Japan or South Korea

[Holidayqueen1]

Hi
we have just come back from an amazing 2 weeks in Japan which we absolutely loved. We visited Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Hiroshima.
We are considering going back next October and going to some of the more rural/ coastal areas BUT also interested in South Korea and just wondered if anyone who had been there could give me some advice on which to choose!
we’re ideally looking for great food, things to see, some walks, a bit of city but immersing ourselves in the culture. We have a 15 year old who had a food wish list in Japan so food a key criteria!
highlights for us in Japan were Nara, Hiroshima, Miyajima and we loved the Ueno area of Tokyo. We liked Kyoto but it was super busy! We loved the shopping, the people, the trains, the cleanliness and obviously the food!!
Thanks for your advice

I have recently been to Japan following much the same itinerary as you. I went to South Korea in 2019. We went to Seoul, Busan and other places I can’t spell! Whilst we really enjoyed ourselves and the food (bbq - mmm) was great it wasn’t as magical as Japan.

@Travelismything thanks, I thought that may be the case! Maybe we’ll go for it and plan another Japan trip as it really was amazing! If you have any tips from your trip that we maybe didn’t do and you’d be willing to share I’d really appreciate it!

We really enjoyed Kanazawa. If you didn’t go to one of the Team Labs exhibits/installations I’d recommend those. I also really want to go back to Japan. Look up the you tuber Abroad in Japan - he does a cycle tour that I watched avidly.

Can I be extremely rude and ask how much your trip cost? We'd like to do something like this but while it's easy enough to check flight costs the actual day to day is really hard to put a figure on.

The holiday package itself was c£5.5k for 2 including the flights, 7 day rail pass, hotels. We then spent about £2k on food, sightseeing over the 16 days we were there. It would have been easy to spend less but we decided to try Kobe beef for example.

Thank you, I see I've got some saving to do 😬

Hiya

for 3 we spent approx £6500-7000, flights were almost £3k of this! And like pp we could have done it cheaper had we not done for example a tasting menu in Tokyo or tried Kobe beef. Day to day costs were much lower than I thought they’d be- we interspersed amazing sushi, hotpots, everything else with a few convenience store lunches and breakfasts and their amazing bento boxes!
We didn’t stay in expensive hotels- a mixture of ryokans and hotels and they averaged about £100-130 a night without breakfast. Japan rail passes were around £600 of this for a week but well worth it for the distance travelled! Things like temples and shrines were largely free. We got a few Ubers in Kyoto as transport not as easy there. We also found food more expensive in Kyoto than elsewhere.
I’d highly highly recommend it, it was phenomenal!

The day-to-day costs for Japan are low compared to flights.

We’re going next April as a group of 5 adults and flights have come out at £1900pp, hotels $600pp (and would have been a bit cheaper if we didn’t have one of the group who is a singleton), then we are budgeting about £80pp each day for food, drinks, activities and travel. So around £1000pp, but you could definitely do it cheaper. So flights are going to be more than the cost of all spending money, transport and accommodation combined.

We won’t need a JR pass though, as we’re flying into Osaka and out of Tokyo. It wasn’t actually any more expensive than flying to Tokyo on a return ticket, so definitely worth looking at. It’s not just the money you save on the JR pass, but also the time spent travelling back and forth.

Is there anywhere else you’d consider @Holidayqueen1? For example we’ve been to Japan a couple of times, and also loved Taiwan - I think if you love Japan you’d enjoy Taiwan. I haven’t been to South Korea though it is in my list!

I also loved Taiwan. Great food, really good museums and city sights (temples, memorial halls, Taipei 101, night market etc) and the wider island is just breathtakingly beautiful. Really recommend it and would love to go back one day… ideally not in August next time, as the heat nearly killed me.

Hiya
Taiwan was the one covid scuppered! We were due to go at Easter 2020! I still really fancy going but I think we’ll go back to Japan and did what we didn’t do this time. Taiwan still on the list though!

Ah haha you’ve already thought of it! It’s amazing, definitely one to keep on the list!

We visited Japan and Korea in September. We've been to Korea before (spring 2022) and can recommend Seoul and Korea. We found Korea to be a little more vibrant that Japan but they definitely have similarities, it can certainly offer great food, things to see, a bit of city and culture. We did plenty of walking everywhere!

Would you consider doing both countries on a visit? The flights between the two countries are not that expensive and are frequent. We took a ferry from Fukuoka to Busan that only took 3-4 hours if you plan to be in the west of the country.

Consider Fukuoka/Mt Aso on Kyushu for next trip.

It's also possible to get a ferry to Busan. https://www.travelbreatherepeat.com/how-take-ferry-fukuoka-busan/

I thought the food in Seoul was absolutely incredible. Haven't seen much else of SK yet though. But I think absolutely worth visiting for something different.

And definitely hit up the skincare shops!

Oh wow thank you everyone, amazing ideas! Now torn!

I live in Gyeongju in Korea & it's great for history & food (even some Gyeongju specific street foods). ^^ It's not too far from Busan, which has even more delicious foods to try.

Thanks everyone! Having now spoken about it, we re veering towards South Korea! How are the costs compared to Japan and what’s the weather like mid- end October please?

In my experience, the costs are generally a bit lower than in Japan - food, accommodation and transport are very affordable. The weather in late October should still be mild and pleasant - maybe around 15°C during the day and 8°C at night. Not too hot, not too cold. Perfect for exploring!

If you decide to go, don't hesitate to check out https://gowithguide.com/korea - it's a good site to find local tour guides who can help you make the most of your trip. A guide would be especially useful in Seoul to navigate the subway and recommend off-the-beaten-path spots beyond what's written in guidebooks. Have a great time planning your next adventure!

@Holidayqueen1 can I ask if you’d recommend Osaka as I noticed it wasn’t a highlight. I’m thinking of Tokyo and Kyoto, and trying to do a day trip from Kyoto to Nara so that we don’t have to move hotels again.

Can I also ask how many nights you spent in each place and if you’d change anything?

Also, how did your teen find Hiroshima? I don’t know if it’s a bit heavy going for our young teens but it’s also mentioned as a highlight on trip reviews I’ve seen. Thanks in advance.

I am quite into K dramas (new found hobby!) and maybe you could make it more interesting if you use them to get an idea of culture etc? I know there is a website which helps you find the areas in certain K dramas which I'd enjoy and would bring it to life more. I think South Korea has changed a lot in the last 5-10 years due to increasing popularity of all things 'K' so I imagine any advice older than that might not be hugely relevant in regards to things to do - no offence meant to anyone who has posted at all!

Hi @SingaporeSlinky
we liked Osaka, the food was great and there is a noodle museum that’s supposed to be fab, you can make your own cup noodle type thing but was full when we went!
we had 4 nights in Tokyo at the beginning and loved it, then 3 in Kyoto, 2 in Osaka, 1 in Hiroshima and 3 in Tokyo.
we liked Hiroshima largely because of the island and floating tori gate and i would have liked an extra day to explore there. My son was 14 and he was moved but not traumatised by Hiroshima. It was really interesting and I’d def recommend. The
peace museum was exceptionally crowded when we went though.
Nara from Kyoto is very easy. There is an amazing place for sushi in the park, def recommend. Also a fab place for shaved ice in the little arcade
of shops on the wall back to the station. We absolutely loved Nara.
we were going to go to Fuji and do the ropeway but my husband is petrified of heights so changed that hence Tokyo twice. We’d love to go back, but are happy with what we did- there is so much, you just have to choose a few places and explore them.
let me know if you have any other questions, happy to help!
we’ve decided against both this year but planning a South Korea trip next summer!

@Holidayqueen1 thank you very much. Any particular hotels you’d recommend or are you so busy out exploring that it doesn’t matter too much? Did you have laundry facilities? I’ve seen lots of people say that if you can get places with a washer and dryer that it’s easier to just pack light and leave plenty of room in luggage for souvenirs.
did your teen buy much?
Also, did you send luggage ahead or just take it all with you when you changed cities?
thanks again.

We loved the edo Sakura in Tokyo. It’s a ryokan, and quite basic but staff amazing and close to Ueno Park which we loved. That area of Tokyo is fab, we loved the national museum of Japan in Ueno park and it’s easy to get everywhere.
the rest we just found on booking.com. We tended to try for places that were no more than 10 mins walk from an underground as we had rucsacs that were quite heavy! Most places didn’t have washing machines but the Hiroshima one did which was great, randor hotel prestige o think it was called. The Kyoto one was a ryokan too but would e necessarily recommend!
we didn’t use the hotel much, really just a base to crash after walking an average of 23k steps a day!!
omg he bought loads!! T-shirts, a picture, lots of Japanese sweets etc.
we didn’t send ahead as was quite expensive and you can actually take a decent size rucsac or case on, there are overhead bins.
Another thing to consider if you want to avoid too many trains is basing yourself on Kyoto- a couple we met did that and did a long day trip to Hiroshima, Osaka etc.
oh and def go to Himeji castle, an absolute highlight for us!

I second the suggestion of trying Taiwan. It felt less different to Europe than either Korea or Japan (while still being very different). The Taipei metro is a marvel and more places have English-language menus than in Seoul or Tokyo. In fact if you only have time for Japan and one other place I'd suggest going to Taiwan and skipping Korea, which we found a bit "flat" — although that might have been our tour operator's choice of places to see (a lot of temples). We also found Korea to be a bit more expensive than Japan, although not in a deal-breaking way.