Eleven Seoul Parks, Compared: Seoul Forest, Namsan, the River Parks and Olympic Park

Misjudging the size of a park is the usual way a day here goes wrong. A good many of Seoul's parks were not laid out on empty ground — they went onto land the city had finished with, and the size of that site became the size of the park.

World Cup Park was the Nanjido landfill, which took Seoul's rubbish for fifteen years from 1978. The two hills inside it are made of that rubbish. Dream Forest opened in 2009 on the 660,000-plus square metres that had been the Dreamland amusement park. Olympic Park is the 1988 Olympic venue complex, with an early Baekje earthen fortress inside the same boundary — and several of the stadiums renamed and still in use as concert halls.

The three that need half a day are exactly these three. A landfill, an amusement park and an Olympic complex were large installations to begin with, and the parks inherited their footprints, so none of them is a drop-in.

The same thing happened at the smaller end. Seonyudo Park is the old water treatment works on an island in the Han, converted rather than demolished, so its concrete tanks and settling basins survive as flowerbeds and ponds. It is also the one park here with a closing time — its history as both an island and an industrial plant still visible. Gyeongui Line Forest Park was a railway, which is why there is no car park anywhere along its 6.3km and why its operator tells you to come by public transport.

So what you go to see mostly follows from what the place used to be. To walk, the former railway at Gyeongui Line Forest Park. To look at something, the former water works at Seonyudo. To do nothing at all, the river.

Start by narrowing the list to the time you can give a park that day.

• About an hour — Naksan Park, Gyeongui Line Forest Park. Both slot easily between other plans.
• About two hours — Seoul Forest, Namsan Park, Seonyudo Park, and the Yeouido, Banpo and Ttukseom river parks.
• Half a day — World Cup Park, Dream Forest, Olympic Park. The grounds are too big for a drop-in.

Then choose one by what you want to do there. For simply walking, Gyeongui Line Forest Park; for structures to look at, Seonyudo Park; for doing things with children, Ttukseom Hangang Park or Seoul Forest; after dark, Banpo Hangang Park.

The nearest subway stations and exits:

• Seoul Forest — Seoul Forest Station (Suin-Bundang Line) exit 4, Ttukseom Station (Line 2) exit 8
• Namsan Park — Myeongdong Station (Line 4) exit 3
• Naksan Park — Hyehwa Station (Line 4) exit 2
• Seonyudo Park — Seonyudo Station (Line 9) exit 2
• Gyeongui Line Forest Park — a long, narrow park whose entry points change by section. Decide which section to start on, then find the station nearest to it.
• Yeouido Hangang Park — Yeouinaru Station (Line 5) exit 2 or 3, National Assembly Station (Line 9) exit 1
• Banpo Hangang Park — Express Bus Terminal Station (Lines 3, 7 and 9) exits 8-1 and 8-2, Sinbanpo Station (Line 9) exit 1
• Ttukseom Hangang Park — Jayang Station (Line 7) exits 2 and 3
• World Cup Park — World Cup Stadium Station (Line 6) exit 1
• Dream Forest — Miasageori Station (Line 4) exit 1, Wolgye Station (Line 1) exit 2
• Olympic Park — Olympic Park Station (Lines 5 and 9) exit 3, Mongchontoseong Station (Line 8) exit 1

Seonyudo Park opening hours

Source: Seoul Open Data Plaza — the city's principal parks dataset (OA-394), whose visitor notes state the 06:00–24:00 opening, alongside address, coordinate, managing office, opening date and directions · Aug 25, 2026

Hours for the facilities inside Seoul Forest

The park itself is open around the clock, all year, with no gate and no admission charge. The floor fountain has no opening and closing time — it runs in 30-minute bursts, May to September: 13:00, 14:00, 15:00 and 16:00, with 12:00 added in July and August. Its other rules — closed Mondays for maintenance, and not run in rain regardless of how much falls, nor once rain has stopped, because the basin must be drained and cleaned — come from the Seoul Forest Conservancy's 2019 notice, and the park operator's own page does not publish them; the conservancy wound up its work at the end of 2021. Car park: 200 won per 5 minutes for a small car, 400 for a large one, 211 spaces, open 24 hours.

Source: Seoul Parks — Seoul Forest · Aug 13, 2026

• If you reach Seonyudo Park too late — switch to one of the river parks, which keep no opening hours.
• If it is a Monday at Seoul Forest — skip the conservatory and the butterfly garden and walk the woods and wetland paths outside.
• If a half-day park is squeezing your time — do not try to cover it all; at World Cup Park, pick one of its five parks and keep it short.
• If it rains — Seonyudo Park, with its old waterworks structures still standing, gives you the most to look at.

Check before you go. For Gyeongui Line Forest Park and Olympic Park, the city's parks dataset leaves the hours and admission fields empty. If you are planning a performance or a facility at either, check the operator's latest notice first.

Yeouido, Banpo and Ttukseom are on this list, but Seoul's Han River parks are not only these three. Each district of the river rents out different things and supports a different kind of day.

Here they are only compared alongside the other parks. What each riverside district actually holds is covered separately in the Han River park guide.