K-pop is one of the leading industries in South Korea, So it makes sense that they’d have a lot of attractions dedicated to that specific matter. From K-pop themed cafés/restaurants to sculptures and art pieces decorating the streets, there’s no shortage of finding things for or relating to K-pop. Though many things are business/government created, there are plenty of things that fans of K-pop groups have put together for their favorite idols. If you’re a fan of K-pop and you’re planning on heading to South Korea soon, here’s a list of five K-pop travel destinations you’ll definitely want to stop by!
Kpop Travel Destinations: Gwangju
Gwangju K-Pop Star Street
As one of the bigger cities in South Korea, it should be no surprise that Gwangju is the first location on this list. Besides, there’s been numerous idols from Gwangju—including BTS’ j-hope, Monsta X’ I.M and Hyungwon, Ateez’ Yunho, and fromis_9’s Nagyung and Hayoung. Because of the numerous idols from this city, there’s a road dedicated specifically to K-pop. And even more specifically to those idols from the area.
This road is known as the Gwangju K-Pop Star Street (also known as the Chungjang-ro K-Pop Star Street).
Located in the downtown area of Gwangju, this street was built to represent all of the idols from Gwangju who’ve achieved their dreams of debuting. There’s a few different things you can see on this street—including handprint art (with the actual handprints of idols!), a star memorial hall, and a shutter mural that shows various albums from K-pop artists.
There’s even a “Fan Zone” on this street where many idols have gone and donated various things for fans to look at. Back in March, boy group Ateez took a trip to the Gwangju K-Pop Star Street and donated their own things. You can watch this video here:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6DHHte-Bg8[/embedyt]
If you’re a fan of BTS, then you’ve definitely heard of this K-pop travel destination. This destination in particular contains the HOPE WORLD sculpture for BTS member j-hope. And what a sight it is.
Gwangju’s HOPE WORLD Sculpture
At the opening of Gwangju’s K-pop Star Street, there stands an enormous sculpture of the word “HOPE.” On this sculpture, there’s 21,800 messages full of love and support for j-hope from ARMY around the world.
Named HOPE WORLD after the artist’s first mixtape, the sculpture is aimed at giving j-hope what he gives to fans with his music: hope, happiness, and love. It stands in front of the Hope World mural, being one of the first things on the street to see.
Overall, if you’re a fan of BTS—and of other groups that have members from Gwangju—then you’ll definitely want to add the Gwangju K-Pop Star Street to your list of K-pop travel destinations not to miss!
Kpop Travel Destinations: Gangnam
After growing in popularity around the world thanks to Psy’s song “Gangnam Style,” it should be no surprise that Gangnam is also on our list. Jam packed with K-Pop memorabilia, Gangnam has quite a few things worth stopping by and checking out.
Much like Gwangju, there’s also a K-Pop street in Gangnam. However, this one was actually made first! This street is known as the Gangnam K-Star Road.
Another popular location in Gangnam is the Statue of Gangnam Style.
Statue of Gangnam Style
Like I mentioned earlier, the worldwide popularity of Gangnam had a lot to do with Psy’s worldwide hit “Gangnam Style.” This song came out back in 2012. And it quickly swept across the world in a mixture of parodies and truly loved mixes. Everywhere you went, you would find people making the famous Gangnam-Style dance moves. (You know which one I’m talking about… the jumping, the crossed hands… mostly known as a “horse-riding” dance move.)
Well, after the worldwide, record-breaking song continued to grow in popularity, Gangnam decided to put up a statue in its honor. At the end of 2015/early 2016, the Statue of Gangnam Style was unveiled. Of course, this is now one of the most visit K-Pop travel destinations on this list.
You can find this statue you in fron of the COEX Mall’s East Gate.
Gangnam K-Star Road
Located on the main road of Gangnam—connecting the Apgujeong Rodeo Station and the Cheongdam crossroad—this road has quickly become one of the most popular K-pop travel destinations.
Like the Gwangju K-Pop Star Street, the Gangnam K-Star Road has a few things you can see. The biggest attraction is the GangnamDols. These large character dolls represent various K-pop groups.
There’s dolls for SHINee, Miss A, Block B, BTS, EXO, and many others. They’re quite large, so it’s a perfect picture location!
And, if you like the look of the GangnamDols, there’s actually a gift shop. You can buy magnets or miniature versions of the dolls here! So you take a little piece of the Gangnam K-Star Road with you when you leave. There’s nothing like visiting K-Pop travel destinations and getting to take some of it back home with you!
If you want more things to look at while you’re visiting Gangam, after hitting the most important K-Pop travel destinations, there’s plenty for you to see! This street is actually pretty close to some of the bigger entertainment companies… a quick internet search and you could find yourself standing in front of your favorite artist’s company building. And if shopping is more your route, then you’re in luck.
The Gangnam K-Star Road is in a shopping-fanatic’s dreamland. There’s a ton of shopping stores nearby—including the Hyundai Department Store—and the Cheongdam Fashion Street is actually one of the more luxurious shopping areas in Seoul. There’s also another street—the Sinsadong Garosu Street—that includes even more designer stores and plenty of other shops to fill your shopping needs.
The Gangnam K-Star Road has everything K-pop related and more that you’d ever want for a day trip. So be sure to add this location to your K-pop travel destinations list—and perhaps your regular travel destination list, too!
K-Pop Travel Destinations: Seoul
Though Gangnam is a district within Seoul, there’s a few K-Pop travel destinations you’ll want to visit from Seoul in general. The Seoul Forest. Firstly, this park is a great place to visit regardless of your feelings for K-pop; there’s different sections to this park that can include anything from educational parks to art parks. There’s enough stuff for you to enjoy the park all on its own!
However, since you’re here to add to your K-pop travel destinations list, then you’ll want to mark this one down, too!
In particular, Seoul Forest has become the place that K-pop fans buy/plant plots of trees (with benches or plaques usually) to dedicate to their favorite idols. If you look up K-Pop Forests in Seoul, Seoul Forest will be one of the first locations to come up. In fact, if you look up K-Pop travel destinations in general, Seoul Forest will be the top results.
If you’re a fan of BTS, then you’ll want to take a walk through this park as well. Because this park has not one, but two forests dedicated to member RM. Making three (four if you count the GangnamDol) K-Pop travel destinations in South Korea for BTS!
RM Forests
RM Forest #1
Set up back in 2019 to celebrate RM’s birthday, fans banded together to donate and plant nearly 1,250 trees for the—officially named—RM Forest No. 1.
This forest was a long time coming. Years and months were put into raising money and finding people to plant the trees. But after it all, fans love it.
You can find this first RM Forest at the Han River Park in Jamsil.
RM Forest #2
The second RM Forest was created by fans once again to celebrate the leader’s birthday in 2020. They planted three hackberry trees and two-hundred stocks of spirea.
Both forests were put together by the account @HoneyJoonie94 on Twitter. Because of their dedication to completing the task, there’s two lovely K-Pop travel destinations for BTS fans to visit in Seoul.
You can find this second RM Forest at the Han River Park in Ichon.
And since this is one of the quieter places on our K-pop travel destinations list, why don’t you take a load off and listen to RM’s “Bicycle” while visiting? I guarantee it’ll be a nice time!
K-Pop Travel Destinations for General K-Pop Related Things
Though it’s great to have specific places to visit and see only K-pop related things, there’s plenty of locations in South Korea (and particularly in Seoul) that just include a lot of K-pop things even if they’re not only for K-pop.
This includes places like shopping malls or amusement parks. There’s also plenty of restaurants and cafés that you can find around South Korea that include K-pop memorabilia. And, if you’re lucky, you might find yourself wandering into restaurants either owned by an idol or one owned by their family!
Myeongdong Underground Shopping Center
If you didn’t know, underground shopping centers are actually rather popular in South Korea. Many of these shopping centers can include anything from clothing to food to K-pop merchandise. That’s what makes them so great.
But what adds the Myeongdong Underground Shopping Center to our K-pop travel destinations list specifically has to do with the huge amount of K-pop merchandise you can find here.
Including albums, you can find posters and clothing and just about anything related to your idol. There’s quite a few different K-pop related stores in this shopping center, so it’s definitely worth a visit!
There’s a couple ways to get to this shopping center. However, you can actually get there without coming up to ground-level from the subway station. If you’re at the Myeongdong subway station (Line 4), you’ll be able to find it rather easily!
Which of these K-pop travel destinations will you be visiting?
With so many K-pop travel destinations in South Korea, we’ve barely scratched the surface with this list of five places. But there’s at least a few places for you to start with this list! If you are a JYP fan, then definitely check out their Soul Cup cafe with the video below!
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_XthOdXaVQ[/embedyt]
If you want to read more about all things K-pop, then you can scroll through our K-Pop Category. We’ve written about plenty of the top K-pop artists and maybe some that you should check out. If you’d like to find more locations to add to your South Korea Visit List that aren’t K-Pop travel destinations, then you can scroll through our Travel Category. We’ve written about places you can visit in Jeju, things you can do to live like a local Korean, and various attractions you’d enjoy checking out. So be sure to scroll through our blogs!