South Korea: 2-week recap

It’s been a hot minute since we returned from our Korea trip back in Fall of 2023, but I am finally done our cute little travel montage video + all my travel blog posts for everything we did, ate, and where we stayed.

Check out my travel montage video:

South Korea trip 2023 recap
Seoul – part 1 | Seoul – part 2 | Jeju Island | Busan | Paradise City

Overview of my trip to South Korea

• Dates traveled: September 28 – October 12, 2023 (2 weeks, including the Reconciliation Day and Thanksgiving stat)
• Countries visited: South Korea
• Cities visited: Seoul, Jeju Island, Busan
• Total money spent: Approximately $5400 CAD per person

The highlights

Seoul

• Shopping! There are no words to describe how Seoul is a shopper’s paradise 😍! From high quality and cheap makeup and skincare, to lots of clothes – I find it is easy to go shopping every day in Seoul. People are very fashionable and there are actually distinct styles, unlike how I feel about Vancouver fashion (everyone seems to just wear Aritzia and Lululemon).
• Night life. I love a city with a good night life and Seoul definitely was bustling even late at night! Stores would be open late and you can always find a late night snack from a street stand or bars/restaurants that are open until early in the morning. So convenient and fun (plus alcohol is super cheap)!
• Having our Korean friends show us around. They were so awesome and they made our first week in South Korea worry-free. It was just easier to have them choose a restaurant, order food, and tell us how to transit to our destination to meet up. I really appreciated them even doing the touristy things with us like dressing up in traditional clothing to go to the palace (locals do not do this 😂).
• Paradise City. This was a great way to end our trip! It was super relaxing and there were quite a few activities for us to check out even though we only stayed 1 night.

Jeju Island

• Island vibes. I really liked the nature and island vibes on Jeju Island 🏝️. There were lots of beautiful sites and seeing the ocean really makes me feel like I am on vacation. Also loved driving on the island – beautiful drive!
• Seafood. The seafood in all of Korea is pretty good but on Jeju Island we found it to be extra fresh and cheap! Can’t forget one of our favourite sushi meals on Jeju Island where we felt like we were robbing the restaurant by just eating and paying for our meal (the price was just too good!).
• Luxury hotel. We kind of splurged on our hotel on Jeju Island so I did like this accommodation the most. The giant king bed, outdoor pool, and private hot tub in our room was just so relaxing and nice to go back to after a long day of exploring.

Busan

• Perfect combination of city and beach. I really liked the vibe of Busan and Gwangalli Beach. You get both the city life with tall buildings, shopping and bars, and the beach, which is more relaxing and romantic.
• Gamcheon Culture Village. I thought this tourist area was just so cute! Colourful houses, long winding roads and tons of little boutique stores. I really felt like this area had so much character.
• Busking culture. Free entertainment on the beach! We had a lot of fun just watching free performances along the beach from bands, singer-songwriters, kpop dance covers, and more.

Lessons learned

Seoul

• I know we chose our travel dates because we wanted to take advantage of our 2 stat holidays in Canada, but it also happened to be Chuseok, which is like Korea’s Thanksgiving. Man everywhere in Seoul during that week was so damn crowded! I do not want to relive waiting in line for 3 hours in Lotte World just to sit on 1 roller coaster. It really just wasn’t worth it 😭.
• I know renting the traditional clothing and going to the palace is great for photos, but we were so hot wearing that and walking around for 2 hours. We were super sweaty and tired 🥵. I would not do it again after having done it once.

Jeju Island

• It was pretty confusing for us to find out way onto Udo Island and we barely made it on the last ferry back to the main island. I would do more research if you are planning on visiting smaller islands as there are less English instructions and English-speaking staff who can help.
• We mostly stayed in the Seogwipo (South Jeju) area, but you can explore the entire island by car in a few days. It may have been nice to split up our stay in 2 different areas so we have less driving.
• We did a lot of walking on Day 1 to look at touristy sites like waterfalls. I think seeing 1 waterfall is good enough – no need to see all 3+.

Busan

• We chose to stay at an Airbnb to mix it up since we’ve been only staying at hotels thus far. Aside from having a laundry machine, which is really handy near the end of our trip, I much preferred a spacious hotel room instead with a large bed.

Final thoughts

I have been a fan of Korean culture and food for many years to the point where I even understand simple Korean due to all the Korean variety shows, dramas and movies I watch. A lot of people were surprised I haven’t already been to Korea but this trip was so wonderful because it really knocked off almost every single thing I wanted to do in Korea (except for maybe walking into a filming for Running Man and I end up playing games with the cast 😂).

The food, shopping, fun was everything I imagined and I left Korea feeling supercharged and more stylish. I also really liked how we spaced out our destinations so we had a nice relaxing break in Jeju Island in between Seoul and Busan.

I really want to thank all of our Korean friends who joined us on this trip, helped us and had fun with us. You made this trip even more enjoyable and I felt so blessed to be able to explore Korea with you for my first time.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for my next vacation (likely my honeymoon 🥰!).

Sincerely, Loewe