South Korea Discovery Guide

South Korea is the most efficiently organised country a visitor is likely to encounter, and the contrast between that and its depth of tradition is the whole appeal: fifteen-hundred-year-old temples half an hour from a subway that runs to the second. Seoul has palaces and hanok lanes on one bank and glass towers on the other, with mountains and trails inside the city limits; Gyeongju has Silla burial mounds rising out of ordinary parkland; Busan has beaches, markets and a temple on the sea cliffs.

The main travel issue

A summer that stacks three problems together -- above 30°C with heavy humidity, the jangma monsoon rains from late June into July, and typhoon season behind them.

The solution

Travel in April to early June or late September to November, and let the KTX carry the trip. It crosses the country in under three hours, so a single base can reach most of it, with a T-money card covering the subways and buses at each end.

• Busan
• Chungcheongnam-do
• Gyeongsangbuk-do
• Jeju Island
• Seoul

If you have a week

Four nights in Seoul, then KTX south — two in Gyeongju for the Silla tombs, Bulguksa and Seokguram, and one in Busan for the fish market and Haedong Yonggungsa on the cliffs.

If you want tradition

A temple stay at a mountain monastery — Beomeosa, Haeinsa or Golgulsa — with pre-dawn chanting and monastic meals. Andong’s Hahoe folk village, Jeonju’s hanok quarter, and the Confucian academies that are UNESCO-listed.

If you want mountains

Korea is seventy per cent mountain and hiking is close to a national sport. Seoraksan in the north-east is the spectacular one; Bukhansan is inside Seoul’s city limits and reachable by subway; Jirisan in the south is the long traverse.

If you want the DMZ

The border can only be visited on an organised tour with passport checks and a dress code. The Joint Security Area at Panmunjom is sometimes open and sometimes not, depending on conditions; the observation posts and the infiltration tunnels run regardless.

If you have longer

Jeju for volcanic landscape and the haenyeo diving women; the Boseong tea terraces; and the mudflats of the west coast, newly UNESCO-listed.

South Korea went from one of the poorest countries in the world to one of the richest inside a single lifetime, and the speed of that is the key to most of what a visitor notices.

Hierarchy in the grammar

Korean encodes relative status in its verb endings, so the first questions in any new acquaintance — age, school year, position — are not nosiness but the information needed to speak correctly. Seniority governs who pours, who sits where and who pays.

Ppalli-ppalli

Hurry, hurry. The national tempo is fast: same-day delivery, twenty-four-hour everything, restaurants that turn tables in twenty minutes. It is a source of pride and of complaint in equal measure.

Jeong

A word with no clean translation — the bond of attachment built up between people through shared time and obligation. It explains why a shopkeeper gives you something extra, and why relationships here carry weight that surprises visitors.

Education and appearance

The university entrance examination stops the country for a day; flights are grounded during the English listening section. Appearance is taken seriously, and the cosmetics industry that followed is now a global export.

The North

The division is the permanent background: conscription for men, a border two hours from Seoul, and families still separated after seventy years. Koreans discuss it with less drama than outsiders expect.

Korea handles domestic tourism at a scale that dwarfs the foreign kind, so the pressure points are the famous ones at the famous times: Jeju in summer, the palaces during cherry blossom, Bukchon hanok village at any hour. Bukchon in particular is a residential neighbourhood where people live, and signs asking for quiet after five in the afternoon are there because residents pushed for them.

Temple stays run by the Jogye Order are a genuine and well-organised way to spend a night in a working monastery, with the money going to the temple rather than an operator.

Waste sorting is a legal obligation, not a suggestion. Food waste goes in its own bag, recycling is separated by material, and in many areas general rubbish must go in an official municipal bag. Get this wrong and your host will have to sort it out.

Buy from traditional markets — Gwangjang, Namdaemun, Jagalchi in Busan — and from regional producers rather than duty-free chains, which is where the money stays local.

April to early June and late September to November are the two good windows. Spring brings cherry blossom moving north through early April and mild, clear weather; autumn brings the best skies of the year and maple colour through October.

July and August are hot, above 30°C with heavy humidity, and take in the jangma monsoon rains from late June into July plus the typhoon season. Domestic holidays fill Jeju and the coasts.

December to February is cold and dry, often below freezing in Seoul with a wind off the continent, and is ski season in Gangwon province. It is also when the palaces look best under snow and when the crowds are thinnest.

Plan around two holidays. Seollal, the lunar new year in January or February, and Chuseok, the autumn harvest festival in September or October, each move most of the country to its home town for several days — transport books out and many businesses close.

What a day costs, by how you travel

$ Budget — KRW 50,000-80,000. A guesthouse or jjimjilbang overnight, market food and kimbap, subways and buses on a T-money card, and free palaces on the days they are. $$ Mid-range — KRW 150,000-250,000. A business hotel or hanok stay, Korean barbecue and restaurant meals, KTX between cities, and entry to palaces and museums. $$$ Higher — KRW 600,000+. A five-star hotel in Seoul or a Jeju resort, hanwoo beef, fine dining, and a private guide for the DMZ or the temples.

Relative cost across the country

Lowest — the south-west, Jeolla province, and smaller inland cities. Average — Busan, Daegu, Gyeongju, Gangneung. Highest — Gangnam and central Seoul, and Jeju in July and August.

Korea is mid-priced by developed-world standards. Food and transport are cheap, accommodation in Seoul is not, and the T-money card used on every bus, subway and many taxis is the first thing to buy on arrival.

The medical cost most visitors do not budget for

Medical and dental care in Korea is usually of a good standard but can be expensive, and staff may not speak English. You need travel insurance and accessible funds covering treatment and repatriation. And there is a cost that is not money: if you are admitted to hospital, particularly with a severe condition, the hospital may ask you to provide a guardian — a bohoja — to help with basic care needs such as trips to the bathroom, washing and exercise. Agencies will supply a paid caregiver, a ganbyungin, but they generally do not speak English. If you have any reason to think you might need admission, arrange a friend or relative in advance.