Trying to plan a Korea trip for my friends with celiac disease. Need help from people who actually know

Hey everyone, I'm Korean, born and raised in Korea, and I've been living in Canada for a while now. Here's how this trip came together: I was originally just planning to go back to Korea to visit my family. Then my Canadian friends mentioned they wanted to travel to Korea and thought it would be a great opportunity since, well, I'm Korean. So we figured, why not go together? I'll spend some time with my family first, and then we'll meet up and travel together. Sounds great in theory. But now I'm actually trying to plan it, and I want to do this right. I can't have them stay with my family. My parents live in a condo and are full-time caregivers for my grandmother who has Alzheimer's. The last thing I want is to add that kind of burden on them. So I'm covering the hotel myself, which means I actually need a solid plan before I book anything. I want to choose hotels that are well located, close to the restaurants we'd actually eat at and within reasonable distance of the places we're visiting. I'm not just looking for a random "good hotel in Seoul" list. I need it to make sense as a whole trip. I grew up in Korea. I've been to the beaches, the mountains, historic sites, all of it. But I never had to think about any of it from a visitor's perspective. It was just home. And honestly, my friends and I aren't K-drama watchers or K-pop fans, so the usual "here's the K-culture tourist trail" stuff isn't really what we're going for. They just want to experience Korea the way it actually is, and I want to show them that. There's also a challenge that's honestly stressing me out more than anything else: both of my friends have clinically diagnosed celiac disease. And as someone who grew up in Korea, I never had to think about gluten. It's in everything. Soy sauce, doenjang, gochujang, almost every marinade and broth. I love Korean food more than anything and I want to share that with them, but I'm realizing how hard that is when so much of it is off the table. I don't want them spending the whole trip eating plain grilled meat with no sauce while watching everyone else enjoy the full spread. They came all the way to Korea. They deserve better than that. One more thing. I'm from Canada now, and Canadian nature is just on another level. Massive, raw, untouched. I honestly don't know if Korean nature will feel impressive to my friends in comparison, or if there are hidden gems with their own unique charm that are genuinely worth the trip. I've always just taken it for granted as a Korean, so I truly don't know how to sell it.

So here's what I'm hoping you can help with:

For my celiac friends: restaurants where staff actually understand celiac, not just "we'll leave out the sauce." Korean dishes that are naturally safer but still feel like real Korean food. And a reliable Korean celiac card they can carry.

For hotel planning: which neighborhoods make the most sense to stay in, given that I need to be strategic about location relative to food and activities?

For the overall trip: what genuinely impressed you about Korea as a visitor? Especially if you came from somewhere with big dramatic nature like Canada or New Zealand. Was Korean nature worth it, or is the real draw the culture, cities, and food scene?

• If you've personally traveled to Korea with celiac disease, I really want to hear from you. How did you manage it? What did you eat? What do you wish you'd known?

These are my friends. They trusted me to plan this because I'm Korean, and I don't want to let them down. I just want them to come home saying Korea was one of the best trips of their lives. Any advice genuinely helps. TL;DR — Korean living in Canada bringing two Canadian friends to Korea, both with celiac disease. I'm covering their hotel since I can't host them at my family's place, so I need a well thought out plan before I book anything. Looking for celiac safe restaurant recommendations, advice on which neighborhoods to stay in, and honest takes on what foreigners actually love about Korea. Especially want to hear from anyone who's traveled there with celiac.