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South Korea Itineraries

Five worked routes, from five days in one city to a fortnight that ends on Jeju by sea, and four days on Jeju to add to the shorter ones

We publish five worked itineraries for South Korea: Seoul in Five Days, South Korea in a Week by fast train from Seoul to Gyeongju and Busan, A Different Path, ten days of temples, scholars’ villages and stillness, South Korea in Two Weeks, through the south-west and across the sea to Jeju by ferry, and Jeju in Four Days, the volcanic island, to add to the first two. Each is day by day, with where to sleep and eat, and none needs a car.

For most first visits, start with South Korea in a Week: the capital, the city that ruled Silla for nearly a thousand years, and the sea, in the order the railway runs. If you have five days or fewer, or Seoul is the point of the trip, take Seoul in Five Days instead. If you want quiet more than coverage, take A Different Path. If you have two weeks, take South Korea in Two Weeks, which goes where the usual routes don’t. If you have four more days, add Jeju in Four Days: fly there from Busan at the end of the week, or from Seoul.

Which itinerary for which reader
  • Five days or fewer: Seoul in Five Days, from one hotel.
  • About a week, first visit: South Korea in a Week, three bases.
  • Ten days, a slower trip: A Different Path, four bases.
  • Two weeks: South Korea in Two Weeks, six bases, Jeju by ferry.
  • Four more days, for the island: Jeju in Four Days, two bases, added to a route.
The basis: days on the ground, arrival and departure days included.

What makes the mainland routes practical is Korea’s railway. The fast KTX and the metro carry you between the cities on these routes, and a local bus or taxi does the last miles to A Different Path’s village and temple, so each route changes bed only when a place earns it; our getting around guide explains the trains and the T-money card. Jeju is the exception: you fly there, about an hour from Seoul’s Gimpo airport or from Busan, or, on the two-week route, take the ferry from Mokpo, four to five hours, and go round the island by hire car or by bus. If you would rather ride the length of the country than take the train, our Seoul to Busan by bike is a journey of its own.

How this page was madeWe have not yet been to South Korea. With Japan, it is one of the two places at the top of our list, and these routes are researched rather than travelled: from the national tourism survey, our reading of twenty-seven itineraries published by guidebooks and tour companies, the railway and tourism authorities, and our own guides. Where sources disagree or fall silent, we say so on each route. When we go, we will say so here.

Last updated 13 October 2026

Choose your itinerary

Five routes, compared on the same terms. Days count arrival and departure.

One city Seoul in Five Days
  • 5 days
  • 1 base
  • 0 one-night stops
  • Incheon in, Incheon out
 Best forA first visit that wants depth in one great city Gives upEverything beyond Seoul but a morning at the border See the day-by-day plan → The classic line South Korea in a Week
  • 8 days
  • 3 bases
  • 0 one-night stops
  • Incheon in, train back from Busan
 Best forThe capital, the royal city of Silla and the sea Gives upJeju and the east coast, and a long last day See the day-by-day plan → Temples and stillness A Different Path
  • 10 days
  • 4 bases
  • 1 one-night stop
  • Incheon in, Gyeongju out
 Best forQuiet, temples and scholars’ villages, and a night in a monastery Gives upBusan, Jeju and city nights, and one long transfer day See the day-by-day plan → The south-west South Korea in Two Weeks
  • 14 days
  • 6 bases
  • 2 one-night stops
  • Incheon in, flight back from Jeju
 Best forHanok lanes, a bamboo forest, the port of Mokpo and the ferry to Jeju Gives upGyeongju and Busan, the classic south-east See the day-by-day plan → The volcanic island Jeju in Four Days
  • 4 days
  • 2 bases
  • 1 one-night stop
  • Fly in from Busan or Seoul, out to Seoul
 Best forA lava cave, a sunrise crater and the divers’ coast, added to a mainland route Gives upThe west coast, Udo and Hallasan’s summit, and it needs two flights See the day-by-day plan →

Swipe for all five. Every card is a link.

How to choose

Three things decide the mainland route: how many days you have, whether you want one city or several, and whether you are travelling for the sights or for the quiet. A fourth decides the rest: whether you have four more days for Jeju. By length, Seoul in Five Days and the Jeju add-on are focused trips, the week and A Different Path are comfortable, and two weeks is extended.

If this is you

Five days, and you would rather unpack once

One hotel and five full days: the palaces, the border, a K-pop day and the river. You see one city deeply instead of three in passing.

Take Seoul in Five Days → If this is you

A first week, and you want the whole country’s story

Seoul, then the old royal capital, then the sea, two or three nights in each and no car. It forms the spine of most tour companies’ Korea trips, for good reason.

Take South Korea in a Week → If this is you

Ten days, and you are looking for stillness

A king’s garden, a village of scholars, a night inside a working monastery and a mountain of Buddhas. You give up Busan and the beaches for quiet.

Take A Different Path → If this is you

Two weeks, and you would rather leave the usual line

Jeonju’s tiled roofs and bibimbap, Gwangju and the bamboo of Damyang, the port of Mokpo, then the boat to Jeju and four nights on the island. You give up Gyeongju and Busan.

Take South Korea in Two Weeks → If this is you

Four more days, and you want the island

A lava cave, the sunrise from a crater on the sea, the coast of the women divers and the waterfalls of the south. Fly in after the week or after Seoul, and fly back to Seoul to go home.

Take Jeju in Four Days →

The routes join. With ten days and a love of cities, take the week and add two nights in Seoul before you go south, using days 4 and 5 of Seoul in Five Days; the week’s own page sets out the join. With only a week and a wish for quiet, A Different Path has a shorter version that leaves out Hahoe. Jeju in Four Days joins the week at Busan and Seoul in Five Days at Gimpo; its page sets out the flights. South Korea in Two Weeks opens with the week’s three days in Seoul, then turns south-west.

Before you commit to the route

Where you land and leave. Every route but Jeju in Four Days starts at Incheon. Two of them end far to the south: the week in Busan, and A Different Path in Gyeongju. From there the fast train to Seoul takes about two hours from Gyeongju and up to 2 hours 40 from Busan, and then comes the airport train. Choose a flight home that leaves in the evening, or one from Busan’s Gimhae airport if you are flying on within Asia. If you add Jeju, or take the two weeks, you fly back to Seoul’s Gimpo airport and cross to Incheon by the airport railway.

Your weekdays. Two Seoul palaces close on different days, Changdeokgung on Mondays and Gyeongbokgung on Tuesdays, and the border tours are best avoided on a Monday. Each route says which days it needs; fit your arrival to them.

The trains. Book KTX seats when your dates are fixed, above all for weekends and the Chuseok and Lunar New Year holidays. Our rail pass guide says whether a pass pays on these routes.

The season. Cherry blossom, from late March to mid-April, and October’s autumn colour are the finest weeks and the busiest. Summer is hot and wet, with typhoons possible into early autumn. Our best time to visit guide has the months, and our entry requirements page what to do before you fly.

A final word on South Korea’s itineraries

Korea is small enough, and its trains fast enough, that the choice is less about distance than about what you want from it: one great city, the country’s story from capital to sea, quiet, or the south-west and the boat to Jeju, with a volcanic island to add if you have the days. Pick the one that fits, and give it the days it asks for.

Andrew + Margaret

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