To All the Boys: Always and Forever Seoul Walk: 8 Spots (1 Confirmed)

Why visit Lara Jean’s Seoul

To All the Boys: Always and Forever reached Netflix on Feb 12, 2021, closing the To All the Boys trilogy. It is based on Jenny Han’s 2017 novel Always and Forever, Lara Jean. The film opens with the Song-Covey family trip to Seoul: Lara Jean (Lana Condor), her sisters Kitty (Anna Cathcart) and Margot (Janel Parrish), their father Dan (John Corbett), and their neighbour Trina. They are retracing the late mother’s memories, and SBS describes a scene in which an N Seoul Tower padlock is given as a gift.

The Seoul scenes were shot on location. Cine21 reported from the set that the cast and crew filmed in Seoul for about a week in September 2019. After the Seoul opening, the film returns to senior year and college decisions in the United States, so the Seoul stretch is short — but every place in it is real, public, and visitable.

That is what makes this a good walk. The eight stops cover a market feast, a tower full of love locks, a futuristic plaza, a café drawn in black and white, a shopping district, a riverside park, a 1,200-year-old temple, and one of the world’s tallest observatories. You do not need to be a fan of the film to enjoy them; the film just gives you a reason to string them together.

Visiting the four best-sourced stops

Gwangjang Market (Jongno-gu). The best-sourced stop on this page. SBS lists it among the Seoul places on the family trip, and Lana Condor told the Korea Times that her market scene had her eating noodle soup and dumplings for eight hours. VisitKorea calls it Korea’s first permanent market, and its food street — reached from the East Gate, North Gate 2 and South Gate 1 — is the busiest part. VisitKorea lists the general market at 09:00–18:00 and the food street at 09:00–23:00, with the food street open year-round, including Sundays when the main market shops are closed. The address is 88 Changgyeonggung-ro, and Jongno 5-ga Station (Line 1) is the nearby subway reference. Walk one slow lap before choosing a seat, check prices before you order, and ask the vendor about payment before you sit down. Allow 45–90 minutes, or longer if you graze.

Dongdaemun Design Plaza, DDP (Jung-gu). SBS lists DDP among the Seoul landmarks the family visits, and that single source is why it is labeled reported rather than confirmed. The building itself is worth the stop: designed by Zaha Hadid, it opened in 2014 as a neo-futuristic cultural complex with exhibition halls, a design museum, a design market and a walkable roof park. It sits at Dongdaemun History & Culture Park Station, Exit 1. The outdoor plaza is free; exhibitions are ticketed separately. Exhibition hours vary by event, so check the official DDP site before you go. Come back after dark if you can — the curved aluminium shell is at its best lit up at night.

N Seoul Tower (Yongsan-gu). SBS lists N Seoul Tower among the film’s Seoul places and notes the padlock-gift scene; a second source has not confirmed this place yet, so it stays reported. The tower stands on Namsan, above central Seoul. The grounds and summit plaza are free; the observatory inside is ticketed. There are four ways up: the cable car from near Myeongdong Station, the circular bus, the walking trails, and the free Namsan Oreumi inclined elevator that covers the lower stretch from the Myeongdong side. The terraces around the tower base hold the love locks. Check the tower’s official site for observatory hours and ticket prices before you go, and allow one to two hours.

Greem Cafe, Café Yeonnam-dong 223-14 (Mapo-gu). Cine21, which visited the set, says the film’s opening scene — Lara Jean writing a postcard to Peter — was shot at this Yeonnam-dong café, known for its black-and-white, cartoon-like interior. That single on-set report is why it is labeled reported. It is a small private café in Yeonnam-dong, near Hongdae. We have not confirmed it is still trading under this name, so check its current listing before you go, and buy something before taking photos if you visit.

The four fan-spotted stops

Myeongdong, Yeouido Hangang Park, Bongeunsa Temple and Seoul Sky come from a fan blog only. No official or press source has confirmed them yet, so all four are labeled fan-spotted. They are still real, visitable places, and each is easy to pair with the stops above.

Myeongdong (Jung-gu). A busy shopping district of cosmetics shops, street food and department stores, and the natural pairing for a Namsan visit — the cable car station sits on its edge. Go for the street food and the evening crowds rather than for a specific film frame.

Yeouido Hangang Park (Yeongdeungpo-gu). A public riverside park on the Han River in Yeouido. It is free, open, and a good place to walk off a market lunch. Bring a picnic or rent a bike if you want to stay longer; there is no film-specific marker to find.

Bongeunsa Temple (Gangnam-gu). A working Buddhist temple north of COEX. VisitKorea records that it was built in 794 as Gyeonseongsa and refurbished and renamed Bongeunsa in 1498. It sits in the middle of Gangnam’s glass towers, which is the point: courtyards, wooden halls and a giant Maitreya Buddha statue a short walk from a convention centre. Keep quiet near the halls, do not photograph worshippers, and check the temple’s own site for templestay programmes if you want more than a walk-through.

Seoul Sky, Lotte World Tower (Songpa-gu). The observatory on floors 117–123 of Lotte World Tower, the country’s tallest building. It is a ticketed observatory with a panoramic view of the whole city — a different view from N Seoul Tower, looking across the river and the eastern skyline. Check the official site for hours and prices. Pair it with the Lotte World Mall at its base rather than with the Jongno stops.

Fitting the eight stops into a trip

Do not try to cover all eight in one day. Split them by area. Day one: Gwangjang Market and DDP in the Jongno–Dongdaemun area, then N Seoul Tower with Myeongdong in the evening. Day two: the Greem Cafe in Yeonnam-dong, plus one of Yeouido Hangang Park, Bongeunsa Temple or Seoul Sky, depending on whether you want river, temple or observatory. Kitty Song Covey (Anna Cathcart) later returns to Seoul in her own Netflix series, XO, Kitty, which is a separate title — see the XO, Kitty Seoul guide and the XO, Kitty places outside Seoul for that trip.

How we checked this page

Each filming claim on this page is tied to a named source listed below. Gwangjang Market is confirmed: SBS and the Korea Times are two independent sources. DDP and N Seoul Tower are reported: SBS alone so far. Greem Cafe is reported: Cine21’s on-set report alone so far. Myeongdong, Yeouido Hangang Park, Bongeunsa Temple and Seoul Sky are fan-spotted: a fan blog only, with no official or press source yet. Visitor details — hours, addresses, history — were checked against VisitKorea, the DDP official site and the tower’s own pages, accessed Oct 18, 2026. We do not use film stills. Where a detail is unverified, it is left out rather than stated as fact.

Getting there

All the places are in Seoul. Find each leg on Seoul Metro or Naver Map (English UI).

From Busan

We have not checked this route against an official timetable. Search Busan → Seoul on Korail for trains on your travel date.

Sources