Seoul

The 1988 Olympics was South Korea’s coming out party to the world and the capital has lived up to the image it projected ever since. The Olympic Park – known as OlPark – was the centre of the Games and remains a key part of the city to this day.

While the Olympic Stadium is home to Seoul E-Land Football Club, and the neighbouring Jamsil Baseball Stadium hosts both the LG Twins and Doosan Bears, there is more to the OlPark than sports.

The park stages the annual Seoul Jazz Festival, and there’s a K-pop museum as well as cafés, bars and restaurants, providing an open-air, car-free escape from the city. Activity hire, from skates to balls, is cheap and plentiful, while there is a cultural art park, an eco-park and a history park to explore, as well as the World Peace Gate, a monument to the power of the Games to unite.

OlPark is currently undergoing a US$270 million facelift, set to be complete by the end of 2026, and it is tipped to form the foundation of Seoul’s bid to host the Games again in 2036.

Elsewhere in Seoul, check out the Royal Bowling Centre, which hosted the 1988 Games’ 10-pin bowling – the sport’s only Olympic appearance – and the banks of the Han River and nearby Gangnam that formed the marathon course.