Seoul Daytrips

Can anyone recommend english speaking tour companies to experience daytrip tours from Seoul? We are vacationing 8 nights in Seoul from May 11 to May 19, 2008.

Any sites/cities other than DMZ to visit? I would really like to see Gyeongju . Is it possible to do as a 1 day tour from Seoul .

thank you in advance . michael

Seoul Daytrips

Gyeongju- no not possible to my knowledge.

You can do it by train in one night away -stay in Hilton there.

Better value than a tour in my experience, just get a cab in Gyeongju. Concierge in hotel will help -you need to see Bulguk temple, ';tumuli park'; in downtown, Anapji pond and perhaps Sokkuram grotto. Don%26#39;t go on the express train, it takes for ever. Go KTX to DongDaegu and catch train from there. Overall about 3 .5 hours!

Seoul Daytrips

If you will be purely vacationing, I would not recommend staying in Seoul the entire time or using Seoul as your base for multiple daily trips. I remember the weather already getting muggy by mid May. Also, many of the interesting tour destinations outside of Seoul are difficult, if not impossible, to do as a day trip.

Gyoungju is awesome. I loved the sights there. Gyoungju is also not too far from the East Sea, and I remember particularly enjoying a drive along the coastline.

Anyways, someone here recommended a tourism site which appears to have information on tours for English speakers- http://english.tour2korea.com.

Ditto on Kyongju. It is a wonderful place with a lot to see so you%26#39;ll want to stay at least one night if not two.

Train is an easy way to get there as well as express bus which you could easily do on your own. The website already mentioned might help you out with English speaking tours if you want to go that route. However, if you do go on your own, know that Bulguksa and Sokkorum are a ways out of town. There are city buses which is the way to go if you can find the right one and a taxi might be a little pricey.

You might also want to consider Soraksan national park on the east coast. The trip out by bus will lend good views of the country side. Sorak is considered one of the most beautiful mountain parks in Korea with lots of nature trails and hiking.

Enjoy...

We rented a car in Kyongju/Gyeongju for about 拢30/US$60 per day, from the hotel. A cab would have been about US$100 for the day, I was told.

Hotels have bus tours, but I%26#39;d not go for that option as they%26#39;re restrictive.

Hotels also have local free maps, and a friend used one together with a non-English speaking taxi driver, just pointing to the places he wanted to go to.

If you DO go there, plan to arrive lunchtime, do some touring on that day and then take afternnon train back. DO book both ways at the start: last time I did this, I landed up on a Korean holiday Sunday, and couldn%26#39;t get a train back as they were all full by the time I tried.

I am also planning a trip, trying to figure out daytrips. I found this option for daytrip from Seoul to Gyeongju (I haven%26#39;t used this company at all so I can%26#39;t personally recommend them, I%26#39;m also curious how it%26#39;s possible)...

鈥riptokorea.com/english/viewtopic.php鈥?/a>

Seoul Hotel Pick up - Seokguram Grotto - Bulguksa Temple - Lunch - Gyeongju National Museum - Anapji pond - Tumuli Park - Cheomseongdae Observatory - Seoul Hotel

Hope you enjoy your trip!

Gyeongju for a day is barely possible; you spend a long time in a minivan on the expressway, get up early and get back late. You get 2 hours or so in Gyeongju.

I did it once, and never again!

ethelman2, do you remember how long the minivan trip was? just curious...thanks!

yes: it was about 6 hours there, and a bit longer on way back because of bad traffic after Gemgang service area all the way into Seoul. Vans use HOV lane, which helps.

If you use KTX (fast train) you can do it in about 3 hours- www.korail.com. You MUST use ';transfer'; o/wise you only get the direct services which are slow and in frequent.