Getting to Lotte World Tower

After visiting Seoul Grand Park, we hurried to the train station, transferring two lines and two stations before reaching after around 35 mins.

• Walk to Seoul Grand Park Station
• Take Line 4 (Blue) towards Danggogae Station for 4 stops
• Alight at Sadang Station
• Transfer to Line 2 (Green) towards Seongsu Station for 10 stops
• Alight at Jamsil Station

Buying Tickets for Lotte World Tower

The Lotte World Mall was really grand and the interior architecture was so pretty that it stopped us in our tracks, to look up.

We were not here to do shopping however so we quickly headed to the Seoul Sky Observation Deck Ticketing Counter, with a prominent “Seoul Sky” lighted signboard on it. Before that, it’s a must to take some pictures with the cute mascot at the entrance for a memento.

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Entering Seoul Sky

Purchasing tickets for all of us, with Ling being free of charge, we were told that our stroller would not be allowed. Hence, we left the stroller with the counter and entered the exhibition area. Ling fell asleep in my Tula carrier on the way in.

We were told that we are given around an hour to finish the self-tour. Some sites mentioned only 30 minutes. I guess it was because we were there on a weekday. There was no crowd.

We enjoyed a slow walk through the exhibitions which consisted of the “building history” of Seoul Sky. Dar likes to look at these and lingered there for a long while. There was also a huge wall with a multimedia display of architectures and places in South Korea. It was so pretty to look at! A pity that Ling fell asleep or she would have enjoyed it too.

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Fast Elevator

We arrived at a long passageway with a short queue to take the lift up to the 117th Floor of Seoul Sky. It was the most interesting ride as the walls had multimedia too, unlike what we had seen in other skyscrapers tours. It helps to distract us from the feeling of moving up several storeys too fast. Within a few minutes, we’d reached!

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117 Floor – First Look at Seoul Landscape

Dar immediately walk fast across the wide carpeted area to look at the skyline below. We were indeed very high up. On the ledge next to the window, there were icons introducing the different buildings in Seoul. The Han River cuts across the buildings with different bridges across it. Too bad that for this trip, we did not have the time to take a cruise through Han River!

We noticed that Seoul city’s planning was so neat and organised! All the buildings were built in the same way, along the same lines. Many residential areas looked the same too.

We caught a glimpse of the Lotte World Theme Park down below! Not visiting it for this trip since Dar does not like theme parks (Yup, he requested for this skyscraper instead) and the toddler cannot do much.

While wandering around, I was puzzled about the glass floor I had read about. Where were they? We really thought this was all there was to it.

Suddenly, I spotted an escalator going upwards to a  “118 floor – Sky Deck” and I realised that there was another level! I signalled to Vin who was still walking around with Dar around the place and got them to go up.

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118 Floor – Glass Floors

Reaching the 118th Floor, we saw a group of people crowding around an area of glass floor. This was it!

I was amused that the group of elderly aunties did not dare to step on to the floor and was just looking at it from the border. When one stepped finally, they make a lot of exclamation noises…

We just sort of trusted the building management and took light steps right across. It was an amazing feeling looking down! Dar even squatted down and touched the glass, which I promptly told him not to, as it had been stepped on by so many (so dirty).

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120th Floor – Open Top! Seoul Sky

Soon, we moved and found another escalator again! This time, we reached the 120th Floor! It is known as the “Sky Terrace” at 486m. Stepping out, we were surprised to find ourselves under an open top, with a netting above us and cool winds blowing! The top of Seoul Sky was right there! (Entire Building is at a height of 554.5 metres)

Once again, we were blown away by the view of the entire Seoul Cityscape down below with only a piece of glass pane separating us. The view was much clearer up here too as shown in the picture I took.

It was a small area so we did not linger long and went back inside again. By this time, we had enough of viewing and went to the nearby Gift Shop to purchase Dar’s prized souvenir – the Seoul Sky Miniature Tower. He aspires to collect all the miniatures of towers and skyscrapers we visit from each country.

Travel Period :  30 May – 5 June 2017 (Tues – Mon)

7 DAYS 6 NIGHTS IN SEOUL/JEJU ISLAND

[ SUMMARY ]

Total Time We Spent for Tour (with lots of photo-taking and some rest): 50 minutes

LOTTE WORLD TOWER (롯데월드타워&롯데월드몰) : 4.5/5

Great:  The exhibition before entering the lift to take us up to the observation deck was full of information. We enjoyed watching the items and how Seoul Sky was built, with some other interesting things about South Korea.

The elevator experience was interesting by itself with a multi-media wall, so different from others we had taken (in comparison with Taipei 101, Petronas Twin Towers). We love that.

The Observation Decks gave us surprises after surprises, because it was fun to go higher and higher (from 117F to 120F) in a progressive observation mode, from an enclosed look to glass floor, to an open top!

Added another skyscraper to our travel list – The Fifth Tallest Building in the World.

Con: Not enough resting area for people who are tired of walking around and just want to sit down while waiting for the rest of the party. The ledge at the sides of the window had “no sitting” signs on it. There were no other sitting areas. Still, my elderly parents sat down on a few secluded ledge as we moved around the halls, because their legs were breaking after so much walking and they had to wait for us. They got bored after a few minutes in each area..lol.

The reason for lack of sitting areas is most probably because we have to finish the tour by a certain timing (within 30-40mins) to regulate the crowd, so they do not want people loitering around for too long. However, we just wanted to at least rest a little while, not for too long.

[ INFO ]

General ticket: Adults (ages 13 and up) 27,000 won / Children (ages 3-12) 24,000 won

Read next post : Day 2 – Bukchon Hanok Museum and Village

Read our Summary Itinerary Post for South Korea 2017 Trip : 7 Days in South Korea Seoul and Jeju Itinerary

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