South Korea: From Seoul to Busan
When to go
April to June and September to November. The cherry trees of Gyeongju blossom in early April, and the autumn leaves turn in late October and November. The monsoon rains, the jangma, fall from late June into July, and August is hot and humid; in winter Seoul drops below zero. Avoid the two great holidays, Seollal in winter and Chuseok in autumn, when half the country drives to its parents and the expressways jam for days.
The stops
Interactive map of the route on our site ›
- Seoul3 nights
Gyeongbokgung, the main palace of the Joseon kings, was built in 1395, burned during the Japanese invasion of 1592 and rebuilt only in the 1860s. Nearby the Cheonggyecheon stream, which had been covered by a road and an elevated highway, was opened to the light again in 2005 as a walk through the city centre.
- The DMZstop on the way
The demilitarised zone between the two Koreas, four kilometres wide, set by the armistice of 1953. It is visited only on an organised tour, with your passport, never in your own car; the tours go to Imjingak, to the Dora observatory over the north and into the Third Tunnel, dug from the north under the border and found in 1978.
- Hwaseong Fortress, Suwonstop on the way
A wall of almost six kilometres around the centre of Suwon, built from 1794 to 1796 by King Jeongjo. Much of it was destroyed in the Korean War and rebuilt from the detailed royal record of its construction, published in 1801, and in 1997 it was listed as a World Heritage site.
- Chungjuone night
A town on the Namhan river in the middle of the peninsula. Tangeumdae, a hill over the river, is named for the gayageum, the Korean zither, that the musician Ureuk played here in the sixth century; in 1592 General Sin Rip made his stand here against the invading Japanese army with the river at his back, and was defeated.
- Dodamsambongstop on the way
Three rocky peaks standing in the Namhan river at Danyang. Jeong Do-jeon, the scholar who drew up the plan of the Joseon state at the end of the fourteenth century, took his pen name, Sambong, from them.
- Sosu Seowonstop on the way
The first seowon, a private Confucian academy, in Korea, founded in 1543; in 1550 the king gave it its name and a signboard in his own hand, the first academy to be so honoured. In 2019 it was listed as a World Heritage site with eight other seowon.
- Andong2 nights
The town that calls itself the capital of Korea’s Confucian culture. Woryeonggyo, a wooden footbridge of 387 metres over the river, was shaped after a pair of sandals that a widow wove from her own hair for her husband, found with her letter to him in his tomb of 1586 when it was moved in 1998.
- Hahoe Folk Villagestop on the way
A village of the Ryu clan, lived in since the Joseon period, in a bend of the Nakdong river, which is where its name, the river turning around, comes from. Its masked dance is one of the oldest in Korea, and in 2010 it was listed as a World Heritage site together with Yangdong near Gyeongju; Queen Elizabeth II came here in 1999 for her seventy-third birthday.
- Yangdong Villagestop on the way
A village of the Son and the Yi clans on a wooded hillside north of Gyeongju, lived in since the fifteenth century, with more than a hundred and fifty tiled and thatched houses. It was listed as a World Heritage site in 2010 together with Hahoe.
- Gyeongju2 nights
The capital of the kingdom of Silla for almost a thousand years, until 935, and the grassy mounds in the middle of town are the tombs of its kings; one of them, the Heavenly Horse Tomb, can be entered. Cheomseongdae, a stone tower of the seventh century, is held to be among the oldest observatories in East Asia.
- Bulguksa and Seokguramstop on the way
The temple of Bulguksa and, on the mountain above it, the grotto of Seokguram, both of the eighth century and listed together as a World Heritage site in 1995. In the grotto a granite Buddha sits facing east, toward the sea.
- Busan2 nights
The largest port in Korea. In the Korean War it was the temporary capital and the one corner of the south that never fell, and the United Nations Memorial Cemetery here is the only cemetery of the UN in the world. The Jagalchi fish market, on the water at Nampo-dong, is the biggest in the country.
What it costs
Eighty dollars a night is the room. The car, the fuel and the tolls are yours. The expressways are tolled, but the tolls are moderate, and most rental cars carry a hi-pass card, charged when you return the car. Parking in Seoul and Busan is paid and scarce; at the sights outside the cities it is cheap or free. The DMZ is seen only on an organised tour, booked and paid separately, and the rental company charges a fee for returning the car in Busan.
What to know
Four things. One: the licence. You need an International Driving Permit of the 1949 Geneva type, which is the kind issued in Israel and which Korea accepts, together with your Israeli licence and passport; without it the rental company will not give you the car. Two: tolls. Cars with a hi-pass card drive through the blue hi-pass lanes without stopping; without one, take a ticket at the entrance and pay at the exit, and never enter a hi-pass-only lane. Three: cameras. Speed cameras stand everywhere, fixed and over whole sections of road, and the fines reach you through the rental company; the navigation app announces each one. Four: Korea drives on the right. A right turn on a red light is allowed only after a full stop and only when the crossing is clear of people. Google Maps gives no driving directions in Korea; use Naver Map or Kakao Map, both in English.
Roads, tolls and rules
Korea drives on the right. The expressways are fast, smooth and well signed in English, with rest areas every few dozen kilometres that are worth the stop for their food. Do not drive in Seoul: take the car on the morning you leave the city. Instead of one long day from Seoul to Gyeongju, the route goes slowly through the hills, with a night in Chungju and two in Andong, and no driving day is longer than about 160 kilometres.
Travel South Korea: From Seoul to Busan
The route on our site, with a room up to $80 every night.