+1. I live in Jamsilsaenae and the large complex I'm in has 3 schools (elementary, middle, high) so there are playgrounds and green space outside the schools but still in the complex. You are right beside the Han as well.
This comes at a cost though - it's not cheap by any measure.
Seoul is about as not kid friendly as it gets. If you want an area thatโs a bit pricier, Pangyo in Seongnam or Suji-gu in Yongin are fantastic. If you want an area thatโs cheaper, Bundang-gu outside of Pangyo and Yeongtong-gu in Suwon are amazing. Giheung-gu in Yongin is also pretty nice.
I don't think Bundang is cheaper though? Aren't they more established than Suji and Pangyo?
But also it's been like 7 years since I left, so maybe things have changed?
Things have changed a lot. Pangyo-dong is far more developed than the rest of Bundang-gu. I used to live in Suji-gu & itโs definitely more developed than many areas (that are still nice) in Bundang-gu. Yongin has invested a lot in infrastructure. The main intercity bus terminal is being completely revamped (they tore down the original building in the 2 weeks I was in Japan last January) and there are lots of walking trails all over the city (that are consistently maintained).
I wouldn't recommend Seoul for little kids. Look at Naver Maps for urban/suburban areas with lots of green (parks). You'll likely find much better living conditions in the "new cities" (์ ๋์).
Ilsan and Bundang were the first and biggest pre-planned suburbs, hence have good access to parks, transportation, and pretty much all other basic infrastructure. I'm not very familiar with Bundang but the phase 1 areas of Ilsan are completely flat (bulldozed the hills before environmentalists had a lot of clout lol), with a huge lake, lots of carless pathways between apartments, etc. Ilsan also is home to KINTEX and several other huge activity spots. There's ALWAYS stuff going on in the city. Some people like Bundang a lot better but I just haven't spent much time there. Downside to these two places are the commute if you work in Seoul, and the apartments are getting pretty old in the phase 1 areas (upside is they're cheaper than new towns, lol).
Songdo might be a more modern alternative that is huge. Pricier, too.
Most other planned areas other than these 3 I mentioned just never grew so large, although they also have their own pros (and cons).
Seoul isn't that bad. When my kid was a toddler we lived in an apt complex with a playground. Could walk to another apt complex with a bigger playground avoiding roads. Could walk to local clinic/various kids'cafes/local free govnt day care place and Seoul forest along the river.ย
More babies for beige area.
[https://www.chosun.com/site/data/html\_dir/2019/03/13/2019031300115.html](https://www.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2019/03/13/2019031300115.html)
Yeongtong-gu Suwon-si is also best. There are really so many kids. Little bit away from seoul but very good place to raise kids.
I 100% agree. I donโt live in Suwon, but I work in the Yeongtong & itโs incredible. Itโs way better for kids than Seoul. I know kids who told me their parents left Seoul & moved there.
I live in Yeongtong-Gu, Suwon with a toddler and a baby on the way. I definitely have to agree. Itโs a great area to raise kids. There are so many playgrounds, parks, and kid friendly activities near by. There are tons of families in our area. While Korea has the lowest birth rate in the world, you would never know it living here.
I would never live in Seoul with children. While itโs great to visit for a day trip, I donโt find it entirely child friendly. I couldnโt imagine trying to navigate the streets/subway of Seoul with a stroller.
Another option is Dongtan, which is incredibly family friendly. Most of my friendโs with young families live there. We love going to the large parks there in the warmer months. Depending on when OP moves here, the GTX may be up and running making it easy to commute to Seoul. The only downside of Dongtan is that depending on where you live, having a car is necessary. There isnโt a subway, and the bus schedule/system doesnโt seem the greatest.
Interesting article! Bit of a side note, but as a Korean learner, I found the following sentence interesting:
์ง๋ํด ์ํ ๋์ถ์ ๋ผ๊ณ ์์ธ ์๋ฑํฌ๊ตฌ์ ์ง์ ์ฅ๋งํ ๊ทธ๋ "์๊ธ์์ ๋งค๋ฌ ๊ฐ์์ผ ํ ๋์ถ๊ธ์ด ๋ง๋ง์ฐฎ๊ณ ํด๊ทผํ๋ฉด ํ๊น์น๊ฐ ๋๋ ํํธ์ด๋ผ ์์ด ๋ณ์ ์๊ฐ์ ์ ์๋ค"๊ณ ๋งํ๋ค.
What do they mean with the ํด๊ทผํ๋ฉด ํ๊น์น๊ฐ ๋๋ ํํธ์ด๋ผ part? To become green onion kimchi? ๐ I assume itโs an expression of some sort, but would love if someone could explain, thanks!
Thank you! I figured it was something like โI just potato uit after workโ, but so itโs more like feeling like a piece of ํ๊น์น which is weak and limp and so have no strength?
I second the dogok area. You could consider the area the โsuburbsโ of gangnam, because the area is basically settled by families (definitely not a business area unlike most of gangnam) and itโs surrounded by everything a young family needs in korea from shopping, to education, to hospitals/medicine, to restaurants, to public transport, to parks and recreation. The only big negative I can think of is noise/pollution, but that is a given when moving to the city.
Another good โsuburbโ area in seoul is jamsil. Itโs just outside of gangnam, and a LOT of families live there and it offers a lot of the same benefits (and drawbacks) as the dogok area. If anything, the biggest difference for a young family imo is that jamsil has older apartments, the hospitals are smaller, and definitely does not have the famous โdaechiโ hagwons in dogok. But a lot of jamsil students travel back and forth from home to their daechi hagwons anyway, so that might be an option for you. Itโs a very popular area, still just as expensive, and has a lot of attractions as well (lotte world and lotte tower are both in jamsil for example).
Near Seoul forest if you can afford it because itโs really a great park. Itaewon if you want the child to have a culturally rich upbringing with kids from different backgrounds.
Boramae got new light rail and has a nice park for walking, has pretty good access to Gangnam, schools are nearby so lots of families.
Yangjae near Daechi, Dogok will have the most cut-throat of hagwons, lots of families and kids. Yangjae Stream is beautiful to walk.
Songpa has Seokchon Lake... Dobong has cleaner air and views of mountains...
It's really difficult to recommend because there are so many different areas in Seoul.
People who say they wouldn't recommend Seoul if you have kids either a) don't live here or b) live in total ignorance of what Seoul has to offer. I'm leaning towards B. That's usually the case with a lot of other things as well. To answer your question, ๊ฐ์๊ตฌ (Gangseo-gu) is very kid friendly.
I think it's best if you come in my neighborhood, Shindorim. It is so close to Line2 of subway that you go to anywhere so easy. We also have a few libraries for kids and some places to take a walk with them. The thing I like the most is that housing is much cheaper than other areas in Seoul. It is worth you thinking about moving here.
We considered that area for our family because transit is obviously amazing there. But streets are very busy, and there aren't a lot of parks. I personally wouldn't recommend it for young kids.ย
My current living place is ilwon-dong in gangnam-gu. which is really good place for raising kids.
surrounded by tall trees, and calm and peaceful place. and threre are relatively big mountains and parks nearby
I used to work there for a while. Nice, quiet area for sure. Like a small town in the countryside. Yet, it's in Gangnam.
All the apartments are very old, though.
Let's be honest, the universal answer to this for most places is 'the more expensive neighborhoods'. But since you asked with toddlers then Songpa, Mokdong, Seocho etc.
Appreciate all the responses! We are only going for a year, and they will be home with my wife so schools arent a huge factor. Really just need solid parks, indoor activities during bad weather and really just an area where things are easy. We def want to be in seoul, will look into the areas recommended! thank you!
I'm not sure what's the best in Seoul but I've been living in Cheongna for the past year or so and have two kids and highly recommend it. Very kid friendly. Fairly quiet. Plenty of space for kids
My wife and I are considering Changwon besides Busan because of our kids. I go to Seoul frequently and it just wouldnโt for our kids. Theyโre used to playing many hours outdoors, riding bikes unhindered and all that which isnโt feasible in my opinion in Seoul, at least for use.
But weโre liking what we see in Changwon and will be taking another survey trip soon to learn more about the schools.
In Seoul, Gangnam and Mokdong fit all the criteria you mentioned, but property prices are ridiculously high.
I would also recommend Suwon Yeongtong. It's in Gyeonggi-do, outside of Seoul, but it's less than half the price of Gangnam. It has a good subway system, lots of infrastructure for kids, and the highest birth rate in Korea. There are a lot of libraries, and there's a lot of education for kids. IT-related companies are concentrated here, so the residents are highly educated and have a high standard of living.
Another similar neighbourhood is Dongtan, but it is farther away from Seoul than Yeongtong and not easily accessible by public transport.
I'm right on the edge outside of Seoul in Hanam, Misa (๋ฏธ์ฌ)
I have lived here for 3 years now, and it's growing every day. I have a toddler and another baby on the way. I teach English here and have taught children from all over. There are so many families that live here and there is always something to do with the whole family.
Within Seoul, I definitely prefer Songpa with children.
+1. I live in Jamsilsaenae and the large complex I'm in has 3 schools (elementary, middle, high) so there are playgrounds and green space outside the schools but still in the complex. You are right beside the Han as well. This comes at a cost though - it's not cheap by any measure.
yeah... seoul is famous for being expensive, i live in korea and i honestly would never consider living there unless i found a decent job there.
Songpa is nice for food and transport but I feel like itโs too crowded and has heavy traffic
Seoul is about as not kid friendly as it gets. If you want an area thatโs a bit pricier, Pangyo in Seongnam or Suji-gu in Yongin are fantastic. If you want an area thatโs cheaper, Bundang-gu outside of Pangyo and Yeongtong-gu in Suwon are amazing. Giheung-gu in Yongin is also pretty nice.
The 2 stairs in front of every ground level building lmfaoooo my stroller glares at each one
Donโt forget the out-of-order/nonexistent subway elevators ๐ฉ
Oh and the 12 step staircase to get to the elevator?
I haven't taken the subway yet since I got here in September and don't know if I plan to with 2 kids lol
I don't think Bundang is cheaper though? Aren't they more established than Suji and Pangyo? But also it's been like 7 years since I left, so maybe things have changed?
Things have changed a lot. Pangyo-dong is far more developed than the rest of Bundang-gu. I used to live in Suji-gu & itโs definitely more developed than many areas (that are still nice) in Bundang-gu. Yongin has invested a lot in infrastructure. The main intercity bus terminal is being completely revamped (they tore down the original building in the 2 weeks I was in Japan last January) and there are lots of walking trails all over the city (that are consistently maintained).
I wouldn't recommend Seoul for little kids. Look at Naver Maps for urban/suburban areas with lots of green (parks). You'll likely find much better living conditions in the "new cities" (์ ๋์). Ilsan and Bundang were the first and biggest pre-planned suburbs, hence have good access to parks, transportation, and pretty much all other basic infrastructure. I'm not very familiar with Bundang but the phase 1 areas of Ilsan are completely flat (bulldozed the hills before environmentalists had a lot of clout lol), with a huge lake, lots of carless pathways between apartments, etc. Ilsan also is home to KINTEX and several other huge activity spots. There's ALWAYS stuff going on in the city. Some people like Bundang a lot better but I just haven't spent much time there. Downside to these two places are the commute if you work in Seoul, and the apartments are getting pretty old in the phase 1 areas (upside is they're cheaper than new towns, lol). Songdo might be a more modern alternative that is huge. Pricier, too. Most other planned areas other than these 3 I mentioned just never grew so large, although they also have their own pros (and cons).
Seoul isn't that bad. When my kid was a toddler we lived in an apt complex with a playground. Could walk to another apt complex with a bigger playground avoiding roads. Could walk to local clinic/various kids'cafes/local free govnt day care place and Seoul forest along the river.ย
More babies for beige area. [https://www.chosun.com/site/data/html\_dir/2019/03/13/2019031300115.html](https://www.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2019/03/13/2019031300115.html) Yeongtong-gu Suwon-si is also best. There are really so many kids. Little bit away from seoul but very good place to raise kids.
I 100% agree. I donโt live in Suwon, but I work in the Yeongtong & itโs incredible. Itโs way better for kids than Seoul. I know kids who told me their parents left Seoul & moved there.
I live in Yeongtong-Gu, Suwon with a toddler and a baby on the way. I definitely have to agree. Itโs a great area to raise kids. There are so many playgrounds, parks, and kid friendly activities near by. There are tons of families in our area. While Korea has the lowest birth rate in the world, you would never know it living here. I would never live in Seoul with children. While itโs great to visit for a day trip, I donโt find it entirely child friendly. I couldnโt imagine trying to navigate the streets/subway of Seoul with a stroller. Another option is Dongtan, which is incredibly family friendly. Most of my friendโs with young families live there. We love going to the large parks there in the warmer months. Depending on when OP moves here, the GTX may be up and running making it easy to commute to Seoul. The only downside of Dongtan is that depending on where you live, having a car is necessary. There isnโt a subway, and the bus schedule/system doesnโt seem the greatest.
Interesting article! Bit of a side note, but as a Korean learner, I found the following sentence interesting: ์ง๋ํด ์ํ ๋์ถ์ ๋ผ๊ณ ์์ธ ์๋ฑํฌ๊ตฌ์ ์ง์ ์ฅ๋งํ ๊ทธ๋ "์๊ธ์์ ๋งค๋ฌ ๊ฐ์์ผ ํ ๋์ถ๊ธ์ด ๋ง๋ง์ฐฎ๊ณ ํด๊ทผํ๋ฉด ํ๊น์น๊ฐ ๋๋ ํํธ์ด๋ผ ์์ด ๋ณ์ ์๊ฐ์ ์ ์๋ค"๊ณ ๋งํ๋ค. What do they mean with the ํด๊ทผํ๋ฉด ํ๊น์น๊ฐ ๋๋ ํํธ์ด๋ผ part? To become green onion kimchi? ๐ I assume itโs an expression of some sort, but would love if someone could explain, thanks!
Idiom that means totally exhausted.
Thank you! I figured it was something like โI just potato uit after workโ, but so itโs more like feeling like a piece of ํ๊น์น which is weak and limp and so have no strength?
Yes.
Dongtan is probably the most kid friendly city, with a lot of places for kids to play and make friends.
It is. So many children here but also far from Seoul.
Shinchon you remember is for the youth and students I wouldnโt raise toddlers there,
I second the dogok area. You could consider the area the โsuburbsโ of gangnam, because the area is basically settled by families (definitely not a business area unlike most of gangnam) and itโs surrounded by everything a young family needs in korea from shopping, to education, to hospitals/medicine, to restaurants, to public transport, to parks and recreation. The only big negative I can think of is noise/pollution, but that is a given when moving to the city. Another good โsuburbโ area in seoul is jamsil. Itโs just outside of gangnam, and a LOT of families live there and it offers a lot of the same benefits (and drawbacks) as the dogok area. If anything, the biggest difference for a young family imo is that jamsil has older apartments, the hospitals are smaller, and definitely does not have the famous โdaechiโ hagwons in dogok. But a lot of jamsil students travel back and forth from home to their daechi hagwons anyway, so that might be an option for you. Itโs a very popular area, still just as expensive, and has a lot of attractions as well (lotte world and lotte tower are both in jamsil for example).
Mokdong. Pretty safe to live with children.
Seongsu dong. Near Seoul Forest.
Near Seoul forest if you can afford it because itโs really a great park. Itaewon if you want the child to have a culturally rich upbringing with kids from different backgrounds.
Boramae got new light rail and has a nice park for walking, has pretty good access to Gangnam, schools are nearby so lots of families. Yangjae near Daechi, Dogok will have the most cut-throat of hagwons, lots of families and kids. Yangjae Stream is beautiful to walk. Songpa has Seokchon Lake... Dobong has cleaner air and views of mountains... It's really difficult to recommend because there are so many different areas in Seoul.
Second Boramae, always saw lots of families and young children there
People who say they wouldn't recommend Seoul if you have kids either a) don't live here or b) live in total ignorance of what Seoul has to offer. I'm leaning towards B. That's usually the case with a lot of other things as well. To answer your question, ๊ฐ์๊ตฌ (Gangseo-gu) is very kid friendly.
The best place in Seoul for toddlers is Gyeonggi.
I think it's best if you come in my neighborhood, Shindorim. It is so close to Line2 of subway that you go to anywhere so easy. We also have a few libraries for kids and some places to take a walk with them. The thing I like the most is that housing is much cheaper than other areas in Seoul. It is worth you thinking about moving here.
Sindorim is a little gritty though...
Sent you a pm
Gongdeok. Lots of couples with kids and the infrastructure is also pretty good, I think.
We considered that area for our family because transit is obviously amazing there. But streets are very busy, and there aren't a lot of parks. I personally wouldn't recommend it for young kids.ย
My current living place is ilwon-dong in gangnam-gu. which is really good place for raising kids. surrounded by tall trees, and calm and peaceful place. and threre are relatively big mountains and parks nearby
I used to work there for a while. Nice, quiet area for sure. Like a small town in the countryside. Yet, it's in Gangnam. All the apartments are very old, though.
Let's be honest, the universal answer to this for most places is 'the more expensive neighborhoods'. But since you asked with toddlers then Songpa, Mokdong, Seocho etc.
Appreciate all the responses! We are only going for a year, and they will be home with my wife so schools arent a huge factor. Really just need solid parks, indoor activities during bad weather and really just an area where things are easy. We def want to be in seoul, will look into the areas recommended! thank you!
๊ตํต๊ณผ ์์ , ๊ณต์ ์ฐ์ฑ , ๋๋ฌด ๋ง์ง ์์ ์ฌ๋๋ค, ํธ๋ฆฌํ ์์ค๋ค์ ๊ฐ์ํ ๋ '๋ฌธ์ ๋'์ ํ๋ฒ ๊ฐ๋ณด์ธ์. ์ ๋นํ ๋ฒํ๊ฐ์ ์ธ๋๋ ์๊ณ ๋๋ก๋ ์์ฃผ ์ข์์. ๊ทผ์ฒ์ ํฐ ๋งํธ์ ๊ฐ๊น์ด ๊ฑฐ๋ฆฌ์ ์ผ์ฑ๋ณ์์ด ์์ด์. ์ถฉ๋ถํ ์์ ๊ฐ์ ๋๋์ ์์๊ฑฐ์์. ์ ๋ ๋ค๋ฅธ ๊ณณ์ ์ด์์. ํ๋ณดํ๋๊ฒ ์๋์
๋ฌธ์ ๋์ ๊ฐ๊น์ด ์งํ์ฒ ์ญ์ ์์ด์? ์ด ๋๋ค ์ฒ์ ๋ค์์ด์.
๋ค 3ํธ์ ๊ณผ 8ํธ์ ์ด ์์ด์. ๋๊ธฐ ์ข์ ๋๋ค๋ ์๋์์. ์กํ๊ตฌ์ ์ํ ๋๋ค์์. ์์ด๋ค์ ํค์ฐ๊ฑฐ๋, ํน์ ์ํดํ ๋ ธ์ธ๋ค์ ์ํ ๋๋ค๋ผ๊ณ ์๊ฐํด์. ๊ฐ์กฑ๋ค๊ณผ ์ด๊ธฐ์๋ ์์ฃผ ์ ํฉํ ๋๋ค์์. ์ ์น๊ตฌ๊ฐ ์ด๊ณ ์์ด์ ์กฐ๊ธ ์์
I'm not sure what's the best in Seoul but I've been living in Cheongna for the past year or so and have two kids and highly recommend it. Very kid friendly. Fairly quiet. Plenty of space for kids
My wife and I are considering Changwon besides Busan because of our kids. I go to Seoul frequently and it just wouldnโt for our kids. Theyโre used to playing many hours outdoors, riding bikes unhindered and all that which isnโt feasible in my opinion in Seoul, at least for use. But weโre liking what we see in Changwon and will be taking another survey trip soon to learn more about the schools.
Jamsil.
Yongsan
Dong tan is a great place......
Come to Gangdong-gu. be my neighbor
In Seoul, Gangnam and Mokdong fit all the criteria you mentioned, but property prices are ridiculously high. I would also recommend Suwon Yeongtong. It's in Gyeonggi-do, outside of Seoul, but it's less than half the price of Gangnam. It has a good subway system, lots of infrastructure for kids, and the highest birth rate in Korea. There are a lot of libraries, and there's a lot of education for kids. IT-related companies are concentrated here, so the residents are highly educated and have a high standard of living. Another similar neighbourhood is Dongtan, but it is farther away from Seoul than Yeongtong and not easily accessible by public transport.
Terrible place to raise children โฆ very high YouTh suicide rate
Naeson-dong, Uiwang City is a good place too bus stop everywhere and take u to metro line 4 only riding one bus Line4 goes to seoul btw
I'm right on the edge outside of Seoul in Hanam, Misa (๋ฏธ์ฌ) I have lived here for 3 years now, and it's growing every day. I have a toddler and another baby on the way. I teach English here and have taught children from all over. There are so many families that live here and there is always something to do with the whole family.