I'm going to be accompanying my parents to Korea next month,

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>>1293773
Namsam tower is very touristic but nice and not very expansive.

Itaewon for a foreigner clusterfuck of fun and drinking and crazy shit.

Hongdae for General nightlife
Gangnam for general nightlife

There's some cool castles, cafes, and other stuff too.

The markets and traditional village is nice too

>>1293773
Prepare to be underwhelmed

>>1293773
20 days is quite some time for Seoul.
Well, parents friendly sites are for example

The Changdeokgung Palace is a UNESCO site
- http://whc.unesco.org/pg.cfm?cid=31&id_site=816
- https://youtu.be/Y3DwuEq9mRo

as well as the Seoul Tower and the Namsan Park.

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>>1293773
Lived there for a little over a decade, depends on what sort of shit you're into, but here's what I can recommend:

Learn basic Korean phrases, and bow a lot. You're going to have people staring at you, and don't take it the wrong way. Just from being extra polite, strangers will be very impressed and be more inclined to show you the parts of Korea that most people miss.

For tea/coffee, visit 'dabangs' (다방)-they're the ones that aren't chains and are family-owned. Quality stuff for cheap prices. Starbucks is fucking expensive as shit.

Bakeries are good here. Wherever you are, you are bound to come across one. Coffee buns are normie tier but are delicious.

Bap-jips are essentially korean diners. They usually have low tables that you sit on flat cushions. The ban-chans (side dishes) are free/have free refills for the most part, but don't ask for more if you can't finish it. Food at bap-jips are the healthiest.

It's getting cooler so going to Haeundae in Busan might be fun for you! The beaches get crowded but the water's nice this time of year. Busan is notorious for its delicious pork-broth soups (돼지국밥), and any part of the city near the larger universities will have a shit ton of restaurants to choose from.

In terms of fancy food, Busan has the Paradise Hotel's Escoffier Buffet. It's got a sweet selection of fresh sashimi/king crab/steak/etc. Good selection of wines-plus a view of the beach/fountain garden. If my memory serves correct, it's about 60K korean won per person (60 dollars ish)

Any small restaurant near the base of a mountain will be cheap/fun/authentic. Same banchan rules apply. Aside from regular soju's, many will carry their own makkuli (around 20-25 abv opaque sweet rice wine).

Korean grills are expensive. Any place that serves 'American Beef' (frowned upon in Korea) will be cheaper, and any place that serves domestic beef only will be hella expensive. Meat is priced per serving/grams,

>>1293773
>>1294396

Noraebangs are fun, but make sure you don't go to ones that have 'assistants'. The literal translation is 'helper' but they're kind of like whores, essentially. You're going with your parents, so plz.

The Busan Museum of Art always has a killer modern/local artist selection, and their sculpture garden is relaxing, when not occupied by obnoxious schoolchildren on trips. Most of the times you can get audio description thingies.
http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/ATR/SI_EN_3_1_1_1.jsp?cid=1054849

My information is limited to food/legos/busan, but feel free to ask for more info.

>>1294396
>Lived there for a little over a decade
This cant be recent? Half of what you're saying is spot on but the other half is just weird.

>visit 'dabangs' (다방)-they're the ones that aren't chains and are family-owned.
Agreed. Goes with restaurants too. There are decent chains but Korea is great for finding smaller restaurants or family owned businesses (unlike some of its neighbours).

>Bakeries are good here.
It's all sweet and sugar, even normal bread. If you're European chances are you won't like it.

>and bow a lot.
Don't do this, you'll look like an idiot. Supermarket cashiers hands you money with two hands and occasionally nod their heads. Normal people don't do this.

>Aside from regular soju's, many will carry their own makkuli (around 20-25 abv opaque sweet rice wine).
Also recommend makkuli (makgeoli, 막걸리). It's tradition to drink it when it's raining, usually together with kimchi/seafood pancake/omelette. Most cities have restaurants/pubs that are decorated with older type of wood where you drink it from metal bowls.

>'American Beef' (frowned upon in Korea)
Not really.

>Korean grills are expensive.
Not really. You'll get both full and drunk from 20-30 bucks. Should be noted it's rare to go alone to these places and usually sets come prepared with side dishes for more than one person.

Pork is great, try samgyeopsal (삼겹살).

>>1294504
>This cant be recent? Half of what you're saying is spot on but the other half is just weird.
어이, 외국인 시꺄. 니가 한국을 알긴 아냐? ㅎ

If the bread you've been eating is all sweet and sugar, you fell for the Paris Baguette meme. Go to a proper bakery, better yet, a ddeok-jip. Rice cake places are a lot harder to find these days.

>Bow a lot
인사 할줄 모르는구나! I was hoping they'd have common sense to not fucking kowtow in the Home Plus. Even for receiving things and saying thank you/goodbye, it's polite to do a small 15-30 degree bow/nod. Just don't put your hands together like you're in Karate kid.


>https://namu.wiki/w/%EA%B4%91%EC%9A%B0%EB%B3%91%20%EB%85%BC%EB%9E%80
>American Beef
미국산 쇠고기 has had a lot controversy in Korea, and took a while for it to beat Australian beef for amount imported. It still has a bit of stigma around it, and for a country that requires country of origin for ingredients lists, people pay attention.

>Samgyupsal, or better yet, Moksal, if frozen, not fresh, is really fucking cheap. Serving sizes for meat, especially beef, tends to be more expensive than the US. Compared to kbbq's in the US, yeah, it's cheaper, but 고기집's are usually considered to be on the pricey side of the food spectrum, like Outback.

>>1293773
Oh, also, eggs are really fucking expensive right now. It's gotten slightly better, but the avian flu hit hard. I think no one's asking the real important question.

>>1294504
I'm korean-american, but i've been moving back and forth, so yeah, half of it's been in korea, but the other half has been in good ol' pennsyltucky.

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>>1294504
>nigga try to act like he knows better
>gets corrected by a korean

>>1293773
Korean here.
Read up on it as much as you can beforehand! If you do watch videos, it might help if it's from a native or someone who has been living there for a while.

We don't really say bless you when people sneeze. You want to receive things with two hands, rather than one. I mean, basic manners, you can read up on it online.

You should visit Busan if you can! Haeundae beach does get crowded, but there are other less crowded beaches, and a lot of them have really pretty sea glass.

치킨집's refer to places that serve fried chicken. They usually deliver instead of being dine-in, but then again, most places deliver in Korea. If you like cheap stuff, 중국집's (Korean
Chinese restaurants) serve 짜장면 (jajangmyun, a savory black bean sauce noodle dish with sauteed pork and veggies), 짬뽕 (jjambbong, spicy seafood noodle soup), and fried dumplings and sweet and sour pork. The dumplings will come with the sweet and sour pork for free, usually, but that depends. Food tends to be cheaper in Busan, and Seoul does tend to be pricey compared to the rest of the country.

Are there things you are interested in personally? Music? Shopping? Food?

>>1294517
>half of it's been in korea, but the other half has been in good ol' pennsyltucky.
I'm European and I worked and lived there, love the place and I go back once or twice a year to visit my friends. Might be that

I really never see any people bowing. It might be that people in 신촌 or that my friends are just proper cunts. In any case people don't expect foreigners to do it so I wouldn't recommend it to anyone going there as a tourist.

About the bread I think your whole country fell for the sweetened bread meme, I didn't eat it. Korea has much more interesting things that are easier to find for a tourist than bread.

Rice cake on the other hand I agree, go get some. I even love the 옆길 떠볶이 despite it being half exhaust fumes from the road (and yes my korean is shit but you udnerstand what I mean)

What's your point about the meat?
Comparing to China/Japan I'd pick any Korean meat, no matter if its 삼겹살 or 갈비살 or 목살. Japan is several times more expensive and China not even close in quality. I can't compare to the US but I consider 20-30 bucks to be cheap for a dinner with some alcohol. You're most likely not having it as every day food like a Tuesday lunch.

>>1294546
I guess complaining about meat prices is a ubiquitous thing in Korea.

Oh shit, I totally forgot about tteokbokki! (떡볶이). I also lol'ed at your description of it.
Street food is pretty big, and most street stands/corner shops are '분식점's, which mean they serve stuff made from flour (spicy sweet chewy rice cake, oden, everything you could imagine tempura fried, noodles, etc)

Europe? God damn, that's pretty fancy. Got any recommendations for me? I'm not travelling anytime soon, but doesn't help to learn!