Family holiday to Korea

[toycat]

We're planning a 10 night family holiday to Korea next year, likely to Seoul and Busan. Thinking Jeju Island might be a step too far travelling with a preteen, but just wondering if there are any easy trips we could make outside of these two cities for day trips? Also how best to split the 10 nights if travelling from UK

Seoul is fabulous, but personally not that keen on Busan. IMO Gyeongju is much more interesting- it’s about 2 hours by train so doable as a long day trip.
jeonju is also a possibility, but there is also a Hanok village in Seoul.
my dcs loved Jeju island and I would opt for this over Busan.
my dd loved dressing up in a hanbok and it entitles the wearer to free admission to Gyeongbokgung place.

You can do a day trip to the demilitarised zone from Seoul, not amazing but still worth a visit

Agree about visiting Gyeongju - not far from Busan (a couple of hours) so could in with your itinerary. Seoraksan in the north east is also beautiful.

When we were in Japan we were contemplating taking the over night ferry for a day trip to Korea. Didn't bother in the end but could be something to consider xX

Oh it’s all lovely!! We stayed In Seoul in an amazing hotel called l’escape hotel. We did a tour of Seoul’s via get your guide which was good it’s huge so even though the metro is great everything takes ages. We did the trip to the DMZ it’s a very long day and the tour we were in didn’t give a lot of information but is a must do I guess and very sad.
we went up to the tower can’t remember the name I really wouldn’t do that again took absolutely ages because of queues for the cable cars.
the bullet train from Seoul to Busan was fantastic easy to book on korail use the Korean website you can only book about a month advance.
i loved Busan we stayed in Hyundai’ lovely beach and walks . The trad village is lovely. We did a day trip to gyongae again a long day but really interesting.
then we flew to Jeju island so did about 4 nights in each place. Jeju island is huge so without a car quite difficult to do on your own. It’s beautiful but we stayed in the grand josun which was a lovely hotel fantastic pools but absolutely nowhere to walk to so a bit stuck in the hotel for food and very £££

we loved it there I’m not sure how long you’ve got and we didn’t have any kids but there were loads of families in Busan . The josun hotels did really good offers for tourists so maybe worth looking at.
happy to give any other info if that’s helpful?

This is all super useful info, thanks so much!

Yes with Jeju Island I'd love to go but on balance without a car it might be tricky. It'll be the first long haul flight we've done in way over a decade so are building in a couple of days to recover in Seoul.

Gyeongju sounds like a great day trip - would be good to see some older architecture. Wondering if there would be enough to keep kid's attention?

We were also considering the ferry from Busan to Osaka as been to Japan before (it has baths and karaoke in board 😁), but unfortunately we have only a couple of weeks holiday to play with!

We are shortly going to Seoul for our 3rd time, to do 2 weeks of volunteer work teaching English (me and my 17 Yr old). The first time we spent 2.5 weeks there where we visited Seoul, Gangneung, Daegu, Busan, Gwangju and Jeju. Our second visit we only stayed in Seoul for 11 days but had day trips to Gangwon and Suwon which were both very easy to get to using their standard trains.
I did the drive from Seoul to Busan on the first visit so not sure how long a train would take, but Daegu may be possible, so it's worth a look. Maybe look at Everland as a day trip from Seoul, then there's things like Nami Island that could be nice, depending on time of year and the age of your kids.

We've just been to South Korea over the Easter break, 11 nights. Loved every moment and would love to go back for a longer visit, the only dilemma would be whether to revisit the same places or try new ones.

We did 2 nights Seoul (the first day was mostly getting over the journey), 2 nights Gyeongju, 3 nights Busan, 2 nights Jeonju and then back to Seoul for the last 2 nights. So kind of alternating big city-smaller city-big-small-big. All done with trains and coach. Every place had a different but wonderful feel, Gyeongju and Jeonju had gorgeous traditional architecture, also we liked Busan (the sky capsules are the cutest thing) more than Seoul but it was a close thing!

Our DC are late teens which might make a difference, hard to say how a younger child would like the balance of destinations we did.

The sky capsules look fab! I'm drawn to Busan for the seaside for our kid.

Is Lotte World worth a visit? Thinking it might be good to spend a full day there

Close to booking flights now 😊 Any areas you would recommend in Seoul to stay in?

Good thread! My daughters and I are thinking about a city break type trip to Seoul sometime - they are both quite into K-pop and K-dramas. They are adult/almost adult. I'm intrigued about the english teaching volunteering @Nyahboo . Is that through some kind of charity/organisation?

Hope somebody with better knowledge can contribute as I'm the opposite of an expert! All I can say is that we stayed in Myeongdong at the start and Insadong at the end, liked both areas, liked Insadong slightly more.

Hiya
We’re going with our 17 yo ds in October for 14 nights, our itinerary is
2 nights Seoul ( central station area)
1 night Jeonju Hanok villahe
2 nights Gyeongju
2 nights Busan
4 nights Jeju
3 nights Seoul ( Myeondong) including a trip to
DMZ

followinh this with interest!

we have played with our itinerary a lot! But wanted a real mix so hoping this delivers! We have visited Japan a couple of times and lived it, so v excited!

Great stuff, thanks! 😁

We have to get to Heathrow from the north of England and are limited by school hols/jet lag recovery on the way back, but looking like:

4 nights in Seoul
1 night in Gyeongju
5 nights in Busan
1 night in Seoul

Op you’ll love it.
Personally I think 5 nights in Busan is quite long - maybe 2 nights in Gyeongju would be better as it’s a fascinating place.
As pp have pointed out, you may need a day to recover from the long flight, but some people cope better than others.
A couple of points: there is no tipping culture for taxis and cafes & restaurants.
Don’t forget deodorant - Koreans don’t have BO and it can be hard to find, especially since the US army base moved out of Seoul.

We loved our trip to S Korea. It’s a brilliant place to visit. It so easy to travel around.

I’d recommend

3 nights in Seoul
1 night in Gyeongju
3 nights in Busan
2 Suncheon
2 night in Seoul (different area to first time)

Ok thanks for all the tips! We're splitting it:

4 nights Seoul
2 nights Gyeonju
4 nights Busan
1 night near Seoul airport as the flight is pretty early

Any tips for best areas to stay in Busan? I'm split between Gwangalli beach and somewhere more central 😊

We’re staying in Haeundae Beach because it’s where the Blueline starts from and the sea temple is accessible. It didn’t look like there was a specific central area really and I was a bit stumped about where we should stay so I’m following with interest! When is it you go?

ETA although now I’ve gone back to my travel planner chat gpt and am thinking of changing to Seomyeon as it’s much more central if we also want to go to the cultural village and will be arriving by train and leaving by plane very confusing!

We stayed in Haeundae Beach and loved the location.

As @26inprogress says, it is walking distance to the Blueline where the sky capsules start from (also there's a lovely boardwalk with stunning views so you can take the capsule/beach train one way and walk back). The beach is vast and lovely. At the other end of the beach there's a gorgeous forest park. The main street is very touristy but in a lively way that teen DC loved.

Downside is that it's kind of at one end of the city, so a fairly long subway/bus ride from other areas (e.g. the station) but we didn't really mind this, just as long as you allow for journey times.

We visited other areas and liked them all too, so don't be swayed too much by our single inexpert experience - we basically picked our location out of a hat!

I think Jeju would be good with a pre-teen. I didn't go with my younger children, but I do have them! Udo island would be great - you can cycle round it, climb to the top of the light house. And lots to see on Jeju. I'm less keen on Busan tbh, but kids might enjoy the beach and little pod things. (book in advance - we didn't and couldn't get on one).

I'd agree with Gyeongju Also we did an overnight monastery stay near there - there were other families with young children who seemed to really enjoy it - look up Golgusa. (neither of the families with kids got up for the early morning protestations!).

We didn't have a car for Jeju - Ubers are so easy to arrange and very cheap. Similarly in Busan. We stayed on Gwangalli beach - I was with my older daughter, so the night life was a draw for her. I wouldn't spend more than 3 nights in Busan myself - 2 was enough for us.

We stayed by the little canal in Seoul - really recommend it there!

We went to Busan for 2 weeks as DD was living there and we loved it although appreciate that was DH and I - no teens.

I'd really recommend a Facebook group called South Korea Travel Tips and planning and their web pages - loads of practical information.
South Korea Hallyu