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With no way to travel to Korea by road or rail, the vast majority of travellers arrive at the gleaming Incheon international airport; often referred to as "Seoul Incheon" on international departure boards, this offshore beast handles a large and ever-increasing number of international flights. The only other way in is by sea - there are services from both China and Japan.
Korean Air and Asiana are the two big Korean airlines, operating direct flights from a number of destinations around the world. Seoul increasingly features as a stopover on round-the-world trips, and the country is well served by dozens of international carriers. Fares increase for travel in the summer months and at Christmas time. A departure tax applies when leaving Korea, but will almost certainly be factored in to your ticket price.
Incheon itself is served by a number of Chinese ferry ports, and there are services from several destinations in Japan to Busan. Those arriving by ferry will be rewarded with a pretty introduction to the country - the Korean coastline around Incheon melts into countless islands, though the port area itself has been ravaged by industry, as have some nearby islands. Yet more interesting would be to arrive by train through North Korea, but though the country's relationship with the outside world has so far prevented Seoul-bound trains from making the journey from Beijing, lines across the demilitarized zone dividing the Koreas (the DMZ) have been upgraded in anticipation of a political thaw on the peninsula - keep your eyes peeled.
Flights from the UK and Ireland
Korean Air and Asiana have direct connections from London Heathrow to Incheon - Korean Air has a daily service, while Asiana has five per week. The journey takes eleven hours, with fares costing around £600; this can sail over £800 during summer and at Christmas, when it's common for all flights to be fully booked weeks in advance. You can save money by taking an indirect flight, with prices often dipping below £400 during low season; good options include Finnair via Helsinki, Qatar Airways via Doha, Aeroflot via Moscow and Emirates via Dubai. It's also worth checking deals with KLM and Air France, whose routes are as close to direct as possible.
There are no direct flights to Korea from Ireland so you'll have to transfer in the UK or in mainland Europe.
Unless explicitly stated, this Basics section is referring to South Korea, calling that country "Korea" as the locals do. North Korean travel basics are detailed separately.
Flights from the US and Canada
If you are coming from the US you have a number of options available to you: there are direct flights to Incheon from New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Detroit, Seattle, Chicago, Atlanta, Washington and Honolulu; carriers include Delta and United, as well as Asiana and Korean Air. Sample low season fares are $1400 from New York (a journey of around 14hr), $1200 from Chicago (14hr) and $1150 from Los Angeles (13hr). In all cases you may save up to a couple of hundred dollars by transferring - San Francisco and Seattle are popular hubs. Fares on many routes can almost double during summer and Christmas time.
Korean Air has direct flights from Incheon from two Canadian cities, Vancouver and Toronto, but these can be very expensive when demand is high (over Can$3000). Again, you're likely to save money by taking an indirect flight, in which case Can$1700 would be a typical low season fare from both cities.
Six steps to a better kind of travel
At Rough Guides we are passionately committed to travel. We feel strongly that only through travelling do we truly come to understand the world we live in and the people we share it with - plus tourism has brought a great deal of benefit to developing economies around the world over the last few decades. But the extraordinary growth in tourism has also damaged some places irreparably, and of course climate change is exacerbated by most forms of transport, especially flying. This means that now more than ever it's important to travel thoughtfully and responsibly, with respect for the cultures you're visiting - not only to derive the most benefit from your trip but also to preserve the best bits of the planet for everyone to enjoy. At Rough Guides we feel there are six main areas in which you can make a difference:
Consider what you're contributing to the local economy, and how much the services you use do the same, whether it's through employing local workers and guides or sourcing locally grown produce and local services.
Consider the environment on holiday as well as at home. Water is scarce in many developing destinations, and the biodiversity of local flora and fauna can be adversely affected by tourism. Try to patronize businesses that take account of this.
Travel with a purpose, not just to tick off experiences. Consider spending longer in a place, and getting to know it and its people.
Give thought to how often you fly. Try to avoid short hops by air and more harmful night flights.
Consider alternatives to flying, travelling instead by bus, train, boat and even by bike or on foot where possible.
Make your trips "climate neutral" via a reputable carbon-offset scheme. All Rough Guide flights are offset, and every year we donate money to a variety of charities devoted to combating the effects of climate change.
Flights from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa
From Australia, the only three cities with direct connections to Korea are Sydney (10hr), twice per day; Brisbane (9hr), five times per week; and Melbourne (11hr) three times per week. There are sometimes direct flights from Cairns during the Korean winter. The number of Koreans going to Australia means that bargain flights are few and far between, but Qantas usually prices its direct services competitively - return fares start at around Aus$1500, while the Korean carriers may ask for almost double that. It's worth checking around for indirect flights via a Southeast Asian hub; prices can often drop close to Aus$1000. Likewise, if travelling from New Zealand - keep your fingers crossed for a NZ$1400 fare, but assume you'll pay around NZ$1900. There are also direct flights from Auckland (12hr), and a few from Christchurch.
At the time of writing, there were no direct flights from South Africa.
Flights from Japan and China
If you're travelling from elsewhere in Asia - particularly from Japan or China's eastern seaboard - it may be worth checking for a connection to another Korean international airport. In decreasing order of importance, these include Busan's Gimhae airport, Jeju, Daegu and Gwangju; those at Yangyang (near Sokcho) and Cheongju are also equipped to handle international flights, though don't always get the opportunity. There's also a handy, and extremely regular, connection between Seoul's Gimpo airport and Tokyo Haneda, both of which are closer to the centre of their respective capitals than the larger hubs, Incheon and Narita.
Trains
Despite the fact that South Korea is part of the Eurasian landmass, and technically connected to the rest of it by rail, the DMZ and North Korean red tape means that the country is currently inaccessible by land. This may well change - two old lines across the DMZ have been renovated and 2007 saw trains rumble across the border as part of a peace ceremony. However, overnight trains from Beijing to Seoul station remain a distant prospect. Until then, surface-based access from the continent takes the form of ferries from Japan or China, possibly via a ride on the Trans-Siberian Railway. Note that if you're heading to or from China or Japan, you can make use of a combined rail and ferry ticket that gives substantial discounts on what you'd pay separately - see 
www.korail.com for details.
The Trans-Siberian train, and ferries from China
Although you can't actually reach Korea by train, if you're coming from or via Europe you may wish to consider one of the world's best overland trips - a train-ride across Russia and China. There are three main routes from Moscow, the main one a week-long, 9288km journey ending in Vladivostok on the East Sea. The Trans-Manchurian and Trans-Mongolian are slightly shorter rides ending in Beijing. The most popular cities to stop at - other than the termini of Moscow, Vladivostok and Beijing - are Irkutsk, next to beautiful Lake Baikal in Russian Siberia, and Ulaan Baatar, the idiosyncratic capital of Mongolia. Prices vary massively depending upon where you start and stop, and whether you go through a tour agency or not; for more information go to 
www.seat61.com. To complete the overland journey to Korea, you'll have to continue by ferry from China's eastern seaboard.
|
Chinese ports |
Departure days and times |
Journey times |
|
Dalian |
Mon, Wed & Fri 3.30pm |
17hr |
|
Dandong |
Tues, Thurs & Sun 3pm |
16hr |
|
Lianyungang |
Mon 11pm, Thurs 1pm |
24hr |
|
Qingdao |
Mon, Wed & Fri 4pm |
15hr |
|
Qinhuangdao |
Wed & Sun 1pm |
23hr |
|
Shidao |
Tues, Thurs & Sun at 6pm |
14hr |
|
Tanggu (Tianjin) |
Thurs & Sun 11am |
24hr |
|
Weihai |
Tues, Thurs & Sun 6pm |
14hr |
|
Yantai |
Mon, Wed & Fri 5pm |
14hr |
|
Yingkou |
Mon & Thurs 11am |
24hr |
There are several ferry routes from China's eastern coast, almost all of which head to Incheon's international termini. All vessels have numerous classes of comfort, with one-way prices starting at around 700 RMB. The most popular connections are Dalian and Qingdao, and Tianjin's port in Tanggu, which is most convenient if you're heading to or from Beijing. See 'The Trans-Siberian train, and ferries from China' for more on these routes.
Services from Japan depart from Fukuoka and Shimonoseki to Busan, and arrive reasonably close to Busan train station, so you can be heading to other Korean destinations in no time. Fukuoka is by far the better choice, since there are, in fact, two different services to and from Korea - one a regular ferry, departing Fukuoka every day except Sunday (6hr; ¥9000), or a faster jetfoil with at least five services per day (3hr; ¥13,000; 
www.jrbeetle.co.jp).
Airlines, agents and operators
Airlines
Aeroflot 
www.aeroflot.ru.
Air Canada 
www.aircanada.com.
Air China 
www.air-china.co.uk, 
www.airchina.com.cn.
Air France 
www.airfrance.com.
All Nippon Airways (ANA) 
www.anaskyweb.com.
American Airlines 
www.aa.com.
Asiana Airlines 
www.flyasiana.com.
British Airways 
www.ba.com.
Cathay Pacific 
www.cathaypacific.com.
Delta 
www.delta.com.
Emirates 
www.emirates.com.
Finnair 
www.finnair.com.
JAL (Japan Air Lines) 
www.ar.jal.com.
KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines) 
www.klm.com.
Korean Air 
www.koreanair.com.
Lufthansa 
www.lufthansa.com.
Qantas 
www.qantas.com.
Qatar Airways 
www.qatarairways.com.
Singapore Airlines 
www.singaporeair.com.
United Airlines 
www.united.com.
US Airways 
www.usair.com.
Agents and operators
ebookers 
www.ebookers.com. Low fares on an extensive selection of scheduled flights and package deals.
North South Travel 
www.northsouthtravel.co.uk. Friendly, competitive travel agency, offering discounted fares worldwide. Profits are used to support projects in the developing world, especially the promotion of sustainable tourism.
STA Travel 
www.statravel.com. Worldwide specialists in independent travel; also student IDs, travel insurance, car rental, rail passes, and more. Good discounts for students and under-26s.
Trailfinders 
www.trailfinders.com. One of the best-informed and most efficient agents for independent travellers.
Local tour operators
Aju Tours 
www.ajutours.co.kr. A few interesting additions to the regular Seoul tours and DMZ trips, including birdwatching, oriental health or a tour of shamanistic sites.
Grace Travel 
www.triptokorea.com. A user-friendly website - click on "Customised Tours", select your time window, then choose from a range of interesting options.
Rye Tour 
www.ryetour.com. In addition to a few Korea-only itineraries, they also offer week-long tours which combine Seoul and Busan with Beijing, Shanghai or Tokyo.
TIK Tour Service 
www.tiktourservice.com. Offers affordable tours including skiing holidays, temple tours and trips around Jeju Island.
Travelling around the country is simple - even if the train won't take you where you want to go, there's almost always a bus that will; should you have a choice, it's usually faster but more expensive to take the train. Travel prices are also reasonable by international standards, even if you choose to hop on one of the surprisingly numerous domestic flights. Korea is surrounded by islands, and should you take a ferry to one of these, it may well be the most pleasurable part of your visit. All cities have comprehensive (if slightly incomprehensible) bus networks, and many now have subway lines. Taxis are remarkably good value, and can even be feasible modes of transport from city to city.
Wherever you are, it's wise to avoid peak travel seasons if possible. During the two biggest holidays, Seollal and Chuseok, it can often feel as if the whole country is on the move, as people rush to their home towns and back again - there's gridlock on the roads, it's hard to find a seat on trains or buses, and many shops and businesses (including some hotels) close down. Weekend or rush-hour train tickets can also be hard to come by throughout the year. For travel information, it's best to ask at a tourist office, or call the English-speaking information line on 
1330 (you'll need to add an area code if dialling from a mobile phone or abroad).
For such a small country, Korea is surprisingly well served by domestic flights. The two national carriers, Korean Air and Asiana, have near-identical services - with near-identical fares - linking over a dozen airports across the nation, with the two main hubs being Gimpo in Seoul, and the holiday hotspot of Jeju Island. However, the country is so well covered by train and bus that only a trip to Jeju would see the average traveller need to use a domestic flight. Prices are reasonable - almost always between W60,000 and W100,000 - which is hardly surprising given that few trips take longer than an hour. Don't forget your passport, as you're likely to need it for identification purposes.
Moving on from Incheon Airport
Connections to Seoul from Incheon airport are good. There are also express buses that dash from the airport to all of the country's major cities at pleasingly regular intervals. Wherever you're going, useful signs help point the way, or you can ask at the information desk to find the most suitable route.
With several thousand islands sprinkled around Korea's western and southern shores, no trip to Korea would be complete without a ferry ride. Several towns and cities have connections, though the main ports of entry to Korea's offshore kingdom are Incheon, Mokpo, Wando, Yeosu and Busan, all of which embrace sizeable island communities. The choice from Mokpo, in particular, is incredible - some travellers have inadvertently made trailblazers of themselves, finding their way onto islands that had never seen a foreign face. Popular Jeju Island is quite the opposite, and although the vast majority of Koreans travel here by plane, it has ferry connections to a number of southcoast mainland cities. Fares, on the whole, are reasonable - short hops may cost as little as W5000, but for return fares to outlying islands such as Jeju, Hongdo, Ulleungdo or Dokdo you'll probably have to shell out at least ten times that. Only tickets to these destinations will be in much danger of selling out, and even then, only in high season; at these times, it's best to head to a Korean travel agent.
A fleet of excellent trains ply the mainland provinces - sleek, affordable and punctual to a fault. There are two main lines, both starting in Seoul; these split in Daejeon, heading to Daegu and Busan to the southeast and Mokpo to the southwest. The highest of four main classes of train is the KTX - these high-speed machines entered service in 2004, and occasionally reach speeds of over 300km per hour. The Gyeongbu line runs from Seoul to Busan and connects the cities in around two hours (W51,800). The KTX has taken over from the previous lord of the tracks, the Saemaeul; though slower (Seoul to Busan takes over four hours), travelling on this class cuts KTX costs by around a third (W39,300 Seoul to Busan), and the greater legroom usually makes for a more comfortable journey. A third cheaper again is the network's third class of train, the Mugunghwa, which was forced to cede most of its schedule space to the KTX - a good thing, since the Seoul to Busan journey (W26,500) is now a haul of nearly six hours. Last of all are the dirt-cheap commuter class trains, which largely cater for rural communities and Seoul's satellite cities - only a handful of lines use them, and you're unlikely to see or need one. All non-commuter trains have toilets, and folk pushing trolleys of beer, peanuts, chocolate and gimbap for sale down the carriages with almost disturbing frequency. For fare and schedule information, check 
www.korail.com.
Distance in kilometres
Tickets
Almost all stations have English-language signs where necessary, and schedules can also be checked online. When buying your tickets, the bigger stations have special lanes for foreigners, though it doesn't really matter which one you use, as the ticketing system is computerized and buying one is easy. Simply state your destination and the class you require, and the cashier will swing a computer screen in your direction, showing the price and seat availability. If she's pointing at a zero and looking apologetic, you'll probably need another train; additional allocations of standing tickets are available on non-KTX classes once all seats are sold out, and with these you'll be able to use any empty ones that become available. You'll be given a carriage and seat number: take your seat and not someone else's, otherwise it throws the seating system into disarray and may cause a domino-run of disgruntled passengers. As trains are far less numerous than buses, they're far more likely to sell out quickly - on holidays or weekends, you'll need fortune on your side to walk into a station and find KTX tickets for the main routes. Advance reservations are highly recommended - tickets for all classes go on sale a month ahead of travel, and can be bought at any station. Also, quite sensibly, a return ticket costs the same as two single ones.
Subway trains
Six Korean cities now have underground networks - Busan, Daegu, Daejeon and Gwangju have independent systems, while Incheon's lines are linked to the marauding Seoul network; all are continuing to grow, and new networks are likely to be born in other cities. Prices start at about W1000 for a short hop (or from one end to the other on the single lines in Daejeon and Gwangju), and increase with distance in the bigger cities, though even the full run through Seoul from Soyosan to Cheonan - about one-third of the country, and one of the longest metro routes in the world at three hours plus - will only set you back W3100. Signs are dual-language, and station maps easy to read.
By bus
There are a staggering number of long-distance buses in Korea - during rush hour, some scheduled services can run as often as every two minutes, with all departing on time. They come in two types - express (
; gosok) and intercity (
; si-oe, pronounced "shee-way"). Although the express services are more expensive and tend to be used for longer journeys, they are likely to run in tandem with intercity buses on many routes; allied to this, the two bus types use separate stations in most cities, and even the locals don't always know which one to go to, or which one they'll be arriving at - very frustrating, though some cities are starting to see sense and group both into one building (Gwangju, for example). Some cities have even more than two, so all in all it pays to keep a loose schedule when using buses, even more so if the highways are full.
Longer journeys are broken at service stations, housing fast-food bars and snack shops, resonating to the sound of the "throat" (a Korean word for warbly grandmother techno) tapes on sale outside. You typically get fifteen minutes to make your purchases and use the toilets (there aren't any on the buses), but many a traveller has come a cropper after exiting the building to be confronted by forty near-identical vehicles, of which half-a-dozen may be heading to the same destination - your bus won't wait for you, so make sure that you know where it's parked.
Buses are so frequent that it's rare for them to sell out, though the last service of the day between major cities tends to be quite full. This can be surprisingly early: many services make their last trips at 7pm, though some have overnight connections. Prices are reasonable and usually lower than the trains, with intercity services slightly cheaper than express if the two coexist - Seoul to Busan is around W25,000 (5hr) on the former, W35,000 (4hr 30min) on the latter. Journeys take longer than the fastest trains, and are more prone to delays. Tickets are often checked at the start of the journey, but also at the end, so if possible try to avoid losing your ticket, lest the driver refuse to release you from his bus (which does happen).
City buses
With little English language on the signs or vehicles, Korea's city bus networks can be more than a little confusing for the first-time visitor, and some of Seoul's route numbers look more like postcodes. Once you are familiar with a route, city buses can be a good way of getting around - they're pleasingly frequent, and very affordable at around W1000 per ride. Throw your money into the collection box next to the driver; change will be spat out just below - make sure that you've an ample supply of coins or W1000 notes with you, as higher-value bills are unlikely to be accepted (though foreigners in such situations may be waved on with a grin). The bigger cities have started to avoid these problems by introducing pre-paid cards; these work out cheaper per journey than paying by cash, and some are also valid on subway networks or longer-distance buses. They last for as long as you have credit, and can be topped up in increments of W1000 at kiosks or ticket booths.
By car or motorbike
There are good reasons for the relative reluctance of travellers to hire a car in Korea. The main one is the country's excellent public transport infrastructure, another the threat posed by Korean drivers. Korean road fatality rates are often cited as the highest in the world, with most estimates putting the figures above 30 per 100,000 people per year - five times higher than the UK, for example. If you do decide to drive, you will inevitably get snarled up in the traffic that blights the cities and highways, with exceptions being Jeju Island and rural Gangwon province in the northeast, where the roads are relatively calm and traffic-free.
To hire a car you will need an international driving licence, and to be at least 21 years of age. Rental offices can be found at all airports and many train stations, as well as around the cities. Prices usually start at W45,000 per day, though as insurance is compulsory, you should budget on a little extra. Vehicles usually drive on the right-handside of the road (though not all the time; the pavement can be just as popular in some city areas).
Taxis
Korean taxis are pleasingly cheap for a developed country, and in any city you shouldn't have to wait long to spot one. Look for cars with illuminated blocks on top, usually something resembling a plastic pyramid. Those whose blocks aren't illuminated are taken or on call; others can be waved down from the roadside, though to make sure of being understood you'll have to do it the Korean way - arm out, palm to the ground, fingers dangling underneath. As few drivers speak English, it's a good idea to have your destination written down, if possible - even the cheapest motels should have business cards with their address on. Rates will vary slightly from city to city, though they should start at under W2500 - over short distances, cab rides may work out cheaper than taking buses if you're in a group. All taxis are metered and though dishonesty is rarely an issue, when you start moving, check that the numbers are doing likewise. The only time that you may have to negotiate a fee is if you're using a chong-al - or "bullet" - taxi. Piloted by death-wish drivers, these hover like vultures around train and bus stations when tickets have sold out, or daily services have finished. Rides in such vehicles are not recommended for those of a nervous disposition, while others may find it quite a thrill.
Motorbikes
You'll be hard pushed to find two-wheeled vehicles above 125cc in the country, as the vast majority of Oriental superbikes are exported for use in Europe or America. Despite this, though, a sizeable number of expats still don leather during their Korean stint. One good place to hunt for information or cycle partners is Yongsan Motorcycle Club, whose website (
www.roaddragons.com) features a calendar of forthcoming trips and events.
Korean addresses
First, the good news - almost all Korean road signs are dual-language, spelling the Korean hangeul out in Roman characters. The bad news is that there are very few street signs - most streets don't even have names. Instead, addresses point to a numbered section of a dong (city district), which until recently were doled out in chronological order when the buildings were made. The year 2010 saw the Korean government slapping new road signs all over the country, with addresses listed by their position on a road rather than their relative age, but it'll be a while before these new addresses find common use.
As you can imagine, this patchwork system leads to all sorts of problems; it's common for hotels and restaurants to include a small map on their business cards. With this in mind, almost all of the accommodation listed in this guidebook is either mapped or easy to find. The local tourist office may be able to contact hotels and get them to fax you through a map, or you could take your chances in a taxi. Drivers will know the location of each city dong, but not necessarily the exact road or address, so don't worry if they pull in at a police station - it's quite common for cabbies to consult police maps for exact directions.
Despite the general confusion, addresses fit into a very rigid system; unlike the Western world, components are usually listed from largest to smallest when writing an address. The country is split into nine 
- do, or provinces. In these you'll find cities (
; - si, pronounced shee), towns (
; - eup) and villages (
; - ri or - li), with the larger cities split into a number of 
- gu, or wards. The number of - gu will vary with the city's size - Seoul, for example, has 25 such sections - and these are further subdivided into 
- dong districts. Large roads are signified by a 
(- no, - ro or - lo) suffix, with the very meatiest divided into numbered 
- ga sections. Smaller roads come with a 
- gil suffix; anything else will be a number in its local - dong city section, which is itself part of a larger - gu. Therefore Tapgol Park in Seoul-si sits at the end of Insadonggil in Insadong, part of Jongnogu, at the confluence of Samillo and Jongno 2-ga. Happy hunting!
Cycling
There are nowhere near as many bikes on the roads of Korea as there are in other Asian countries, the chief reason being that Korean roads are dangerous places to be whatever vehicle you're in or on. Not that you're much safer away from the street; cars regularly glide along the pavements looking for a place to park, and half of the country's road fatalities are pedestrians - an unusually high proportion. There are, however, a few pleasant areas to cycle along rural roads; particular recommendations are the sparsely populated provinces of Gangwon and Jeju Island. Rides circumnavigating the latter take three or four days at a steady pace, and are becoming more and more commonplace. Those confined to a city will usually be able to go for a ride on a riverbank, with bikes available for hire at the most popular places; details have been included in this guide where appropriate.
Hitching
Foreigners who attempt to cover long distances by hitching rides in Korea generally have a hard time of things. Even with your destination on a handwritten sign, and even after having confirmed to the smiling driver where it is that you want to go, you're likely to be dropped at the nearest bus or train station. After all, to Koreans, this is the only sensible way to travel if you don't have a vehicle of your own - hitching is almost unheard of as a money-saving device. Short-distance rides are a different proposition altogether; although the scope of Korea's public transport system means that you'd be very unfortunate to find yourself stuck without a bus or train, it can happen, and in such circumstances hitching a ride can be as easy as flagging down the first car that you see. Of course, accepting lifts with strangers isn't devoid of risk anywhere on earth, but if you're ever determined to give it a try, there can be few easier and safer places to do it than the Korean countryside.
Online travel resources
Incheon International Airport 
www.airport.or.kr. Information on flights into and out of Korea's main airport.
Korail 
www.korail.com. Information on train times and passes, including discounted combined train and ferry tickets to Japan.
Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transport (SMRT) 
www.smrt.co.kr. Timetables, and a useful best-route subway map.
Tour2Korea 
english.tour2korea.com. Good for bus connections between major cities, with cursory information on trains and ferries.
Accommodation is likely to swallow up a large chunk of your travel budget, especially for those who favour Western-style luxuries, but for adventurous travellers there are ways to keep costs to a minimum. Finding a place is less likely to be a problem - Korea has an incredible number of places to stay, and one would be forgiven for thinking that there are actually more beds than there are people in the country. Do note, however, that most of these are on the cheaper side - only a few places around the country have top-drawer hotel facilities.
Luxury hotels can be found in all cities and major tourist areas, as well as a number of specially dedicated tourist hotels, though with space at such a premium, rooms are generally on the small side. Dropping down the price scale, budget travellers can choose from thousands of motels and guesthouses - many of which have nicer rooms than the dedicated tourist hotels at far lower prices - or even sleep in a jjimjilbang (a Korean sauna). At these levels, there's so much choice that reservations are almost unheard of. English is spoken to varying degrees in all top hotels, but elsewhere it pays to know a few keywords in Korean (or to have good miming skills).
Accommodation price codes
The accommodation listed in this guide has been categorized into one of nine price codes, as set out here. These represent the cost of the cheapest room in high season; in the case of dorms in hostels, we give the price of a bed in won.
W20,000 and under
W21,000-30,000
W31,000-40,000
W41,000-60,000
W61,000-100,000
W101,000-150,000
W151,000-250,000
W251,000-400,000
W401,000 and over
Hotels
The big hotel chains have dipped their toes into the Korean market, and there's at least one five-star option in every major city. You're most likely to pay full rack rates in July or August, though high-season at national parks and ski resorts will be autumn and winter respectively. Standards are high, by and large, though even at the top end it's hard to find rooms of a decent size.
Korean hotels are split by class; from top to bottom, these are super deluxe, deluxe, first-class, second-class and third-class. Categories are marked by a plaque at the front showing a number of flowers - five for superdeluxe down to one for third-class. Many tourist hotels were built as Korea was getting rich in the 1980s, and now offer questionable value; stained carpets, tiny bathrooms and curious smells have become the norm, and few have staff with English language skills. Indeed, some of the most recently built motels offer better rooms, and at much lower prices. Most hotels have "Western" or "Korean" rooms; there are no beds in the latter (the sandwich of blankets on a heated ondol floor represents the traditional Korean way to sleep), and prices for both are about the same.
When booking, bear in mind that the 10 percent tax levied on hotel rooms is not always factored into the quoted prices; in higher-end establishments, you're also likely to be hit with an additional 10 percent service charge.
Motels
Bearing little resemblance to their American counterparts, motels (
) are absolutely all over the place - in any urban centre, you should never be more than a walk from the nearest one. Most offer fairly uniform en-suite doubles for W30,000-50,000, and standard facilities include shampoo and shower gel, hairdryers, televisions, a water fountain and free cans of beer, coffee or "vitamin juice". Extortion of foreigners is extremely rare, and you shouldn't be afraid to haggle the price down if you're travelling alone, especially outside summer.
Korean motels won't appeal to everybody, as they're generally used as a much-needed source of privacy by young couples (or those who need to keep their relationship secret). A few would be more honestly described as "love hotels" - pink neon and Cinderella turrets are the most obvious giveaways, while the interior may feature heart-shaped beds, condom machines and more mirrors than you can shake a stick at. That said, the majority of establishments are quite tame, any seaminess is kept behind closed doors, and even for lone women most make acceptable places to stay - indeed, those that can put up with the decor will find them Korea's best-value accommodation option. The motels that have gone up since the turn of the century, in particular, often have cleaner rooms than the average tourist hotel, typically featuring huge flatscreen TVs and internet-ready computer terminals.
Guesthouses
Yeogwan (
) are older, smaller, less polished versions of motels. Slightly cheaper, but often a little grubby, they once formed the backbone of Korea's budget travel accommodation, and can still be found in teams around bus and train stations. With whole streets full of them, it's easy to hunt around for the best deal - a double room usually costs W20,000-35,000, though prices are higher in Seoul, and tend to rise in high season. Single rooms do not exist, but almost all have en-suite bathrooms.
Minbak rooms (
) are usually rented-out parts of a residential property, and are less likely to have private bathrooms. These are most commonly found on islands and by popular beaches or national parks, and though the prices are comparable to yeogwan rates for much of the year they can quadruple if there's enough demand - summer is peak season for the beaches and islands, spring and autumn for the parks.
Even cheaper rooms can be found at a yeoinsuk (
) - around W10,000 per night. Slowly disappearing, these are a noisier, more spartan variation of the yeogwan, invariably found in older areas of town, with rooms containing nothing more than a couple of blankets, a television and a heated linoleum ondol floor to sleep on. Such wipe-clean minimalism generally makes for clean rooms, though some have a cockroach problem, and the communal toilets and showers can be quite off-putting.
Hostels
Aside from a smattering of backpacker dens in Seoul, Korean hostels differ greatly from those that Western travellers might be used to - created for and primarily used by the nation's youth, the atmosphere is more boarding school than Bohemian. Generally found in the countryside, most hostels are large, well-appointed places with private rooms of various sizes, and a few dormitories; dorm beds go for W15,000-20,000, and private rooms for W35,000 and up.
Camping and mountain huts
Most national parks have at least one campsite to cater for the swarms of Korean hikers who spend their weekends in the mountains. Most are free, but those that charge (typically under W5000) have excellent toilet and shower facilities. Jirisan and Seoraksan, two of the largest parks, have well-signposted shelters or huts dotted around the hiking trails; these cost under W8000 per person, though they may only open from summer until autumn, and you're advised to book ahead - check the national park website at 
english.knps.or.kr. At both campsites and shelters, drinking water should always be available, and though simple snacks may also be on offer, it's best to bring your own food.
For travellers willing to take the plunge and bare all in front of curious strangers, saunas (known locally as jjimjilbang; 
) are some of the cheapest and most uniquely Korean places to get a night's sleep. Almost entirely devoid of the seedy reputations that may dog similar facilities abroad, jjimjilbang are large, round-the-clock establishments primarily used by families escaping their homes for the night, businessmen who've worked or partied beyond their last trains, or teenage groups having a safe night out together. They can be found in any Korean city, typically costing W5000-8000, and consist of a shower and pool area, a sauna or steam room, and a large playschool-style quiet room or two for communal napping; most also have snack bars and internet terminals. Upon entry, guests are given a locker key and matching T-shirts and shorts to change into - outside clothes are not allowed to be worn inside the complex, though it's OK to wear underwear beneath your robe. All must be sacrificed on entry to the pools, which are segregated by gender. The common rooms are uniformly clean but vary in style; some have TVs and hi-tech recliner chairs, others invite you to roll out a mini-mattress, but all will have a floorful of snoring Koreans.
Templestay and hanok guesthouses
If you're looking for a more traditional experience, you could try staying at a temple. Though temples with sufficient room are pretty much obliged to take in needy travellers for the night, many offer interesting, prearranged programmes for around W50,000 per night, some with the capacity for English-language translation - see 
eng.templestay.com for more details. There's usually meditation, grounds-sweeping, a tea ceremony and a meal or two on the agenda, but be prepared for spartan sleeping arrangements and a pre-dawn wake-up call. If you're after something traditional but without the routine, try hunting down a hanok - these are traditional Korean buildings, replete with wooden frames, sliding doors and a woodfired underfloor heating system. Few such buildings cater for travellers, though some can be found at the traditional villages scattered around the country (Hahoe near Andong is the best), and there are dedicated districts in Seoul and Jeonju.. Many include tea ceremonies and other activities such as gimchi-making in the cost.
Online accommodation resources
www.asiarooms.com An excellent discount site with interesting reviews of the hotel rooms on offer.
eng.templestay.com Information on the various templestay programmes around the country.
english.knps.or.kr Korea National Park Service site detailing available shelters.
www.hostelworld.com Good listings of Seoul's budget accommodation, and a few more choices from around the country.
www.hotelwide.com See just how much you're saving by comparing quotes with rack rates.
innostel.visitseoulnet City-sponsored site featuring a range of cheap accommodation in Seoul, all at places deemed suitable for foreigners.
www.khrc.com Website for the Korea Hotel Reservation Centre, worth a look for occasional special deals.
www.koreahotels.net A well-presented site with a wealth of choice.
Korean cuisine deserves greater international attention. A thrillingly spicy mishmash of simple but invariably healthy ingredients, it's prepared with consummate attention, then doled out in hearty portions at more restaurants than you could possibly count - even if every single person in the country suddenly decided to go out for dinner simultaneously, there would probably still be some free tables. Most are open from early morning until late at night, and a full 24 hours a day in many cases. You can usually find a restaurant to suit your budget, and there will always be an affordable option close by, a fact attested to by the great number of foreigners that live here quite happily for weeks, months or even years on end without doing a single bit of cooking for themselves.
Though Korean cuisine is one of the most distinctive around, few Westerners arrive with knowledge of anything other than gimchi (
; fermented vegetables) and dog meat. To say that the former is ubiquitous is a severe understatement, as it's served as a side dish with pretty much everything you order (for more information about popular Korean dishes see Korean cuisine), but rest assured that the latter will not be part of your diet unless you go to a dedicated restaurant. One common problem for visitors is the spice level of the food, an issue that has given Korea one of the world's highest rates of stomach cancer. It's not so much the spiciness of the individual dishes that causes problems (British travellers trained on curry, for example, rarely have any problems adjusting to Korean spice) but the fact that there's little respite from it - red pepper paste (gochujang; 
) is a component of almost every meal. Another common complaint by foreign visitors is the lack of attention paid to vegetarians, as such folk are extremely rare in Korea. Despite the high vegetable content of many meals, almost all have at least a little meat, and very few are cooked in meat-free environments. Most resort to asking for bibimbap without the meat, eating ramyeon (
; instant noodles), or poking the bits of ham out of gimbap with a chopstick.
When eating with locals, it's polite to observe Korean culinary etiquette. Many meals are eaten with flattened stainless-steel chopsticks; those unable to use them may have to rely on a combination of fork and spoon, as knives are rarely used.
Korean eating establishments are hard to pigeonhole. The lines between bar, restaurant, snack-shop and even home are often blurry to say the least, and some places cover all bases: in provincial towns, you may well see children tucked up for the night under empty tables. The more traditional eateries will see diners sitting on floor-cushions, their legs folded under low tables in a modified lotus position that can play merry hell on Western knees and ankles. Many dishes are for sharing, a fantastic arrangement that fosters togetherness and increases mealtime variety, though this has adverse implications for single travellers - Koreans don't like to eat alone, and are likely to fret about those who do. One other point worth mentioning is the incredible number of foodstuffs that are claimed to be "good for sexual stamina"; at times it feels as if food is an augmenter of male potency first, and a necessary means of sustenance second. Raw fish and dog meat, in particular, are said to be good for this. The country has other culinary curiosities for the adventurous to try.
Korean staples
The following are available around the country, and few will cost more than W5000. Many meals involve rice in various forms: one that proves a hit with many foreigners is bibimbap, a mixture of shoots, leaves and vegetables on a bed of rice, flecked with meat, then topped with an egg and spicy gochujang pepper sauce. The dish can cost as little as W3500, though there are sometimes a few varieties to choose from. See the Korean cuisine colour section for more details on this classic dish. Other dishes to be served on a bed of rice include beef (bulgogi deop-bap; 
), highly spicy squid (ojingeo deop-bap; 
) or donkasseu (
), a breaded pork cutlet dish imported from Japan that's particularly popular with those who want to avoid spice. Also fulfilling this need are rolls of gimbap (
): gim means laver seaweed, bap means rice, and the former is rolled around the latter, which itself surrounds strips of egg, ham and pickled radish; the resulting tube is then cut into segments with a sharp knife to make the dish chopstick-friendly. The basic dish is filling and only costs W1000 or so, but for a little more you'll usually have a variety of fillings to choose from, including tuna (chamchi; 
), minced beef (sogogi; 
), processed cheese (chi-jeu; 
) and gimchi.
Noodles are also used as a base in many dishes, and one of the cheapest dishes to eat - a bowl of ramyeon can go for just W2000. This is a block of instant noodles boiled up in a spicy red pepper soup, and usually mixed in with an egg and some onion. For double the price you can have dumplings (mandu; 
), rice-cake (ddeok; 
) or processed cheese thrown in. Those travelling in the sticky Korean summer will find it hard to throw back a bowl of hot, spicy soup; a better choice may be naengmyeon (
), bowls of grey buckwheat noodles served with a boiled egg and vegetable slices in a cold soup (though still spicy - this is Korea, after all).
Soups are also available without noodles. The names of these dishes usually end with -tang (
) or -guk (
), though special mention must be made of the spicy jjigae broths (
). These are bargain meals that cost W3500 and up, and come with rice and a range of vegetable side dishes; the red pepper broth contains chopped-up vegetables, as well as a choice of tofu (sundubu; 
), tuna, soybean paste (doenjang; 
) or gimchi. Many foreigners find themselves going for the more familiar dumpling (mandu) options; again, these can cost as little as W1000 for a dish, and you can have them with meat (gogi) or gimchi fillings. Most are steamed, though it's sometimes possible to have them flash-fried.
All of the above can be found at fast food chains around the country; see Fast food chains for details.
Fast food chains
Such is the pace at which Koreans live their lives that many find it impossible to spare time for a leisurely meal, so it should come as no surprise that their city streets are packed with fast food outlets. Korean fast food is something of a misnomer: fast it may well be, but in general the local offerings are far healthier than their Western equivalents - you could eat them every day and never get fat. One slight problem for travellers is that few of these cheap places are used to dealing with foreigners, so don't expect English-language menus or service. Here is a selection of the outlets you're most likely to come across in cities across the nation.
Bongchu Jjimdak (
) Jjimdak is steamed chicken, mixed with potatoes and other vegetables in a delicious, aromatic stew. A W22,000 serving - one chicken - should be enough for two, and be sure to don one of the bibs provided, as there's bound to be some splashback.
Gimbap Cheonguk (
) In Korean street-space terms, this ubiquitous orange-fronted franchise is rivalled only by internet bars and the more prominent convenience store chains. The concept is pretty miraculous - almost all basic Korean meals are served here for around W5000 per dish, and despite the variety on offer you'll usually be eating within minutes of sitting down. They also do gimbap from W1500, and these can be made to go: perfect if you're off on a hike. Other similar chains include Gimbap Nara and Jongno Gimbap; in major cities, you'll never be more than a short walk from one.
Isaac Toast (
) Toast, but not as you know it. The Korean variety is made on a huge hot-plate - first your perfectly square bread will be fried and smeared with kiwi jam, then joined by perfect squares of spam and/or fried egg (or even a burger, for those to whom the word "cholesterol" means nothing), and the whole lot injected with two sauces, one spicy and one brown. No, it's not healthy, but it makes a tasty breakfast; prices start at W1500.
Kim Ga Ne (
) A slightly more upmarket version of Gimbap Cheonguk, serving more or less the same things with a few snazzy "fusion" additions. Most branches have their menu on the walls in pictorial form, handy if you don't speak Korean. Dishes W3000-7000.
Lotteria (
) Unlike the similarly omnipresent McDonald's outlets, at least this is a Korean burger chain: witness the delicious bulgogi burger (W4500), made with marinated beef (at least in theory), or the meatless gimchi variety, served between two slabs of rice rather than a bun.
Paris Baguette (
) & Tous Les Jours (
) A pair of near-identical bakery chains, whose offerings may satisfy if you need a breakfast devoid of spice or rice; many branches are also able to whip up a passable coffee. Baked goods start at around W1500, but note that even the savoury-looking ones are usually extremely sugary. You'll find branches all over the place; harder to spot is Paris Croissant, a slightly more upmarket version.
Sinpo Woori Mandoo (
) A good selection of cheap dumplings (mandu), as well as a few Korean staple meals, and a few from Japan. Meals from W3000 to W8000.
Yu Ga Ne (
) This chain serves tasty barbecued meat, cooked at your table by an apron-wearing attendant. Unlike most barbecue joints, there are dishes for those dining alone, such as the delectable dakgalbi beokkeumbap, which is something like a chicken kebab fried up with rice. W10,000 should be enough to get a bellyful.
Restaurant food
The traditional Korean restaurant is filled with low tables; diners are required to remove their footwear and sit on floor-cushions. There are a number of rules of restaurant etiquette but a substantial amount of custom also surrounds the food itself; while what often appears to be a culinary free-for-all can draw gasps from foreign observers (eat the meal; boil off the soup; throw in some rice to fry up with the scraps; add some noodles), Korea's great on conformity, and you may well provoke chuckles of derision by performing actions that you deem quite sensible - it's best just to follow the Korean lead.
Restaurant meals usually consist of communal servings of meat or fish around which are placed a bewildering assortment of side dishes (banchan; 
). Often, these are the best part of the meal - a range of fish, meat, vegetables and steamed egg broth, they're included in the price of the meal, and there may be as many as twenty on the table; when your favourite is finished, waitresses will scoot around with a free refill. Two of the most popular meat dishes are galbi and samgyeopsal, which are almost always cooked by the diners themselves in the centre of the table. Galbi is rib-meat, most often beef (so-galbi; 
) but sometimes pork (dwaeji-galbi; 
) see the Korean cuisine colour section for more details. Samgyeopsal (
) is strips of rather fatty pork belly. Prices vary but figure on around W7000 per portion for beef and a little less for pork; a minimum of two diners is usually required. Better for single travellers may be the hanjeongsik (
); this is a traditional Korean banquet meal centred on a bowl of rice and a spicy jjigae stew, which are surrounded by side dishes - a full belly of healthy, lovingly prepared food can be yours for just W6000 or so. Ssambap (
) meals are similarly good-value collections of rice and vegetable side dishes, though here the array is far greater - often filling the whole table - and is supposed to be wrapped up in leaves before it enters the mouth; figure on W8000 per person, and a total failure to clear everything that's in front of you.
Royal cuisine
Being such an important part of daily Korean life, it's inevitable that food should wend its way into traditional events. The hundredth day of a child's life is marked with a feast of colourful rice-cake, while a simpler variety is served in a soup (ddeokguk) to celebrate Lunar New Year. More interesting by far, however, is royal court cuisine: a remnant of the Joseon dynasty, which ruled over the Korean peninsula from 1392 to 1910, this was once served to Korean rulers and associated nobility. The exact ingredients and styles vary and go by several different names, but usually rice, soup and a charcoal-fired casserole form the centre of the banquets, and are then surrounded by a team of perfectly prepared dishes; twelve was once the royal number of dishes and banned to the peasant class, but now anyone can indulge as long as they have the money. The aim of the combination is to harmonize culinary opposites such as spicy and mild, solid and liquid, rough and smooth; a balance of colour and texture is thereby achieved - the Yin-Yang principle in edible form.
Some of the best places to try this kind of food are Korea House and Baru in Seoul, or Naedang in Busan.
Though the most common variety of Korean snack food is gimbap there are many more options available. One is a dish called ddeokbokki (
), a mix of rice-cake and processed fish boiled up in a highly spicy red-pepper sauce; this typically costs around W2000 per portion, and is doled out in bowls by street vendors and small roadside booths. The same places usually serve twigim (
), which are flash-fried pieces of squid, potato, seaweed-covered noodle-roll or stuffed chilli pepper, to name but a few ingredients. The price varies but is usually around W3000 for six pieces - choose from the display, and they'll be refried in front of you. You can have the resulting dish smothered in ddeokbokki sauce for no extra charge - delicious.
Convenience stores are usually good places to grab some food, as all sell sandwiches, rolls and triangles of gimbap, and instant noodles; boiling water will always be available for the latter, as well as a bench or table to eat it from, an activity that will mark you as an honorary Korean. A less appealing practice, but one that will endear you to Koreans more than anything else can, is the eating of beonddegi 
- boiled silkworm larvae.
You'll find ice cream in any convenience store, where prices can be as low as W500; if you want to keep your selection as Korean as possible, go for green tea, melon, or red-bean paste flavours. An even more distinctively local variety, available from specialist snack bars, is patbingsu (
), a strange concoction of fruit, cream, shaved ice and red-bean paste. Also keep an eye out in colder months for a hoddeok (
) stand - these press out little fried pancakes of rice-mix filled with brown sugar and cinnamon for just W500 per piece, and are extremely popular with foreigners.
Dog meat
Korea's consumption of dog meat (gae-gogi; 
) became global knowledge when the country hosted the 1988 Olympics, at which time the government kowtowed to Western mores and attempted to sweep the issue under the carpet.
Today, eating dog meat amounts to a shameful national secret. Foreigners looking for it on the menu or in their hamburgers are likely to be relieved, as it's almost nowhere to be seen. Should the issue be raised, even with a Korean you know well, they'll probably laugh and tell you that they don't eat dog, and that the practice only takes place behind closed doors, if at all.
That said, and though it's true that few young people consume dog, the soup yeongyangtang, for one, is still popular with older Koreans due to its purported health-giving properties, and can be hunted down in specialist restaurants.
Any fears of Koreans chowing down on an Alsatian or Border Collie should be quelled; almost all dog meat comes from a scraggly mongrel breed colloquially known as the ddong-gae (
), or "shit-dog", an animal named for its tendency to eat whatever it finds on the floor. Even so, the poor conditions that the animals are often kept in, and the continuing - and occasionally verified - stories of dogs being clubbed to death to tenderize the meat, are good reasons to avoid this kind of meal. For those who wish to know, it's a slightly stringy meat somewhere between duck and beef in texture, and is generally agreed to taste better than it smells.
Seafood, markets and mountain food
Some Korean eating places exude an essence little changed for decades. Raw fish stalls around the coast, city-centre marketplaces and mountain restaurants are your best options for that traditional feeling.
Korean seafood is a bit of a maze for most foreigners, and much more expensive than other meals, though it's worth persevering. Some is served raw, while other dishes are boiled up in a spicy soup. Jagalchi market in Busan deserves a special mention for seafood listings), but in small coastal villages - particularly on the islands of the West and South seas - there's little other industry to speak of; battered fishing flotillas yo-yo in and out with the tide, and you may be able to buy fish literally straight off the boat. This may seem as fresh as seafood can possibly be, but baby octopus is often served live (sannakji; 
), its severed tentacles still squirming as they head down your throat. Be warned: several people die each year when their prey decides to make a last futile stab at survival with its suckers, so you may wish to wait until it has stopped moving, or at least kill the nerves with a few powerful bites. A far simpler choice is hoe deop-bap (
), a widely available dish similar to bibimbap, but with sliced raw fish in place of egg and meat. A halfway house in excitement terms is jogae-gui (
), a shellfish barbecue - the unfortunate creatures are grilled in front of you, and W35,000 will buy enough of them to fill two people.
Korean markets offer similar opportunities for culinary exploration. Here you're also likely to spot seafood on sale, along with fruits, vegetables, grilled or boiled meats and an assortment of snacks. Many options have been detailed under "Snack food", but one favourite almost unique to the market is sundae (
), a kind of sausage made with intestinal lining and noodles. Sokcho on the Gangwon coast is the best place to sample this.
Korea's wonderful national parks feature some splendid eating opportunities surrounding the main entrances. One of the most popular hiker dishes is sanchae bibimbap (
), a variety of the Korean staple made with roots, shoots and vegetables from the surrounding countryside - knowing that everything is sourced locally somehow makes the dish taste better. Most popular, though, are pajeon (
); locals may refer to these as "Korean pizza", but they're more similar to a savoury pancake. They usually contain strips of spring onion and seafood (haemul; 
) pajeon, though other varieties are available; it's usually washed down with a bowl or three of dongdongju, a milky rice wine.
International cuisine
While many visitors fall head over heels for Korean food, it's not to everybody's taste, and after a while the near-permanent spicy tang of red-pepper paste can wear down even the most tolerant taste buds. One problem concerns breakfast, which, to most Koreans, is simply another time-window for the intake of gimchi and rice. This is too heavy for many Westerners, but though a fry-up or smörgåsbord will be hard to find outside the major hotels, you may find some solace in the buns, cakes and pastries of major bakery chains such as Tous Les Jours and Paris Baguette, or the mayonnaise-heavy sandwiches of the convenience stores.
International food is getting easier to come by in Korea, though only Seoul can be said to have a truly cosmopolitan range (and a thinly spread one, at that). American-style fast food, however, can be found pretty much everywhere - McDonald's and Burger King are joined by Lotteria, a local chain, and there are also a great number of fried chicken joints scattered around. Traditional Japanese food has made serious inroads into the Korean scene, and the obligatory red lanterns of izakaya-style bar-restaurants are especially easy to spot in student areas. Italian food has long been popular with Koreans, who have added their own twists to pizzas and pasta - almost every single meal will be served with a small tub of pickled gherkin, an addition that locals assume to be de rigueur in the restaurants of Napoli or Palermo. Chinese restaurants are equally numerous, though unfortunately they're no more authentic than their counterparts in Western countries, even in the many cases where the restaurateurs themselves are Chinese. One recommendation, however, is beokkeumbap - fried rice mixed with cubes of ham and vegetable, topped with a fried egg and black bean sauce, and served with deliciously spicy seafood broth; the whole thing will cost about W5000, and is, therefore, a great way to fill up on the cheap.
Drink
A sweet potato wine named soju (
) is the national drink - a cheap, clear Korean version of vodka that you'll either love or hate (or love, then hate the next morning) - but there's a pleasing variety of grog to choose from. The country also has a wealth of excellent tea on offer, though coffee is increasingly winning the urban caffeine battles.
Alcoholic drinks
Though the imbibing of soju is de rigueur at restaurants of an evening, most people do their serious drinking in bars and "hofs". There are a quite incredible number of both in the cities, though the majority can be surprisingly empty, even at weekends - you may wonder how most of them stay in business. Hofs, pronounced more like "hop", are bright, booth-filled places serving beer (maekju; 
) by the bucketload. The main beers are Cass, OB and Hite; prices are more or less the same for each, starting at about W2500 for a 500cc glass. Quite fascinating are the three- or five-litre plastic jugs of draught beer (saeng-maekju; 
), which often come billowing dry ice and illuminated with flashing lights. The downside of such places is that customers are pretty much obliged to eat as well as drink; you'll be given free snacks, but customers are expected to order something from the menu.
Bars are almost invariably dark, neon-strewn dens; unlike in hofs, customers are not usually expected to eat and tend to take roost in an extensive cocktail menu; beer will still be available, in draught or bottled form. Each city has one or more main "going-out" district, with the most raucous to be found outside the rear entrances of the universities (which maintain a veneer of respectability by keeping their main entrances free of such revelry). Most cities have at least one resident expat bar; these are usually the best places for foreigners to meet fellow waeguk-in or new Korean friends. Often surrounded with tables and chairs for customer use, convenience stores are equally great places to meet new mates, and actually the best hunting grounds for local drinks. They also sell bottles of foreign wine for W7000 and up, though special mention must be made of a local variety named Jinro House Wine: this curiously pink liquid, which may or may not be derived from grapes, costs about W2000 per bottle and can only be described as "comedy wine" as it tends to give people the giggles.
Though Koreans largely favour beer and imported drinks, the country has more than a few superb local hooches, many of which go down very well indeed with the few foreigners lucky enough to learn about them.
Baekseju (
) A nutty, whisky-coloured concoction, about the same strength as wine. Its name means "one-hundred-year alcohol", on account of healthy ingredients including ginseng and medicinal herbs. Surely the tastiest path towards becoming a centenarian, baekseju is available at convenience stores (W3600) and many barbecue houses (W6000 or so), though bar-restaurant chain Baekseju Maeul is the most entertaining place to get your first hit.
Bokbunjaju (
) Made with black raspberries, this sweet, fruity drink is similar to sugary, low-grade port. Available at all convenience stores (W6500), though if you're on a mountain hike in late summer you may be lucky enough to try some freshly made: it's sold by farmers at makeshift stalls.
Dongdongju (
) Very similar to makkeolli, dongdongju is a little heavier taste-wise, and since it can only be served fresh you'll have to head to a specialist place for a try. The restaurants most likely to have dongdongju are those also serving savoury pancakes known as pajeon; usually rustic affairs decked out with Korean bric-a-brac and serving dongdongju in large wooden bowls (W8000) to be doled out into smaller versions of the same. A word of warning: many foreigners have "hit the wall" on their first dabble, suddenly finding themsevels floored by this deceptively quaffable drink.
Maehwasu (
) Similar to baekseju in colour, strength and price, this is made with the blossom of the maesil, a type of Korean plum, and some bottles come with said fruit steeping inside.
Makkeolli (
) Usually around 8 percent alcohol by volume, this milky rice wine was seen as granddad fuel for years, but a recent shift back towards Korean tradition has seen its popularity go through the roof. The stuff is now sold in upscale bars, and preliminary attempts have been made towards its marketing abroad. Interestingly, although it's the most expensive of Korea's alcohols to make, it's actually the cheapest to buy, since its centuries-old heritage has afforded it tax-exempt status. W1500 in a convenience store, W3000 in a barbecue house.
Soju (
) The national drink, for better or worse. Locals refer to it as "Korean vodka", but it's only half the strength - a good thing too, as it's usually fired down in staccato shots over barbecued meat. It's traditionally made with sweet potato, but these days most companies go for cheaper, chemical concoctions: the resultant taste puts many foreigners off, but some find themselves near-addicted within days of arrival. W1500 from a convenience store, W3000 at a restaurant.
Tea and coffee
Tea is big business in Korea. Unfortunately, most of the drinking takes place at home or work, though Insadong in Seoul has dozens of interesting tearooms, and there are some gems outside national parks and in Jeonju's hanok district. Green tea is by far the most popular, though if you find your way to a specialist tearoom, do take the opportunity to try something more special (see Korean tea varieties for suggestions).
Korea is now a bona fide coffee nation. Café culture has found its way into the lives of Korean youth, and even in smaller towns you shouldn't have to look too far to find somewhere to sate your caffeine cravings. In addition to coffee, modern cafés usually serve delicious green tea latte, with some of the more adventurous throwing in ginseng or sweet potato varieties for good measure. Though certainly not for purists, worth mentioning are the cans and cartons of coffee on sale in convenience stores, and the three-in-one instant mixes that pop up all over the place, including most motel rooms.
Daechu-cha 
Jujube tea
Gukhwa-cha 
Chrysanthemum tea
Gyepi-cha 
Cinnamon tea
Ggulsam cha 
Honey ginseng tea
Insam-cha 
Ginseng tea
Ma-cha 
Wild herb tea
Maesil-cha 
Plum tea
Nok-cha 
Green tea
Omija-cha 
Five Flavours tea
Saenggang-cha 
Ginger tea
Yak-cha 
Medicinal herb tea
Yuja-cha 
Citron tea
Yulmu-cha 
"Job's Tears" tea
Korean media has come a long way since bursting out of the dictatorial straitjacket of the 1970s and 1980s, but most of it remains inaccessible to anyone not versed in Korean.
Newspapers and magazines
The two big English-language newspapers are the Korea Times (
www.koreatimes.co.kr) and Korean Herald (
www.koreanherald.co.kr), near-identical dailies with near-identical addictions to news agency output and dull business statistics. This said, both have decent listings sections in their weekend editions, which detail events around the country, as well as the goings-on in Seoul's restaurant, film and club scenes. The International Herald Tribune is pretty easy to track down in top hotels, with copies containing the eight-page Joongang Daily (
joongangdaily.joins.com), an interesting local news supplement. You should also be able to hunt down the previous week's Time, Newsweek or Economist in most Korean cities - try the larger bookstores, or the book section of a large department store. An interesting source of information is Ohmy News (
english.ohmynews.com), a large online compendium of articles written by members of the public that has long been a quirky bee in the bonnet of local politicians and "proper" journalists.
Television
Korean television is a gaudy feast of madcap game shows and soppy period dramas, and there are few more accessible windows into the true nature of local society. Arirang (
www.arirang.co.kr) is a 24-hour English-language television network based in Seoul, which promotes the country with occasionally interesting documentaries, and has regular news bulletins. Arirang TV is free-to-air throughout much of the world, and though not free in Korea itself, it comes as part of most cable packages.
On even a short trip around the country you're more than likely to stumble across a special event of some sort. Many are religious in nature, with Buddhist celebrations supplemented by Confucian and even animist events. Most festivals are concentrated around spring and autumn, but there are many spread throughout the year. If you're heading to one, don't be shy - the locals love to see foreigners joining in with traditional Korean events, and those who dare to get stuck in may finish the day with a whole troupe of new friends.
Though there are some crackers on the calendar, it must be said that a fair number of Korean festivals are brazenly commercial, making no bones about being held to "promote the salted seafood industry", for example. Other festivals can be rather odd, including those dedicated to agricultural utensils, clean peppers and the "Joy of Rolled Laver" - you'll easily be able to spot the duds. The most interesting events are highlighted here, though bear in mind that celebrations for two of the big national festivals - Seollal, the Lunar New Year, and a Korean version of Thanksgiving named Chuseok - are family affairs that generally take place behind closed doors. Details on festivals in Seoul and in Busan are given in the relevant chapters.
April-June
Cherry blossom festivals Usually early April. Heralding the arrival of spring, soft blossom wafts through the air across the country, a cue for all good Koreans to lay down blankets at parks or riverbanks, barbeque some meat and throw back the soju.
Jeonju International Film Festival 
www.jiff.or.kr. Last week of April. Smaller and more underground than the biggie in Busan, JIFF focuses on the arty, independent side of the movie industry
Buddha's Birthday Late May. A public holiday during which temples across the land are adorned with colourful paper lanterns; there's an even more vibrant night parade in Seoul.
International Mime Festival
www.mimefestival.com. May. Held in the Gangwonese capital of Chuncheon, this foreigner-friendly event is a showcase of soundless talent.
Dano Usually June. A shamanist festival held on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, featuring circus acts, ssireum wrestling, mask dramas and a whole lot more. The city of Gangneung is host to the biggest displays.
July-August
Boryeong Mud Festival 
www.mudfestival.or.kr. Late July. This annual expat favourite pulls mud-happy hordes to Daecheon beach for all kinds of muck-related fun.
International Puppet Festival Aug. Puppets and their masters come from around the world to flaunt their skills in Chuncheon, a city in Gangwon province.
Firefly Festival Aug. Glow worms are the tiny stars of the show at this modest night-time event, which takes place over a weekend near Muju. One unexpected treat is the chance to don a firefly costume.
September-November
Gwangju Biennale 
gb.or.kr. Sept-Nov. A wide-ranging, two-month-long festival of contemporary art, the biennale usually takes place on alternate autumns, though it has also been held in spring.
Andong Mask Dance Festival 
www.maskdance.com. Late Sept or early Oct. Legend has it that if a person fails to attend a mask dance in their lifetime, they cannot get into heaven, so if you're in Korea in the autumn you might as well have a crack at salvation by participating in one of the country's most popular events - a week of anonymous dancing, performed by the best troupes in the land.
Pusan International Film Festival 
www.piff.org. Usually Oct. One of Asia's biggest such events, PIFF draws in big-shots and hangers-on for a week of cinematic fun.
Baekje Festival 
www.baekje.org. Early Oct. This annual event commemorating the Baekje dynasty is held each year in the old Baekje capitals of Gongju and Buyeo.
World Martial Arts Festival Usually Oct. A week-long series of international fisticuff action, held each year in Chungju.
Gimchi Festival Late Oct. In Gwangju. You'll be able to see, smell and taste dozens of varieties of the spicy stuff, and there's even a gimchi-making contest for foreigners keen to show off.
Pepero Day Nov 11. A crass marketing ploy, but amusing nonetheless - like Pocky, their Japanese cousins, Pepero are thin sticks of chocolate-coated biscuit, and on the date when it looks as if four of them are standing together, millions of Koreans say "I love you" by giving a box to their sweethearts, friends, parents or pets.
The 1988 Seoul Olympics did much to thrust Korea into the international spotlight, a trick repeated with the even more successful 2002 FIFA World Cup, an event co-hosted with Japan. But sport here is less about watching than doing, a fact evident in the well-trodden trails of the national parks, and the svelte proportions of the average Korean.
The most popular activity is hiking, which is the national pastime owing to the country's abundance of mountains and national parks - see the Hiking in Korea colour section for more details.
Spectator sports
The two most popular spectator sports in the country are football and baseball. Koreans tend to follow one or the other, though football has been in the ascendancy of late, particularly with females and the younger generations. Those looking for something authentically Korean should try to hunt down a ssireum wrestling tournament.
Football
Soccer, or chuk-gu (
), became the most popular sport in the country following its co-hosting of the World Cup in 2002. The ten gleaming new gyeonggi-jang built for the tournament were swiftly moved into by teams from the national K-League, but the high attendances that the tournament spawned dropped sharply as spectators realized that their local boys weren't really better than Argentina - rows of empty seats mean that you'll always be able to get a ticket at the door, with prices generally around W10,000. The championship trophy usually sits in or around Seoul: Suwon, Seongnam and FC Seoul have achieved domestic and international success, though Pohang and Jeonbuk have also won titles recently. Suwon and Daejeon are said to have the rowdiest fans. Other teams are listed here, though note that most teams operate as American-style "franchises" that can move lock, stock and barrel to more profitable locations at the drop of a hat. A few locals have escaped the K-League for more lucrative pastures, and Koreans are immensely proud of their sporting diaspora; as a foreigner you're very likely to be quizzed about players such as Park Ji-sung, who made it to Manchester United via Holland.
Busan I'Park Asiad Main Stadium, Busan
Chunnam Dragons Gwangyang Stadium, Gwangyang
Daegu FC World Cup Stadium, Daegu
Daejeon Citizen World Cup Stadium, Daejeon
FC Seoul World Cup Stadium, Seoul
Gangwon FC 2 main bases: Gangneung and Chuncheon
Gwangju FC Guus Hiddink Stadium, Gwangju
Gwangju Phoenix Guus Hiddink Stadium, Gwangju
Gyeongnam FC Civil Stadium, Changwon
Incheon United Munhak Stadium, Incheon
Jeju United FC World Cup Stadium, Seogwipo
Jeonbuk Motors World Cup Stadium, Jeonju
Pohang Steelers Steelyard Stadium, Pohang
Seongnam Chunma Seongnam Stadium, Seongnam
Suwon Bluewings Big Bird Stadium, Suwon
Ulsan Tigers Munsu Cup Stadium, Ulsan
Baseball
Until 2002, baseball (yagu; 
) was the spectator sport of choice. Though its popularity has waned, you'll see a lot of games on Korean television, or can attend a professional game at one of the yagu-jang listed here; seasons run from April to October, with a break at the height of summer. Though the fielding, in particular, isn't quite up to the level that American fans will be used to (and neither is the ballpark atmosphere), several Korean players have made their way into the Major League, including pitchers Kim Byung-hyun and Park Chan-ho. Since the turn of the century, the Unicorns, Lions and Wyverns have ruled the roost, though the Giants also deserve a mention thanks to their noisy support. Bear in mind that the team names listed here are subject to regular change, thanks to the franchise system.
Korean baseball teams
Doosan Bears Jamsil Baseball Stadium, Seoul
Hanhwa Eagles Baseball Stadium, Daejeon
Hyundai Unicorns Baseball Stadium, Suwon
LG Twins Jamsil Baseball Stadium, Seoul
Lotte Giants Sajik Baseball Stadium, Busan
Nexen Heroes Mokdong Baseball Stadium, Seoul
Samsung Lions Baseball Stadium, Daegu
SK Wyverns Munhak Baseball Stadium, Incheon
Ssireum
Though inevitably compared to sumo, this Korean form of wrestling (
) bears more resemblance to Mongolian styles - the wrestlers are chunky, rather than gargantuan, and they rely on grabs and throws, rather than slaps and pushes. As with sumo, the object of the wrestlers is to force their opponents to the floor, but in ssireum the fights start with both fighters interlocked. The sport is markedly less popular than its Japanese counterpart; few Koreans will be able to point you in the right direction if you wish to see a tournament, and even if you hunt one down the atmosphere will usually be low-key. The best place to catch a fight will be as part of a traditional festival, notably the early summer Dano in Gangneung.
Participatory sports
In addition to being a nation of compulsive hikers (see the Hiking in Korea colour section), all Koreans are taught at school to exercise as a matter of course. Martial arts are among the nation's most famed exports, but Western activities such as golf and skiing have caught on in recent decades.
Martial arts
Most Korean martial arts are variations of those that originated in China or Japan. Taekwondo (
) is the best known - developed in Tang-dynasty China, it was given a Korean twist during the Three Kingdoms period, going on to become one of the country's most famed exports, and an Olympic sport to boot. The predominantly kick-based style is taught at schools, and forms the backbone of compulsory military service for the nation's men. There are dozens of less common local styles to choose from; these include hapkido (
), better known in the West as aikido, its Japanese counterpart; and geomdo (
), a form in which participants get to bonk each other with wooden poles and likewise known to the world as kendo. There are many places that hold Taekwondo classes in Seoul.
Golf
The success of professional Korean golfers, mainly females such as LPGA champ Park Se-ri, has tempted many into taking up the game. Over a hundred courses dot the country, mainly surrounding Seoul or on Jeju Island; most are members-only clubs, however, and those that aren't are pretty dear - the fact that Korean golfers often go to Japan to save money says it all. If you come in with clubs, don't forget to declare them on arrival at the airport. Tourist offices will have information about nearby courses, though the average traveller will have to stick to the driving ranges dotted around the cities - scan the urban horizon for tower blocks topped by a large green net.
Skiing
With sub-zero winters and mountainous terrain, it's hardly surprising that skiing is big business in Korea, a country that came agonizingly close to being selected as the host of the 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympics. Non-Olympians looking to ski or snowboard in Korea should have few problems - there are a number of resorts, mainly in the northern provinces of Gyeonggi and Gangwon; most of these have ample accommodation facilities, though prices soar in the ski season (usually Dec-Feb). Clothes and ski equipment are available for hire, and many resorts have English-speaking instructors; prices vary from place to place, but expect lift passes to cost around W60,000 per day, with ski or snowboard rental another W30,000 on top of that.
Football and rugby
Football is played across the country by young males, mostly in the form of kick-abouts that would gladly absorb a foreign player or two. The best places to look are riverside flood plains, often wide enough to accommodate the odd pitch, or university campuses. There's also the foreigners' football league, a highly competitive affair; ask at your local expat bar for details, or try your luck on 
ssflkorea.com.
You may have mastered the art of the polite bow, worked out how to use the tricky steel chopsticks, and learnt a few words of the Korean language, but beware, you may upset new friends by accepting gifts with your hand in the wrong place. While even seasoned expats receive heartfelt congratulations for getting the easy bits right (some are even surprised when foreigners are able to use Korean money), there are still innumerable ways to offend the locals, and unfortunately it's the things that are hardest to guess that are most likely to see you come a cropper.
Korea is often said to be the world's most Confucian nation, such values having been instilled for over a thousand years across several dynasties. Elements of Confucianism still linger on today - it's still basically true that anyone older, richer or more important than you (or just male as opposed to female) is simply "better" and deserving of more respect, a fact that becomes sorely clear to many working in Korea. Perhaps most evident to foreigners will be what amounts to a national obsession with age - you're likely to be asked how old you are soon after your first meeting with any Korean, and any similarity of birth years is likely to be greeted with a genuine whoop of delight (note that Koreans count years differently from Westerners - children are already 1 when they're born, and gain another digit at Lunar New Year, meaning that those born on December 31 are technically two years old the next day). Women have traditionally been treated as inferior to men, and expected to ditch their job as soon as they give birth to their first child; however, recent years have shown a marked shift towards gender equality, with males more forgiving in the home and females more assertive in the workplace. Foreigners are largely exempt from the code of conduct that would be required of both parties following their knowledge of age, employment and background, and little is expected of them in such terms, but this does have its drawbacks - in such an ethnically homogenous society, those that aren't Korean will always remain "outsiders", even if they speak the language fluently or have actually spent their whole lives in the country. Meanwhile, foreigners with Korean blood will be expected to behave as a local would, even if they can't speak a word of the language.
Conduct
The East Asian concept of "face" is very important in Korea, and known here as gibun; the main goal is to avoid the embarrassment of self or others. Great lengths are taken to smooth out awkward situations, and foreigners getting unnecessarily angry are unlikely to invoke much sympathy. This occasionally happens as the result of an embarrassed smile, the traditional Korean retort to an uncomfortable question or incident; remember that they're not laughing at you (even if they've just dropped something on your head), merely trying to show empathy or move the topic onto safer ground. Foreigners may also see Koreans as disrespectful: nobody's going to thank you for holding open a door, and you're unlikely to get an apology if bumped into (which is almost inevitable on the subway). Dressing well has long been important, but though pretty much anything goes for local girls these days, foreign women may be assumed to be brazen hussies (or Russian prostitutes) if they wear revealing clothing.
Meeting and greeting
Foreigners will see Koreans bowing all the time, even during telephone conversations. Though doing likewise will do much to endear you to locals, don't go overboard - a full, right-angled bow would only be appropriate for meeting royalty (and the monarchy ended in 1910). Generally, a short bow with eyes closed and the head directed downwards will do just fine, but it's best to observe the Koreans themselves, and the action will become quite natural after a short time; many visitors find themselves inadvertently maintaining the habit long after they've left. Attracting attention is also done differently here - you beckon with fingers fluttering beneath a downward-facing palm, rather than with your index fingers protruding hook-like from an upturned one.
Koreans are great lovers of business cards, which are exchanged in all meetings that have even a whiff of commerce about them. The humble rectangles garner far greater respect than they do in the West, and folding or stuffing one into a pocket or wallet is a huge faux pas - accept your card with profuse thanks, leave it on the table for the duration of the meeting, and file it away with respect (a card-holder is an essential purchase for anyone here on business). Also note that it's seen as incredibly rude to write someone's name in red ink - this colour is reserved for names of those who have died, a practice that most Koreans seem to think goes on all around the world.
If you're lucky enough to be invited to a Korean home, try to bring a gift - fruit, chocolates and flowers go down well. The offering is likely to be refused at first, and probably on the second attempt too - persevere and it will eventually be accepted with thanks. The manner of receiving is also important - the receiving hand should be held from underneath by the non-receiving one, the distance up or down the arm dependent on exactly how polite you want to be. This will only come with experience and will not be expected of most foreigners, but you will be expected to take your shoes off once inside the house or apartment, so try to ensure that your socks are clean and hole-free.
Korea's Confucian legacy can often be a great boon to foreigners, as it has long been customary for hosts (usually "betters") to pay - many English teachers get taken out for regular slap-up meals by their bosses, and don't have to pay a dime. Koreans also tend to make a big show of trying to pay, with the bill passing rapidly from hand to hand until the right person coughs up. Nowadays things are changing slowly - "going Dutch" is increasingly common where it would once have been unthinkable - but there are still innumerable codes of conduct; Koreans will usually guide foreigners through the various dos and don'ts. Many surround the use of chopsticks - don't use these to point or to pick your teeth, and try not to spear food with them unless your skills are really poor. It's also bad form, as natural as it may seem, to leave your chopsticks in the bowl: this is said to resemble incense sticks used after a death, but to most Koreans it just looks wrong (just as many Westerners obey unwritten and seemingly meaningless rules governing cutlery positions). Just leave the sticks balanced on the rim of the bowl.
Many Korean meals are group affairs, and this has given rise to a number of rules surrounding who serves the food from the communal trays to the individual ones - it's usually the youngest woman at the table. Foreign women finding themselves in this position will be able to mop up a great deal of respect by performing the duty, though as there are particular ways to serve each kind of food, it's probably best to watch first. The serving of drinks is a little less formal, though again the minutiae of recommended conduct could fill a small book - basically, you should never refill your own cup or glass, and should endeavour to keep topped up those belonging to others. The position of the hands is important - watch to see how the Koreans are doing it (both the pourer and the recipient), and you'll be increasing your "face" value in no time.
One big no-no is to blow your nose during the meal - preposterously unfair, given the spice level of pretty much every Korean dish. Should you need to do so, make your excuses and head to the toilets. It's also proper form to wait for the head of the table - the one who is paying, in other words - to sit down first, as well as to allow them to be the first to stand at the end of the meal. The latter can be quite tricky, as many Korean restaurants are sit-on-the-floor affairs that play havoc on the knees and backs of foreigners unaccustomed to the practice.
All in all, Koreans will tolerate anything viewed as a "mistake" on the part of the foreigner, and offer great encouragement to those who are at least attempting to get things right. This can sometimes go a little too far - you're likely to be praised for your chopstick-handling abilities however long you've been around, and it's almost impossible to avoid the Korean Catch-22: locals love to ask foreigners questions during a meal, but anyone stopping to answer will likely fail to keep pace with the fast-eating Koreans, who will then assume that your dish is not disappearing quickly because you don't like it.
Costs
Some people come to Korea expecting it to be a budget destination on a par with the Southeast Asian countries, while others arrive with expectations of Japanese-style levels. The latter is closer to the truth - those staying at five-star hotels and eating at Western-style restaurants will spend almost as much as they would in other developed countries, though there are numerous ways for budget travellers to make their trip a cheap one. Your biggest outlay is likely to be accommodation - Seoul has some grand places to stay for W400,000 and up, though most cities have dedicated tourist hotels for around W100,000. Though they're not to everyone's taste, motels usually make acceptable places to stay; costing around W30,000 (or often double that in Seoul). The capital does, however, have a few backpacker hostels with dorms for around W20,000, while real scrimpers can stay at a jjimjilbang for a few bucks.
Because the country is small, transport is unlikely to make too much of a dent in your wallet - even a high-speed KTX train from Seoul in the northwest to Busan in the southeast will only set you back W52,000, and you can cut that in half by taking a slower service. Inner-city transport is also good value, with most journeys costing W1000 or so, and admission charges to temples, museums and the like are similarly unlikely to cause your wallet discomfort.
By staying in motels or guesthouses and eating at reasonably cheap restaurants, you should be able to survive easily on a daily budget of W40,000, or even half this if seriously pushed. After you've added in transport costs and a few entry tickets, a realistic daily figure may be W60,000.
Tipping plays almost no part in Korean transactions - try not to leave unwanted change in the hands of a cashier, lest they feel forced to abandon their duties and chase you down the street with it. Exceptions are tourist hotels, most of which tack a 10 percent service charge onto the room bill; these are also among the few places in the country to omit tax - levied at 10 percent - from their quoted prices.
Crime and personal safety
Korea is a country in which you're far more likely to see someone running towards you with a dropped wallet than away with a stolen one - tales abound about travellers who have left a valuable possession on a restaurant table or park bench and returned hours later to find it in the same place. Though you'd be very unlucky to fall victim to a crime, it's prudent to take a few simple precautions. The country has an awful road safety record, the gruesome statistics heightened by the number of vehicles that use pavements as shortcuts or parking spaces. Caution should also be exercised around any street fights that you may have the misfortune to come across - since Korean men practise taekwondo to a fairly high level during their compulsory national service, Korea is not a great place to get caught in a scuffle.
Electricity
The electrical current runs at 220v, 60Hz throughout the country, and requires European-style plugs with two round pins, though some older buildings, including many yeogwan and yeoinsuk, may still take flat-pinned plugs at 110v.
Entry requirements
Citizens of almost any Western nation can enter Korea visa-free with an onward ticket, though the duration of the permit varies. Most West European nationals qualify for a three-month visa exemption, as do citizens of New Zealand and Australia; Italians and Portuguese are allowed sixty days, Americans and South Africans just thirty, and Canadians a full six months. If you need more than this, apply before entering Korea. Overstaying your visa will result in a large fine (up to W500,000 per day), with exceptions only being made in emergencies such as illness or loss of passport. Getting a new passport is time-consuming and troublesome, though the process will be simplified if your passport has been registered with your embassy in Seoul, or if you can prove your existence with a birth certificate or copy of your old passport.
Work visas
Work visas, valid for one year and extendable for at least one more, can be applied for before or after entering Korea. Applications can take up to a month to be processed by Korean embassies, but once inside the country it can take as little as a week. Your employer will do all the hard work with the authorities, then provide you with a visa confirmation slip; the visa must be picked up outside Korea (the nearest consulate is in Fukuoka, Japan; visas here can be issued on the day of application). Visas with the same employer can be extended without leaving Korea. An alien card must be applied for at the local immigration office within 90 days of arrival - again, this is usually taken care of by the employer. Work visas are forfeited on leaving Korea, though re-entry visas can be applied for at your provincial immigration office, W30,000 for single entry, W50,000 for multiple. Australians, Canadians and New Zealanders can apply for a working holiday visa at their local South Korean embassy.
South Korean embassies and consulates abroad
Australia 
www.korea.org.au.
Canada 
www.koreanconsulate.on.ca.
China 
www.koreanembassy.cn.
Ireland 
southkorea.visahq.com/embassy/Ireland/.
Japan 
south-korea.visahq.com/embassy/Japan/.
New Zealand 
www.koreanembassy.org.nz.
Singapore 
www.koreaembassy.org.sg.
South Africa 
south-korea.visahq.com/embassy/South-Africa/.
Gay and lesbian travellers
Despite Goryeo-era evidence suggesting that undisguised homosexuality was common in Royal and Buddhist circles, the gay scene in today's Korea forms a small, alienated section of society. Indeed, many locals genuinely seem to believe that Korean homosexuality simply does not exist, regarding it instead as a "foreign disease" that instantly gives people AIDS. The prevalent Confucian attitudes, together with the lack of a decent gay scene, have been the bane of many a queer expat's life in the country. For Korean homosexuals, the problems are more serious - although the law makes no explicit reference to the legality of sexual intercourse between adults of the same sex, this is less a tacit nod of consent than a refusal of officialdom to discuss such matters, and gay activities may be punishable as sexual harassment, or even, shockingly, "mutual rape" if it takes place in the military. In the early 1990s, the first few gay and lesbian websites were cracked down on by a government that, during the course of the subsequent appeal, made it clear that human rights did not fully apply to homosexuals - all the more reason for the "different people" (iban-in), already fearful of losing their jobs, friends and family, to lock themselves firmly in the closet.
Korean society is, however, becoming more liberal. With more and more high-profile homosexuals coming out, a critical mass has been reached, and younger generations are markedly less prejudiced against - and more willing to discuss - the pink issue. Gay clubs, bars and saunas, while still generally low-key outside "Homo Hill" in Seoul's Itaewon district, can be found in every major city, and lobbyists have been making inroads into the Korean parliament. Still the only pride event in the country, the Korean Queer Culture Festival takes place over a fortnight in early June at locations across Seoul. Gay and lesbian Seoul has more on gay venues in that city.
Gay information sources
Buddy 
buddy79.com. A popular gay and lesbian lifestyle magazine; you have to sign up before using the site.
Chingusai 
chingusai.net. Loosely meaning "Among Friends", Chingusai's trailblazing magazine is available at many gay bars in the capital. Mainly in Korean, but with some English-language information.
Happy & Safe Most useful for its gay scene city maps, you may come across the odd copy of this little guide on your way around Seoul's bars.
Utopia Asia 
www.utopia-asia.com. Useful information about bars, clubs and saunas, much of which goes into their book, The Utopia Guide to Japan, Korea and Taiwan.
Health
South Korea is pretty high in the world rankings as far as healthcare goes, and there are no compulsory vaccinations or diseases worth getting too worried about. Hospitals are clean and well staffed, and most doctors can speak English, so the main health concerns for foreign travellers are likely to be financial - without adequate insurance cover, a large bill may rub salt into your healing wounds if you end up in hospital. Though no vaccinations are legally required, get medical advice ahead of your trip, particularly regarding Hepatitis A and B, typhoid and Japanese B Encephalitis (which are all rare in Korea but it's better to err on the side of caution), and make sure you're up to date with the usual boosters. It's also wise to bring along any medicines that you might need, especially for drugs that need to be prescribed - bring a copy of your prescription, as well as the generic name of the drug in question, as brand names may vary from country to country.
Despite the swarms of mosquitoes that blanket the country in warmer months, malaria is not prevalent in Korea. However, infected mosquitoes breed in the DMZ, so those planning to hang around the rural north of the Gyeonggi or Gangwon provinces should take extra precautions to prevent getting bitten. All travellers should get up-to-date malarial advice from their GP before arriving in Korea, and wherever you are in the country during the monsoon season in late summer, it's also a good idea to slap on some repellent before going out.
Drinking Korean tap water is a bad idea, and with free drinking fountains in every restaurant, hotel, supermarket, police station, department store and PC bar in the country, there really should be no need. Water is also sold at train and bus stations - around W700 for a small bottle. Restaurant food will almost always be prepared and cooked adequately, and all necessary precautions taken with raw fish.
In an emergency, you should first try to ask a local to call for an ambulance. Should you need to do so yourself, the number is 
119, though it's possible that no English-speaker will be available to take your call. Alternatively, try the tourist information line on 
1330. If you're in a major city and the problem isn't life-threatening, the local tourist office should be able to point you towards the most suitable doctor or hospital. Once there, you may find it surprisingly hard to get information about what's wrong with you - as in much of East Asia, patients are expected to trust doctors to do their jobs properly, and any sign that this trust is not in place results in a loss of face for the practitioner.
For minor complaints or medical advice, there are pharmacies all over the place, usually distinguished by the Korean character "yak" (
) at the entrance, though English-speakers are few and far between. Travellers can also visit a practitioner of oriental medicine, who uses acupuncture and pressure-point massage, among other techniques, to combat the problems that Western medicine cannot reach. If you have Korean friends, ask around for a personal recommendation in order to find a reputable practitioner.
Rough Guides travel insurance
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Insurance
The price of hospital treatment in Korea can be quite high so it's advisable to take out a decent travel insurance policy before you go. Bear in mind that most policies exclude "dangerous activities"; this term may well cover activities as seemingly benign as hiking or skiing, and if you plan to bungee or raft you'll probably be paying a premium. Keep the emergency number of your insurance company handy in the event of an accident and, as in any country, if you have anything stolen make sure to obtain a copy of the police report, as you will need this to make a claim.
Internet
You should have no problem getting online in South Korea, possibly the most connected nation on the planet. It's a national addiction - PC rooms (PC-
; pronounced "pishi-bang") are everywhere; look around any urban area and you'll see one. These noisy, air-conditioned shrines to the latest computing equipment hide behind neon-lit street signs (the PC in Roman characters; the bang, meaning room, in Korean text), and despite their ubiquity can be full to the brim with gamers - you're likely to be the only one checking your mail. These cafés have charged the same price since the dawn of the internet age: an almost uniform W1000 per hour, with a one-hour minimum charge (though it's far more expensive in hotels, and usually free in post offices). Most will have snacks and instant noodles for sale behind the counter - customers need occasional nutrition - and some will offer you a free tea or coffee when you sit down, topping you up every few hours.
Wi-fi access is becoming ever more common, with many cafés allowing customers to use their connection for free. Tom N' Toms and Ti-amo are generally the best chains for this (though the coffee at the former is pretty poor); Starbucks will only let you on if you have a Korean ID number. You may also be able to get online at your accommodation, though ironically the cheaper places are better: most modern motels have free-to-use terminals inside the rooms, while hotels generally charge extortionate rates of over W20,000 per day.
Laundry
Almost all tourist hotels provide a laundry service, and some of the Seoul backpacker hostels will wash your smalls for free, but with public laundries so thin on the ground those staying elsewhere may have to resort to a spot of DIY cleaning. All motels have 24-hour hot water, as well as soap, body lotion and/or shampoo in the bathrooms, and in the winter clothes dry in no time on the heated ondol floors. Summer is a different story, with the humidity making it very hard to dry clothes in a hurry.
The Korean postal system is cheap and trustworthy, and there are post offices in even the smallest town. Most are open Monday to Friday from 9am to 6pm; all should be able to handle international mail, and the larger ones offer free internet access. The main problem facing many travellers is the relative dearth of postcards for sale, though if you do track some down postal rates are cheap, at around W400 per card. Letters will cost a little more, though as with parcels the tariff will vary depending on their destination - the largest box you can send (20kg) will cost about W150,000 to mail to the UK or USA, though this price drops to about W50,000 if you post via surface mail, a process that can take up to three months. All post offices have the necessary boxes for sale, and will even do your packing for a small fee. Alternatively, international courier chains such as UPS and FedEx can also ship from Korea.
Maps
Free maps - many of which are available in English - can be picked up at any tourist office or higher-end hotel, as well as most travel terminals. The main drawback with them is that distances and exact street patterns are hard to gauge, though it's a complaint the powers that be are slowly taking on board. Excellent national park maps, drawn to scale, cost W1000 from the ticket booths.
Money
The Korean currency is the won (W), which comes in notes of W1000, W5000, W10,000 and W50,000, and coins of W10, W50, W100 and W500. At the time of writing the exchange rate was approximately W1750 to £1, W1550 to €1, and W1050 to US$1.
ATMs are everywhere in Korea, not only in banks (eunhaeng) but 24-hour convenience stores such as Family Mart, 7-Eleven or LG25. Most machines are capable of dealing with foreign cards, and those that do are usually able to switch to English-language mode. Smaller towns may not have such facilities - stock up on cash in larger cities.
Foreign credit cards are being accepted in more and more hotels, restaurants and shops. It shouldn't be too hard to exchange foreign notes or travellers' cheques for Korean cash; banks are all over the place, and the only likely problem when dealing in dollars, pounds or euros is time - some places simply won't have exchanged money before, forcing staff to consult the procedure manual.
Opening hours and public holidays
Korea is one of the world's truest 24-hour societies - opening hours are such that almost everything you need is likely to be available when you require it. Most shops and almost all restaurants are open daily, often until late, as are tourist information offices. A quite incredible number of establishments are open 24/7, including convenience stores, saunas, internet cafés and some of the busier shops and restaurants. Post offices (Mon-Fri 9am-6pm) and banks (Mon-Fri 9.30am-4pm) keep more sensible hours.
Until recently, the country was one of the few in the world to have a six-day working week; though this has been officially altered to five, the changes haven't filtered through to all workers, and Korea's place at the top of the world's "average hours worked per year" table has not been affected. The number of national holidays has fallen, however, in an attempt to make up the slack, and as most of the country's population are forced to take their holiday at the same times, there can be chaos on the roads and rails. Three of the biggest holidays - Lunar New Year, Buddha's birthday and Chuseok - are based on the lunar calendar, and have no fixed dates. See here for further details on national holidays and festivals.
Korean public holidays
Sinjeong (New Year's Day) Jan 1. Seoul celebrates New Year in much the same fashion as Western countries, with huge crowds gathering around City Hall.
Seollal (Lunar New Year) Usually early Feb. One of the most important holidays on the calendar, Lunar New Year sees Koreans flock to their home towns for a three-day holiday of relaxed celebration, and many businesses close up.
Independence Movement Day March 1.
Children's Day May 5. Koreans make an even bigger fuss over their kids than usual on this national holiday - expect parks, zoos and amusement parks to be jam-packed.
Memorial Day June 6. Little more than a day off for most Koreans, this day honours those who fell in battle, and is best observed in the National Cemetery.
Constitution Day July 17.
Independence Day Aug 15. The country becomes a sea of Korean flags on this holiday celebrating the end of Japanese rule in 1945.
Chuseok Late Sept or early Oct. One of the biggest events in the Korean calendar is this three-day national holiday, similar to Thanksgiving; families head to their home towns to venerate their ancestors in low-key ceremonies, and eat a special crescent-shaped rice-cake.
National Foundation Day Oct 3. Celebrates the 2333 BC birth of Dangun, the legendary founder of the Korean nation. Shamanist celebrations take place at shrines around Seoul, with the most important on Inwangsan mountain.
Christmas Day Dec 25. Every evening looks like Christmas in neon-drenched Seoul, but on this occasion Santa Haraboji (Grandpa Santa) finally arrives.
Living in one of the world's most important fonts of mobile phone technology, Koreans may deem passé what qualifies as cutting-edge elsewhere. Getting hold of a phone while you're in the country is easy - there are 24-hour rental booths at Incheon Airport. If you're going to be in Korea for a while, you may care to buy a secondhand mobile phone - these can be as cheap as W15,000, and the pace of change means that even high-quality units may be available for knock-down prices; the best places to look are shopping districts, electrical stores or underground malls - just look for a glassed-off bank of phones. After purchase you'll need to register with a major service provider - KTF and SK Telecom are two of the biggest chains, and so ubiquitous that the nearest store is likely to be within walking distance. Registration is free (bring your passport), and you can top up pay-as-you-go accounts in increments of W10,000. Despite the prevalence of mobile phones, you'll still see payphones on every major street; these ageing units only take coins, so you'll have to pump in change at a furious pace to avoid the deafening squawks that signal the end of your call-time.
Korea's international dialling code is 
82. When dialling from abroad, omit the initial zero from the area codes. Area codes are given throughout this Guide.
Photography
Photography is a national obsession in Korea - at tourist sights around the country, locals feed their cameras as they would hungry pets. Most internet cafés are kitted out for the transfer of digital images from memory cards.
A mountainous country with four distinct seasons, pulsating cities and a temple around every corner, Korea should keep your camera-finger busy; if you want a personal shot, few locals will mind being photographed, though of course it's polite to ask first. One serious no-no is to go snap-happy on a tour of the DMZ - this can, and has, landed tourists in trouble. You may also see temple-keepers and monks poised at the ready to admonish would-be photographers of sacrosanct areas.
Shopping
Most visitors who want to splash their cash do so in Seoul, which has some fantastic shopping opportunities, including the trinket shops on Insadonggil, the underground EXPO mall, the brand-name flagship stores in Apgujeong, and the colossal markets of Dongdaemun and Namdaemun; see "Shopping" in Seoul for more information.
Studying in Korea
Korea has long been a popular place for the study of martial arts, while the country's ever-stronger ties with global business are also prompting many to gain a competitive advantage by studying the Korean language. It's also one of the world's great archery hotbeds, though courses here are not for amateurs and teachers demand substantial time and effort from their charges.
Courses at the institutes run by many of the larger universities vary in terms of price, study time, skill level and accommodation. Most of the year-long courses are in Seoul and start in March - apply in good time. There's a good list at 
english.visitkorea.or.kr, while information on study visas and how to apply for them can be found on the Ministry of Education's website (
www.studyinkorea.go.kr). There are private institutes dotted around Seoul and other major cities - 
english.seoul.go.kr has a list of safe recommendations in the capital, while other official city websites are the best places to look for institutes elsewhere.
If you're working in Korea, you may not have time for intensive study; if so, it's worth looking into the government-funded courses run by a few major cities, some of which are so cheap that their price is barely an issue. Many people opt for an even higher degree of informality and take language lessons from friends or colleagues, but with so few English speakers around, just living in Korea can be all the practice you need.
Martial arts classes
Finding classes for the most popular styles (including taekwondo, hapkido and geomdo) isn't hard, but very few classes cater for foreigners - it's best to go hunting on the expat circuit. The obvious exception is Seoul; here, popular introductory taekwondo courses take place at Gyeonghuigung palace. Those looking for something more advanced should seek advice from their home country's own taekwondo federation.
Buddhist teachings
Many temples offer teaching and templestay programmes for around W50,000 per night - a wonderful opportunity to see the "Land of Morning Calm" at its most serene (as long as you can stand the early mornings). Some temples are able to provide English-language instruction, and some not - see 
eng.templestay.com for more details.
Time
The Korean peninsula shares a time zone with Japan - one hour ahead of China, nine hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time, seven hours ahead of South Africa, fourteen hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time in the US or Montreal in Canada, and one hour behind Sydney. Daylight Saving hours are not observed, so though noon in London will be 9pm in Seoul for much of the year, the difference drops to eight hours during British Summer Time.
The Korean tourist authorities churn out a commendable number of English-language maps, pamphlets and books, most of which are handed out at information booths - you'll be able to find one in every city, usually outside the train or bus stations. Not all of these are staffed with an English-speaker, but you'll be able to get 24-hour assistance and advice on the dedicated tourist information line - dial 
1330 and you'll be put through to helpful call-centre staff who speak a number of languages and can advise on transport, sights, accommodation, theatre ticket prices and much more. If calling from a mobile phone or abroad, you'll also need to put in a regional prefix - to reach Seoul, for example, dial 
02/1330. The official Korean tourist website (
english.visitkorea.or.kr) is quite useful, and most cities and provinces have sites of their own.
Travelling with children
Korea is a country with high standards of health and hygiene, low levels of crime and plenty to see and do - bringing children of any age should pose no special problems. Changing facilities are most common in Seoul - department stores are good places to head - though few restaurants have highchairs, and baby food labelled in English is almost non-existent. A few hotels provide a babysitting service, though those in need can ask their concierge for a newspaper with babysitter adverts. Every city has cinemas, theme parks and a zoo or two to keep children amused; Everland and Seoul Land are the two most popular escapes from Seoul, while there are a number of interesting museums in the capital itself. Note that some of the restaurants listed in this guide - especially those serving galbi, a self-barbecued meat - have hot-plates or charcoal in the centre of the table, which poses an obvious danger to little hands, and in a country where it's perfectly normal for cars to drive on the pavements, you may want to exercise a little more caution than normal when walking around town.
Travellers with disabilities
Despite its First World status, Korea can be filed under "developing countries" as far as disabled accessibility is concerned, and with rushing traffic and crowded streets, it's never going to be the easiest destination to get around. Until recently, very little attention was paid to those with disabilities, but things are changing. Streets are being made more wheelchair-friendly, and many subway and train stations have been fitted with lifts. Almost all motels and tourist hotels have these, too, though occasionally you'll come across an entrance that hasn't been built with wheelchairs in mind. Some museums and tourist attractions will be able to provide a helper if necessary, but wherever you are, willing Koreans will jump at the chance to help travellers in obvious need of assistance.
Working in Korea
There are two main types of foreigner in Korea: English teachers and American soldiers. Other jobs are hard to come by, though today's Korea is becoming ever more prominent in global business, with the resulting foreign contingent gradually permeating Seoul's army of suits. It's still fairly easy to land a teaching job, though to do this legally a degree certificate is nigh-on essential; wages are good, and Korea is a popular port of call for those wishing to pay off their student loan quickly while seeing a bit of the world. The cost of living, though rising, is still below that in most English-speaking countries.
With the number of teaching jobs on offer, it's quite possible to handpick a city or province of your choice. Seoul is an obvious target and the easiest place from which to escape into Western pleasures if necessary, though note that a hefty proportion of positions listed as being in the capital are actually in uninteresting satellite cities such as Bundang, Anyang or Ilsan, all a long journey from central Seoul - try to find the nearest subway station to your prospective position on a map if possible. Those who head to provincial cities such as Daejeon, Mokpo or Busan generally seem to have a better time of things, and emerge with a truer appreciation of the country, as well as better Korean language skills. There are also those who arrive with a specific purpose in mind - surfers dig Jeju and the east coast, for example, while others choose to immerse themselves in the culture by staying in the smallest possible town.
Details of Korean language courses are given in the Basics section.
Teaching English
Uncomplicated entry requirements, low tax and decent pay cheques make Korea one of the most popular stops on the English-teaching circuit. Demand for native speakers is high and still growing; English-teaching qualifications are far from essential, and all that is usually required is a degree certificate, and a copy of your passport - many people have been taken on by a Korean school without so much as a telephone interview. Most new entrants start off by teaching kids at a language school (hagwon). Some of the bigger companies are ECC, YBM and Pagoda, and most pay around W2,000,000 per month, though even for people doing the same job at the same school this may vary depending on nationality and gender - Canadian women usually get the most, British gents the least. After a year or two, many teachers are sick of kids and puny holiday allowances (typically less than two weeks per year), and make their way to a university teaching post; pay is usually lower and responsibilities higher than at a hagwon, though the holiday allowances (as much as five months per year) are hard to resist. Most teachers give their bank balance a nudge in the right direction by offering private lessons on the side - an illegal practice, but largely tolerated unless you start organizing them for others. To land a full-time job from outside Korea you'll have to go online, and it's still the best option if you're already in Korea - popular sites include Dave's ESL Café (
www.eslcafe.com), ESL Hub (
www.eslhub.com) and HiTeacher (
hiteacher.com), though a thorough web search will yield more.
One of the most regular hagwon-related complaints is the long hours many teachers have to work - figure on up to 30 per week. This may include Saturdays, or be spread quite liberally across the day from 9am to 9pm - try to find jobs with "no split shift" if possible. Questionable school policies also come in for stick; for example, teachers are often expected to be present at the school for show even if they have no lessons on. Real scare stories are ten-a-penny, too - every teacher knows an unfortunate fellow-foreigner whose school suddenly closed, the manager having ridden off into the sunset with a pay cheque or two. This said, most schools are reputable; you can typically expect them to organize free accommodation, and to do the legwork with your visa application. Some countries operate Working Holiday visa schemes with Korea, but others will need a full working visa to be legally employed; those unable to collect this in their home country are usually given a plane ticket and directions for a quick visa-run to Japan (the closest embassy is in Fukuoka).