Deep Korea: 21 days across the whole country
Three weeks is more time than South Korea needs for a first visit, and it is exactly the right amount for a second one, or for a first visit by someone who travels slowly and dislikes leaving a country half seen.
- Duration
- 21 days
- Pace
- Moderate
- Hotel changes
- 9
- Best months
- May, Jun, Sep, Oct
- From
- $5,250 per person
Here is what the extra eleven days actually buy, because this is where the padding usually goes in. They do not buy more mid-size cities. They buy Gangwon and its mountains, the Confucian towns of the interior, the tea and wetland country of the far south, the small islands off the southern coast that almost no foreign visitor reaches, and Jeju given the week it deserves rather than the rushed three days it usually gets.
Nine hotel changes in twenty-one days, which is a change every two and a third days, and four full days with nothing scheduled.
Who it suits: returning visitors, slow travellers, retired couples with time, and anyone who found the ten-day route and thought it looked thin.
Day by day
Days 1 to 4: Seoul. Four nights and three working days. The palaces and Changdeokgung’s rear garden, the DMZ half day, the National Museum, Gwangjang market with a guide, and Seongsu and Euljiro on foot. One free day with Suwon’s fortress walls or Bukhansan as options.
Days 5 and 6: Gangwon and Seoraksan. Road east to Sokcho, about three hours. A day in the national park, either the Ulsanbawi ridge for walkers or the cable car and the Biseondae valley for everyone else. Raw fish at Sokcho’s harbour, and the east coast beaches, which Koreans use and foreigners never see.
Days 7 and 8: Andong. South through the interior. The Hahoe folk village on its river bend, the Byeongsan and Dosan Confucian academies, the mask museum, and a night in a hanok. This is the most traditional part of Korea that is still lived in rather than preserved.
Days 9 to 11: Gyeongju. Three nights, which is one more than the classic route and the right number. The burial mounds and the observatory, Bulguksa and the Seokguram grotto with a guide, the national museum and its Silla goldwork, the Yangdong folk village outside town, and a temple stay at Golgulsa for one of the nights if you want it.
Days 12 and 13: Busan. Jagalchi fish market, Gamcheon’s terraces, Beomeosa in the hills, the Igidae coastal path and an evening on Gwangalli. One free day. Optional day trip to Geoje.
Days 14 and 15: Tongyeong and the southern islands. West along the coast to Tongyeong, which is a working port with the best seafood in Korea and a ferry terminal that goes somewhere interesting every hour. A day on the water: Hansan-do, Bijindo or Somaemuldo depending on the swell. Almost no foreign visitors here, and very little English.
Days 16 and 17: Suncheon, Boseong and Jeonju. The Suncheon Bay wetlands and their reed beds, the terraced green tea fields at Boseong, then north to Jeonju for a night in the hanok quarter, the night market and the makgeolli alleys.
Days 18 to 21: Jeju. Flight from Gwangju or Yeosu, or back through Busan. Four nights with a car, which is the one place in Korea a car is worth having. Hallasan or a lower forest trail, two of the numbered olle coastal routes, the Manjanggul lava tube, Seongsan Ilchulbong at first light, a haenyeo kitchen lunch, the west coast beaches, and at least one day with nothing in it. Fly out of Jeju on day 21.
What is included
Accommodation with breakfast throughout, including hanok stays, a temple stay and a boutique property on Jeju. All train legs with reserved seats, private vehicle for the interior and coastal transfers where the bus network is slow or unsigned, the domestic flight to Jeju, ferries on the southern islands, a rental car with island briefing on Jeju, seven days of licensed English-speaking guiding spread across the trip, park and museum entries, restaurant reservations, a day-by-day document with every address, terminal and platform written in Hangul, and a WhatsApp group with your consultant and our Seoul partner for the full three weeks.
Where this trip is genuinely hard
We would rather write this than have you find it out.
The southern coast and the islands are the part of Korea where English effectively runs out. Ferry timetables change with the weather, terminal signage is Korean-only, and a guesthouse owner on Bijindo will not speak English. This is not dangerous and it is not difficult with the right document, but it is a different experience from Seoul and you should choose it knowingly. It is also the section our travellers most often name as their favourite.
Jeju in late July and August is Korea’s own summer holiday, and it is full. Not full of foreign tourists, full of Korean families, which is a different and in some ways nicer kind of busy, but the beaches, the coast road and the Hallasan trailheads are all at capacity and the room rates roughly double. May, June, September and October are the months this itinerary is built for.
What we would change, and when
- Travelling in October? The strongest month of the year, and we would move Seoraksan to a midweek slot and add a night at Naejangsan for the late colour in the south.
- Want a fourth country week? Take the last four days and fly to Fukuoka instead, and let our own Tokyo office pick up a Japanese leg.
- Nine moves too many? Cut Suncheon and Boseong, go straight from Tongyeong to Jeonju, and give the day back to Jeju.
- Winter? We would rebuild this substantially. The islands and the ferries are unreliable, the mountains need crampons, and the trip becomes a different one built around hot springs, bathhouses, snow country in Gangwon and the cities.
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