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South Korea’s global cultural surge — from K-pop to K-dramas — has reshaped its tourism landscape. On a nine-day G Adventures itinerary, I found sharp contrasts: heavily guarded borderlands, neon shopping districts, ancient palaces and an island community that still frees-dives by tradition.
Crossing into the tense zone
The trip’s first stop is the Demilitarised Zone, the roughly four-kilometre stretch that separates the two Koreas. It sits about an hour’s drive from central Seoul and draws visitors for very different reasons: family memory, historical curiosity and a wish to see the border with their own eyes.
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At the checkpoint, soldiers board coaches to inspect passports before we continue into scrubland fenced with rusting barbed wire. Our guide, Hyunhwa, confides she feels uneasy here because her grandfather came from the North and she hopes to visit his hometown one day.
We don hard hats and enter the Third Tunnel of Aggression, a passage dug by the North and discovered in 1978. The low, humid tunnel is claustrophobic; guides say it was calculated that up to 30,000 armed troops could have moved through it in an hour.
Seoul: past and present
Back in the capital, the mood shifts. Seoul grooves between palaces and skyscrapers, and its shopping districts reveal a different kind of energy.
Insadong feels like an antiques quarter, full of craft shops and vintage finds. Myeongdong bristles with late-night shoppers, fashion outlets and sprawling skincare stores. At Gwangjang Market, stalls stack crisp kimchi pancakes beside buckets of seafood and mountains of hand-cut noodles.
I also joined a Taekwondo class led by Master Kang Sung Kwon. Under booming club music, we practised kicks, board breaks and balancing moves, and recited a short creed about strengthening body and mind to help others — a reminder of the martial art’s emphasis on discipline.
History and tradition in Gyeongju
Travelling south I reached Gyeongju, the ancient Silla capital, where tourists frequently hire colourful hanboks for photos. I was persuaded into one at a rental shop and joined others posing by a sloping, tiled bridge.
That night I stayed in a hanok — a single-storey traditional house built from natural materials, with sliding wooden doors and a curved roof. The heated floor, or ondol, made sleeping on a padded mat unexpectedly cosy.
Jeju and the women who dive
A short flight from Busan brought me to Jeju Island, famed for its beaches and honeymoons. The island is also home to the haenyeo, female free divers who harvest shellfish and sea vegetables by breath-hold diving.
Recognised as an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO in 2016, the haenyeo culture has declined since its 1970s peak of more than 23,000 divers. Today roughly 2,400 remain. Their gear has modernised, but their communal practices and a sustainable approach to harvesting persist.
Taeun, a local haenyeo, told me their work follows a lunar calendar and a philosophy of protecting the ocean. The youngest in her collective is 34; the oldest is 74. Some haenyeo continue diving into their eighties and pass skills to the next generation.
Food at the heart of daily life
South Korea’s cuisine runs through everything I ate, but one element stood out: kimchi. Far from being only cabbage, kimchi is a category of fermented vegetables. My cooking class in Busan was led by instructor Heeyoung, who explained that you can make kimchi from any seasonal vegetable.
There are about 300 documented varieties across the country, with regional spice blends and preparation methods. Traditionally, neighbours made kimchi together after the napa cabbage harvest and buried ceramic pots to ferment. Today most homes keep a dedicated kimchi refrigerator.
Even as a vegetarian, I noticed kimchi’s ubiquity: it appears at almost every meal, in pancakes, stews, rice dishes and as a side. Our guide put it plainly: she could live without rice, she said, but not without kimchi.
Practical note
The trip followed a nine-day National Geographic Journeys: Soul of South Korea programme with G Adventures. The itinerary included seven nights in hotels, one night in a hanok, ten meals, internal transport by bullet train and domestic flight, an arrival transfer and a local guide. The visit was supported by the Korea Tourism Organization.
