Things to Do in South Korea

South Korea went from stopover to destination in five years and most first trips still see only Seoul. This page groups the country by region so you can see what eight or twelve days actually hold, then points you to the tours page when you are ready.

Seoul

Full guide: things to do in Seoul →

A city of ten million on both banks of the Han, ringed by granite mountains you can hike before breakfast, and the base for four to five nights on every route. The five Joseon palaces sit in the old north: Gyeongbokgung the grandest, with the guard change at ten and free entry in a rented hanbok; Changdeokgung the loveliest, with its Secret Garden by guided tour, booked. Bukchon’s hanok lanes and the tea houses of Insadong and Samcheong-dong are a walk from them; Gwangjang Market is the lunch, with bindaetteok pancakes and mayak gimbap from stalls run by the same women for forty years. Myeongdong is the cosmetics-and-street-food crush; Hongdae the student nightlife and the fried chicken; Itaewon the international quarter; Gangnam the glass towers south of the river, with COEX and the Starfield library and the Bongeunsa temple facing them across the road. Namsan for the tower and the view at dusk; the Dongdaemun Design Plaza for the architecture and the all-night markets; Bukhansan National Park inside the city limits for the granite peaks on a weekday morning; and a jjimjilbang — Dragon Hill Spa — for an afternoon in saunas of five temperatures and a bowl of noodles in a robe.

The DMZ

Ninety minutes north by pre-booked tour with a passport on the day: Imjingak’s park and its bridge of freedom, the Third Tunnel dug by the North under the line (a steep walk, a hard hat, and a hundred metres into the hill), the Dora Observatory with the binoculars into a country you cannot enter, and Dorasan station with its platform for the train to Pyongyang that has never run. The Joint Security Area at Panmunjom, where the blue huts straddle the line, opens and closes with the security situation and we book whichever tour is running. A dress code, no ripped jeans, and a morning that stays with people.

Busan and the south coast

Korea’s second city and its beach town, two hours fifteen from Seoul by KTX, and warmer by several degrees. Haeundae and Gwangalli beaches with the Diamond Bridge lit at night; Jagalchi fish market where dinner is chosen from the tanks and eaten upstairs; Gamcheon Culture Village’s painted houses stepping down the hill; Haedong Yonggungsa, the temple on the rocks above the sea, at opening; the Gukje market and its street food (ssiat hotteok, eomuk); Spa Land at Centum City for the jjimjilbang; and the Busan International Film Festival in early October. Two or three nights, and the Fukuoka ferry from the port for the party continuing to Japan.

Gyeongju

The Silla capital for a thousand years and the historic counterweight to Seoul, thirty minutes from Busan by KTX: royal burial mounds like green hills in the middle of town, the Bulguksa temple and the Seokguram grotto Buddha in the hills, Cheomseongdae’s seventh-century observatory, the Gyeongju National Museum, and Anapji pond lit at night with the pavilions reflected. A hanok guesthouse with ondol heating and a courtyard. One or two nights, and the place older travellers and history-minded ones rank first.

Jeju Island

An hour by air from Seoul on the busiest air route on earth, and a UNESCO volcanic landscape: Hallasan, the country’s highest mountain, at the centre; the Seongsan Ilchulbong sunrise crater on the east coast; the Manjanggul lava tube; the Olle walking trails around the coast; black-sand beaches and tangerine groves; and the haenyeo, the women free-divers who still work the reefs into their seventies. A hire car is the way here. Three nights, spring or autumn.

Elsewhere

Jeonju, three hours south of Seoul, for the hanok village and the bibimbap it invented; Andong for the Hahoe folk village and the mask dance; Sokcho and Seoraksan on the east coast for the country’s best mountain hiking and its autumn colour; Suwon for the Hwaseong fortress walls, a day from Seoul; Gangneung for the beaches and the coffee street; the temple stays at Jogyesa in the city or Haeinsa in the south for a night of meditation, monastic meals and the 4 am bell; the Jinhae cherry-blossom festival near Busan in early April, the largest in the world; the Boryeong mud festival in July; and the ski resorts of Pyeongchang and Yongpyong two hours east of Seoul from December to February.

By interest