South Korea Travel Guide to Top Tourist Attractions
South Korea offers tourists everything they can dream of in a single destination. The country has both a long and intriguing history, a beautiful culture, incredible food, hospitable people, and a superb tourism infrastructure such as the new lightning-fast rail system.
It's also a nation of contrasts, with top tourist attractions that range from the finest national parks, oldest mountaintop Buddhist temples, ancient enchanting palaces to the super-modern skyscrapers such as Lotte World Tower.
South Korea has an unusually unique attraction that no self-respecting tourist will want to dare miss: a no-man's land forming a rather high-tension military border where two nations technically yet at war.
Discover the best places to tour with my South Korea travel guide to find the top tourist attractions in South Korea.
1) Changdeokgung Palace. Of the five great palaces erected in the fifteenth century near Seoul via the Joseon Dynasty, this palace was the obvious favorite royal residence. Here, the king and his regal family resided daily.
The palace isn't only one single building, but a complex of structures, of which each serve a specific and different purpose. For example, some for dining, some for-meeting guests, some as libraries, and some for accommodations.
Be sure to tour through the massive 78-acre palace garden, lying just behind the palace. It's bursting with fabulous green spaces, lovely pathways, pagodas, lakes, and streams.
2) Busan. Did you realize that you could head to South Korea and find great beaches? As the country's largest city, Busan's coast is filled with gorgeous beaches as well as resorts. There's much history and culture here, too.
Make it a priority to stop by the Beomeos Temple and the interesting hillside village called Gamecheon, which has a European style, sitting on the cliffs over the sea as if a Korean type of Santorini.
If you love seafood, visit Jagalchi Market, South Korea's biggest commercial seafood market. But only one section of the marketplace is currently open to the public, and there are several modest restaurants which will actually prepare your purchase, letting tourists to enjoy eating it right here.
South Korea's KTX extremely quick train will transport you to Busan from Seoul, taking a bit over two hours.
3) N Seoul Tower. If visiting Seoul, you should definitely climb up in the iconic observation tower. It's positioned nearly on a mountaintop, and the structure's towering height itself takes you almost five-hundred meters into the sky with the city below appearing somewhat smaller.
But allow time for exploring the nearby mountain area. The tower is close to the peak of Mount Namsan, and the whole area happens to be Namsan Park that the city runs. Plus, you can explore hiking trails that extends for miles, and only a few minutes from downtown Seoul.
There's also a cable vehicle that transports visitors from Seoul to the base area of the tower. Here, you could then hike. After enjoying the beautiful panoramas from the tower and the cable car's ride, leave time to check out the Namsan Hanok village. These preserved historical villages that are scattered across Korea and Seoul, are actual re-constructions representing ancient Korean neighborhoods. The village also includes 5 restored hanoks (traditional Korean houses).
4) The DMZ. Standing for demilitarized zone, DMZ is basically a no-man's spot bordering between two countries: North and South Korea. Although heavily mined and guarded fiercely, the odd area can still be visited, but permitted only with an authorized, guided tour. The whole area is approximately four kilometers wide, formally regarded as Joint Security Area, or just JSA.
A DMZ tour beginning from the capital, provides round-trip transportation. Official DMZ tours also allow you to visit the 3rd Tunnel, which the North dug to help make an invasion to the South easier, and the Dora Observatory, which permits you to gaze across DMZ into North Korea.
5) National Museum of Korea. Acting like a global capital, Seoul is home to many museums, including the largest, the National Museum of Korea, and in comparison, to New York's Met, it's a place which truly cannot be explored in only one visit. The mega collection ambitiously combines archaeology, art, and history, displayed in order to tell the historical account of Korean Culture as well as the story of its people.
It's also a superb attraction to visit if you happen to be running on a tight time frame in Seoul. The collection can only be described as beyond vast, for it supposed to go as far back as more than a million years. It's truly fascinating, particularly for children and families as there is such a broad range of neat objects, from stone Age tools to Korean modern artwork.
