Dear colleague travelers, here I leave you a review for the one and only market worthy of a visit in Seoul: The Namdaemun Market. Filled with excitement, strange and curious things, lots of interesting street food, raw food ingredients, music, clothing, souvenirs and its booming with people. Still the rule of South Koreans is not to understand a word of English; but in this market like everywhere in South Korea; be ready for price rise as soon as they see you coming and being a non-Korean. Speculation is in the air. Most of the things you'll be able to buy when it comes to clothing and souvenirs; is cheap worthless Chinese crap. But concentrate on the raw products and on the street food. At least prices are exposed and the prices are the same for foreigners and locals alike. Just walk around (watch your pockets) as there are some suspicious persons in the area. Don't spend much (you will be tempted) but remember most of the souvenirs globally are cheap Chinese products that you'll end up throwing away. In Korea you need to concentrate on walking a lot as there is plenty to walk, take fresh air, don't spend on garbage, have some curious food and the points of Interest are to be museums, palaces and all related to this activities. (museums and monuments, places, etc are really cheap). This is my advise. We recommend this market as the ONLY one worth. The rest is just copy and paste.

My husband, son and I visited Seoul, South Korea for the very first time the end of January. Our Hotel, the Tmark Grand Hotel, was within walking distance of the Namdaemun Market and we visited it numerous times over the course of the week we were there. I'm not a big shopper but I am a foodie and we ate in a couple of restaurants in the Market as well as sampling some of the street foods and I also purchased some Honey Butter Almonds, which are a very popular foodie souvenir to buy when in South Korea, at a lower price than if you go to an actual shop that specializes in them (of which there are MANY). :) I love Night Markets. Coming from Canada I can't get enough of them when I visit Asia. Everything looks so FOREIGN! LOL! I saw all manner of fresh fruits for sale, spices, clothing, foodie treats, and much, much more. The Market, which is the largest traditional Market in South Korea, has over 10,000 vendors, retailers and wholesalers. It is a dense maze of stalls and restaurants. One night while we were looking for a spot to get some dinner we came out of a back alley to be faced with a stunning Old City Gate right across the street which turned out to be Sungnyemun Gate, South Korea's #1 National Treasure. You honestly never know what is going to be around the next corner. Merchants have been selling items near this location since 1414 AD!!!!! There is an information booth with people in it that do speak some English which is super helpful. They also have free maps so you can orient yourself. We went to the Information booth one evening for a restaurant recommendation and were pleased. Just go wander.....it's uber fun!

It is huge and sells lots of things! We didn't manage to comb through every section or alley because my toddlr was asleep and she suddenly woke up and I had to tend to her. We saw many shops selling clothes but they don't appeal to me - mostly ahjumma clothes? We bought dehydrated strawberry and apple chips there for 10k won each. My toddler loves the strawberries but too sour for me. We also bought hotteok to eat there. Nice! Btw, we walked from Seoul station after going to Lotte Mart. Not too far a walk.