Why I Stopped Recommending Hongdae to My Foreign Friends

I used to send everyone there. Honestly, every foreign friend who visited Seoul for the first time — I’d put Hongdae at the top of the list. “You have to go. Street performances, buskers, art everywhere. It’s the vibe.”

Then last summer I actually went with fresh eyes. A friend from Canada was visiting and I took him there on a Saturday afternoon expecting the same energy I remembered from 2019. It wasn’t there. Not entirely, anyway.

I’m not saying Hongdae is bad. I’m saying I overhyped it, and I’ve stopped doing that. Here’s why.

What Happened to the Street Artists

If you visited Hongdae before 2020, you probably remember the area in front of Hongik University Station Exit 9 — the open plaza where buskers performed every weekend. Some were genuinely good. Art students selling handmade work, musicians who’d been playing the same corner for years.

Most of that is gone now.

The short version: rent went up. A lot. The creative types who made Hongdae what it was couldn’t afford to stay, and the pandemic made things worse. Busking permits also got tightened after noise complaints. Some performers moved to Insadong or Hongdae’s side streets. Many just stopped.

What replaced them? Photo booths. There are probably 30 instant photo booth stores within a 10-minute walk of the main exit. They’re fine, but they’re not what people come to Hongdae looking for.

What Hongdae Still Does Well

I want to be fair here. Hongdae isn’t dead. It’s just different, and it’s not the right fit for everyone’s first day in Seoul anymore.

If you’re into the club scene, Hongdae is still one of the best in the city. The area around Club FF and NB2 picks up after midnight and genuinely goes until 6am. That hasn’t changed. If nightlife is what you’re after, go.

The side streets — specifically the alleys about 10 minutes north of the main strip, toward Yeonnam-dong — still have some decent independent cafes. There’s a small coffee place I won’t name because it’ll probably get crowded, but it’s the kind of spot with three tables, handwritten menus, and no WiFi. That’s the old Hongdae energy. It’s just harder to find now.

There are also a few independent music venues that still book local bands on weekends. Club FF hosts live shows regularly. If you’re the kind of person who likes watching bands you’ve never heard of, honestly, that’s still worth your evening.

Where I Send People Instead

These days when a foreign friend asks about Hongdae, I say: “Go if you want clubs. Otherwise, go to Yeonnam-dong or Mangwon-dong first.”

Yeonnam-dong is literally five minutes from Hongdae on foot. It’s where a lot of the creative energy migrated. There are independent bookstores, small galleries mixed into apartment buildings, pasta places with no outdoor signage, and coffee shops run by people who clearly care about coffee. It feels like what Hongdae used to feel like — which is kind of a big deal here, because that vibe is getting rarer in Seoul.

I’m not sure how to explain this in English, but there’s a Korean concept of a neighborhood feeling “alive” in a specific way — not touristy alive, but like actual residents are choosing to be there. Yeonnam-dong still has that. Parts of Mangwon-dong too.

Mangwon is a bit further — you’d take the subway one more stop from Hongdae — but the weekend market is worth it if you time it right. The Han River is also a 10-minute walk from Mangwon station, so you can combine both in an afternoon.

The Honest Version

Hongdae didn’t disappear. It changed, and the change happened in a direction that makes it less special for first-time visitors who don’t know what they’re looking for.

The photo booths and franchise cafes filled the space where the artists used to be. It’s still lively — crowded on weekends, loud, energetic. But that specific thing that made it different from any other busy district in Seoul? That’s mostly in the side streets now, or it moved a few neighborhoods over.

If you have a full week in Seoul and want to understand what the city’s creative districts actually feel like in 2026, start in Yeonnam-dong. Then come to Hongdae on your last night if you want to go out. That’s the order I’d suggest now.

For more on how to navigate Seoul’s neighborhoods without the tourist-trap problem, I wrote about what Gangnam is actually like — that one also has a gap between reputation and reality.

Last updated: May 2026 — I walked through Hongdae the first weekend of this month on the way to meet a friend in Yeonnam-dong. Everything here reflects what I saw.

About Jay Han
Jay has lived in Seoul for over 10 years and works as a marketing professional. He started Korea Hub to share the kind of honest, specific information he wishes he’d had when navigating Korean culture, food, and travel for the first time. Not a travel blogger — just someone who actually lives here.
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