The Deal: Grab the last few spots and save $1000 per couple on a culture-packed eight-day TravelMarvel tour of South Korea.
The Appeal: From September 12-19, only, all the other tours this year are sold out so this is a truly limited offer. For $5,495pp, it includes:
- Seven nights’ premium accommodation
- Services of a Travelmarvel Tour Director
- 14 meals – 7 breakfasts, 4 lunches and 3 dinners
- A traditional Korean BBQ dinner in Seoul
- Hands-on cooking workshop to make bibimbap
- See the changing of the guard ceremony at Gyeongbok Palace
- Experience a traditional Korean village at Bukchon Hanok
- Travel on board the Korea’s high speed bullet train, the KTX Express
DAY 1
Arrive in Seoul and transfer to your accommodation for three nights, at the Courtyard Seoul Namdaemun. Meet your Tour Director and fellow travellers and enjoy a Welcome Dinner at a traditional Korean-style BBQ house.
Day 2
See the changing of the guard ceremony at Gyeongbok Palace, learn how to make South Korea’s favourite dish, bibimbap, visit Bukchon Hanok traditional village, visiting Jogyesa Temple to share tea with a monk.
Final stop is Insadong Antique Alley, where quirky amulets and jewellery among other wares are scattered across stalls.
Day 3
Visit the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) bordering North Korea. See Imjingak Park, the Bridge of Freedom and the Third Infiltration Tunnel, where it’s believed that 30,000 invading soldiers could have passed through within an hour. Peer into North Korea through binoculars at Dora Observatory.
Day 4
Take one of South Korea’s famous KTX Express Trains to Busan at speeds of over 300 clicks. Starting at Busan Tower, which offers a great vantage point to the city’s bustling port, visit Jagalchi Fishery Market, the largest seafood market in South Korea. Here, locals take their newly caught purchases to the market’s chefs for a fresher-than-fresh seafood lunch. Finish at Gamcheon Village, a mishmash of pastel-coloured houses, street art and art galleries. Overnight at Avani Central Busan.
Day 5
After taking in Taejongdae observatory’s sweeping views of Taejongdae Resort Park. Continue to the United Nations Memorial cemetery – the only one of its kind – and visit to Haedong Yonggung temple before journeying to Gyeongju where you’ll spend two nights in the Lahan Select Gyeongju.
Day 6
Start with the World Heritage Bulguksa Temple resting on the slopes of Mt Toham, a masterpiece of Buddhist art. Explore nearby Seokguram Grotto where there’s the giant Sakyamuni Buddha buried in its inner chambers. Then it’s Tumuli Park with over 200 royal tombs, Family Choi’s House, the oldest in the area, was built in 1630, and the Cheomseongdae observatory. After dinner, toin a moonlight walking tour of Donggung Palace and Wolji Pond, once part of the palace complex of ancient Silla.
Day 7
Your first stop is Haeinsa Temple, a World Heritage site, and one of the three principal Buddhist temples in South Korea. Discover Buddhist scriptures carved into more than 80,000 wooden blocks. Then it’s back on board the KTX Express Train to Seoul and a farewell dinner at a local restaurant.
Day 8, Depart, Seoul
