Asia
Get a Personal Pick →South Korea
46 destinations
City Andong Hahoe Village
"One clan has lived inside this river bend for six hundred years."
Water Baengnyeongdo
"White quartzite cliffs stand twelve kilometres from North Korea's coast."
Water Banwol Island
"In 2015 an entire farming island painted itself purple, roofs to bridges."
Wilderness Boseong
"Five hundred hectares of tea rows climb into the morning fog in parallel lines."
Water Busan
"Korea's largest fish market runs live auctions at dawn beside city beaches and cliff temples."
Mountain Buseoksa
"One of Korea's oldest wooden halls has faced an ocean of ridges since 1376."
City Buyeo
"Lotus flowers choke the pond of a kingdom that fell fourteen centuries ago."
Water Cheongsando
"Korea's first Slow City walks at the speed of its stone-walled fields."
Wilderness Cheongsong
"One valley here holds ice through the height of summer, and science still argues why."
Wilderness Cheorwon
"Red-crowned cranes winter by the thousand on the border's rice plain."
Wilderness Damyang
"Bamboo thick as forearms closes overhead and the outside world goes quiet."
Mountain Deokgu Onsen
"Korea's only natural surface hot spring steams out of a frozen mountain gorge."
Water Gageodo
"Cliffs of two hundred metres guard South Korea's southwesternmost inhabited island."
City Gochang Dolmen Site
"Four hundred and forty-seven prehistoric tombs scatter one valley; the largest stone weighs 300 tonnes."
Water Goseong
"Footprints a hundred million years old surface twice a day with the tide."
City Gunsan
"Korea's oldest bakery still sells the bread it sold in 1945, streets frozen around it."
City Gyeongju
"Grass-covered royal tombs the size of hills rise unfenced among city streets."
Mountain Haeinsa
"Eighty-one thousand carved woodblocks have breathed mountain air, perfectly, for 750 years."
Mountain Hallasan
"Korea's highest point is a volcano with a crater lake; the island is its body."
Water Heuksando
"The island's signature dish is fermented skate strong enough to make grown eaters gasp."
Water Hongdo
"Two hundred metres of red quartzite catch fire at sunset over the sea."
Mountain Hwangmaesan
"Royal azaleas turn a high plateau pink each May; silver grass takes autumn."
Wilderness Inje Wondae-ri Birch Forest
"Tens of thousands of white birch trunks stand blinding against waist-deep snow."
Water Jeju
"Seventy-year-old haenyeo surface whistling, net bags full, no oxygen but their own."
Mountain Jeongseon
"A rail bike hurtles down the old coal line through pitch-dark mountain tunnels."
City Jeonju
"Eight hundred hanok roofs shelter the city UNESCO crowned for its food."
Water Jeungdo
"Checkerboard salt pans mirror the sky on an island that farms the sea."
Water Jindo
"At the year's extreme tides, the sea pulls apart and a mud road opens between islands."
Mountain Jirisan
"Reintroduced black bears roam beneath a forty-kilometre ridge of huts and cloud."
Wilderness Maryang-ri
"Five-hundred-year-old camellias bleed red flowers against the grey winter sea."
Wilderness Muju
"On humid summer nights, wild fireflies lift green light out of a dark river valley."
Mountain Mungyeong Saejae
"Joseon scholars walked this dirt pass through three stone gates for five hundred years."
City Naganeupseong
"Smoke still rises from a hundred thatched roofs inside a Joseon fortress wall."
City Paju
"At Imjingak the bridge stops mid-river, and the ribbons on the fence face north."
Mountain Saryangdo
"A suspension bridge sways between volcanic peaks with the strait churning far below."
Mountain Seonunsa Temple
"For two weeks each September the temple valley floor turns spider-lily red."
Mountain Seoraksan
"Granite towers break through cloud, and in October the whole massif ignites."
City Seoul
"Sesame smoke and midnight neon run right up to the walls of Joseon palaces."
City Sokcho
"Squid stuffed with noodles by families who carried the recipe south across the 38th parallel."
Water Somaemuldo
"At low tide a boulder path surfaces between the island and its lighthouse."
City Suwon
"An eighteenth-century fortress wall runs unbroken for five kilometres around a modern city."
Water Tongyeong
"Admiral Yi's old naval harbour still works, squid boats to the quay edge."
Water Udo
"Black lava meets white coral sand on an island that grows its own dessert."
Wilderness Uljin Geumgang Pine Forest
"Five hundred years as royal timber left a pine forest nothing else touched."
Mountain Ulleungdo
"Squid-boat lights burn at night around an island that is nearly all cliff."
Mountain Wolchulsan
"The Cloud Bridge spans fifty-four metres of air between bare granite crags."