At 123 stories and 555 meters long, Lotte World is the 6th tallest building in the world. To put that into perspective, Namsan Seoul Tower, where you can see panoramic views of the city and sometimes even North Korea, is only half of this height! Recently, I had the pleasure of visiting, and I am so glad I did.
To purchase our tickets, my boyfriend and I headed to Lotte World Mall and rode the escalator down to Basement Floor 1. The cost of one ticket to see the scoping views of Seoul from the tower’s observatory is ₩36,000 or about $27.50 USD.
To access the elevator up to the top, we first walked through an exhibit with beautiful light displays that only made us more excited to see the view!
As we got into the elevator, called the “Sky Shuttle,” the walls and ceiling projected a special VR video, and first of its kind, to accompany our ascent. A very fast one at that— we were moving at 10 meters per second! This means we scaled the building and reached the top in just one minute!
Immediately after exiting the elevator, we entered a dark room, and were welcomed by another projector which illustrated a video with beautiful graphics of Korea’s Joseon Dynasty and its modernization in the present day. After the video, the projector lifted slowly and to all of our surprise, we were greeted with one of the most beautiful views I had ever seen. We had made it to the top!
By the time we got to the top of the tower, it was about 9:00 PM on a Sunday. I looked from window to window, and even down to my feet when I walked over the glass floor part of the observatory, and I watched life go by for those in Seoul. It felt like in real time, I could watch the city prepare itself for the night to end and the next week to begin.
I was able to see some of the landmarks I have visited during my time here in Seoul! Lotte World, of course, lit up in all its glory was closer to the tower, but I also got to see the vastness of the Han River, and the Banpo Bridge which I had just visited. These landmarks that looked huge to me when up close, looked miniature from how tall we were!
