Hi guys today, I'm gonna do a video about Hongdae, which is actually my most requested video
I'm gonna split this up into about
Three to five videos and make it a series and this is going to be the first video in the series
So stay tuned for the other ones. So let's get started.
Lets start at exit 9 of Hongik University Station
and turn left when we come out of the subway and just walk straight down the street
Cross the intersection and watch out for cars and keep walking until you see the MCM store and then veer right on the small diagonal
street our first stop is going to be Caffe Yam.
This is a little cafe that serves up dessert and drinks
Everything here is ultra ultra sweet, but it's very pretty
Here you'll find that unicorn cake and mermaid cake that you've always dreamed of and you can also get a cookie monster
Tiramisu latte and wear a headband to match your dessert or drink
If super sweet sugary desserts are not exactly your cup of tea then you might want to skip this place
But now I'm gonna take you to Carin Hongdae Lounge.
As you can see this place is super sophisticated and pretty it's a great place to snap a quick photo
It's actually a dessert bar, but it's also a sunglasses shop
If you want to just come in and check out the place
You don't have to buy anything to eat or drink because the food is actually quite pricey, but you get what you pay for
wow
It's amazing
Let's head out.
Turn right out of Carin Lounge
and make another right and
you're going to cross this big street
You see skin-food and then Bershka
There's two streets, we're going to
head down the one that's adjacent to Bershka.
and we're going to hit up the Trick Eye Museum!
So we're gonna go down the stairs
and we're going to pass by the LOVE museum
and you can stop here if you like
and then we're going to hit up the trick eye museum
have you ever been to one of these places?
They basically are
Paintings that are like optical illusions
and it makes for a really fun place to take photos
So I recommend that you come here with a friend so that you can take photos of each other
let's head out of the trick eye museum and
cross over to the other street that's parallel to this one.
This is the Hongdae shopping street. And this is a street that is adjacent to the skin food shop that we saw earlier.
We're going to veer off to a side street on your left and check out LIZE Milk and Cocoa
This looks like a flower shop from the outside
but if you look closely it's actually a women's clothing store and they carry a nice selection of
cute vintage looking dresses, but they're all actually new and everything is very reasonably priced
Now let's head out of the store and turn left keep walking on this curvy street till we hit nerdy cafe
It's a cafe and a clothing shop all in one and it's just a really interesting place
there are these photographs of this family and I was trying to figure out who these people were I thought is this a
celebrity that I've never heard of I don't recognize these people and then I asked the worker and he said that they were just
models, which makes this place even more amazing because
The concept is just so different and interesting. It feels like you're walking into
An American home like the 60 seventies or eighties
I don't know but it's just a really fun shop. In the downstairs cafe
You'll find desserts that your grandma could have made.
turn right when you come out of Nerdy and then make a left
And you'll see Unipopcorn!
This is such a cute little pinky purpley shop
They carry a lot of Japanese merchandise like Sailor Moon dolls and blythe dolls
If you're into that type of thing
They carry some vintage items and they also have a really cute line of jewelry and hair accessories
Next to you to unipopcorn there's a hair shop that looks like it has a lot of personality
Now let's go back out the way we came and head out to the main shopping street and
Here is where you'll find a lot of cheap clothing
accessories and that type of thing on your right side, and then on your left side, you'll see a lot of Road shops
like nature republic and places selling Korean beauty and skincare
we're going to turn right at the end of this street
and head out to Hongdae D'Five (디파이브), Mint Heim, and the Gatcha shop.
now let's head up to Hongae D'Five. 디파이브
There are two floors
The first floor is blue and gold themed and I like the second floor because it's super pinky and pretty
With white marble and bright pink chairs with gold finishings
this is where you can get the ice cream pasta and this is not as crazy as it sounds is actually bacon pepper flavored and
My daughter really liked it. It just tasted like normal cream pasta
There's also a space where you can take selfies which has a selfie stick included
Giant teddy bear and flower props. Now let's head out and check out the Gacha shop next door. This is a relatively new shop
It's three stories and on the first story. They have a ton of gashapon
These are little capsule toy vending machines that come from Japan
The prices here are about two to three US dollars for a toy and if you go upstairs
There's also an area that sells anime goods and on the third floor. There's this space with cardboard cutouts
which you can take a photos next to. Now let's head next door to Mint Heim.
If you are one of those people who likes chocolate and mint then you'll probably love this cafe
I had the Oreo mint cheesecake and it was really good
Everything here has a chocolate mint flavor
Let's head out of mint heim
we're gonna turn right and continue back the way we came and make a left at the first little
Alleyway that you see and we're gonna walk down this narrow alleyway and stop at this
Cute little store that sells a bunch of different kinds of character merchandise. I've seen a lot of things here that I haven't seen elsewhere
You can probably find a whole bunch of cute little trinkets
They also sell these little LEGO sets where you can put together your favorite characters. It's just a fun place to look around
If you walk straight out of this store, you'll see a giant Aland store on your right and if you like urban outfitters
You'll probably like Åland and I feel like this is the urban outfitters of Korea with a cosmetic
Selection comparable to Barneys New York. This is where you'll find the full range of Cosrx products Dear Klairs
Beauty people, Whamisa, and some other indie Korean skincare and beauty brands
you'll also find home goods and clothing and
Accessories and they carry things for both men and women this location has four floors. underneath Aland in the basement
there's a place called Nolsoop (놀숲), which is a
nice place to just relax put your feet up recharge your devices like your phone and
Read some comic books play video games watch TV
Just relax and hang out with your friends
They serve food here and you can even sit in a tent if you want to this space is really nice
Back in my student days. I would have loved hanging out here
Okay, let's head out of Nolsup (놀숲) and go back down the narrow alleyway where we came and we're gonna make a left at the
Main street if you keep walking, you'll see art box. I really like this store
I think it's just a great place to buy cute things in Korea
They sell a lot of goods for your home
And stationary and hair accessories gift wrapping items
Party goods, just a whole bunch of stuff. It's a nice place to buy cute souvenirs for your friends
let's turn right when we come out of art box and walk down this long street for about
Five to seven minutes and you'll see Hongik University which is the University for which this town is names. right across is Isaac Toast
Which is a chain where you can get an amazing breakfast sandwich. it's all about this yellow tangy sauce that makes the sandwich delicious
Let's out of Isaac toast and make a left and cross the street and then make another left on the first small street that you see
Here is cafe de one-piece
If you're into that type of thing
I'm not really so I'm going to make a right on the next street and go to Sonny angel Terrace. At this cafe, you can buy special
Seoul Sonny angels mini figures with the strawberry head and what I like about this cafe is
This pink VW Beetle that they have parked out to the side. I just think it's really cute next door you have
Vant 36.5 which is a popular cosmetics brand in Korea. on the first floor there's a cafe. on the second floor
you can find the skincare products and there's a
nice back patio and outdoor terrace where you can relax and take some pretty pictures
Now let's turn left when we come out of Vant and we're going to walk quite a ways maybe
10 minutes from where we were and come to Maison de Aloha
It's a little bit of a trek from the main Hongdae station
But if you're an 80s child and used to collect troll dolls play with My Little Pony
Barbie and those types of toys and if you read Bop when you're a teenager and if you like Leonardo DiCaprio's you will probably
like this store
When you come out of Maison de Aloha, make a left
and then make another left and then make another left just kind of curl around the block and you will come to neko coach
Which is this cute little pink store that sells
things like Sanrio, Sailor Moon
Powerpuff Girls, Alpacasso, a lot of stuff from Japan including this Monchhichi bebichi doll
It's just a fun nicely curated little shop to look at knickknacks and trinkets
There's another cute little vintage shop down the street called Jenny rocket a lot of these shops don't open until 2 p.m
Anyway, let's head down one more Street
and we're gonna hit up a
trio of stores that are pretty big
Dr. Althea is the first one and this is a clothing store with the cafe upstairs
The front area has a really nice place to take Instagram photos right across the street
You'll find the Style Nanda flagship store, and I'm sure you guys have heard of this
They carry makeup and clothing and then if you go up to the third floor, you can go to the Pink Pool Cafe
Which is super nice. This is different from the Myeongdong location
They have a different menu
but what I recommend getting is this birthday cake on dry ice, it looks kind of gross but it's actually really good and
My daughter liked it a lot. across the street. We have chuu and their most famous
Product is the - 5kg jeans, which I think are just really tight jeans that make you look like you lost 5 kilograms
Besides those jeans, they sell super girly clothes and accessories and just cute little knickknacks on the 3rd floor
They have a nice space where you can take photos on the rooftop terrace and it has an airport theme
it's super cute
If you make a right when you come out of chute and make another right you'll see a whole bunch of cute clothing shops on
the street but we're gonna veer right and I'm gonna take you guys to another location in Hongdae that I like which is
another gacha shop. I think that this is the original hongdae
gacha shop and I'm not sure if the owner just decided to open up another location because there's a lot of
similarities between the two shops, but I
Just like this shop because I think that the little displays that he has set up are super creative
So let's come out of the Gacha shop and turn right and we're gonna keep walking down the street and you'll see this nice little
Pathway that has a bunch of trees and stuff
We're gonna keep walking and we're gonna head over to the flower cafe lovin her
And this is a little bit out of the way of all the other stores I showed you
but I just wanted to include it because I think that it's a really pretty space and
What I like about it is they actually serve food here not just desserts and drinks
My daughter and I had a croissant sandwich. That was really good and everything is just really pretty and fresh looking
Now this cafe is a little bit out of the way so let's go back the way we came
there's this nice little garden path that's near the train station, but we're gonna go back towards the Gacha shop and
Go back to the main neighborhood
And I'm gonna take you to another dessert cafe this place is called dessert lab and
They sell a lot of cheesecake desserts
everything here is super pretty and
This space is really nice as well. This is one of those cafes that serves really pretty but very
Super sweet dessert. So if you're not into that type of thing, I might bypass this place
When you come out of dessert lab turn right and make another right on the next street and you're back at that
shopping street that I told you guys about
Let's turn right and then make a left at the next street and on your left side. You'll see a pink building
We're at the bunny cafe. And this is my daughter's favorite cafe in Korea
It's a place where you can just pet bunnies and hang out with them
It's not so much a cafe because you don't really eat or drink here.
But it has really cute Alice going down the rabbit hole theme. My daughter just loves this place
When you come out of the bunny cafe make a left and keep going straight across a traffic circle and you'll come to Morning Glory
And this is the stationery store that carries a lot of paint
wrapping paper and
Notebooks and just all kinds of cute Korean stationery
This location is pretty big and I think it's a nice place to pick up some souvenirs
when you come out of morning glory make a right and cross the street and then make a left. you'll pass by the subway station and
We're going to be checking out the Kakao friends store. Kakao friends is kind of like Korea's answer to Sanrio.
It's definitely a lot more popular than Sanrio and Disney in Korea and it's starting to grow on me.
Actually, I like this character named Ryan which is a lion that looks like the bear
Walk straight out of the Kakao Friends Store and cross the street and then make a left
And keep walking for about seven minutes
You'll see the LINE Friends Store
Which is another popular character store in Korea what they're most popular for right now is their bt21 merchandise
Which is a line of characters that the kpop group BTS developed
There's also a cafe downstairs that's really spacious and serves up super sweet drinks
Let's turn left out of the LINE store and go back the way you came and you'll see a
subway entrance and let's go down the escalators and we're gonna check out butter
This store sells a lot of random household items that are really cute
A lot of things here are pretty affordable
And I think it's a nice place to just get random stuff for your friends pick up souvenirs and cute things for your home
Now this last place may be a little controversial and it's not for everybody
But if you want to reenact the Britney Spears baby one more time video and dress up like a schoolgirl
then there's actually a place where you can do that. this shop rents out Korean schoolgirl uniforms to people who want to
dress up like a Korean schoolgirl and walk around Hongdae
It's right next to the train station. It's called nuguna, which I think means who am I in Korean.
I haven't mentioned a ton of places to eat because to be honest. I always eat at the same place
It's this restaurant that sells a ten dollar sushi set the cuts of fish are huge you get ten pieces of nigiri
Also a tempura, udon, and miso soup. So I hope you guys found this video helpful
one other thing that I just want to mention is that
Hongdae is not the type of place where you want to visit at 9 a.m
Because pretty much everything is going to be closed. You want to go here and around maybe 11:00 and
Have lunch and note that a lot of stores don't open up until noon and some stores don't even open until 2 p.m
So the hours here are really late and a lot of times the stores will not open at their stated time
They'll open like later because maybe somebody overslept or something like that
that's just how it is here, but
Hongdae actually in my favorite neighborhood in Seoul
I know that I'm probably a little bit
older than most of the people that hang out here and I do like to bring my kids here
It's not super stroller friendly, but there are a lot of shops here that my girls really enjoy and they are girly girls.
So if you are girly girl like me and my daughters and you'll probably
really love hanging out in HOngdae. So in the description box, I left a link to a blog post that I made
which has all the addresses and there's also a Google map link there so you can see all these locations on the Google Maps
Which can be really helpful if you're trying to navigate this neighborhood.
If you enjoyed this video, please give me a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel and I'll talk to you next time. Bye!