Is Seoul safe?

In Seoul, other people are a smaller risk than hidden cameras, nightclub drinks and the pavement itself. Hidden-camera crime, called molka in Korean, is the risk Korean women raise most often, and while Seoul's district offices inspect subway-station restrooms, in older buildings around Jongno 3-ga we still look for odd holes in stall walls and tissue boxes left in strange places. On the Hongdae club strip along Eoulmadang-ro and in Itaewon, reports of drink-spiking tend to come after 2am on Fridays and Saturdays, so keep your glass in your hand and order bottled soju that you watch being opened. In daily life the pavement is the bigger hazard: Baemin delivery scooters ride the sidewalks fast with their horns bleating, and electric kickboards come up silently behind you on the side streets of Mapo.

Crowds are the one risk we would plan around this month. On 29 October 2022, 159 people died in a crowd crush in the sloping alley beside the Hamilton Hotel in Itaewon, and Halloween 2026 falls on a Saturday. In recent years police have run one-way pedestrian flows there, and trains have sometimes passed Itaewon station without stopping. If you go, arrive before 9pm and leave along the main Itaewon-ro, not the back lanes. Gwanghwamun Square fills with political rallies on many Saturdays, loud with drums and loudspeakers echoing off the Sejong Center, and every rally we have walked past was peaceful, but Line 5 exits at Gwanghwamun can close with little warning.

Night transit is where Seoul earns its score. The subway shuts down around midnight, and last trains vary by line and direction, so check Naver Map or Kakao Metro before your last round. After that, N-numbered owl buses such as the N26 run through Hongdae and Jongno until about 5am, brightly lit and full of office workers dozing against cold windows. For taxis, book through Kakao T: the app records the driver and the route, which ends the meter disputes travellers still report at the Incheon Airport and Hongdae ranks. It is 17.6°C under overcast skies as we write, mild enough to walk to a bus stop. Every GS25 and CU convenience store stays open all night and smells of microwaved samgak-gimbap, and if a street feels wrong, any of them works as a refuge.

For an evening walk alone, we like the Cheonggyecheon path from Cheonggye Plaza east toward Dongdaemun: it is lit, watched by cameras, and smells faintly of wet stone after rain. The Namsan trails up to Namsan Seoul Tower are fine until about 10pm, though the north-side stairs feel empty on weeknights. After midnight, skip the alleys behind Yeongdeungpo station, where drunk men and touts gather, and the stretch of Itaewon that locals call Hooker Hill. LGBTQ+ travellers should know that Seoul scores 4.5/10 for LGBTQ+ friendliness (sourced from TTDI's editorial rubric): the bars on Itaewon's Homo Hill and around Jongno 3-ga are welcoming, but holding hands elsewhere draws stares. At 1,332 won to the dollar, a 30,000-won late-night taxi costs about $23, a fair price for tired legs.