Mart Zettaplex

After the diaper story of our first trip, one of the most important things we did before our second trip was research exactly where to find baby supplies in Seoul. The answer, consistently across every source we could find, was the same: Lotte Mart Zettaplex at Seoul Station.

Lotte Mart Zettaplex is a hypermarket. When they say hypermarket, they mean it. The name itself reflects their philosophy: “Zetta” (suggesting virtually infinite scale) plus “Plex” (a complex, multifaceted space). The tagline is “there is everything you want,” and in our experience, they are not wrong.

The Seoul Station branch is open 10am to midnight (closed on the second and fourth Wednesday of each month), accepts international payment cards, and offers tax refunds for foreign visitors. It stocks everything a family needs: diapers across a full range of sizes including smaller newborn sizes, baby wipes, formula, baby food pouches and snacks, children’s clothing basics, snacks, groceries, household supplies, and far more.

On our second trip, we made Lotte Mart Zettaplex our first proper stop after checking in. We bought what we needed for the whole trip, stocked the Airbnb kitchen, and felt immediately more settled than we had at the equivalent point on our first trip.

Pro tip for families with very young infants:

If you are traveling with a newborn or baby under three months, contact the Lotte Mart Zettaplex customer service desk in advance (or ask your Airbnb host to help you research stock availability). Based on our first-trip experience, having confirmation before you arrive that they have your specific diaper size is worth the small effort. For babies over approximately 4–5 months, standard Korean diaper sizes align more consistently with US sizing.

Location: Next to Seoul Station and accessible directly from the station itself. One of Seoul’s most convenient retail destinations for visitors.

Things We Explored: Our Full Seoul Attractions Guide

Myeongdong: Street Food, Night Market & A Mama Spa Day

Myeongdong is Seoul’s most vibrant shopping and street food district. This district is a densely packed area of main streets and side alleys with K-beauty stores, international brands, street food vendors, and the Myeongdong Night Market that is one of the best family evening experiences in all of Seoul.

The Night Market runs along the main Myeongdong street in the evenings and is exactly what a night market should be for a family: neon-lit, K-pop soundtracked, and lined with stalls selling food that kids will enthusiastically eat. Dumplings, skewers, sweet hotteok pancakes, tteokbokki (which are spicy rice cakes), corn dogs coated in potato chunks, and fresh fruit on sticks. The whole thing is sensory and joyful and completely manageable even with young children because it is largely pedestrianized and well-lit. Maximus thought the entire night market was assembled specifically for his enjoyment. No harm in letting the boy dream.

The Mama Spa Day: Myeongdong is also home to some of Seoul’s best and most accessible spa and beauty experiences. During our second trip, I took an afternoon for myself and had a genuine mama self-care afternoon in Myeongdong’s spa scene. The skin care and beauty culture in Korea is extraordinary, and an afternoon facial or treatment in Myeongdong is both an excellent experience and remarkably affordable compared to equivalent treatments in the US. I came out genuinely restored. I recommend it to every traveling mother without reservation.

Myeongdong is approximately 30–40 minutes from Yongsan District on the metro (Line 4 to Myeongdong Station), and very straightforward to navigate. Taking an Uber is even less time!

Gyeongbokgung Palace with Kids

Gyeongbokgung Palace is Seoul’s largest and most iconic royal palace. It is the main palace of the Joseon Dynasty, built in 1395 and restored magnificently after its destruction during the Japanese colonial period. The palace sits in the northern part of the city against a backdrop of mountains that gives the whole scene a cinematic feel.

For families, it works beautifully because the scale is genuinely impressive for kids at a very visual level. The enormous gates, the ceremonial courtyards, the uniformed royal guards all create interesting points to admire. Another plus is that the grounds are flat and completely accessible with a stroller.

The Changing of the Guard ceremony

The ceremony happens at 10am and 2pm at the main Gwanghwamun Gate and is an extraordinary spectacle: traditional royal guard uniforms in vivid colors, precise ceremonial movement, drumming. Even the smallest children respond to it. Build your visit timing around catching this.

Hanbok rental

Right outside the palace gates, you will find numerous rental shops offering traditional Korean hanbok clothing for all ages, including toddler and child sizes. Wearing hanbok grants free entry to the palace grounds and, more importantly, produces the most joyful family photos of your entire Seoul trip.

The National Folk Museum

The museum is located within the palace grounds and is free to enter. It’s worth a walk-through for its accessible presentation of Korean history and culture, and it has a dedicated children’s museum section.

Practical notes: Arrive early (the palace opens at 9am) to beat the tour groups. The walk from Gyeongbokgung Station on Line 3 is direct and flat. The nursing room within the palace grounds is clean and functional.

Lotte World, Lotte World Mall & Lotte Aquarium

The Lotte complex in Jamsil is one of Seoul’s great family destinations. It is genuinely big enough to anchor a full day or more.

Lotte World Adventure

Lotte World Adventure is South Korea’s largest indoor theme park and one of the most impressive theme park experiences in Asia. It’s a massive complex featuring both an indoor park (Lotte World Adventure) and an outdoor section (Magic Island) on a lake. The indoor section is weather-proof and genuinely spectacular: rides, parade performances, ice skating, a folk museum, and a scale and design quality that competes with any theme park we have visited globally. During our stay, there was an air quality warning one day and it made visiting Lotte World Adventure that much more appealing.

For families with young children: the park has dedicated areas for younger kids, a nursing room within the facility, stroller rental available on-site, and a range of rides that cover all age groups from toddlers to adults. Baby-wearing is not prohibited, but the carriers need to meet certain safety specifications for specific attractions. You can check at each ride entrance.

A very honest note: Lotte World gets crowded, particularly on weekends and Korean school holidays. We recommend a weekday visit. Download the Lotte World app before you go to check wait times and plan your must-do rides. Book your tickets in advance here.

Lotte World Mall

The mall is connected directly to the theme park and is one of Seoul’s premier shopping destinations across multiple floors. Excellent food court, international brands, Korean fashion, and the kind of comprehensive mall experience that Seoul does particularly well. Good rainy day plan or end-of-park-day addition.

Lotte World Aquarium

(SEA LIFE COEX Aquarium is a separate aquarium at COEX — Lotte has its own) is located within the Lotte complex and houses over 600 species of aquatic life. The touch zone is always a hit with toddlers and the displays are well-presented for children. Nursing room and stroller access are available throughout. Since Maximus is a sealife enthusiast, this stop was a hit for him!

COEX Mall, Starfield Library & Bongeunsa Temple

This cluster in Gangnam is one of our favourite Seoul half-days and connects three very different experiences within a five-minute walk of each other.

Starfield COEX Mall

Starfield is officially the largest underground shopping mall in Asia. It houses 165,000 square meters of shops, restaurants, an aquarium, cinema, and the Starfield Library, all underground and therefore completely weather-proof. With over 300 brands and more than 100 restaurants, it functions as an entire neighborhood under a single roof. For families with children, the food options across multiple price points, the contained and navigable layout, and the sheer variety of things to do make it a reliable go-to for any day when you want convenience and coverage in one place.

The Starfield Library

This library is the visual centerpiece of COEX and one of Seoul’s most photographed spaces, towering 13-meter bookshelves visible from far down the main corridor, filled with over 50,000 books, with reading areas, tables with power outlets, and a quality of designed calm that is genuinely beautiful in the middle of a busy mall. Entry is free. It is technically a bookstore rather than a library (you can browse but cannot borrow), but the experience of standing at the base of those shelves is remarkable. Even Maximus went quiet for a moment admiring the sheer amount of books.

Bongeunsa Temple

The temple sits a five-minute walk from COEX and provides a complete atmospheric contrast that makes the combination of the two genuinely memorable. Founded in 794 CE, Bongeunsa is a functioning Buddhist temple in the middle of Gangnam’s glass towers. A truly remarkable encounter between ancient and contemporary Seoul that captures something essential about the city’s character. The centerpiece is a 23-meter standing stone statue of Maitreya (the Buddha of the Future), one of the tallest stone statues in Korea. The temple grounds are peaceful, beautiful, and completely free to enter. Older children who have any curiosity about religion, history, or architecture will find it genuinely compelling. Younger toddlers will find the incense smell interesting and the wide stone paths good for practicing their walking.

The combination of Bongeunsa and COEX in a single morning, all within ten minutes of each other, is the Seoul experience in miniature.

The Gangnam Sculpture Area

Nearby you’ll find an outdoor public art installation in the Gangnam district with large-scale sculptures. This area makes for good photos and give kids something to interact with between mall and temple.

Food in Seoul with Kids

Seoul is one of the great food cities in the world, and the best news for families is that Korean food is extraordinarily approachable for children at most ages.

Tteokbokki

Spicy rice cakes in gochujang sauce, found everywhere from Myeongdong street stalls to sit-down restaurants. Let the kids try a bite before committing to a full portion; the spice level varies significantly between vendors.

Korean fried chicken

Seoul’s fried chicken is genuinely extraordinary. Crispy, seasoned, often available in half-and-half original and yangnyeom (sweet and spicy) options. Kids universally love it. Delivery apps in Seoul make this a very viable option for hotel or Airbnb evenings when everyone is done with restaurants.

Bibimbap

A rice bowl with mixed vegetables, egg, and gochujang sauce on the side. Endlessly customizable and visually engaging for kids. Bibimbap is one of the most reliably safe bets for young eaters who need something gentle and familiar.

Korean BBQ

Delicious, meaty, and beloved by children at every age. Most Korean BBQ restaurants have table grills built into the counter, and the process of cooking together is both engaging and a genuinely cultural experience. Many restaurants are family-friendly at lunch; evenings can trend toward adult-focused atmospheres at some locations.

Convenience stores

CU, GS25, and 7-Eleven are on virtually every corner and stock the Korean equivalent of what we found in Japan: excellent prepared food at very low prices. Kimbap (rice rolls), onigiri, egg sandwiches, fresh fruit, and hot items from the warmer section are all reliable and child-friendly. On low-energy evenings, a convenience store dinner in the Airbnb with good Korean snacks is genuinely satisfying.

Delivery apps

Coupang Eats and Baemin are South Korea’s primary food delivery apps. With an international credit card and Google Translate, they are navigable and give you access to Seoul’s extraordinary restaurant scene from your accommodation on the nights when going out is not happening. We used this on evenings when jet lag had claimed the children early and we still wanted proper Korean food. Baemin in particular is our favorite.

Practical Tips for Families Visiting Seoul

Diapers for newborns and very young infants

Pack sufficient supply from home or plan your Lotte Mart Zettaplex visit as your first day stop. Korean sizing for very small babies (under 3 months) can differ from US sizing. This is the most important practical tip in this entire guide for families traveling with young infants.

Google Translate with Korean downloaded offline

Download the Korean language pack before you leave home. The camera translation feature (point at any sign, menu, or label) is essential throughout the trip and works offline. It is also, as our first trip demonstrated, a genuine lifeline for human connection when language is a barrier. The kindness of that woman in the store was possible because both of us had a translation tool in our pockets.

T-Money card for every adult

Pick up at any convenience store or subway station on arrival. Load with sufficient credit and tap for every metro and bus journey. Contactless international bank cards now also work on Seoul’s transport system if you forget or prefer not to carry the card.

Avoid metro rush hour with strollers

The Seoul metro is excellent but intensely crowded during morning (7:30–9:30am) and evening (5:30–8pm) peak periods. Plan sightseeing starts that avoid these windows or have a carrier ready as backup.

The nursing rooms in department stores are your ally

Particularly for nursing mothers and families with babies who need feeding and changing throughout the day. Look for the family floor in any major department store (Shinsegae, Lotte, Hyundai) and use these rooms without hesitation. They are genuinely excellent. The department store nursing rooms are better equipped than the subway station ones, which can be variable in quality.

Google Maps navigation does not work here

You will want to download the KakaoMap app for your navigation needs. You can still pull up locations in Google Maps and then copy/paste the Korean destination name into the KakaoMap app.

Uber and Kakao T both work

For families, Uber is generally more accessible (no Korean phone number required). Keep both apps downloaded and switch if one has higher surge pricing.

Lotte Mart Zettaplex is closed on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of each month

Plan your big supply run around this if you’re in need of specific baby items.

Korean culture genuinely welcomes children

Do not stress about your kids in restaurants, on public transport, or in public spaces. Strangers will smile at your children. Waitstaff will engage them. The general cultural attitude toward babies and young children in public is warm and accommodating. You will feel this from the very first day.

Unsure of what to pack? Check out our Travel with Kids Essentials list on our Amazon Storefront.

Final Thoughts

Seoul has given our family two of its most formative travel experiences. One that tested us in ways we did not see coming, and one that showed us what the city truly is when you arrive more prepared and with older children who can run toward it with open hands.

The diaper story from our first trip is the one we tell most often because it contains everything that international family travel is, compressed into one afternoon: the stress, the problem, the unexpected kindness of a stranger, the resolution, the gratitude. That woman in the store in Seoul did not know she was giving us a story we would carry for years. She was just being kind.

The nursing lounges that made my postpartum experience in Seoul more manageable than I expected still makes me feel something when I think about them. The contrast with what is available to mothers in the United States is stark in a way that should make us all think. Seoul invested in this infrastructure because it decided that mothers and babies deserved to be genuinely supported in public spaces. That decision shows.

And the second trip, where Maximus was in his element at Lotte World Adventure, Lucian eating tteokbokki and making a face that communicated surprise, joy, and the request for more simultaneously. Or the Starfield Library’s towering shelves and the ancient temple five minutes away, the night market lights of Myeongdong and the spa afternoon I gave myself while Steven managed the boys. These are the pieces of Seoul that we are already planning to bring our family back to.

Seoul rewards every return. We will be back.

Questions about Seoul with kids at any age or stage? Drop them in the comments. We love talking through this one in particular. And if you are building a broader Korea and Japan itinerary, check out our Tokyo with Kids Ultimate Guide and our Seoul vs Tokyo with Kids comparison post coming soon.

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