Culture & K-culture

A mountain Buddhist temple with wooden halls among forested peaks in South Korea

Updated 26 October 2026

Templestay in Korea: A Night in a Working Monastery

What a Korean templestay involves: the two programme formats, the pre-dawn service, the formal monastic meal, and how to book one that runs in English.

N Seoul Tower on Namsan rising against a clear blue sky, framed by tree branches

Updated 19 October 2026

KPop Demon Hunters in Seoul: The Real Places, Honestly Sorted

Which Seoul places in KPop Demon Hunters are drawn faithfully, which are composites, which are pure invention, and how to visit the real ones.

Brightly painted houses covering a steep hillside in Gamcheon, Busan, South Korea

Updated 18 October 2026

Gamcheon Culture Village: A Hillside of Painted Houses Where People Live

A refugee settlement on a Busan hillside, repainted by artists into one of Korea's most photographed places, with residents behind every door.

The wooden interior of a dry sauna room with benches and wall lights, South Korea

Updated 16 October 2026

The Jjimjilbang: How to Use a Korean Bathhouse Without Panicking

Naked bathing by gender, shared heated rooms in issued pyjamas, a snack bar, a reading room and permission to sleep there. Here is the order of operations.

Traditional tiled roofs and narrow lanes of Bukchon Hanok Village in Seoul, South Korea, on a clear day

Updated 15 October 2026

Korean Etiquette: What to Do and What to Avoid

The Korean manners that matter to visitors: two hands, shoes off, chopstick rules, pouring for others, quiet trains, and why nobody expects a tip.

The Cheonggyecheon stream walkway running between office towers in central Seoul, South Korea

Updated 17 August 2026

K-Drama Filming Locations in Seoul You Can Actually Visit

Where Seoul's drama stairs, murals, bridges and cafes are, what looks different in person, and how to visit without a paid tour or bothering residents.

The halls and stone bridge of Haedong Yonggungsa temple built on rocks above the sea, Busan, South Korea

Updated 16 August 2026

Haedong Yonggungsa: The Temple on the Rocks Worth Getting Up For

Busan's seaside temple sits on rocks above the water, not up a mountain. Why sunrise is the visit, how to reach it from Haeundae, and temple manners.

A thatched roofed traditional house in the Hahoe folk village near Andong, South Korea

Updated 29 July 2026

Andong: A UNESCO Village, a Mask Dance and Chicken Worth the Journey

A Confucian village in a river bend where an aristocratic clan lived for six hundred years, a satirical masked dance, and the town's two great dishes.

A stone bastion of the Hwaseong fortress wall under a clear sky in Suwon, South Korea

Updated 29 July 2026

Suwon and the Hwaseong Fortress: A Whole Walled City an Hour from Seoul

Nearly six kilometres of eighteenth century fortress wall with a walkway along the top, a palace inside it, and a working Korean city around it.

A concert crowd holding pink light sticks in front of a lit stage in South Korea

Updated 22 June 2026

K-pop for Travellers: What You Can Actually Do in Seoul

Agency buildings you can photograph from outside, busking in Hongdae, plenty of merchandise, and music show tickets that mostly need a fan club membership.

Grass covered royal burial mounds beside a stream in Gyeongju, South Korea

Updated 5 April 2026

Gyeongju by Bike: A Thousand Years of Capital, Flat and Rentable

Royal burial mounds in the middle of town, an observatory, a UNESCO temple in the hills, and a city flat enough that a bicycle is the obvious way round it.

Visitors at a viewing area beside a wire fence near the demilitarised zone, South Korea

Updated 6 March 2026

Visiting the DMZ: What You Can Actually See

A four kilometre strip of no man's land an hour from Seoul, visitable only on an authorised tour, where what is open changes with the politics.

A steep alley between traditional hanok walls with a person walking in Bukchon, Seoul

Updated 28 February 2026

The Bukchon Hanok Alleys: A Neighbourhood, Not an Attraction

Six hundred traditional courtyard houses on a hillside in central Seoul, with people living in them, quiet hours signs on the gates and a view over roofs.

The royal guard changing ceremony in period uniforms in the courtyard of Gyeongbokgung Palace, Seoul

Updated 22 February 2026

Gyeongbokgung and the Hanbok Trick: Free Entry if You Dress the Part

The main royal palace of Seoul, a guard changing ceremony twice a day, and a rule that lets anybody in traditional dress walk in for nothing.