Seoul City Buses and River Cruise Tours
Two licensed operators cover Seoul’s hop-on hop-off bus circuits, and picking between them mostly comes down to which side of the old city you’d rather start from.
Tiger Bus, from Gwanghwamun
Tiger Bus leaves from the Koreana Hotel booth near Gwanghwamun. Its Downtown Palace Namsan course loops Gyeongbokgung, Changdeokgung, Insadong, DDP, Myeongdong, and N Seoul Tower for 24,000 won adult, hop-on hop-off all day. A separate Night View course runs a non-stop 90-minute evening loop across the Han River bridges for views of N Seoul Tower and the lit Banpo fountain, 20,000 won, though it doesn’t run Mondays. Current times are on seoulcitybus.com .
Yellow Balloon, from DDP
Yellow Balloon starts at DDP and runs a Traditional Culture course through Bangsan Market, Gwangjang Market, Changgyeonggung, Tongin Market, and Seodaemun Prison History Hall for 20,000 won adult. It leans toward markets and history rather than the tower-and-skyline focus of Tiger Bus’s main route. Stops and schedule are at ybtour.co.kr .
The palace night tours worth planning around
Three seasonal evening openings, mostly spring and autumn, need advance booking rather than a walk-up attempt. The Changdeokgung Moonlight Tour, a lantern-lit guided walk through the Secret Garden with tea and a gayageum performance, runs about 30,000 won, and its Interpark booking window has closed in under 2 minutes on release day. Gyeongbokgung’s Starlight Tour pairs a royal court dinner with a lantern-lit walk to Jibokjae for roughly 60,000 won, while a simpler general night viewing opens the main courtyards after dark for 3,000 won at the gate, cash and passport, no advance booking needed. Book the Changdeokgung Moonlight Tour on GetYourGuide to get notified before the release window opens.
Han River cruises
E-Land runs cruises from Yeouido Dock: a 40-minute day loop past the National Assembly and 63 Building for around 19,000 won, and a 70-minute sunset or moonlight cruise with live jazz timed to the illuminated bridges and the Banpo fountain, 25,000 to 32,000 won. South Korean maritime law requires an original physical passport or photo ID at boarding, not a phone photo of one. Schedules are at elandcruise.com .
What these routes skip
None of the above reach Everland, Suwon, or the DMZ, which each run as their own day trip; see the Seoul day trips guide for those. For fitting one bus loop and one night tour into a longer stay without doubling back, the 5-day Seoul itinerary lays out a workable order.
The verdict: pick one hop-on operator per day rather than both. Tiger Bus and Yellow Balloon overlap enough around DDP and the palaces that running both the same day wastes a ticket.