fishskis

I have a 12 hour layover in Seoul. Arriving at 4:50 am, departing at 4:30 pm. I have never been to South Korea. I understand there are tours available form the airport to various destinations and with varying durations.

I found one company that does the tours and it appears that they all depart at 8:30 or 9 am. I am very interested in a DMZ tour, but they said it takes 7 hours, so it would be cutting it too close; it was also $200 for one person, which seemed pricey for a group tour. (The price might be based on how many other people show up; it was unclear). My second choice, I think, would be a Seoul city tour(?).

Are there multiple companies that offer these tours? Is there a way for me to do a DMZ tour in, say, 5 hours time, and make my flight comfortably (I do not want to cut it close)? Might it be possible to hire a private car and driver (for a reasonable amount of $$) so that I could start earlier than the set departure time of 9 am since I arrive before 5 am? Is it possible to just get a taxi (with english speaking driver) and drive to the DMZ? For those that have been, would you recommend a DMZ tour or a Seoul city tour?

Thank you.

ekscrunchy

Tough choice! If you can work out the details of the DMZ tour, I would go with that. $200 is a crazy price for this tour. I took one in 2007 and think that I paid about $40US. I took one of the tours offered by the USO; have you looked at their site? But that would mean taking the bus into Seoul, which you could do time-wise. If you do not take their DMZ tour, look into their other options for their reasonable pricing; they are responsive to e-mail so ask about the timing of the DMZ tour first:

http://affiliates.uso.org/Korea/defa...?contentid=347




English-speaking taxi drivers are thin on the ground, in my experience, so you would have to arrange a driver beforehand to assure of getting one with English skills.

Let me know what happens and I wills see if I can come up with other ideas..for example, a really fun thing to do is to have a day at a Korean spa in Seoul..this is unlike any other kind of spa experience and you can pay an entry fee and have the whole day there...I wrote about my experiences there in my trip report from spring 2007.

dgunbug

What time of year will you be traveling to Korea? We almost made the mistake of booking a tour but realized it would be rather cold. For your info, the airport in Korea is beautiful. There is a transit airport hotel (inside the airport) which is very convenient if you want to take a shower or rest. There are also nice lounges, free computers, movies, restaurants, massages and shopping. I'm not sure that you really have enough time to leave the airport.

fishskis

Thanks for the responses. I will check the USO, and I will also look into the spa thing - great idea.

I will be there around April 1st; so weather it should not be an issue (I like it cold; super-hot and humid is what I avoid). My layover is 12 hours; this should certainly be enough time to do something.

The other issue is that I will probably be arriving with little or no sleep, but I really don't want to sleep during my only possible time in Seoul. I figure that if I take a tour, even if I nap a little, that's better than staying a hotel for half a day.

ekscrunchy

I was there at the same time of year and the weather was cool but not cold. I forgot to mention the spa I visited (there are many but this is a good one and easy to find):

Dragon Hill, next to the Yongsan subway station. You can eat, swim, have a body scrub, soak in many hot baths, sleep, sweat in a salt room, in a room smelling like eucalyptus...play sports, eat--it is quite amazing. There are lockers and you can buy all kinds of toiletries to use. Very clean and very safe.

hester

My son lives in Incheon and he just took a DMZ tour, I don't know what he paid for it but I do know it was no where near $200.00. When I talk to him I will ask and report back.

jyoung

I highly recommend the USO DMZ tour. But given you schedule, you won't have time to squeeze in their tour (it runs from 7:30am to 3:30pm). And, from what I understand you need to be part of an organized tour to get into the DMZ (or get to the interesting parts).

I haven't been on the Seoul city bus tour. But most of my friends put their friends and family on that tour when they come to town b/c it hits all the main attractions. But, if you know exactly what you want to see, you can easily get around using the subway system.

And, I agree with ekscrunchy, Dragon Hill is the place to go to experiance a "Korean sauna." You can easily spend two hours or all day there. If you go, I recommend getting the scrub down.

If you want suggestions on places to see, go to this website:

http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/index.kto

ekscrunchy

So you have to rule out the DMZ tour because of timing. But the Dragon Hill spa will amaze you! There may even be a bus to Yongsan Station from the airport. You can shower there and relax before going back to the airport.

There are tours for English speakers a couple of times a day at the city palace, too. But on a layover, I think the spa sounds like the best bet.

fishskis

Thank you everyone for the help. I am continuing to research my options, and I am sure that some tour and/ or Dragon Hill spa will work out great. I assume Dragon Hill is for men and women, with separate facilities?

jyoung

Yes, there are separate facilities for men and women. But there is also a shared space for everyone with a couple of different sauna/steam rooms. But, don't worry, they give everyone shorts and t-shirts to wear in the shared space.

metopera

Will have same situation in three weeks, but arrive at 5AM, depart 5PM. Ideas anyone as to how to set up a city tour before leaving US, or, is it possible to do from the airport once I arrive. I'm thinking 5-6 hours (8A-2P) and would not like to pay an arm and a leg. I realize this will be just a quick overview, but understand the city is worth seeing.

ekscrunchy

Here is the airport bus schedule:

http://www.airport.kr/airport/traffi...ist.iia?flag=E

I found this, too (5 hour transit tour for $50 per person) there are other tours on the same site:


http://www.freedomtour.co.kr/

ekscrunchy

Amazing! There is a forum on the Incheon airport website. Travellers can ask questions and actually receive responses!


http://www.airport.kr/helpdesk/bul/b...mp;langGubun=E

metopera

Thank you much ekscrunchy, a big help. Understand from friends in China that Incheon itself is a nice place to be if one has a long lay-over.

ekscrunchy

Yes, it is true. It is a beautiful airport. Architecturally handsome. Clean. Well signed. Shopping is only fair, however. Duty free alcohol is heavily weighted towards brown liquors.
Only a few vodkas. They do offer free samples of shoju and other local drinks, though!!

I've never properly explored the place but you could check out the transit hotel/massage options. Probably expensive.

If you do go into Seoul,I liked visiting the Noryangin fish market; you can get there by subway. There are English signs in the subway and the stations themselves have lots of little shops and food outlets inside. If you did the spa, you could walk around the Yongsan area; there are some good fried chicken places in the area. (This is a popular dinner option).

You could also walk around Insadong and look at the craft shops..

Taxi drivers do not often speak English, so if you plan to take one, try to get someone to write down the destination in Korean.