One thing that I wanted to do (and surprised myself with how much I wanted to do) in Seoul was to wear hanbok! So one fine day, my boyfriend and I set out to try on Korea’s traditional dress and hopefully visit a museum at the same time.

Alas, the museum visit was not to be. After puzzling over the lack of open hanbok rental shops at Gyeongbokgung Palace, we were told that the palace was closed! As it turns out, Gyeongbokgung Palace closes every Tuesday, something we completely neglected to check before going. But after a few minutes, my boyfriend came across Bukchon Hanok village and we figured that a “traditional” village would have hanbok rental shops.

We were right, but we also didn’t see many shops and entered the first one along the street. It seems to cost twice what we saw quoted at shops near Gyeongbokgung Palace, so I won’t quite recommend it. I will say, though, that the Hanbok rental shops have made wearing a hanbok very easy, even in winter. You just wear it over your clothes (be careful not to wear something with too high a collar if you don’t want it to show) and that’s it! I paid extra to have my hair done and off we went to explore the village.

Bukchon Hanok village is actually mostly residential, with shops along the road leading to the famous photo spot. Since it’s a residential area, it’s only polite to keep quiet. And, I have to add, to be polite about the resident’s items. I saw a few members of a tour group writing on someone’s car (it was snowing the second time we visited) so if you visit, please remember that not everything there is a tourist attraction. It might be someone’s home, so double-check if you can go in/if it’s a shop/etc.

Fun fact: I am somehow incapable of remembering the name “bukchon hanok” and the words melded together to form “chunok”, much to many people’s confusion when I was telling them about our visit. I really need to do better with names!

Anyway, we were pretty cold by the time we walked up to the top of the street (mostly because we kept pausing to take photos and to ask people to help us take photos) so we looked for somewhere to go. There was a “Bukchon Observatory” that was supposed to be quite close, so we tried to find it and saw… a sign saying “Tea Museum”! If that isn’t a sign inviting me to go in, I don’t know what is.

The entrance fee for the tea museum is 6,000 won, but it does come with a cup of tea (or hot chocolate, if you are willing to pay another 1,000 won). That cup of tea felt very worth it because it was warm and we were just too cold by then. However, as with Teastory Beautiful Tea Museum, the “museum” was a bit of a misnomer because the exhibit section was quite small. There were a few shelves with pieces from the 5th-6th century Silla Kingdom, and a rather varied collection that ranges from beautiful vintage teacups to zisha pots, but it’s not very organised nor are there explanations. Instead, the place is really more for photos, which we took plenty of once we warmed up. There’s also a pretty nice view from the roof, where you can look out at the rooftops of the traditional homes.

Since we only rented the Hanbok for two hours and we spent quite a long time warming up (and also taking photos), we didn’t really get to go to other places after this stop. We headed back towards Anguk station, had lunch at Sumire, a tonkatsu restaurant, and then headed back to join our group! Honestly, if I’m ever in Seoul again, I’d love to come back and properly explore the place – as long as it’s not freezing.