How long should I spend in Seoul?

Travel Info
I am going to Seoul as part of a big trip to quite a few different Asian countries. I can spend as much time as I feel like, but I don't know how much would be good before I was burnt out on shopping, eating, and sight-seeing. Can anyone recommend how many days to stay?

Travel Tips

If you can spend any amount of time as you want I'd recommend 2 options, either under a week, or over 3 months. If you want to catch highlights a week is plenty of time to do it. The reason for this is that the people there far outweigh the sightseeing. Thats not to say the sightseeing is bad, but you could get the gist of the sightseeing in korea in about 4 days.

Do Chanduk or Gyeongbuk palace and insadong one day, Seoul tower, Myeong-Dong and Namaemun the next. Goto Latte world, then hit a night of drinking and maybe goto a norae bang(karaoke room, one thing I definatly recommend you check out if you have some friends with you, or meet some girls along the way, loads of fun.) By then you'll have done just about everything you need to do during a short trip.

If you take the 3 month option, go out talk to the people and make friends with some interesting people and actually get a chance to learn about the culture. Visit a Korean home if you get the chance. Either way, definatly try as much of the food as you can. Most people love samguibsal(grilled pork), bulgogi and rice(flavored beef), and mandu(dumplings). If you're more gutsy try grilled eel or even live octopus!

But if you stay for more than a week and don't plan on making any friends, you'll start to feel bored. And if you do make friends you'll feel that a month just isn't enough time there. I've been here 2 years and I feel like I could stay forever. Source(s): I've done just about all the sightseeing in Seoul.
Other Travel Tips

To really get to know the country and people, I suspect at least a week. You will want to visit the National Museum, go to the top of Namsan, go to the Korea Folk Village at Suwon, etc. Be aware that Seoul can be more expensive than other Asian cities.
I'm an American ex-pat living in China who goes to Korea often (and lived there on-and-off for the past 40 years).
Well.. I would recommend maybe five days? Personally, if I was in Korea, I would stay at several keys cities instead of just Seoul.. but if you are just visiting Seoul, I think about 5 days (at the most) is sufficient time to look at everything. But also, it depends on what time you are planning to wake up and all. I know it doesn't really sound like it would be that important but it makes all the difference in the world. If you are the type to get up early (I recommend this, you don't want to waste time during your travels), I would say 4 days. That should be enough time for shopping at Myung-dong, etc., looking at historical museums and sites (although there aren't too many in the city), and the countless folk villages all over Korea. You should really check out tour2korea.com I would say this is probably the best site for touring korea. Good luck!
Seoul is really a very neat place to visit. It's also one of the most expensive places on the planet. Keep this in mind.

If you have the cash and really want to do a good bit of sightseeing I would suggest 3-5 days. There's more to Seoul than shopping. The museums are wonderful, there are temples, great Broadway type shows etc.

However, I can't spend more than 3 days there without going stark-raving mad and fleeing back to my home in Jeollamnamdo province. Korea is crowded, Seoul is stuffed. You literally cannot get two feet of personal space in Seoul. I spent two years in Manhattan and Seoul freaks me out.