South Korea Tours in September 2026

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.

I loved South Korea and particularly enjoyed, learning about the culture, tasting the different types of foods and experiencing karaoke. I would have liked to spend longer in Busan as it was amazing. I think there was a good balance between organized activities and free tome. I look forward to seeing more options for tours in South Korea as well as combining it with other nearby countries.

Brian made our dream come true, he was a helpful, interesting and knowledgeable guide. He made our trip very interesting. It's a great way to see many sites and sides of Korea during this tour.

The trip was wonderful and well organized but the only issue was that it was a very large group comprising of around 5 buses going to same places. The places we visited was very interesting. Very often it resulted in crowding and long waiting times specially in the morning for breakfast. In Seoul, I was the only English speaking person and was assigned an individual guide Mr Simon to translate in English. Mr Simon has been very helpful and attentive. He immediately made the necessary arrangements with regards to foods when i informed him that i has some food restrictions. he ensured that my foods met my requirements.He even took me to the pharmacy to help me buying some cough medicine as I caught the flu during the trip. The English speaking guides in Japan were also very nice and helpful and providing all relevant information. They also made the necessary arrangements regarding my food restrictions, telling me which food I could eat and which food I could not. And Pablo was like meeting an old friend as we met during my last trip in 2024.

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!

The trip was absolutely fantastic. Well organized, tours were uniquely interesting. Although all the tour guides were excellent, special mention must be made of Ken Estevez who went over an above his call of duty to assist us with various aspects of the tour. His knowledge of Japan, its culture and religious belief systems is highly commendable. Ken was able to answer questions and give a clear narrative of important information not only verbally but through well thought out appropriate media presentations. He truly is an asset to the company.