Hotel Del Luna Seoul Walk: 4 Spots (4 Reported)

Why visit

Hotel Del Luna (호텔 델루나) aired on tvN in 2019, starring IU as Jang Man-wol, the owner of a hotel for the dead, and Yeo Jin-goo as Gu Chan-seong, the manager she hires. The drama’s fantasy hotel is not a real place — but the retro corners of Seoul where its characters eat, drink, and browse are. VisitSeoul’s “Retro Seoul in Hotel Del Luna” tour collects four of them, and this guide follows that tour.

What makes these stops worth a trip is that they are ordinary, working places with a past. Seoul Book Bogo is Korea’s largest used bookstore, with over 130,000 used books under arched iron shelves. Hyemindang is a bakery with a mother-of-pearl cabinet interior on Euljiro. Changhwadang is a vintage-style dumpling house on Daehakro. And the Ikseon-dong building that stood in for the hotel’s past now houses a retro arcade and lounge bar — the neighborhood itself is the attraction, a maze of hanok alleys turned cafés and shops. Nearest KTX station: Seoul Station for the central-Seoul cluster — VisitKorea lists Seoul Station among the stations KTX departs from — and since all four stops sit inside Seoul, the tour works as a Seoul day trip, with Book Bogo as the southeastern leg.

Three of the four stops sit in central Seoul, so they pair naturally with Jongno’s palaces, Insadong, and the Euljiro cafés. Book Bogo is a separate trip southeast to Songpa. Come for the drama, stay for the neighborhoods — and check the hours on the day, since cafés and restaurants here change faster than the drama fades. The real hotel exterior stands in Mokpo — see our Mokpo guide.

Plan your day

Follow VisitSeoul’s tour order: Hotel Seine (now New Seoul) in Ikseon-dong, then Hyemindang and its paired Coffee Hanyakbang on Euljiro, then Changhwadang in Daehakro, then Seoul Book Bogo in Songpa. The first three cluster in central Seoul; Book Bogo is a separate subway ride southeast, so treat it as a second outing or a full-day finish.

At Hyemindang, remember it is a bakery, not a porridge restaurant: order dessert there and drinks at Coffee Hanyakbang. At Changhwadang, expect a line at peak hours. At Book Bogo, allow 45–90 minutes to browse. Hours change — the Ikseon-dong building already changed use once since the tour was published — so confirm hours on the day before a special trip. See our Seoul hub for more Seoul filming locations.

Split the day if you can. Do the central cluster — Hotel Seine (now New Seoul), Hyemindang with Coffee Hanyakbang, then Changhwadang — in one unhurried stretch, since all three sit in Jongno-gu and Jung-gu, and save Book Bogo for a second outing or a full-day finish, as the guide already suggests. That split also protects you against the hours problem: cafés and restaurants in these neighborhoods change faster than the drama fades, and the Ikseon-dong building has already changed use once since VisitSeoul’s tour. Confirm hours on the day, and keep the Seoul hub open for the wider set of Seoul places.

If you love bookshops

Seoul Book Bogo is worth the southeastern leg even beyond the drama. Seoul’s city site introduces it as Korea’s first public secondhand bookstore, a cultural space with thematic exhibitions, book concerts and a book club alongside its secondhand stock — so the visit is closer to a small cultural center than to an ordinary shop. The draw the drama points to is still the building itself: the arched iron “bookworm” shelves, the long curved passageway and the sculptures made of books, with over 130,000 used books to hunt through. Allow the full 45–90 minutes here rather than rushing it between central-Seoul stops. If the retro-Seoul mood is what brought you, our Reply 1988 guide offers another old-neighborhood walk, and our Coffee Prince guide covers a Hongdae café at the center of its own drama.

How we checked

A stop is reported when one strong source names it as a filming location, and confirmed when two independent sources do. All four stops here rest on VisitSeoul’s tour, so all four stay reported. On the Oct 17, 2026 re-check we looked for second sources: The CinemaHolic lists three of the four, but as a foreign roundup repeating the same tour claims it was not counted as independent confirmation, and the Seoul Tourism Organization newsletter that confirms Hyemindang comes from the same publisher as VisitSeoul. The same re-check caught a real change: the Hotel Seine café is now New Seoul. We re-verify spot status periodically and update when places close, change, or gain new sources.

Getting there (transit)

Fares and schedules change. Prefer official pages on your travel day.

Incheon Airport (ICN) → Seoul

Seoul Metropolitan Government (accessed Sep 23, 2026): AREX All-Stop ~59–66 min to Seoul Station; Express ~43–51 min. Confirm on AREX.

Seoul Metro → Seoul Book Bogo

Seoul Metro English site (accessed Sep 23, 2026): check current card fares on your travel day. Maps: seoulmetro.co.kr/en.

VisitSeoul directions: Jamsillaru Station, Exit 1, about 2 minutes on foot to Seoul Book Bogo (1 Ogeum-ro, Songpa-gu).

Sources