Seoul UNESCO Heritage Palace, Shrine, and More Tour

Wonderful tour with Sam

Our guide Sam was incredibly enthusiastic, friendly and knowledgeable about Korean history. He shared interesting anecdotes about Jongmyo shrine, the kings and their histories, and answered our numerous questions. Sam also took great photos and made sure we documented the day. We would highly recommend touring Seoul with Sam!

Tour guide excellent. You’re itself, rushed.

Our tour guide was 5 stars. Park was incredibly informed, engaging and made the experience of visiting the palace enriching. However, as other reviewers have commented, the tour is extremely rushed. It’s not to the fault of the guide, as she has to time it to get you to the next part of the tour when that starts. But there was no time, even a few minutes, to take in what you just learned about the palace.

Great tour

Our tour guide, Sam, was amazing! He went out of his way to teach us and show us extra things. Turned out to be our favorite information. Sam gets 10 stars!

Educational and fun

Very informative and detailed explanations of the visites sites history. Transport was punctual and comfortable. 10/10, would go again.

A lot to see, not enough time to see it

Our tour guide picked us up at 8:15am and told us it usually goes until about 12:30pm with four stops...we were done at 11:30am. There was four stops and while they were all fun, interesting places to visit, we felt very rushed. We did not have time to look around, let alone shop or read information. Our tour guide was walking very quickly and while she gave us a lot of information, most of it interesting, we don't think we got our money's worth since it was so fast. Our experience was not what we were hoping it would be

Overpriced and Rushed! Save your money!

Right, so I’m not sure if it were just our guide or what, I see that many of the other reviews here are positive, so many others have had good experiences with this company. I can’t say that we did. My mother and I did the morning tour of Bukchon, the shrine, the palace and the national museum of Korea and we were left very disappointed for a variety of reasons. For one, the tour of Bukchon, which was really my only reason for going on a tour in the first place was extremely rushed and I could feed the tour guide breathing down my neck to the point where I barely took any pictures at all. We were legitimately only there for about 15 minutes and didn’t even go to the popular scenic lookouts. Then, we get in a car and go to the palace, this was also very rushed and felt like I was watching a YouTube video on it rather than being there. We went from there to the shrine, which was a lot less rushed because the shrine have a separate guide who leads the tour. Now at this point we’ve done a considerable bit of walking in the Korean summer humidity and rain and there’s not a single bottle of water offered? It’s not like the tour was free, we spent 120,000 won total and you’re telling me a company of this size with this many reviews on trip advisor can’t spare a bottle of water per customer on a 4 hour walking tour in 36 degree Celsius weather with 100 percent humidity? We ended our day at the national museum of Korea which was also quite rushed and were given the choice of being dropped off at Myeong-dong or staying in the area. This is another complaint of mine. I’ve been to every continent and had guided tours on all of them. I’ve never been on a tour for this much money that didn’t take you back to your hotel directly. That’s ridiculous and shouldn’t even be offered as an option. All tours should pick up and drop off at the hotel as well as offer water to the customers, even if it’s for 1000 won to buy, you need to have some onboard. We raised these concerns with our tour guide who initially brushed them off and said it was on the customers to provide themselves with water and then ultimately changed her tune to say that she’d bring it up with the office. This is ridiculous, even if it's to buy, tours in the summer need to have water for customers, it's a walking tour in the South Korean humidity. You provide umbrellas, you can spare a couple thousand won for some water as well.

I booked this tour for me and my...

<p>I booked this tour for me and my daughter, as Changdeokgung palace and Bukchon Hanok Village are famous attractions within South Korea. I would recommend this tour for anyone who wants to see Changdeokgung Palace and Bukchon Hanok Village. We had a lovely and amazing tour guide named Jenny. She was very friendly and her English was well spoken, which was helpful as we do not understand Korean. Jenny explained things smoothly and you could tell she was very knowledgeable about the history of the palace and Bukchon Hanok Village. We had a really good time and found the Korean history very interesting. Personally, I would like to thank Jenny and recommend her to anyone who is looking to do this tour.</p>

This was a wonderful tour with Jung...

<p>This was a wonderful tour with Jung, our great guide. Jung arrived ahead of time for our hotel pickup with the driver and a minivan. My wife and I were pleasantly surprised that we would be the only ones going on the tour. The first stop was in Bukchon Hanok Village in downtown Seoul. This area is located between several old Palaces and is where nobles and wealthy have lived for over 600 years. The exteriors of the houses and now shops are maintained historically intact. The weather was perfect for a stroll around to view these old houses. Be forewarned that there is a bit of walking up and down some elevation involved with this part of the tour. Next stop was the Jongmyo Confucian shrine dedicated to the memorial services for deceased royalty of the Korean Joseon Dynasty 13921897. The original Jongmyo shrine was destroyed by fire in the Japanese invasions of Korea 1590's, then rebuilt in 1608. Unlike many other buildings damaged or destroyed during WWII these are not recent reconstructions. The Shrine is located in a very tranquil park like setting, again there is a fair bit of walking involved on mostly flat ground or stone paths. The onsite guide was very informative during the English tour. The last stop was at the Changdeokgung Palace. The palace was originally built in very early 1400's, but has been destroyed and rebuilt several times since then. This is one of five grand palaces in Seoul. Korea's last Emperor lived here until his death in 1926. The buildings were very ornate and it is possible to peak inside some of the residence buildings. Jung was a great guide and most helpful throughout the tour. This tour is a unique opportunity to visit two UNESCO sites in a morning.</p>

Splendid palace

Magnificent, you must visit at the time of the changing of the guard and if you wish, rent traditional clothes. Be careful to take a day to visit the entire palace and garden

Sehr abwechslungsreich

Wir waren mit Frau Jung (ich hoffe der Name ist richtig) und sie war einfach wunderbar. Wir waren zuerst in Bukchon Hanok Village, dann Changdeokgung Palace ( der wirklich sehr schön restauriert ist) Wir haben sehr viele Details von ihr erfahren und sie hat uns alles erklärt und wir könnten genügend Fotos machen. Anschließend haben wir den Jongmyo Royal Shrine besucht und einen schönen Überblick über die Zeremonie bekommen. Sehr historisch und wunderschön. Anschließend waren wir noch im Museum von Admiral Yi Sun-Shin und inkl. der Story über King Sejong. Ich würde unseren guide Frau Jung mit dieser tour jederzeit wieder buchen. Gelungener vormittag. Vielen Dank.