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Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) Half-Day Tour from Seoul
1 day
Half Day
Instant confirmation
About this activity
Itinerary
This is a typical itinerary for this product
Stop At: DMZ, Munsan-eup, Majeong-ri Imjingak Tourist information center, Paju, Gyeonggi-do South Korea
After pickup at your Seoul hotel in the morning or afternoon, drive to the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). En route, your guide shares expert commentary on the dividing line between North and South Korea.
Get out at Imjingak Park along the banks of Imjin River to see artillery and war artifacts that were used during the Korean conflict before proceeding to Freedom bridge, where nearly 13,000 Korean POWs crossed on their return back home to South Korea.
Reboard the coach and head to the 3rd Infiltration Tunnel, located beneath the border of North Korea and South Korea. See where the South Koreans have blocked the actual Military Demarcation Line with concrete barricades, and browse photographs and war artifacts at the DMZ exhibition hall.
Your next stop is Dora Observatory, where you can use binoculars to get a glimpse of North Korea. Listen to your guide explain daily life in the village of Kijongdong across the river.
Continue by coach to Dorasan Station, a historic spot that not only marks the division, but also serves as a gateway for exchanges between the north and south. Pass by the Unification Village, a small farming community that specialized in creating soybean milk, traditional soy sauce and corn goods.
Where the tour ends depends on what option you select. If you choose the morning tour or afternoon tour only, you’ll end back in Seoul at City Hall after a stop at a ginseng center. If you’ve selected to upgrade a morning tour with lunch, you’ll head to a local restaurant in Seoul after you go to the ginseng center. On the full-day tour, experience the same itinerary to the DMZ followed by lunch, and then head to Insadong Antique Market. Once the largest market for antiques and artworks in Korea, Insadong offers a selection of shops, crafts and bargains. Ask your guide to help you shop for that perfect souvenir before you’re dropped off at your hotel.
Duration: 7 hours
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This is a typical itinerary for this product
Stop At: DMZ, Munsan-eup, Majeong-ri Imjingak Tourist information center, Paju, Gyeonggi-do South Korea
After pickup at your Seoul hotel in the morning or afternoon, drive to the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). En route, your guide shares expert commentary on the dividing line between North and South Korea.
Get out at Imjingak Park along the banks of Imjin River to see artillery and war artifacts that were used during the Korean conflict before proceeding to Freedom bridge, where nearly 13,000 Korean POWs crossed on their return back home to South Korea.
Reboard the coach and head to the 3rd Infiltration Tunnel, located beneath the border of North Korea and South Korea. See where the South Koreans have blocked the actual Military Demarcation Line with concrete barricades, and browse photographs and war artifacts at the DMZ exhibition hall.
Your next stop is Dora Observatory, where you can use binoculars to get a glimpse of North Korea. Listen to your guide explain daily life in the village of Kijongdong across the river.
Continue by coach to Dorasan Station, a historic spot that not only marks the division, but also serves as a gateway for exchanges between the north and south. Pass by the Unification Village, a small farming community that specialized in creating soybean milk, traditional soy sauce and corn goods.
Where the tour ends depends on what option you select. If you choose the morning tour or afternoon tour only, you’ll end back in Seoul at City Hall after a stop at a ginseng center. If you’ve selected to upgrade a morning tour with lunch, you’ll head to a local restaurant in Seoul after you go to the ginseng center. On the full-day tour, experience the same itinerary to the DMZ followed by lunch, and then head to Insadong Antique Market. Once the largest market for antiques and artworks in Korea, Insadong offers a selection of shops, crafts and bargains. Ask your guide to help you shop for that perfect souvenir before you’re dropped off at your hotel.
Duration: 7 hours
Included
- Expert guide
- Transport by comfortable, air-conditioned coach
- Hotel pickup
- Lunch (if option selected)
- Hotel drop-off (if full-day option selected)
- Entry/Admission - DMZ
Not included
- Gratuities
- Tram
- Hotel Drop Off
Additional
- Confirmation will be received at time of booking
- Not wheelchair accessible
- A current valid passport is required the day of travel
- You do not need to send a copy of your passport
- Please follow the instructions of your tour guide about when and where you may take photos
- If a part of the tour itinerary is cancelled by unexpected military conditions or local circumstances, there will be no refund
- A moderate amount of walking through a steep and narrow tunnel involved - Comfortable clothes and shoes are recommended
- Please contact the local operator for exact pickup time
- A minimum of 2 adults is required to book the afternoon tour
- Near public transportation
- Infants must sit on laps
- Not recommended for travelers with back problems
- Not recommended for pregnant travelers
- No heart problems or other serious medical conditions
- Most travelers can participate
- This tour/activity will have a maximum of 100 travelers
Features
Tourism
95%
Cultural
70%
Reviews
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This is a great tour. Yes, it is rushed, but with the pick ups and driving involved, it crams in everything you need for a half day visit. I enjoyed everything except the sales pitch at the end. This dampened my mood quite a bit as we were 20 minutes away from our drop off and we were forced marched into a ginseng shop for a 20 minute rushed tour about the benefits of ginseng and then had to walk through the shop with 4 thousand people trying to sell me ginseng. A disappointing finish really.
Enjoyed the tour very much. Transportation was comfortable. Guide was friendly but got a few dates of events wrong. But overall great tour.
I found the DMZ tour to be very interesting but the actual tour itself was very rushed and we didn't have enough time to fully enjoy everything. Our tour guide was okay job it seemed she was piggy backing off of the other tour guides information and we ended up listening to the other guides more often than not. Overall, I would recommend taking a DMZ tour.
Although the tour was nice, the whole mood was killed by our 2 guides, very stressed and stressful, asking us to be on time but almost harassing us way before the due time at each activity. Information about what to see and do almost non existant and sometimes too late... Not pleasant at all!
The tour itself was great, packed with lots of information and insights, schedule was well planned out, and most importantly our tour guide Yoon was AWESOME!
Great trip was a bit tough in places steep hills long walks but tour guild was good. Shame get left in city centre instead of hotel was collected from as we had no idea how to get back.
Interesting, good English speaking guide, a little bit rushed, and the selling story at the end a bit annoying. Overall a good experience.
I signed up for the half day tour because I barely had time and wanted to cover other things in Seoul. We were taken to two main highlights - 3rd tunnel and Dora Observatory, both absolutely brilliant. On the way there was several small stops and drive by either with some information or breathtaking views. Yes, as expected the Ginseng museum did happen but it didn't bother me at all. It was good to know information, something I wouldn't have bothered to google on my own otherwise... and if you don't need to buy they do not insist, while others do their shopping one can wait outside taking in the fresh country side air. Its just a frame of mind one has to go with. I went with an open one and wasn't disappointed. Our tour guide Yeonji was amazing. At one part I seemed to have got a little lost since I dozed on the bus and missed some instructions. She was promptly available on whatsapp to help me through. If you plan on walking down the 3rd tunnel, make sure you have full use of your legs and a set of healthy lungs.. its was definitely a task for 30 Y.O. me and one I wouldn't recommend to my 58 year old mom with bad knees. I thoroughly loved this tour so packed with information and small bits handed over to us by Ms. Yeonji on our bus.
Although, there was little time at each location, we were able to have a good experience. The tour guide was nice and was able to provide a lot of information. The company was quick to respond and accommodating. Overall, a very good experience.
If you have young children, then this is a good alternative to the " joined security area tour", where children have to be ten. Hotel pick up was on time and bus left as scheduled. Places visited were interesting and informative, however, stops were on the shorter side, so you could not spent long time on the individual items/ gain a deeper understanding of the information provided or read all of the panels accompanying exhibits. Some parts of the tour felt rushed. The tour guide was very friendly, her English however was average at Best, so some of what was being said got lost and it was difficult to ask more in depth questions.
Nice tour with a good guide. We visited some interesting places like underground tunnel, unused train station. The only disadvantage is visiting ginseng center on the return trip. The staff is advertising the ginseng products very persistently. If you are not interested in buying it then it is just waste of time.
Good and informative trip and a very friendly and good host. Saw a lot of things in the six hours afternoon trip. Very helpfull helpdesk also.
Great tour. Everything went well but the walk down and up the tunnel where the North Koreans dug the tunnel was extremely tiring. Was an experience but do not recommend people who are less fit to venture into this part of the tour as not much to see at the end of the tunnel. Ask someone in your own group to take a picture. Should be more than enough. :)
It's a day long tour. A good insight into Korean Conflict. The guide was good and knowledgeable. The bonus was meeting a North Korean defector and knowing many insights and how things many things about North Korea is blown out of proportion by Western media. P.S. I am not pro NK. I give 1 point less as the tour was commercialised by taking us to a Ginseng shop which off course had a commission for tour company. It would be good if the tour company shares it's WhatsApp no for coordination as many tourist don't take local SIM. Take some snacks/ water with you as the most stops will have crowded shops. For some reason JSA wasn't part of the tour which I guess could be due to an upcoming rail line projects between two Koreas.We took a lunch package and the lunch was great for additional 10 USD.
This tour was horrible.First, the tour guide give much stories or history about the sites involved. After paying good money for such a tour from viator, I would expect more. The tour guide merely restated what was printed on the exhibit signs in front of the sites, and she gave it in a poor translation with much less details. I could have read the sign myself and gleaned more information. But that was not the worst part of the tour.Throughout the morning, the English and Chinese tour guide (there were 2 tour groups on the same bus) kept rushing us through the DMZ sites, giving us 15-20 min at some of those places. I wondered if it was because there were many sites at DMZ to cover, so we had to rush through because we only had 6.5 hours. I was wrong…I found out later that this was so that they could bring our tour groups to a GINSENG FACTORY. We spent 1 hour 10 minutes at that factory. Ridiculous. I paid for a 6.5 hour tour to the DMZ. This includes 2.5 to 3 hours of travelling to and fro from the DMZ. And we had to spend one-third of our time at some random ginseng factory - claiming to be agents selling government-controlled korean ginseng - just so the tour guides can get a commission from those scammers.Horrible experience, would not recommend. Expected more from viator.
We liked our guide, but the tour did not actually supply that much information about the history and current struggles faced between N and S Korea. I wasn’t sure where I was at times and it was a bit rushed. Seeing the tunnel was worthwhile and thought provoking. I would have liked more information and question and answer time.
An absolute must in South Korea !!! The jinseng factory is not worth at all but it is in the program schedule...
Don’t lose this tour. It was a visit to the Korean history, full of emotions. Tears welled up in my eyes in front of the last steam locomotive that stopped at Jangdan Station on December 31, 1950, coming from Pyongyang, now damaged and neglected for over 50 years in the DMZ, with bullet scars and broken wheels. So touching having the opportunity to cross the third tunnel under the border between North and South Korea, as well as to buy a ticket for Pyeongyang from the Dorasan Station near S and N Korean borders. The current purpose of the station is largely symbolic of the hope for eventual Korean . Must go.
What a place what a history. It was fantastic from start which pick up from the hotel and they well organized. Emily our guide was brilliant and spoke English very well. Go to this tour and for sure go with Emily
Very informative guide and the tour was packed with historical sites/information. Not much to see at the end of the 3rd tunnel hike but was well worth it just to be able to see the underground environment and tunnel itself. The climb back up to ground level was extremely strenuous.