South Korea Travel Guide
South Korea packs an extraordinary amount into a peninsula roughly the size of Tasmania — mountain temples and glass towers, royal palaces and pop culture, and a food scene that has quietly become one of Asia's most exciting.
Seventy percent of the country is mountainous, which means that even in its densest regions you're rarely far from a granite ridge, a national park or a hillside monastery. Twenty-two national parks sit within a few hours of the capital.
The country is astonishingly easy to travel: high-speed KTX trains connect the major cities in a couple of hours, transport runs on time, English signage is good, and it's among the safest places in the world to walk at night.
What most visitors are unprepared for is the depth of the history — a continuous cultural record stretching back two millennia, preserved with real care and set directly against one of the most modern societies on earth.
Explore our South Korea Tour Packages to see how we bring the regions together.
Where to Go in South Korea
The country divides neatly into the capital region, a historic southeast, a quieter southwest with the best food in the nation, and an island south. Ten days covers the essentials comfortably.
Seoul & the Capital Region
Seoul is where every itinerary begins — a city of 10 million where 14th-century palaces sit beneath glass towers. Allow four days at least. The essentials:
- Gyeongbokgung palace and its changing of the guard
- Bukchon Hanok Village — traditional wooden houses
- Jogyesa temple
- Cheonggyecheon stream, restored and running through the centre
The city divides by mood: Insadong for antiques and tea houses, Myeongdong for cosmetics and street food, Hongdae for student nightlife and live music, Itaewon for international dining, and Gangnam for the polished modern city. Namsan Tower gives the view; the markets at Gwangjang and Namdaemun give the best cheap eating in the country.
Just south, Suwon is ringed by the magnificent World Heritage fortress walls of Hwaseong — the single best day trip in the region. Yongin holds the Korean Folk Village; Paju sits on the edge of the Demilitarised Zone, offering the country's most sobering and memorable half-day excursion. Incheon, the gateway airport city, has Korea's largest Chinatown and a string of west-coast islands.
The Southeast — Heritage & Coast
Gyeongju is the essential second stop: capital of the Silla kingdom for a thousand years, now an open-air museum of royal burial mounds, pagodas, and the World Heritage temple of Bulguksa with its Seokguram grotto Buddha.
On the coast, Busan is the country's second city and most relaxed — beaches at Haeundae, the vast Jagalchi fish market, the cliffside temple of Haedong Yonggungsa, and Gamcheon, a hillside village of painted houses tumbling toward the sea. Inland, Daegu anchors medicinal herb markets and mountain temples, while Andong preserves the Confucian heart of old Korea at the Hahoe folk village. Yeongju holds the country's oldest Confucian academy, and Namhae offers terraced coastal farmland and a genuinely beautiful island coastline.
The Southwest — Food & Landscape
Jeonju is the gastronomic capital of Korea and the birthplace of bibimbap, with a hanok village of some 800 traditional houses at its centre — for many travellers the single best stop in the country. Gwangju is the cultural capital of the Jeolla region, known for its art biennale and democratic history.
Nearby Sunchang is the home of Korean gochujang, the fermented red pepper paste at the base of the national cuisine. Daejeon, at the centre of the peninsula, offers hot springs and easy access to Gyeryongsan National Park.
Mountains & Islands
Seoraksan National Park in the northeast is the country's most spectacular landscape — granite peaks, temples, cable cars, and in October, some of the best autumn colour in Asia. Danyang offers limestone caves and river cliffs; Jirisan in the south is Korea's largest mainland park.
Off the south coast, Jeju Island is a volcanic UNESCO site of lava tubes, waterfalls, black-sand beaches and the Hallasan volcano, circled by the Olle walking trails and still home to the haenyeo, the free-diving women who harvest shellfish by hand.
The East Coast
Gangwon province on the east coast is where Koreans themselves holiday, and it's barely on the international map. Gangneung hosted the 2018 Winter Olympic coastal events and offers wide, clean beaches, a celebrated coffee street and the Ojukheon historic house. Sokcho, at the gateway to Seoraksan, pairs mountain access with a fishing harbour and a market famous for its stuffed squid.
Best Time to Visit South Korea
- Spring (April–May) brings blossom and mild, clear days — the most popular time to visit.
- Autumn (late September–November) is arguably better still: dry, bright, with foliage that rivals Japan's — late October is the peak.
- Summer (June–August) is hot and humid, with a monsoon spell through July and typhoon risk in August, though it's festival season and the mountains and coast stay pleasant.
- Winter (December–February) is properly cold — well below freezing in Seoul — but dry and sunny, with excellent skiing, very few crowds, and the lowest prices of the year.
- Plan around, not during: Chuseok (autumn harvest holiday) and Seollal (Lunar New Year) both empty the cities and book out transport for several days.
How Many Days Do You Need in South Korea?
Five days is Seoul alone, and it won't feel like enough. One week is the standard first taste: Seoul, Gyeongju and Busan, all by rail. Ten days adds Jeonju for the food and hanok village, plus either Jeju Island or Seoraksan. Two weeks covers the whole country properly — autumn is the season to do it.
Sample Itineraries
- Five days: Seoul only — palaces and Bukchon, the markets, a day at Suwon or the DMZ, an evening in Hongdae or Gangnam.
- One week: Seoul (4 nights), then KTX to Gyeongju (2 nights) and Busan (1 night) — capital, ancient capital and coast, all by rail.
- Ten days: As above, adding Jeonju for the food and hanok village, and either Jeju Island or Seoraksan National Park depending on coast vs. mountains.
- Two weeks: Seoul, the DMZ, Seoraksan, Andong, Gyeongju, Busan, Jeonju and Jeju, with time to walk a section of the Olle trail and spend a night in a temple.
Getting Around South Korea
KTX high-speed rail is the best way between cities:
- Seoul → Busan: Under 3 hours
- Seoul → Gyeongju: 2 hours
Intercity express buses reach everywhere the train doesn't, comfortably and cheaply. Jeju is served by one of the busiest air routes in the world, with flights every few minutes from Seoul and Busan.
Within cities, the subway is fast, clean and signed in English. A rechargeable T-money card covers subways, buses, many taxis and most convenience stores nationwide. Ride-hailing is widely used and inexpensive. Korea is close to cashless, and Wi-Fi is fast and near universal.
One practical note that trips people up: Korean addresses are building-based rather than street-based — give taxi drivers a map pin rather than a written address.
Where to Stay in South Korea
Seoul and Busan hold the full international range, and Korean five-star service is excellent. Business hotels are clean, cheap and well located; serviced apartments suit families and longer stays.
The distinctive options worth building into an itinerary:
- Hanok stay — a traditional single-storey courtyard house with ondol underfloor heating, available in Seoul's Bukchon and, better still, Jeonju's hanok village and Andong
- Temple stay — a working mountain monastery with dawn chanting, tea with a monk and monastic meals; can be booked for a single night
- Pensions — the Korean equivalent of a holiday cabin, common on Jeju and in the mountains
What to Eat in South Korea
Korean food is bold, fermented and generous, and every meal arrives with a spread of free banchan side dishes. Kimchi appears at every table and varies by region and season.
The essentials:
- Bibimbap — best eaten in Jeonju, where it originated
- Bulgogi and galbi — marinated barbecue meats
- Samgyetang — a whole young chicken stuffed with ginseng and rice
- Japchae — sweet potato noodles with vegetables
- Naengmyeon — chilled buckwheat noodles, the great summer dish
Street food: tteokbokki rice cakes in chilli sauce, hotteok sweet pancakes, gimbap rice rolls, sundae blood sausage, twigim fritters. Wash it down with makgeolli (cloudy rice wine, best on a rainy day with a seafood pancake) or the ubiquitous soju.
Festivals and Top Experiences
Major festivals:
- Cherry blossom (late March) — Jinhae hosts the largest festival
- Buddha's Birthday (May) — every temple filled with paper lanterns; a lantern parade through central Seoul
- Chuseok (autumn) — the harvest thanksgiving and Korea's most important family holiday; cities empty and transport books out
- Boryeong Mud Festival (July) — the most cheerfully undignified event in the calendar
- Winter — ice-fishing festivals, illuminations, excellent skiing in Gangwon province
Top experiences:
- A temple stay — a night in a working mountain monastery, with dawn chanting and monastic meals
- Korean barbecue cooked at the table, ideally somewhere loud and unglamorous
- A hanbok rental and an afternoon walking a royal palace or hanok village
- Hiking Seoraksan in autumn — one of Asia's great walks
- A jjimjilbang bathhouse, the most Korean way to end a cold day
- The DMZ tour from Paju, and the Third Infiltration Tunnel
- Walking a stretch of the Jeju Olle coastal trail
Shopping in South Korea
Korea is a serious shopping destination and prices are keen. Cosmetics and skincare are the obvious draw — Myeongdong in Seoul is wall-to-wall, with genuinely high quality at the mid-market level. Fashion runs from the wholesale towers of Dongdaemun, open through the night, to the designer boutiques of Garosu-gil and Hannam.
For craft: celadon and white porcelain, hanji mulberry paper, mother-of-pearl najeon lacquer, and traditional hanbok in Insadong, the best single street for gifts. Food makes excellent souvenirs too: gochujang from Sunchang, laver seaweed, ginseng and citron tea. Traditional markets — Gwangjang, Namdaemun, Busan's Gukje — are as much about eating as buying. Tax refunds are available to visitors, often instantly at the till.
Essential Travel Information
- Visa: Australian passport holders can currently enter visa-free for short tourist stays, subject to an electronic travel authorisation — we confirm requirements for every booking.
- Currency: Korean won. Cards work almost everywhere; a small amount of cash is useful at traditional markets.
- Etiquette: Remove shoes when entering homes, temples, guesthouses and many restaurants. Receive and give with two hands, particularly with anyone older. Pour drinks for others rather than yourself. Tipping is not practised.
- Safety: Korea is one of the safest countries in the world to travel in, at any hour of the night.
- Connectivity: Among the fastest mobile networks in the world; an eSIM or airport-collected SIM costs very little. Free public Wi-Fi is near universal.
- Health: Medical care is world-class and inexpensive by Australian standards; pharmacies are plentiful and no vaccinations are required.
- Language: Signage and transport are well translated, but menus and conversation outside tourist districts often are not. Hangeul, the Korean alphabet, is famously logical and learnable in an afternoon — even reading phonetically helps, since many menu items are loanwords. Translation apps with camera input handle the rest.
- Navigation: Addresses are building-based rather than street-based — give taxi drivers a map pin rather than an address.
- Public holidays: Seollal and Chuseok shut much of the country for several days each.
- Recycling: Korea takes it seriously — bins are separated, and food waste is disposed of separately again.
Ready to plan your trip?
Explore our South Korea Tour Packages, or speak to an Instatrip South Korea consultant about a tailor-made itinerary.
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