South Korea is a hugely underrated travel destination that we’re so glad we included in our 6 month Asia trip in 2023. We spent 2 amazing weeks exploring Seoul, and we left feeling like we can’t wait to go back and spend more time visiting the likes of Busan, Jeju Island and Gyeongju.
Our 14 days in Seoul were during the photogenic cherry blossom season and it instantly became one our favorite cities in the world. We weren’t sure if 2 weeks would be too much, but we still didn’t see everything despite having a jam-packed itinerary.
In this South Korea travel guide we explain everything you need to know about planning a first trip, including top experiences, itinerary, when to go and more.
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Places To Visit
Seoul – South Korea’s capital city is a truly fantastic place to visit and we can’t recommend it highly enough. We loved how much there was to see and do, the food was amazing and it had a nice, easy going and laid back vibe. We’ve told all our friends and family to consider visiting Seoul!
Busan – South Korea’s second city, Busan is a colorful coastal destination with mountains, beaches, arts, culture, amazing food and nightlife, bamboo forests, temples, shopping and spas. So you can see why we definitely want to go next time we’re in the country!
Jeju Island – The major vacation spot for domestic and international travelers, Jeju Island is all about the great outdoors. Hiking, mountain biking, sunrises, beaches, waterfalls and gardens. It looks a bit like going to a Hawaiian Island. But it’s bigger than it looks, so consider hiring a car.
Gyeongju – A former capital of the Silla Dynasty, Gyeongju is the place to go in South Korea for culture and history. It’s a UNESCO world heritage site with ancient tombs, temples and pagodas, as well as mountains, parks and gardens.
Top Experiences
Instead of looking at travel planning solely by which cities, towns or regions to visit, we like to know what experiences are worth doing when we visit new places.
Here’s what we’d start with in South Korea:
- Take a tour of the DMZ (here’s our review of the tour)
- Visit the royal palaces in Seoul
- Go up the N Seoul Tower
- Go up to Seoul Sky
- Explore Bukchon Hanok Village
- Go hiking in Bukhansan National Park
- Hike to Inwangsan Peak in Seoul
- Walk along Cheonggyecheon Stream
- Visit the War Memorial of Korea
- Explore Seodaemun Prison
- Explore the royal tombs in Gyeongju
- Relax on Haeundae Beach in Busan
- Visit Ahopsan Bamboo Forest
- Explore Haedong Yonggungsa Temple
- Hike up to Hallasan summit
- Walk through Manjanggul Cave
- Relax on Hamdeok Beach
- Walk through Bijarim Forest
Getting Around
Flying into Seoul (either Incheon or Gimpo) is easy. There’s tons of airlines flying non-stop into Seoul from around the world, but it’s even better when you’re already in east or southeast Asia because you can take advantage of cheap flights with low-budget airlines. We flew from Bangkok to Seoul with AirAsia for less than $100 each.
Once in Seoul, we walked as much as we could because it’s the best way to see the city. But it’s a huge sprawling place so we had to take quite a few metros to reach the further out attractions, even though we stayed in two different neighborhoods for a week each. Here’s a pdf metro map to use.
Onward travel with in Korea is also very easy. There’s a famous and scenic train from Seoul to Busan which takes less than 3 hours. And from Busan it’s only 25 minutes on the train to Gyeongju.
Flying to Jeju Island is also easy enough, with low-budget options from Seoul and Busan. And if Jeju is your last stop, there are affordable onward flights into places like Osaka or Tokyo in Japan which works perfectly for a longer itinerary.
Itinerary
If this is your first trip to Seoul, we recommend at least 4-5 days. This will give you enough time to see the major highlights and take a day trip to the DMZ, which is well worth doing.
That said, we honestly think 5-7 days is better for Seoul because its top attractions are scattered across the city. We spent 14 days doing everything there is to do as a tourist in Seoul and we still didn’t get through it all.
Knowing what we know now, here’s how we’d plan a 2 week trip exclusively in South Korea if it were our first time:
Seoul – Days 1 to 7
- Visit the royal palaces
- Day trip to the DMZ
- Take food tours in the markets
- Visit the temples
- Walk around the Hanok Village
- Hike to Ingwansan Peak
- Explore Hongdae, Myeongdong and Gangnam
- Go up both observation decks
- Walk around the Olympic Village
Busan – Days 8 to 9
- Relax on the beaches
- Party on the same beaches
- Visit the temples
- Hike the Igidae coastal path
Gyeongju – Days 10 to 11
- Slow the pace down
- Explore tombs and temples
- Walk around the UNESCO site
Jeju Island – Days 12 to 14
- Hike to the top of Hallasan
- Relax on beaches
- Drive around the island
- Visit waterfalls and parks
This relaxing itinerary efficiently takes in most of the country’s popular tourist highlights. It’s exactly how we’d do it if we wanted to spend 2 weeks in South Korea.
Accommodation
Seoul has a huge amount of hotels with sky high guest ratings, which is something we love to see when visiting a new place. We also found Seoul to have better value for money than Tokyo in general, but we were booking last minute in cherry blossom season which made things more challenging.
We wanted to stay in different areas so we could get a good feel for the city. After a lot of research we decided to go for a week in Hongdae (student heavy and cosmopolitan) and a week in Myeongdong (very touristy and busy). It worked well, but in hindsight we probably should have done a week in Myeongdong and a week in Gangnam instead.
Hongdae was awesome, but it was isolated and we could have visited it in a day. Despite being touristy, Myeongdong had a superb central location which made it easy to walk to many attractions (we stayed at the G2 Hotel and highly recommend it). And we ended up doing quite a lot around Gangnam, which is why it might have been better to split up to a week either side of the Han River.
We haven’t stayed anywhere else, but it looks like there’s a ton of places available in Busan, Gyeongju and Jeju Island. And we imagine they’ll be cheaper than Seoul.
Food
As first time tourists in Seoul, we knew it was all about Korean BBQ. And we did a lot of it. And it was amazing! But we also loved getting huge baskets of fried chicken.
Some of our favorite experiences in Seoul were when restaurant menus had no English and none of the staff spoke English either, so we’d take a wild stab in the dark and hope for the best. And a few of the chicken baskets we got had amazing sauces. In some ways we felt like Seoul was a more authentic travel destination than anywhere in Japan.
But we also found a ton of other great places like Heavy Steak, Paris Baguette (chain) for fresh croissants in the morning, Locos BBQ, Spacca Napoli for authentic Neapolitan pizza and Myeongdong Kyoja for dumplings.
When To Visit
South Korea is a year round destination that experiences all four seasons. The best time of year to visit is generally considered to be the shoulder months of April to June and September to November.
Both of these seasons are typically sunny and dry with comfortable average temperatures. It can get very hot in summer, especially in Jeju Island. And winters can be brutally cold, so we’d probably avoid it.
We visited Seoul at the beginning of cherry blossom season (early April) and it was extremely busy. If you’re not a fan of big crowds, avoid the cherry blossoms. In autumn, Seoul comes alive with vibrant fall foliage and it’s less busy compared to the spring season, so next time we’d visit in the fall.
Tours
The DMZ was one thing we absolutely didn’t want to do ourselves, so we booked this tour and it was fantastic. But it was the cheapest tour option available, and there are others like this one that cost a bit more but also include more stops.
Otherwise, there’s a ton of highly rated tour options in Seoul that we would definitely consider knowing what we know now based on our 14 days in the city. And there’s a few others we’d do in other parts of the country to save figuring out logistics.
Here are the tours we like the look of:
Keep Exploring
Are you planning a longer trip with stops in more Asian countries? Once you’re finished reading about South Korea, keep exploring nearby areas by heading over to the following pages:
We hope our South Korea travel guide helps with planning your trip!
Happy Travels,
Mark and Kristen
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