Not to be confused with Seoul Grand Park in Gwacheon, Children’s Grand Park is located in the heart of Seoul and is the perfect location for parents of busy children who need to get out of the house. Children’s Grand Park boasts so many fun (and affordable) activities for all ages. And because admission into the park is free, you can pick and choose where to spend your money (if any). Still, even if you don’t want to spend anything, there are plenty of activities available at no cost.
Children’s Grand Park in Seoul
My biggest piece of advice for visiting Children’s Grand Park is the same advice I give for just about everything in South Korea: don’t visit on a weekend. And if you MUST visit on a weekend: get there early. Because Brandon was playing catch-up on some school work (due to him missing a week of school for a field exercise), we weren’t able to get out of the house as early as we wanted, which resulted in some nasty traffic through Seoul. In all it took us about 3.5 hours to get there (and that includes a full hour that we waiting to get a parking spot in the garage), which was over double what we had planned. By the time we got there, we only had about two hours before things started closing.
Still, we made the best of the little bit of time we had. We opted to forgo the children’s museum and instead made our way to the outdoor playground where we sat and had a Ramyeon picnic while the kids ran around and got some energy out. Since we visited on a Saturday afternoon, it was insanely busy. But crowds in Korea are very different than crowds in the United States – and we don’t usually mind the crowds too much here.
After the kids had played for a while, we headed over to the zoo. While it IS a really small zoo, it’s also free and we were pleasantly surprised at the variety of animals they had. They had elephants, leopards, lions, baboons, and SO many other animals. Not bad for a completely free zoo. There aren’t many things on the Peninsula that we are going to make time to repeat before we leave – but Children’s Grand Park is FOR SURE something we will be coming back to – although next time we’ll visit on a weekday.
After the zoo was closing, we made our way back to the parking garage and happened on the giant musical fountain. We had so much fun watching the water show that was synced up to music. From instrumental music, to K-pop, to Phantom of the Opera – there was a lot of variety to the music that they played. In addition to the children’s museum, outdoor playground, zoo, and musical fountain, Children’s Grand Park also has a splash pad (open during the summer), amusement park (fees apply), indoor playground, botanical garden, and probably more that we didn’t see. Needless to say, there is something for everyone within the park grounds.
Children’s Grand Park is further proof that you don’t have to spend a ton of money to have a good time, even if you have a lot of kids. We will definitely be making it back – hopefully before the weather takes a turn into being disrespectfully cold.
’til next time…
Ash
How to visit Children’s Grand Park in Seoul
Directions & Parking: There is a parking lot with basement parking underneath it. It cost us ₩5,000 for two hours of parking and our AMEX was accepted at the machine.
Naver pin: Children’s Grand Park parking lot
Cost:
Amusement Park
1 attraction ticket
Adult – ₩5,000
Youth – ₩4,000
Child – ₩3,500
3 attraction tickets
Adult – ₩11,000
Youth – ₩11,000
Child – ₩9,000
5 attraction tickets
Adult – ₩19,000
Youth – ₩16,000
Child – ₩16,000
Unlimited pass
Adult – ₩27,000
Children’s Museum
Individuals over 36 months – ₩4,000
Group rate (20 or more people) – ₩3,000/person
Hours:
Zoo
Open daily from 10:00am – 5:00pm
Botanical Garden
Tuesday – Sunday: 10:00am – 5:00pm
Monday: 1:00pm – 5:00pm
Amusement Park
Open daily from 10:00am – 6:30pm
Children’s Museum
CLOSED MONDAY
Tuesday – Sunday: 10:00am – 6:00pm
Accessibility: We didn’t explore the entire park, but everywhere we did was stroller and wheelchair accessible. The park is huge, so I recommend bringing a stroller for little ones.
Amenities: There are bathrooms located in various places throughout the park. In addition, there are multiple cafeterias, cafes, and convenience stores throughout.
