We had a great experience in Korea! .
South Korea | Oct 9 - Oct 15, 2026

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Nicole B.
Dallas, TX | Reviewed on Oct 16, 2026

We had a great experience in Korea! Our local guides, Sebastian, felt like a host! He was so kind and knowledgeable, both about Korea and about the logistics we needed to get where we were going with great views. The food was so fun, our cooking class with Hello K was amazing upstanding and street food was so fun we did it for dinner several nights! Jessica was helpful and easy to work with. We went to 2 countries on our trip and Jessica helped make sure we had what we needed when, to make things easy! The logistics all went very smooth which is a real benifit for big trips!

Hotel Reviews
L7 Myeongdong by LOTTE

A lot to love about location, getting there was a journey but once there you are in the heart of it all! Not 5 star because it’s a very busy hotel with only 3 elevators, it was quite common to have an elevator arrive already over full and having to wait for 2 or 3 rounds. There are not accessible stairs so there were times we needed to factor 10min into transit time just to get though the elevators!

Authenticity & Character
Fun place, nice beds! The roof top access was fun!
Location
Staff
Overall staff was helpful and kind. Needed help with laundry and one staff members was unkind and unhelpful. Not a language barrier just unhelpful and ultimately we went to 7-11 to get change as the machine was broken.
Cleanliness & Comfort
Not every room has carpet but we stayed in 2 that did and it was visibly gross and stained. Slippers were provided and used!
Cassia Sokcho
Sokcho

What a unique place! The views were so unique! The hotel was huge and expensive. Pool access was an extra charge, as were most of the unique features. The finishes to the hotel were interesting, there was a leak in our bath tub and one of the other rooms the tub didn’t fully drain and was wet upon check in, like it wasn’t level so water pooled on one side. Our stay was safe and we had a lot of fun, but there was a premium cost for anything beyond just the room and the resort style location was not ideal to explore beyond the property, even to eat.

Authenticity & Character
The views were unique, the food was good. It was a resort and felt like one!
Location
Not near anything, a pro and a con. Nice if you want the feeling of exclusivity and being on a reesort, con if you want to explore or see a new area.
Staff
Staff was helpful, we needed to have the early breakfast even though it was already full and they worked to get us settled, even bringing the tickets to our room after check in.
Cleanliness & Comfort
Everything was clean and comfortable.
Activity Reviews
Korean Full-Course Meal Cooking Class at Local Home with Local Market Experience
Korean Full-Course Meal Cooking Class at Local Home with Local Market Experience
Seoul

This was son outstanding experience! The host was so kind, the tour through the market was fun, we got a few snacks to try! The cooking itself was an introduction in language and culture as we got to connect with authentic cooking with the idea that we could do this in our own homes later!

Quality of Experience
Outstanding! It was fun and accessible, even if you don’t normally cook
Guides, Drivers and Staff
Host was outstanding! Kind, fun and upbeat! Her passion was clear!
Transport
Transport was self arranged and harder to navigate than expected. We had planned an hour to get there, all predictions said 30min and we got there 3min late! No one’s fault and it was not ideal.
Visit the Picturesque Seoraksan National Park with Shinheungsa Temple
Visit the Picturesque Seoraksan National Park with Shinheungsa Temple
Sokcho

This was outstanding! Beautiful park, we loved the views and the cultural experience at the temple.

Quality of Experience
We. Pyle the used another 1/2 a day here! We only hit the highlights of the park with little extra time to explore.
Guides, Drivers and Staff
Sebastián knew when we needed to be where so we we had a great time!
Transport
All the logistics went very smoothly!
Explore Nature on the Way to Sokcho: Garden of Morning Calm, Nami Island, Gangchon Rail Park
Explore Nature on the Way to Sokcho: Garden of Morning Calm, Nami Island, Gangchon Rail Park
South Korea

These should all be separate reviews! We had a great day! Garden of Morning Calm: This garden was a delight! We could have used more time here to explore and enjoy the garden! Lots of great spots to appreciate the garden with benches and lovely paths to walk down! Nami Island: What a fun and unique place! We didn’t know much before going, just there for the nature and it was so nice! We needed more time to explore. The ferry ride over was nice but for logistics we were only able to spend about 90min actually looking either. Lots of lovely nature spots, statues, art and of course little shops and restaurants. Rail park: this was our least favorite of the 3 activities. We had fun, lots of laughter and smiles. It was a little hokey and we would have preferred more time in our other spots but it was fun and I would recommend the experience! Overall a great day!

Quality of Experience
Guides, Drivers and Staff
Transport
Korean Folk Village, Suwon Hwaseong Fortress, Icheon Ceramic Experience Tour
Korean Folk Village, Suwon Hwaseong Fortress, Icheon Ceramic Experience Tour
South Korea

We had a great time and this day was not what we thought it would be. Fortress . The fortress was a nice piece of haired and gave context to Seoul. Glad to have seen it and enjoyed the tour but was more of an extension of the previous tour where we had gone to the palace. Village: The village was nice, it was during October so there were ghost decorations and lots of kids and families there enjoying the day. Lines were long and crowds were high. Our guide did a great job of finding less busy spots to share about the history and show unique things.I had not realized this was more of a historial theme park, part entertainment part history. Reminded me of a renaissance festival. Nice but not what I had in mind, probably should have done more research. Ceramics: this was great fun and it felt like we were a last minute addition. We enjoyed making our clay pieces and we’re disappointed to learn they were going to be broken down, you don’t get to take it home (or ship it home) so it was just the experience of creating, fun, worth doing and not what we had expected. We also did not learn much about pottery or ceramics or the significance of pottery to the region. Just made clay art! We had a great time, would recommend it and you don’t get to keep the piece you make and the experiment is all about making the piece.

Quality of Experience
Guides, Drivers and Staff
Sebastián was great! Took us to a great BBQ place! The pottery people were kind and accommodating! We had some laugh out loud lunate barrier moments that everyone managed with grace!
Transport
Explore Seoul Highlights
Explore Seoul Highlights
Seoul

This was a busy day! We saw so much and still feel like we only scratched the surface! We had been told we might not go up the tower but we did and I would highly recommend going up!

Quality of Experience
Guides, Drivers and Staff
Transport
Local specialist: Jessica Wang