One of the critical reasons for visiting Korea might be shopping! Especially Korean-made clothes are famous for reasonable prices and great quality. But there are too many shopping malls and options to choose from, so I’ll narrow it down to one place for your convenience. The most famous and largest underground shopping mall in Korea is called GoToMall(Gangnam Express Bus terminal Underground Shopping mall. Over 600 stores are lined up on both sides of the two long, parallel corridors featuring clothing, fashion accessories, interior products, flowers, and dining.
Express Bus Terminal Underground Shopping Mall (Goto Mall)
B 200, Sinbanpo-ro, Seocho-gu, Seoul
10:00-22:00
Closed on 3rd Thursday of every month, Lunar New Year’s Day and Korean Thanksgiving Day).
Express Bus Terminal Station (line 3/7/9, exit 8-1/8-2)
Subway Station connected to the underground shopping mall.
Looking complicated at a glance, Seoul Express Bus Terminal may be one of the places where you can find so many Koreans holding a carrier in Seoul. Seoul Express Bus Terminal is the beating heart of Korea’s intercity transportation network, connecting Seoul to every corner of the country, from large metropolitan cities to small rural counties. There are two terminals within the complex, divided by region.
Besides providing comfortable, convenient intercity bus service, Seoul Express Bus Terminal also hosts a wide variety of shops and restaurants.
Because of the centrality of its location and the plethora of subway lines stopping at the Express Bus Terminal station, the terminal has undergone massive retail development, with food courts and malls popping up all over areas of the complex, including Shinsegae Department Store, the Famille Street food court, and Enter6 Mall, attracting a constant flow of shoppers and diners throughout the week.
From high-end luxury goods at Shinsegae Department Store to cheap clothing and wares in the adjacent underground Goto Mall, the complex surrounding Seoul Express Bus Terminal has it all.
If you take the subway to the express bus terminal station where three Seoul-metro lines pass, it is directly connected to GoTo Mall. If you come by bus(Actually, I took a bus, too!), get off at the Express Bus Terminal station and you will find the entrance to Gottumol which looks like this on the side of the boulevard. It won’t be hard to find because there are so many entrances nearby! As the express bus terminal is a major transportation hub of Seoul, there are so many buses running from various parts of Seoul to here.
Shopping is bound to make you hungry. There are various foods, of course, in connected different shopping malls such as Enter6 and Shinsegae Department Store, but the food court is prepared at the end of GoToMall for the starving people. Cheap yet good coffee and delicious food that you can easily solve your starving are prepared at a food court here.
Famille Station
118-3 Banpo-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul
Operating Hours: 10AM ~ 10PM
Passing through the express bus platform, you will get to Famille Station where you can enjoy all kinds of foods and drinks. Famille Station is located between Shinsegae Department Store and Seoul Express Bus Terminal.
It’s a dining cluster of more than 30 world-famous food chains and fashion brands from 10 different countries.
The reason why I visited this place was this cafe named “Halff Coffee”.
This hamburger place “I Am A Burger” from Hongik University is really famous one, too!
Halff Coffee
Central City Famille Station 2F, Sapyeong-daero 205, Seocho-gu, Seoul
Operating Hours: 10:00AM ~ 10:00PM
This neat and quite colorful cafe named “halff coffee” is really famous on Instagram. Their signature menu is “halff coffee: buttercream latte” (Hot 6.0 Ice 6.5)
