Gangnam

Gangnam is what foreigners imagine when they imagine modern Seoul. The buildings are tall. The apartments are new. The streets are wide. The retail is luxury. There are international hotels, plastic surgery clinics with English websites, three major universities (Korea National Sport University, Yonsei dental, Sungkyunkwan medicine), and the headquarters of most of Korea's largest companies. A non-trivial portion of Seoul's foreign business community lives in Gangnam, Sinsa, or the surrounding districts because everything functions in English, the medical infrastructure is best-in-class, and the international school options are nearby. For mid-stay foreign guests, Gangnam splits cleanly into two cases. If you're working in Korea — at a multinational corporation, a law firm, a finance institution, anything in the office-tower economy — Gangnam is almost certainly the right choice. Most of those companies are headquartered within three subway stops. Your colleagues live here. Your meetings happen here. The infrastructure (English signage, English-speaking services, international restaurants) is denser than anywhere else in Seoul outside of Itaewon and Yongsan. If you're not working in Gangnam, the calculation flips. Gangnam apartments are 30-50% more expensive than equivalent space in Mapo or Yongsan. The neighborhood character is corporate — there are great restaurants but they're spread across a huge area, and you'll cab between them. There are not many real local cafés or independent bookstores; this isn't the neighborhood for that. For a vacation feel or a young-Seoul feel, you would be happier in Hongdae, Mangwon, or Seongsu. For medical visitors specifically, Gangnam is one of the most logical bases in Korea. Samsung Medical Center, Asan Medical (in adjacent Songpa-gu), and dozens of internationally accredited specialty clinics are within a fifteen-minute drive.