Kyongju Travel Forum

Please help me because this is the first time to be a backpacker in Korea.
Thank you in advance to everyone's reply.
I have only 7 days (30 oct-5nov)in Korea and want to go to Kyongju /Cheju/beautiful scenery of Autumn (Soraksan may be too far ).
1.Should I go to Cheju from Seoul or Kyongju and how to go? By bus or fly?
2.Could you recommend budgeted guest house korean style in Kyongju? Not Sarang Jae because the answer is fully booked. And in Cheju please.
3.I want to see scenery of autumn. Do I have to go to Soraksan? Any place else?....Kann

Okay...last thing first.

Soraksan probably has the best autumn scenery in Korea. That said, you need to get to Seoul from Incheon first for your best transportation options. The bus is not the only way to get there, but it is the best way; especially since you are a backpacker. Do you have you go to Soraksan? No, but like I said it has some of the best scenery. Woraksan to the south has some very nice autumn scenery as well. Best was to get to Kyongju is by train. Again you need to get to Seoul first and then take a train to Kyongju. You could take the bus as well, but I prefer the train. If you intend on going to Jeju, you should probably take the train from Kyongju to Busan and then fly to Jeju from there. You can do this all in 7 days, but it may be tiring. As far as lodging, I don't know any guesthouses in the Kyongju area, but there are plenty of "yeogwan" (Korean motels) available for you to stay at for a reasonable cost. Unfortunately, you cannot make reservations for them. They are usually near the bus and train stations and the bar districts.

Can you drive? If yes, then make sure to get yourself an international driver's license. To make good use of the limited time you've got, it would be very helpful to rent a car in Gyeongju and on Jeju-Do.

If this is your first trip to Korea, you should probably plan for at least two nights in Seoul. Yes, Gyeongju is beautiful, Jeju-Do is awesome and Seoraksan's scenery is very pretty but Seoul is still the heart of Korea.

One night in Seoraksan and Gyeongju should be enough if you start early enough from Seoul. Korea's public transportation on the peninsula is pretty effecient and easy-to-use. Buses to Seoraksan, trains to Dongdaegu (from where you proceed by bus to Gyeongju) and flights to Jeju-Do are very frequent (many times a day) and reliable.

Finding a vacancy in one of the numerous Motels during your stay shouldn't be a big problem, either. They are basically everywhere... obviously not always in the most convenient places but as long as you have a car, this shouldn't be an issue.

Seeing that you intend to backpack your way across the countryside, it would be a good idea to bring along a Korean language guide as Koreans usually don't speak any English.

Enjoy!

Cheers,
Robert