u/haunee

I kept seeing wildly different numbers thrown around for the "treat yourself" stuff people do around concerts/trips in Seoul, so I went through actual booking pages this month and noted the real ranges. Prices in USD, all bookable as a foreigner without a Korean phone number:

| Thing | Range (USD) |

|---|---|

| Idol-style hair salon session | 18–106 |

| Nails | 9–113 |

| Hanbok rental | 7–77 (palace entry is FREE while wearing one) |

| Craft workshop (mother-of-pearl, hanji) | 11–49, take it home same day |

| Studio portrait | 21–39 |

| Sesin body scrub (the real Korean bathhouse kind) | 50–62 |

| Massage | 35–114 |

| Head spa | 28–177 |

| Personal color analysis | ~102 |

A few things that surprised me:

- The hanbok + free palace entry combo is genuinely the best deal in Seoul. A 7 USD rental gets you into Gyeongbokgung for free.

- Sesin has almost no cheap/expensive spread — it costs what it costs (50–62) because it's a fixed service, not a luxury ladder.

- Head spa has the widest spread (28–177). The 28 one and the 177 one are very different experiences — check what's included.

- Heads up on palace days: Gyeongbokgung closes Tuesdays, Changdeokgung closes Mondays.

Ranges are wide because shops differ — these are floor-to-ceiling from real listings, not averages. Happy to be corrected if anyone's paid outside these ranges recently, genuinely curious.

Something I only found out while putting together a list of filming locations in Korea.

The bus stop from the album jacket, on the beach at Jumunjin near Gangneung, was built as a temporary prop for the shoot and removed afterwards. So many people kept turning up looking for it that the local authority rebuilt it as a permanent photo spot. What you see today is a reconstruction standing where the original stood.

It takes about 3 hours from Seoul: KTX to Gangneung is around 2 hours, then local bus 200 or 300 from outside Gangneung Station, about 40 more minutes to Jumunjin. The express bus from Seoul to Gangneung is roughly the same total. Nothing else is there - a beach, a bus stop, and usually a queue.

A few other real ones, since I had them open:

- Squid Game's ddakji scene was shot at Seoul Forest Station in Seongdong-gu. Netflix confirms it in their own locations guide. The pink stairs and the dormitory were built sets in Daejeon and have since been dismantled, so there's nothing to visit there.

- KPop Demon Hunters used Bukchon Hanok Village for the rooftop "Free" sequence, Naksan Park for the fortress wall scene, and the Coex K-Pop Square screen for the "Golden" drop. HUNTR/X's penthouse is Lotte World Tower - the art director said so directly.

- Descendants of the Sun's "Uruk" is inside Taebaek Tongni Tantan Park, and the medical set is still standing.

Happy to dig up more if anyone has a specific scene in mind.

I checked actual booking prices for the "K-beauty day" stuff in Seoul (hair, hanbok, sesin scrub, etc.) — sharing the real ranges

The BTS bus stop in Jumunjin isn't the original — the real one was taken down after the shoot