Seoul, capital of South Korea, is doable on roughly KRW 60,000-90,000 a day per person if you lean on the subway, T-money card, street food, and free palace grounds instead of taxis and full-service restaurants every meal. This 3-day plan stays entirely inside the city: the palace core, Bukchon, Myeongdong, and Namsan on the first two days, then Hongdae and a proper Gwangjang Market food crawl on day three, with a jjimjilbang evening thrown in because at roughly KRW 10,000 it is the cheapest good night’s sleep-adjacent activity in the city.

Seoul, the capital of South Korea, is easy to enjoy on a tight budget once you lean on the subway, a T-money card, street food, and free palace grounds instead of taxis and full-service restaurants every meal. This 4-day plan keeps the same in-city core that works as a standalone 3-day trip (palaces, Bukchon, Myeongdong, Namsan, Hongdae, a Gwangjang Market crawl, a jjimjilbang evening) and adds a fourth day in Gangnam, COEX, and the Han River.

Seoul, capital of South Korea, is doable on roughly KRW 45,000-95,000 a day per person over five days if you lean on the subway, a T-money card, street food, and free palace grounds instead of taxis and full-service restaurants at every meal. This route stays entirely inside the city: the palace core, Bukchon, Myeongdong, and Namsan on the first two days, Hongdae and Gwangjang Market on day three, Gangnam and Changdeokgung’s Secret Garden on day four, then Seongsu, Ikseon-dong, the War Memorial, Deoksugung, and the Han River on day five, no neighborhood repeated across the whole trip.

Seoul, capital of South Korea, is dense enough to fill six full days without repeating a single neighborhood, and you can do it on roughly KRW 55,000-95,000 a day if you lean on the subway, T-money card, street food, and free palace grounds instead of taxis and full-service restaurants every meal. Currency is the Korean won (KRW), not yen or yuan, and Google Maps does not give reliable walking or transit directions here; put Naver Map or KakaoMap on your phone before you land.

Seoul is not a cheap capital, but its best days can be Seoul, the capital of South Korea, prices everything in the Korean won (KRW), and it is not a Bangkok-cheap city: mid-range meals, hotel rooms and paid attractions sit closer to a European capital than a Southeast Asian one. The good news for a tight budget is that the orientation stops that matter most, the palace grounds, Bukchon’s hanok alleys, the Han River parks, cost nothing or close to it, and a no-frills day of T-money transit, street food and free sights runs roughly KRW 60,000 to 90,000 including a hostel bed.