Bulguksa Temple in Gyeongju

Hi all! Today I’m introducing my friend Hannah — a fellow digital nomad in Alicante — as a guest author for The Girl Who Goes! Just like me, Hannah was an English teacher abroad for a few years, but she taught in South Korea, so I was asking her all kinds of questions about it before we visited Seoul and Busan this past September. One place she recommended (though we did not go) was Gyeongju, which is about 30 minutes from Busan.

Despite that, I’m excited to say that Hannah has taken the time to share her love for Gyeongju and why it really is a must-visit for any traveler to South Korea, especially those who will be in the Busan area. (Sounds like we really messed up by not making it there, lol.) I hope you all enjoy, and let us know what you think! — Cathy

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Since moving to Spain for the first time in 2018, I consider myself a train girlie. If I have the option between flying somewhere and taking the train, I’m choosing the train, even if it takes a little bit longer or costs a little bit more. And during our trip to South Korea, I had the chance to try out yet another high-speed rail line for the first time: KoRail (KTX) from Seoul to Busan.

South Korea actually has two different high-speed train companies, KoRail (KTX) and Super Rapid Train (SRT). I can’t say which one is “better,” but we decided to go with KTX because it was more convenient for us to depart Seoul from Seoul Station. SRT departs from Suseo Station, which was farther away. So it made our choice easier.

Anyway, here’s my KoRail review of what it was like to travel with KTX from Seoul to Busan.

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When we were planning our trip to South Korea, it was always a given that we would visit Seoul and Busan, Korea’s two largest cities. But there was one more place I wanted to go, after reading The Island of Sea Women a few years ago: Jeju Island. Matt had never heard of Jeju Island, but when I told him it would be an escape to nature after spending five weeks in some of Asia’s biggest cities, he was immediately convinced. 🙂

During the majority of our trip, we used public transportation to get around, but we decided that renting a car on Jeju Island would be the most time- and cost-effective option — it would allow us to explore more of the island at our own pace, without having to deal with catching buses and dragging our bags around with us. The rental car worked out really well, and it actually helped us stumble across some places we wouldn’t have been able to visit otherwise!

So while I highly recommend a rental car for your Jeju trip, here’s what you need to know before renting a car on Jeju Island. [Read more…]

As we were planning our honeymoon to three countries in Asia, I feel like we put a lot of time and energy into booking things for Japan — just because it was the first stop of the trip. We planned a few things for Taiwan, since it was second. And since South Korea was last, we prepared the least. Which meant we didn’t really stop to think about whether we wanted to visit the DMZ, or the Demilitarized Zone between North & South Korea, until very late in the planning process.

Neither of us felt super strongly about it, but in the end we decided that if we were going to be so close to it, in Seoul, then we might as well. When in Korea, right?

Here’s what it was really like to visit the DMZ between North and South Korea. [Read more…]

As we planned our nearly six-week honeymoon to Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea, we knew that we wanted to try out some of Asia’s high-speed trains. First, we took the Japanese Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto; a few weeks later, we took Korea Rail between Seoul and Busan.

However, it was a little tricky trying to figure out how to actually book Korea Rail tickets online — far more difficult than it had been to book the Shinkansen. So, here’s what I learned about how to book Korea Rail tickets online, to hopefully help you have an easier time than we did!

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