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Nowhere else does a six-hundred-year-old throne hall share a horizon with a 555-metre glass tower and look like it was always meant to.
South Korea packs a startling amount into a peninsula roughly the size of Kentucky: Joseon palaces and tiled hanok lanes sitting inside a capital of nearly ten million, mountain temples that take overnight guests, and a coastline of fishing ports and volcanic islands. Fast, inexpensive trains put Seoul, Gyeongju and Busan within a few hours of one another, so a first trip rarely needs a car. Come for the food — the country's real national collection is its markets — and stay for how comfortably the very old and the very new share a skyline.
South Korea in numbers
Plan your tripAttraction-by-attraction guides to 1 city in South Korea, each one mapped.
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The country's showpiece season. Cherry blossom sweeps north from Jeju and Busan to Seoul over a few weeks, palace grounds and riverside parks fill with picnickers, and daytime temperatures sit comfortably in the mid-teens to low twenties Celsius. Late March can still turn sharply cold, and fine yellow dust drifting in from the west occasionally hazes the air.
Hot, humid and green. The monsoon front known as jangma parks over the peninsula from roughly late June into July, delivering long spells of heavy rain, and August is the muggiest stretch of the year. It is also when the beaches, the water parks and the mountain valleys come alive, and when city life shifts outdoors after dark.
For many travellers the best time to come. The humidity breaks, the skies turn genuinely clear, and foliage moves down from the northern mountains through October into November, lighting up the national parks and the temple valleys. Days are mild, evenings cool, and the hiking is superb.
Cold, dry and bright, with Siberian air pushing temperatures in Seoul below freezing for weeks at a time. Snow is common in the northern and eastern mountains, which is what makes Gangwon a ski region, and the clear light is excellent for photography. Pack seriously warm layers; the wind is what gets you.
A straight run down the spine of the country on the KTX, taking in the capital, the old Silla capital and the southern port. No car needed at any point, and it works just as well in reverse if you fly out of Busan.
Enough time to get past the headline sights and into the neighbourhoods, using nothing but the subway and a T-money card. Pairs a palace-and-market core with a day out to the fortress town of Suwon.
A slower loop for a second visit or a longer first one, trading city time for volcanic scenery, ridge walking and the eastern seaboard. This is the itinerary where a hire car genuinely pays for itself on Jeju.
Eight questions travellers ask before they go.
Autumn, from September to November, is the popular answer — the humidity has broken, the skies are clear and the foliage is spectacular in the mountains and temple valleys. Spring, roughly April to May, runs it close for cherry blossom and mild walking weather. Summer is hot and includes a genuine rainy season in late June and July, while winter is cold and dry but bright, and it is the only time the Gangwon ski resorts make sense.
Four or five days is enough for Seoul alone and makes a rewarding short trip. Around ten days lets you add Gyeongju and Busan by high-speed train without rushing, which is the shape most first visits take. Two weeks opens up Jeju Island, the Seoraksan mountains or the food-focused southwest as well.
For most itineraries, no. KTX trains, intercity buses and city subways cover the country thoroughly and cheaply, and Seoul in particular is easier without a car than with one. Hire a car for Jeju Island, the eastern coastal road, or if you want to reach remote temples and national-park trailheads on your own schedule.
Its food and its contrasts, mostly. The country is famous for Korean barbecue, kimchi and market street food; for K-pop, film and television that now travel worldwide; and for a set of royal palaces, mountain temples and hanok villages that sit within walking distance of some of the most modern architecture in Asia. It also has 17 UNESCO World Heritage Sites for a country you can cross in an afternoon.
Less than visitors often expect, but enough to travel comfortably. Subway signage, station announcements, major museum labels and most tourist attractions carry English, and younger people in Seoul and Busan frequently speak some. Outside the cities and in smaller restaurants it thins out quickly, so a translation app and a few phrases in Korean go a long way — and learning to read hangul takes about an evening and pays off immediately.
The South Korean won, written ₩ and abbreviated KRW. Card payment is close to universal — Korea is among the most cashless countries in the world, and even small cafés and taxis take cards. Carry a modest amount of cash anyway for traditional market stalls, temple donation boxes and rural buses, and expect foreign cards to be declined at some unattended machines.
Start with Korean barbecue, where you grill pork belly or marinated beef at the table, and with a stew such as kimchi jjigae or sundubu. Work through the market staples — mung-bean pancakes, knife-cut noodles, blood sausage, sweet filled hotteok pancakes in winter — and try a bibimbap in Jeonju, where the dish is said to have been perfected. Every meal arrives with a spread of free shared side dishes called banchan, which is half the pleasure.
First-time Asia trips, food, city breaks, hiking.
