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Visiting Seoul, Osaka and Taipei this August...Need advice!

Visiting Seoul, Osaka and Taipei this August...Need advice!

Old Mar 17th, 2007, 09:45 PM
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Visiting Seoul, Osaka and Taipei this August...Need advice!

Hi everyone
I will be visiting Seoul, Taipei and Osaka this August as part of my yearly travels to Asia. Last summer I visited China for the 1st time and had an absolute blast.

Can you guys give me any advice about travelling to these cities? Cost of food, transportation, Is it easy to get around town? Is it hard to find english speakers? I've been to Tokyo 2 times, Is Osaka very similar to it? Is it going to be scorching hot in all 3 cities?

Also, what about the hotels there? Can I easily find a hotel for under 100 bucks a night? I don't have any interest in hostels. I was thinking about booking my rooms on www.Asiarooms.com. As far as airfaire goes, I know Cathay Pacific has a Travel pass for $1,399 for up to 21 different cities in Asia. Do you guys think this is the best deal for where I want to go?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks

Don
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Old Mar 17th, 2007, 09:47 PM
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By the way, what about Tour groups? Is it easy to find english speaking city tour groups?
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Old Mar 18th, 2007, 05:16 AM
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In Seoul you can sign up for tours offered by the American USO; there are various options including the DMZ and the Korean Folk Village. I have signed up for these myself and will let you know after I return home. There are other English tour options in Seoul as well

http://www.uso.org/Korea/default.cfm?contentid=347
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Old Mar 18th, 2007, 10:09 PM
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You ask about hotels, DonJ1973. What I usually do for Asia is to read the reviews first on TripAdvisor.com, and then book on either Hotels.com or on Wired-Destinations.com

My experience has been in Taipei: US$120-140 usually gets a nice tourist class or lower first class hotel.

Enjoy your travels. (p.s. I have given some ideas in response to your other posting about Taipei).
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Old Mar 19th, 2007, 06:22 AM
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I've put my reply re:Taipei.
It is fairly easy to get around Seoul on your own, with a good map and using subway system. I strongly recommend palace tours, imsa-dong. Good shoppings near myong dong. Restaurant floors on Lotte department store in Myong Dong has good representation of korean cuisine, with samples in a showcase. Osaka is somewhat similar to Tokyo, in terms of big urban sprawl. It is not really known as a major tourist attraction, more of a commercial centre for western Japan.

In all three cities, it will be hot and VERY humid, rather than dry, scorching heat. 30-35C with 80-90% humidity. It's good thing they have A/Cs in most places including public transportaiton.
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Old Mar 19th, 2007, 07:12 AM
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I have been to all of those cities, and if you get the Cathay All-Asia pass, it may be worth considering a replacement for Osaka (which, to me, at least is not sufficiently different from Tokyo to merit a visit instead of a drastically different city, such as one of the two main Vietnamese cities, Bangkok, Bali, etc.). If you get the pass, it may be worth exploring other options.
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