Seoul in July: the one reason to come anyway

Do not go to South Korea in summer. I mean it kindly. I went to Seoul at the
end of July, on a long weekend from Hong Kong, a city that is no stranger to
heat itself, and Seoul still managed to shock me. It was a sauna from the
airport onward and it stayed one for four days.

The shape of the problem is simple. Late June into the second half of July is
the monsoon, when it can rain for days, and what follows is a wet heat that
does not break after dark. I like to meet a city on foot and I did: the
palaces, the hanok villages, the teahouses, the markets. Every one of them
rewarded the walk and every one of them left me wringing wet. I rented a
hanbok for an afternoon at Gyeongbokgung and learned that the traditional
dress holds heat astonishingly well; I came out soaked through and delighted.
One afternoon I passed the fountains on Gwanghwamun Square, full of children,
and understood them completely.

What saved the trip is that Seoul knows this about itself. The metro is
air-conditioned and goes everywhere. The old teahouses of Insadong are cool
and dim, and I spent more of the weekend in them than I had planned. The
barbecue place I found in Myeongdong was five floors up and indoors. And the
river at dusk is where the locals go: they sit on the steps under the bridges
and wait for the sun to drop over the water, and you should too. You learn to
plan a day around shade the way you would plan around rain anywhere else.

And the one reason to come anyway: the Boryeong Mud Festival, two hours down
the coast, which happens for a couple of weeks from late July and at no other
point in the calendar. It was why I booked the trip, and it justified the
sweat. If it is not your reason, take October instead. Same city, same
palaces, clear air, and you will not spend the weekend looking for the next
air-conditioned door.