AT A GLANCE
Why go?
Seoulland is Korea's first comprehensive theme park, a family-friendly world of rides, shows and gardens set on the green slopes of Gwacheon, just south of Seoul. It opened in May 1988, timed to coincide with the Seoul Olympic Games, and today packs around 40 attractions into roughly 300,000 square metres, a third of it open green space.↗↗↗
The park is spread across five themed zones—World Plaza, Adventure Land, Character Town, Tomorrow Land and Samchulli ("Thousand-Mile") Hill—so you can move from gentle kiddie rides to looping steel coasters in a single stroll. Because it sits far closer to central Seoul than the bigger Everland, it has long been the default day out for Seoul families, with around three to three-and-a-half million visitors a year.↗↗
Born for the Olympics, built for strolling
Seoulland was conceived as a showcase for the 1988 Summer Olympics and, on opening, was billed as Korea's first all-inclusive theme park. More than three decades on, that heritage still shapes its character: it is less about sheer size than about a relaxed, park-like atmosphere against the backdrop of Cheonggye-san mountain. Locals treat it almost as a botanical garden with roller coasters attached—the tree-lined grounds make it a favourite for an easy afternoon walk as much as for the rides.