Discover South Korea

Really enjoyed this whirlwind tour of a fascinating country. Our guide was very knowledgeable and helped us to understand the history of the country in terms of the places we visited. The tour was "full on" and if the itinerary had been a little less packed we might have been able to enjoy some "down time". Having said that, I'm not sure what I would have wanted to leave out. Very much enjoyed the different hikes ( the mountain being quite challenging). The DMZ was fascinating, temples beautiful, and the rice wine making not to be missed. A great trip!

I learned so much about the history of South Korea and saw some beautiful landscapes and temples. The guide went above and beyond expectations. I would definitely recommend Explore and will be using them again in the future. I would recommend that if possible Explore should add a trip to Jeju Island although I understand that this would extend the duration and add to the cost of the trip.

This is an amazing, eye-opening tour of South Korea although it is full on and involves quite a bit of walking, especially on the first day in Seoul. Often we would not have time to return to our hotel after the activities, but go straight to a restaurant for dinner as the restaurants close early. But the sights, scenery, history and politics exceeded expectations, especially in Gyeongju hiking in the National Park and visiting the tombs. Busan was a little touristy on the sky capsule, and I recommend visiting the 100th floor of the Sky Tower observatory in the free time. The optional rice wine making excursion was fun! And the visit to the DMZ was fascinating. Our tour manager and guide worked hard to ensure we saw everything and arranged meals in restaurants for our group - we would have struggled to find places and she was invaluable in helping us order as English is not widely spoken outside the cities. Vegetarian and gluten free diets can be problematic as fish and meat are consumed widely. We were surprised, however, that she asked for her tip at the welcome meeting! Overall, this is a fantastic experience that packs in a huge amount of sights and experiences, although personally I wasn't taken with the visit to the temple for meditative martial arts!

Overall it was a really interesting trip which I would definitely recommend. Suggest getting an eSIM before travelling to South Korea and download the Naver Maps or Kakaomaps apps. Our tour leader provided a lot of restaurant recommendations with directions via both of these map apps. The map apps are of course also useful for navigating around the cities/towns. Before the plane had taxied to the terminal all of the group had been added to a Tour Whatsapp group by our tour leader Kelly and the person meeting us at the airport messaged with where to meet. There are two exits from the departure hall (A and B) which are a fair distance apart so make sure you go to the correct exit otherwise you will have a very long walk. Explore had already e-mailed us to tell us which exit to go to. Kelly was friendly and a very knowledgeable guide on Korea and Korean history and was keen that we experienced all aspects of Korean cuisine. Hotels were western style and comfortable with generally good and varied breakfast buffets. Be aware that you may miss breakfast on the last day if your flight leaves in the morning as the Explore transfer will get you to the airport 3 hours before your flight with no negotiation possible on timing and the journey takes about an hour from central Seoul to the airport. The itinerary was varied: big cities; smaller towns; and lots of interesting places visited with some unexpected delights such as the mask museum in Hahoe village; Sky Capsule in Busan; Digital Art gallery in Gwangju; May 18th Cemetery in Gwangju and being the first tourists to arrive at the Gwangju Juengsimsa Temple just as it was opening and having the place to ourselves for a while. We visited in June as the monsoon was starting so experienced hot sunny days interspersed with a few rainy days (some with very heavy rain which did affect some of the time in Busan). For those who don’t join the optional activities in Busan there was limited information about other things to do so you may want to do some research beforehand. You will be able to experience a lot of kimchi, meat and rice. There is a nice Thai/Vietnamese restaurant just around the corner from the Holiday Inn in Gwangju, if you fancy a change. Bear in mind that restaurants outside of Seoul and Busan close fairly early in the evening.

Whole trip was great Leader Nikki was outstanding.