N Seoul Tower: View from the Top

In my eight years here in Korea, I’ve only been to the top observatory of N Seoul Tower five times. And I never had to pay every time ;p
The last time I was there was in July, while my husband was on a trip to Shanghai. Whenever he travels abroad, I always tell him to get a travelers insurance. It’s something that he should have but I hope he won’t use. I do the same whenever I travel, because you’ll never know when you’re going to need it. I would recommend to travelers in Korea to get the same insurance since medical fee here isn’t cheap when one doesn’t have an insurance, but of course it isn’t as expensive as in the USA. That’s why when I visited my family in California and Ohio, I made it a point to get one especially that I had my son with me.
Going back to N Seoul Tower, I received a coupon for two to the tower from a sponsor. Prior to that, the last time I was at the top was in 2009.

It was foggy when I brought my son there. I told him we could go there some other time, but he insisted that he just wants to ride their super fast elevator. The staff at the information center and ticket booth never mentioned anything about visibility. When my sister and I were in New York and we tried to visit the Top of the Rock, the staff told us what we could see when the visibility rating is 1. Anyway, it was free and the coupon was near its expiration. The ticket to the observatory is 9,000 won for adults, 7,000 won for teenagers and 5,000 won for kids. There is also the Teddy Bear Museum where the ticket is 8,000 won for adults, 6,000 won for teenagers and 5,000 won for kids. The packaged ticket (observatory and Teddy Bear Museum) is 14,000 won for adults, 10,000 won for teenagers and 7,000 won for kids.
I would say that the observatory was a lot better in 2009. There were no shops before but now there is a souvenir shop occupying about an eighth of the area. The ceiling then was mirrored and people had fun taking pictures of their reflections on the ceiling.

By the way, before you board the elevator to the observatory you could have picture taken. Then at the top, you could purchase the print for 12,000 won. You could choose between a daytime or a night background.

If you take the stairs down to where the toilets are, you’ll also see this wall of wooden tiles with “love” messages on them:

And here’s one from a Filipino (?) couple from Atlanta (?)…

Would I recommend visiting N Seoul Tower observatory? In the morning when the weather is good and the sky is clear. If you’re visiting Seoul, then why not?