Out of Eden Walk: South Korea’s love motels

National Geographic Explorer Paul Salopek has been tracing the journey of the earliest humans from our origins in East Africa. 

He has been walking eastward — about 15 miles a day — for the past 11 years. As he travels along, Salopek has been documenting his experiences in a project known as Out of Eden Walk.

Being constantly on the go for over a decade can make one think … that’s a lot of places to look for a place to sleep.

In South Korea, Salopek encountered an option that hadn’t yet presented itself in all his years of walking: the “love motel” — rented by the hour.

A love motel is precisely what one may think, but it also is not.

Salopek shared his experience staying at one of the motels.

My walking partner, Lee Junseok, and I are hiking across South Korea. We’re staying in love motels. What is a Korean love motel? From the outside, many such establishments look ordinary: aging, full-brick facades, sliding glass doors activated by touch, an electronic sign dusted by air pollution. Inside, the clerk is hidden in a frosted glass booth. You transact business through a small opening of the type that guards push-meals through and prison doors. The clerk cannot see you. You cannot see him. Inside the rooms, more clues appear: heart-shaped beds, sachets of perfume, cologne and mouthwash, as well as sanitizing alcohol and condoms. In one such room, I discovered a laminated menu that was not for ordering food but instead listing women performers available for hire. Each photograph attired in the exhausted tropes of male fantasy: a nun, a dominatrix, an air steward. One rents these rooms by the hour. 

Love motels may have been invented as a front for prostitution, but their role has evolved. Today, most love motels provide a moderately acceptable hutch where ordinary young Korean couples can enjoy fleeting privacy away from the family gaze. A government study conducted in 2021 reveals that 62% of the unmarried population of South Korea between the ages of 20 and 44 still live at home with their parents. Hence, there is a vast demand for an intimate escape valve. 

Korea’s brand of capitalism on steroids has met this challenge by building love motels across the nation. How many? It’s impossible to say. They’re reputed to be hundreds of love motels operating in the capital, Seoul, alone. 

“Tell him we need two rooms for the whole night,” I instruct my walking partner, Lee, at one such establishment. Lee bends to convey this information in Korean through the clerk’s tiny window. There is an exclamation of surprise from behind the opaque glass. “Ask him if I may borrow a desk and chair,” I remind Lee because I’m a writer. And from behind the glass comes an even louder grunt of astonishment. After one such request, the Love Motel clerk opened his booth door and handed over the stool he was sitting on. Such customer service is rare anywhere these days. 

South Korea’s love motels are inexpensive. Perhaps $8 an hour or $45 a night. It is not easy to book ahead. One sometimes must simply show up. Perfect for miserly walkers.

Read Paul’s complete dispatch about Love Motels 

Writer and National Geographic Explorer Paul Salopek has embarked on a 24,000-mile storytelling trek across the world called the “Out of Eden Walk.” The National Geographic Society, committed to illuminating and protecting the wonders of our world, has funded Salopek and the project since 2013. Explore the project here. Follow the journey on X at @PaulSalopek, @outofedenwalk and also at @InsideNatGeo.