Gen Z Guide to FI

I just got back from a 2 week solo trip to South Korea. I’m so sad writing this because I had an amazing time & I can’t believe it’s over. During my visit, I stayed in 2 neighborhoods in Seoul (Itaewon & Gangnam), Jeju City & Incheon.

In my first 5 days, I stayed in Itaewon at a hostel called G Guesthouse. It was actually a location for one of my favorite K dramas – Itaewon Class.

I was pretty nervous because I’ve never stayed in a hostel before. I stayed in a 4 person female dorm. I met some great girls and we got to hang out a bit and even go clubbing together. It far exceeded my expectations and was within my budget. I paid $143 for 5 nights. The only drawback was catching a cold from one of my roommates. Otherwise, I had a great time and I’m grateful I always travel with cold & flu meds.

Itaewon itself was kind of mid, in my humble opinion. I mean I only stayed there because of the drama but I didn’t end up doing much in that area. It was kind of dingy compared to the other parts of Seoul I visited. But I ticked it off the bucket list, so I feel alright.

Then, I moved to Gangnam for 4 days and split between a hotel & share house. I spent my time in the hotel mostly sick haha. Fortunately, it was raining heavily while I was sick so I didn’t feel like I missed out too much. The only travel hack on this trip was getting 2 free nights from Hilton Garden Inn Gangnam with points I earned from my Hilton Amex card that I closed earlier in the year. It was about 96,000 points for 2 nights.

I loved Gangnam though. It was classy. I would definitely love to stay in that area again. I mostly spent my time in Seoul eating, vibing and looking for KDrama locations. I’m a simple girl like that. 

After about 10 days of vibing in Seoul, I went to Jeju with a friend from college that’s Korean & lives in Seoul. It was nice to have a local guide to take me around because it would have been difficult renting a car and navigating the driving instructions in Korean by myself haha. Honestly, Jeju City was my favorite part of my trip. It was very serene and quiet. There weren’t a lot of people since the weather is very unpredictable in July. It was like we had the whole island to ourselves. Luckily the weather was decent for the days that we were there.

It was also very wholesome to spend a weekend with a friend I haven’t seen since college. Core memories made.

I stayed in Incheon for the last 3 days of my trip. The vibes were very different from Seoul. It was giving generational wealth. I stayed in a condo with a nice Airbnb host. She was older but the condo was really nice in a high rise building with 23 floors.

I mostly went shopping; only window shopping because I didn’t have room in my small hand luggage for stuff. I also went to look for more locations of my all time favorite KDrama – Goblin.

Stay tuned for part 2, I’ll be sharing lessons learned and surprises from my trip. I’ll also be talking about the cost of this trip.

XOXO Gen Z Fire Baby