South Korea 8 Day Itinerary: Seoul, DMZ, Gyeongju and Busan

About 3,000 won, 90 minutes, closed on Tuesdays. Arrive near 3pm to catch the changing of the guard, held at 10am and 2pm at the Gwanghwamun gate.

Gyeongbokgung is the principal palace of the Joseon dynasty, founded in 1395, and it was levelled twice: by the Japanese invasion of 1592 and by the twentieth century occupation, which went as far as building the colonial government headquarters directly in front of it. What stands today is patient reconstruction, still under way.

Anyone arriving in rented hanbok gets in free, and there are rental shops along the side street. That rule explains why half the courtyard is dressed in period costume in every photograph.

No ticket, 60 minutes, uphill. This is a genuine residential district, with signs asking for quiet after 5pm.

The roughly 900 hanok of Bukchon sit between the two great palaces, where the court nobility lived. Bukchon-ro 11-gil is the street from the photographs, curved tile roofs in the foreground and the modern city behind.

No ticket, 60 minutes, walking down from Bukchon. The main street closes to traffic on Sundays.

Insadong concentrates shops selling hanji, the traditional Korean paper, along with tea houses, galleries and ceramics. It is touristy, but it remains the easiest place to buy craft that is not airport souvenir. Ssamziegil, a shopping centre built as a continuous spiral ramp, is the quick stop halfway along.

About 3,000 won plus 5,000 won for the Huwon garden, 2 hours, closed on Mondays. The garden is guided only, on fixed timed slots, and the English ones are few: book online before you travel.

Changdeokgung is the best preserved palace of the dynasty and the only one on the UNESCO list, because it was laid out to follow the terrain instead of imposing symmetry on it. The Huwon, the secret garden, takes up 60% of the grounds and was reserved for the royal family for three centuries.

No ticket, 75 minutes, a 10 minute walk from the palace. This is where to have lunch or coffee.

Ikseon-dong is a block of hanok built in the 1920s as workers' housing, which escaped demolition and has become, over the past decade, the most inventive address in the old centre: the same low houses now hold traditional dessert cafes, makgeolli bars and vintage clothing shops. It is the modern counterweight to Bukchon, with far fewer people photographing it.

No ticket, 75 minutes, open 9am to 11pm. Bring cash: many stalls do not take cards.

Gwangjang dates from 1905 and is the best known street food market in the country. Three dishes justify the visit: bindaetteok, a mung bean pancake fried to order, mayak gimbap, small rice rolls served with a mustard dip, and yukhoe, seasoned raw beef. Sit at the stall counter; eating standing in the aisle blocks the flow.

Outdoor areas free, exhibitions from 10,000 won, 90 minutes. Best after dark.

The DDP was designed by Zaha Hadid and opened in 2014, with 45,000 aluminium panels and not one straight line. During construction the excavation uncovered a stretch of the Seoul city wall and a Joseon era water gate, preserved in the park alongside. At night the roof lawn carries the LED rose installation, and the Dongdaemun garment market around it trades through the small hours.

The DMZ can only be entered on an authorised guided tour, leaving Seoul around 7.30am and costing 60,000 to 100,000 won. Carry your passport: without it you do not pass the first checkpoint.

Imjingak sits outside the controlled zone and is the opening stop. It holds the Freedom Bridge, over which 12,773 prisoners of war returned in 1953, and the fence covered in coloured ribbons left by families separated by the division. It is the part of the visit with nothing military about it, and the hardest to forget.

Included in the tour, 60 minutes, with a document check at the entrance to the zone.

From the platform you can see, with the naked eye on a clear day, the North Korean village of Kijong-dong, built in the 1950s as a showcase and nicknamed the propaganda village, with its 160 metre flagpole. Photography is allowed today, which was not always so: until 2018 a yellow line on the floor marked the point beyond which cameras were forbidden.

Included in the tour, 60 minutes. Skip it if you are claustrophobic or have knee trouble: the access ramp descends 350 metres with a low ceiling, and cameras and bags go in a locker.

This is the third of four tunnels discovered, found in 1978 after a defector reported it. It runs 1.6 km and passes 73 metres beneath the demarcation line, wide enough to move an infantry division an hour. North Korea claimed it was a coal mine and even painted the walls black to support the story.

No ticket, a 90 minute walk, starting from exit 3 of Hongik University station.

The Gyeongui line was buried in 2005 and the trackbed became a 6.3 km linear park. The Yeonnam-dong stretch, nicknamed Yeontral Park by Koreans themselves, is the liveliest: lawn full of people sitting, small cafes on one side and the Hongdae bar district on the other. It is the morning walk that shows what Seoul is like away from the postcards.

A 30 minute stop, no ticket, open around the clock, connected to Seoul Station.

The 1970 road overpass was due for demolition on structural grounds and became, in 2017, a garden walkway holding more than 200 plant species in concrete pots, designed by the Dutch practice MVRDV. It links Seoul Station to the Namdaemun district and is the pleasantest walking shortcut in the centre.

Cable car about 14,000 won return plus 21,000 won for the observatory, 2 hours. Go up 40 minutes before sunset and come down after dark: the lit city is half the reason.

The tower stands on top of Namsan mountain, and tower plus mountain together put the deck 480 metres above sea level. You can walk up through the park in 40 minutes, which avoids the weekend cable car queue. The love padlocks clipped to the railings are a 2000s habit that became the signature of the place.

Take a morning KTX out of Seoul: two hours to Singyeongju station, plus 15 minutes by bus into town. Tickets about 3,000 won, 75 minutes.

Daereungwon is a park holding 23 royal tombs of the Silla kingdom, which ruled the peninsula from here for nearly a thousand years. The tombs are grass hills up to 20 metres high, and one of them, Cheonmachong, has been excavated and can be entered, with a replica of the gold crown set where it was found.

A 25 minute stop, visible from outside without a ticket, a 10 minute walk from the tombs.

Cheomseongdae is a nine metre stone tower built in the 7th century, during the reign of Queen Seondeok, and is the oldest surviving astronomical observatory in East Asia. It uses 362 stones, the number of days in the lunar year, in 27 courses, because Seondeok was the 27th ruler of Silla.

About 3,000 won, 90 minutes, open until 10pm. Come at night: that is when it earns the visit.

This was the crown prince's palace, built in 674 beside an artificial pond curved so that the far shore could never be seen all at once. The old name, Anapji, was replaced by Donggung and Wolji in the 2010s, when excavation confirmed the original name. With the pavilions floodlit and reflected in still water, it is the most reproduced image of Gyeongju.

Free entry, 90 minutes, closed on Mondays. Start here: it is what gives the rest of the day meaning.

The museum holds the Silla gold crown, found in the tombs you saw yesterday, and the bell of King Seongdeok, cast in 771 and weighing 19 tonnes, the largest surviving bronze bell in Korea. The piece that tends to surprise people is much smaller: a 7th century roof tile with a smiling face, which has become the city's informal emblem.

About 6,000 won, 2 hours, 30 minutes by bus from the centre. Go before 10am to stay ahead of the school groups.

Bulguksa was built in 774 and is the masterpiece of Silla Buddhist architecture. What impresses is the base: two stone stairways, Cheongungyo and Baegungyo, representing the passage from the earthly world into the land of Buddha, assembled without mortar and standing for more than 1,200 years. The wooden halls above them are reconstruction, because they burned in the Japanese invasion of 1593.

About 6,000 won, 75 minutes, 20 minutes by bus up the mountain from Bulguksa. Photography inside is forbidden.

The grotto is man made: it was assembled stone by stone near the summit of Mount Toham in the 8th century and covered with earth, with a 3.5 metre granite Buddha seated at the centre of a circular chamber. He faces east, towards the sea, and in the original design the first sunrise of the year struck the exact point of his forehead. Today you view him through glass, installed to control the humidity that nearly destroyed the chamber in the twentieth century.

Fifty minutes by train to Busan. Map ticket about 2,000 won, 2 hours, a lot of stairs.

Gamcheon began as a settlement for refugees from the Korean War, built in terraces up the hillside. In 2009 a public programme paid artists and residents to paint the facades and install sculptures, and the district became the emblem of Busan without ceasing to be residential: buy the map at the entrance, follow the marked route, and do not walk into alleys signed as private homes.

No ticket, 75 minutes, closed on the first and third Sunday of the month. This is dinner.

Jagalchi is the largest seafood market in Korea and runs on a system of its own: on the ground floor you choose the live animal from the tank and pay by weight, then carry it to the second floor, where they charge a preparation fee and cook it on the spot. Order hoe, the Korean sashimi, and be wary of any stall that will not show the price per kilo before weighing.

No ticket, 75 minutes, 20 minutes from Jagalchi across the bridge to Yeongdo island. Go late in the afternoon.

Huinnyeoul is a narrow band of white houses wedged between a cliff and the sea, also founded as refugee shelter. Some lanes are barely a metre wide, and the lower path, at the water's edge, looks straight out at the cargo ships anchored in the bay. The name means white stream, after the water that once ran down the cliff.

Free entry, 90 minutes, opens at 5am. Come early: by 10am the access corridor becomes single file.

Almost every Korean Buddhist temple stands in the mountains, by doctrinal preference. Haedong Yonggungsa is the well known exception: raised in 1376 directly on the coastal rocks, with its halls hanging above the surf. You descend 108 steps, the number of afflictions in Buddhism, and the gilded facade with the sea behind it is why the photograph travels so far.

About 12,000 won for the beach train, 90 minutes including the wait. The suspended capsule costs more and sells out: book online ahead.

The old coastal railway between Mipo and Songjeong was decommissioned and became a 4.8 km park with two rides on the same alignment: the beach train, which runs the full route with stops, and the Sky Capsule, four seat pods raised above the track that run only as far as Cheongsapo. If you have to choose, the capsule has the better view and the train goes further.

No ticket, 2 hours, a 10 minute walk from Mipo station. From here it is 55 minutes by metro to Gimhae airport.

Haeundae is the most famous urban beach in the country, 1.5 km of sand between high rises. Outside the Korean summer it empties out and works better as a walk: follow the Dalmaji promenade at the eastern end, which climbs the headland between cafes with a view and is where locals go to watch the moon rise.