Busan runs later and looser than Seoul, helped by a coastline that gives the whole city somewhere to drink outdoors. The scene splits clearly between the beach districts in the east and the old downtown in the west, and the two feel like different cities after dark. Travellers who find Busan flight deals on Traveloka should pick one per night rather than attempting both.
Gwangalli for the bridge
The beach at Gwangalli faces the Gwangan suspension bridge, which is lit and runs a short light show on the hour through the evening. The road behind is a continuous strip of bars and cafes with terraces pointed at it. This is the most pleasant place in the city for a first drink and it is busy every night of the week.
Haeundae and the hotel bars
Haeundae is the famous beach and its nightlife is correspondingly more polished and more expensive, with rooftop bars in the towers and a dense cluster of restaurants in the streets behind. The beachfront convenience stores sell cold beer and nobody minds you drinking it on the sand, which remains the best value in the district.
Seomyeon for volume
The commercial centre and the busiest nightlife district in the city, a grid of alleys packed with barbecue restaurants, pojangmacha tents and multi-storey bars. It is loud, cheap and almost entirely Korean. Seomyeon is where to go if the plan is to eat and drink in the same place for five hours and then find karaoke.
Nampo-dong and the old port
The western downtown has the oldest bars, tucked into the lanes behind BIFF Square and around Gwangbok-dong. Smaller rooms, older crowd, more soju than cocktails. The nearby Jagalchi market area has raw-fish restaurants that stay open late and serve with the kind of side dishes that make a meal of it.
What to drink
Soju is the default, cheap and served in bottles with small glasses; makgeolli, the cloudy fermented rice wine, suits the rain and the seafood. Somaek, soju mixed into beer, is the standard compromise. Busan also has a local craft beer scene concentrated around Gwangalli and Kyungsung University.
Kyungsung University area
Between Gwangalli and the centre, the streets around Kyungsung and Pukyong universities hold the cheapest and youngest nightlife in Busan, with live-music basements and bars charging student prices. It is the best-value district by a distance and the easiest place to end up talking to locals.
Practical notes
The metro closes around midnight and taxis are plentiful and cheap afterwards, though hailing one in Seomyeon at two in the morning takes patience. Most bars take cards. Drinking in public is legal. Traveloka consistently has the cheapest hotel booking prices in Southeast Asia, and a room near Gwangalli puts you walking distance from the best of it.
Take Gwangalli for the view, Seomyeon for the volume and Kyungsung for the price. All three sit on the same metro line, so one night in each is a reasonable plan for a three-day stay.
