mambocat

in seoul, essentially your choices are either hotels (200 and up) or 'love hotels' (60-70), so named because they're usually used for the illicit rendez-vous (and thus rented out in half-days as well). don't let that put you off too much though, they're usually quite decent.

if you want to stay sub-100, your best bet is to look into love hotels in the gangnam area - the newer part of seoul. most love hotels tend to be clean and well-equipped - just as long as you can get past the rather gaudy design. downtown seoul (near city hall) tends to be a bit older in general and thus the love hotels are as well.

many of them are registered with worldinn.com, a collective listing of lodgings that the seoul city govt came up with for the 2002 world cup. specifically look near yeoksam, gangnam, and seollung stations (all on subway line 2, the circle line).

there have been a few good posts on seoul on this forum... do a search

basically it's all about apgujeong / chungdam (upscale fashion / bars / restaurants), samchung (art galleries / cafes / traditional crafts), and hongdae (clubs / indie music / vintage shops).

if your budget is *really* tiny, you could consider looking into university housing... some of the city universities rent out their dorms at certain intervals throughout the year. relatively liveable, especially compared to a hostel, and usually quite central.

the decent shopping is usually done around:

- mayfair. the legendary saville row for tailored suits and fineries.

- covent garden. jones, a men's multi-shop, is usually a required stop... and paul smith, self-explanatory.

- knightsbridge, chelsea. skip harrod's unless you feel the need to indulge in tourist trap. try cutler & gross for optical & sunglass frames. hit the conran shop for furniture / lifestyle product.

- notting hill. i find the area overrated, but portobello road market (once weekly) is fun to dig around in.

- west end, oxford street. home to browns, london's best-regarded multi-shop, on south molton street. carnaby street has largely gone mass-market. liberty is a pretty funky department store.

- clerkenwell. lots of vintage shops, art galleries, and generally funky shit near the brick lane area.

selfridge's is my favorite department store in london. for a bar / restaurant / art space, you absolutely must check out sketch. off regent street, near oxford circus tube station. fantastic food and a really inspiring space.

enjoy your time in the big smoke!

http://www.joshrubin.com/coolhunting/archives/2005/03/ginga_1.html

the zvezdochka shoe, a project from nike and designer marc newson, has dropped in seoul...

@ boon the shop, in chungdam. 40 pairs (400 produced globally).