South Korea

Exploring Seoul with a local guide

Our groups first days in Seoul are spent with Yuna, a local guide. We walk through Gyeongbokgung Palace, the lanes of Bukchon Hanok Village, and Ikseon-dong, where Yuna explains how these traditional wooden houses have held their ground in one of the most modern cities in the world. Many have been repurposed as cafes and shops, evolving to celebrate Korean culture rather than be replaced by it.

We eat at a traditional local hanok restaurant, and later in the week the group works its way through the stalls at Gwangjang Market, Korea's first and oldest traditional market. Local guides and small local kitchens mean more of what everyone spends goes directly to the people and neighbourhoods we're visiting.

Jeonju, Korea's Slow City

Jeonju Hanok Village was named a Slow City by Cittaslow International in 2010, recognised for the way traditional culture and the natural environment sit alongside each other there. Over 700 hanoks still stand, and unusually for a heritage site, people still live in them — right in the middle of a modern city. The neighbourhood emerged during the Japanese occupation of the 1910s to 1930s, built deliberately to push back against Japanese construction and preserve Korean architectural heritage.

In 2012 Jeonju became the first city in Korea, and the fourth in the world, to be named a UNESCO City of Gastronomy. Our cooking class leans straight into that. The International Cookery Academy sources ingredients locally and changes the menu throughout the year depending on what nearby growers have, so the group cooks and eats what's in season, and local suppliers get the business. The class is run by a local woman called Jeong-he out of her home with her husband.

The DMZ

The DMZ is one of the most visited places in South Korea, and it's easy to reduce it to a quick visit. We go with a local guide who takes the time to explain the history properly, so the group walks away with a real understanding of what the ongoing division means for Koreans - past, present and future.

Taekwondo with a local instructor

Master Yoon is a local black belt who has trained in taekwondo for over a decade and teaches at XT Taekwondo Experience. The group spends a morning learning the basics from him. In 2018, taekwondo was written into Korean law as the country's national martial art.

Overnight temple stay

The group spends a night at Bulguksa Templestay. Bulguksa is a working Buddhist temple in the foothills of Gyeongju, where everyone sleeps on traditional floor mattresses and eats the same simple, vegetarian food as the monks.

There's an optional session of 108 prostrations, a spiritual and physical meditation practice aimed at clearing the mind and releasing negative karma. During the session everyone makes a prayer necklace with 108 beads. The next morning the monks guide the group through meditation and stay on to answer questions.

Gyeongju and the Seokguram Grotto

Gyeongju was the capital of the ancient Silla kingdom, and many of Korea's national treasures were excavated from this region alone. The burial mounds sit at the centre of the modern town.

Nearby Seokguram Grotto is an 8th-century grotto built from hundreds of granite blocks, fitted together with stone rivets and no mortar, with a domed ceiling over a seated Buddha. Local guide Hara brings everyone to the grotto to show them the level of craftsmanship required to create a statue widely considered one of the most beautiful sculptures of the Buddha in the world.

K-pop dance class

K-pop is a global cultural phenomenon originating from South Korea, known as much for its highly choreographed, polished dance routines as its music. The group spends a couple of hours learning a routine at Dandy Pro with professional K-pop dance teachers. Most guests already know K-pop from their phones, so this is a chance to learn it from people who do it for a living.