🗺️ Playground — fun things to do and places to visit, in one app.
Places, curated collections and events currently cover Seoul: the map and the Near you list show places in Seoul, and What's on lists events running in Seoul.
Start from what's on right now — exhibitions, performances, festivals and hands-on programs — next to places near you and hand-picked collections you can save for later. Built for visitors and locals alike, with the practical Korea know-how a map app never tells you.
▣ WHAT'S ON
• Exhibitions, performances, festivals and hands-on programs that are running now
• The venue and dates on each card
• Refreshed daily from public open data
• Tap through to the event's page for times and details
▣ PLACES NEAR YOU
• Places around you on a Google Map, filtered by category and radius
• Markers grouped into clusters as you zoom out
• Distance from you, nearest first
• Find a place by name or category as you type, or browse by category chip
▣ CURATED COLLECTIONS
• Themed collections, each with a written introduction
• Save a whole collection, or single places, and open them again later
▣ DAY PLANS
• Build a trip day by day from the places you saved
• Name each day, add or remove stops, reorder them, move a stop to the next day
• Days show real dates once you set a start date
▣ REVIEWS
• Read reviews and average ratings, or filter to the ones written by visitors
• Write your own with a rating, and edit or delete it any time
• Reviews in another language are translated on your phone as you read
▣ AUTOMATIC TRANSLATION
• Collection intros, guides and reviews are translated into your phone's language on the device itself
• No button to press and nothing sent to a server — the language pack downloads once, then works offline
▣ KOREA ESSENTIALS
• Arrival essentials — getting in from Incheon Airport, your first T-money card, staying connected, and why people here use Naver Map or Kakao Map instead of Google Maps
• Emergency contacts — 119, 112, the 1330 travel hotline and 1339 medical advice, one tap to dial and available offline, with your current location ready to copy or share
• Dietary card — halal, no pork, vegetarian, vegan, not spicy and your own allergies, written out in Korean for restaurant staff, with Korean text-to-speech if you'd rather not read it aloud
• "Before you go" etiquette notes on restaurant, cafe, bar and attraction pages
▣ GETTING THERE
• Directions open in the map app that works in Korea — Naver Map, then Kakao Map
• Open Kakao T to book a taxi, or show the name and address full-screen in Korean to a driver or staff
• Tap an address to copy it, tap a phone number to call
▣ THE SMALL THINGS
• Recently viewed places waiting on the My tab
• Light and dark theme that follows your system setting
• English and Korean interface
▣ PERMISSIONS
• Location (optional) — to show places near you and center the map
• Notifications (optional) — asked once during onboarding, and you can decline without losing anything
■ Please note
• Saving places and building day plans need no sign-up — you are signed in anonymously. Adding an email is optional and only matters if you want the same saves on another phone.
• Opening hours appear only where a place actually has them.
■ Data sources
Event listings use public open data from:
• Seoul Metropolitan Government, Seoul Open Data Plaza — https://data.seoul.go.kr
• Korea Culture Information Service Agency, Culture Portal — https://www.culture.go.kr
• Korea Arts Management Service, KOPIS — https://www.kopis.or.kr
• Korea Tourism Organization, TourAPI — https://api.visitkorea.or.kr
Playground is an independent app. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or operated on behalf of any government agency.
Download Playground and pick where you're going today.
Things to do, events on now, places to visit, day plans and Korea travel tools