Lotte World Tower in Seoul

At 555m, Lotte World Tower is the tallest tower in South Korea and the sixth tallest in the world. With its 123 floors, the building rises high into the air and offers a beautiful view over the whole of Seoul. How was it to see the world from above?

It's been a good three weeks since I paid a visit to the Lotte Tower. In fact, the weekend was packed because of Chuseok, one of the most important holidays in South Korea. But since I met a friend from Germany who was only staying in Seoul for a week, I wanted to accompany her on this weekend. There's no avoiding the holiday rush, but I still want to share this cool yet slightly scary experience with you!

To get to the Lotte Tower, you first have to walk through a shopping mall. There we already met a very long queue, which we had to follow around a corner for about 30 minutes to buy a ticket. One thing I find unfortunate about Korea is that the country makes it almost impossible for foreigners to enjoy the benefits of this country. And I'm talking about simple things like booking tickets online. We couldn't do this in advance because you need a Korean credit card or a Korean cell phone number for almost everything in South Korea. However, you only get this if you have an alien registration card, i.e. you are resident and registered in Korea or you are a citizen of South Korea. So we waited a little in line, which went even faster than expected. Now we stood in front of the ticket office and thought "that's it? That was easy", because after buying the ticket it looked like you could go straight up the tower - unfortunately that wasn't the case.

By now it was almost 6pm and in order for our plan about seeing the sunset to work out, we had to buy a fast pass. With broken English, the man at the ticket machine tried explaining to me that the waiting time didn't end with the ticket purchase. My girlfriend and I looked at each other slightly confused, because the queue for the tower (there was a separate queue for buying tickets) seemed surprisingly short and ended in front of an elevator that, we initially thought, would take us to the very top . However, the man told us that the actual waiting time from now is 1.5 hours. "Is that ok?" he asked us. In view of our plan, not really. This then cost us a total of 100,000 KRW for two to be transported upstairs immediately without any waiting. The normal ticket price is actually 25,000 KRW per person, for Mastercard payers there is even a 20% discount on top. But at that moment it seemed like the best option and the only way out, so we paid the money for a fast pass.

A woman led us along with ten other people to a separate elevator that took us one floor up and that's where the actual queue began. We walked down a separate aisle past all the others who had probably been queuing for ages to finally be able to go upstairs. Within 5 minutes we were in front of the right elevator and then were let in first before the others. Before going up there was a warning that the difference in pressure could cause someone to faint. My heart was slowly pounding, because with my fear of heights I dared to embark on a great adventure that I would normally have avoided. Before anyone asks, the elevator was not glass, thank goodness, but displayed a light show and several pictures of the tower as we went up, along with the history and some background information.

And off we went to the 119th floor in less than two minutes.

We were finally on the 119th floor. Adrenaline filled my body and my first reaction was panic. Up there you can clearly feel the movements of the tower caused by the wind and you really have the feeling that this heavy building could actually tip over at any moment. Of course that wasn't the case, but my legs wouldn't go any further and felt like jelly. My heart was pounding wildly and it took me several attempts before I was able to move through the tower with some "relaxation". But for this beautiful view, all the money and all the courage was worth it. For a second I forgot the hustle and bustle, the crowds around me and the altitude as I watched the sunset. We arrived just in time and saw Seoul at sunset, before night slowly fell.

People bustled around a glass floor - yes, a glass floor where you can look down the full 119 floors and marvel at the tiny cars driving by. Everything seemed so surreal, entering the glass felt like falling; kind of like the dreams were you feel like falling. My friend Anna immediately dared to do it, no sign of any fear or inhibitions. And then I came: it took me several attempts to even step on the glass, and I was incredibly proud when I finally did it. Even if Anna had to remind me to breathe several times. After all, I was an attraction to the Korean male next to me. He found the situation so amusing that he made fun of me all the time and pointed down at the glass saying "look down". My anxious reaction, which made me leave the glass again, made him laugh even more. Joker. After a long struggle, I entered the glass again, but I just didn't dare to look down. Would you dare? Instead, I caught a glimpse down for a millisecond, but then the fear got too much. The photo on the glass looking down was taken by Anna because I couldn't bring myself to do it.

From then on we spent about 3 hours on the tower. Admittedly the three most exciting, but also most nerve-wracking hours in a long time. You can't imagine how exhausted I was afterwards just from all the stress from the fear of heights and the constantly moving building. The tower has a circular structure, so you can walk around it and enjoy a different view from every angle. The sun on one side, the moon and the falling night on the other. In the middle were escalators that would take you up to the 123rd floor. On one floor was a cafe with seating, on another floor a souvenir shop, on another floor a small art gallery exhibiting art by Korean children. Some floors also had several roof tops, which allowed you to get out into the fresh air and enjoy a different view from there. If you want to be really brave, you even have the opportunity to walk outside, i.e. completely outside, along a staircase between one half of the tower and the other (the tower splits in the middle) with fuses and the excitement is really big sense. But that wasn't for us, because the tour of the tower alone meant enough excitement. Anna and I took a souvenir photo together on the glass, which could be printed on one of the other floors for KRW 10,000. Since I want to make a scrapbook about my trip to Korea after returning home, I'll take any picture I can get.

Last but not least: our fast pass didn't prevent waiting to get down. We waited an hour just to leave the tower. Around half past nine we were finally back down and had solid ground under our feet again - fortunately, because in the meantime I felt a little nauseous. We ended the evening with one of the best burgers and sandwiches we've ever had. We really wanted to eat burgers and since Anna is a vegetarian we specifically looked for burger restaurants with vegetarian options. Sometimes, you find the best places when you're not really looking. So we found a burger restaurant called Burger B (버거비 구의점 광진구) about 30 minutes from the tower. We thought they had veggie burgers since it looked like it on the menu, but unfortunately they didn't. Totally starved and tired, we sat in this small restaurant, which was only run by one man. The nice thing was that the man was so accommodating and didn't want to let us go, giving us for the first time a level of service not always experienced in Korea. The man offered to improvise with the food and after about 30 minutes of waiting brought us our food - Anna a homemade vegetarian sandwich with avocado, lettuce and homemade sauce and me a barbecue burger with the best fries I have ever eaten. Perhaps, the food tasted even better after facing the tower, but the truth is the owner, the small and unspectacular shop and the food were a pleasant surprise that we weren't expecting and ended up giving us so much pleasure that we could really enjoy the evening.

To end the post, I can tell you that visiting Lotte World Tower was a cool experience and definitely worth the views! If you go up and stay up during sunset, you will see Seoul once during the day and then at night - two different sights that are beautiful in their own way and are a must see! Even with a fear of heights, I recommend everyone to go up, because you don't experience something like that every day. I don't know if I'll do it again, but if I do, then definitely not on a public holiday again. When my other friend Celine went up on a weekday, she told me that she only waited 15 minutes in line for a price of 20,000 KRW and didn't have to deal with the crowds at the top.
Seoul from above is really beautiful. Despite all the stress, I'm glad I took on this adventure and was able to somehow enjoy the views at the end of the day. To complete the post, of course, some Seoul night pictures should not be missing. Enjoy!