Product Description

This brand new first edition of Frommer's South Korea features in-depth coverage of this increasingly popular destination, from the cities of Seoul and Busan to the DMZ border area to Jeju Island, the "Island of the Gods." Our author Cecilia Hae-Jin Lee is a first-generation Korean American who passes along insider's tips and insights into Korean culture, plus a Korean recipe or two (Lee is also a respected cook and cookbook author). She'll steer you away from the touristy and the inauthentic and show you the real heart of South Korea. Eat a Hanjeongsik (full-course meal) in a neighborhood cafe in Seoul, attend the Pusan Film Festival, shop for the country's best fabrics (ramie fabrics) at the markets in Hansan, and hike Seoraksan (or just buy the area's famous mushrooms and honey)--plus seek out tea houses, limestone caves, Buddhist temples, hot springs, battlegrounds, and parks throughout the region.

You'll travel South Korea like a pro with our candid advice and handy Korean-language glossary. Also included are accurate regional and town maps, up-to-date advice on finding the best package deals, a glossary of Korean cuisine, and an online directory that makes trip-planning a snap!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #43021 in Books
• Published on: 2008-06-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 436 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780470181911
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From the Back Cover

Frommer's. The best trips start here.

Experience a place the way the locals do. Enjoy the best it has to offer.

• Expert advice on exploring South Korea, including cultural insights, specialized itineraries, and a language glossary.

• Outspoken opinions on what's worth your time and what's not.

• Exact prices, so you can plan the perfect trip whatever your budget.

• Off-the-beaten-path experiences and undiscovered gems, plus new takes on top attractions.

Find great deals and book your trip at Frommers.com

Customer Reviews

Epic Fail
As a frequent traveler to Korea, as a Korean linguist, and as a huge fan of Korean culture, I was thrilled to learn that a new guide to South Korea was being published. I ran to the store to buy it. Wow, what a disappointment! I don't even know where to begin with my condemnation of this tragic tome. Let's start here: as a guide that claims to inform the reader about little-known secrets about this amazing country--well, there are none. The Lonely Planet Guide and the Moon Guide offer 10 times more information. Also, there is MUCH out of date info. The author recommends shoppers to visit the Freya Town department store in Dongdaemun. That building was demolished years ago. She claims that dental floss is impossible to find--it is available at any convenience store. This factoid was probably "borrowed" from an earlier edition of the Lonely Planet guide when, years ago, this was the truth.
Even worse: when she does recommend the usual tourist-trap restaurants that both above-mentioned guides cite, she only gives the address. No map. Well, the first thing the first-time traveler to Korea needs to know is that Korean addresses are WORTHLESS. It's not like in the West, where buildings are numbered incrementally--you won't find numbers on buildings in Korea, as building numbers are only assigned to buildings as they are built. These numbers are used only by the post office. To find out a particular location in Korea, Koreans describe what is the near the building in question, or they fax each other maps.
What is more, whereas Lonely Planet uses BOTH the Ministry of Education transliteration system AND the Korean letters (Hangeul), the author saw fit to eschew Hangeul completely and use her own sloppy, inconsistent, misleading, and incomprehensible transliteration system. In short, the novice to Korea will be completely baffled. To make matters even worse, she includes a glossary of Korean and of Korean foods at the end of the work. Although the English seems fine, there are numerous mistakes in the Korean language she uses, and in some cases, the Korean and English terms don't even match up!
Shall I go on and on? For those who want to buy electronic devices, she mentions Yongsan Electronics Mart in Seoul and doesn't even mention Technomart, a much smarter place for foreigners to buy electronics. She mentions the most expensive places to stay in Jeonju but doesn't even mention that the best places to stay in Jeonju are right by the train station (most people go to Jeonju for the excellent food and the international film festival).
More? the author includes a subway map of Daegu, but not that of Seoul? Where is the wisdom in this decision? How many first time visitors to Korea will EVER go to Daegu. Highly unlikely.
Worst of all, the author recommends that visitors go to the DMZ as their first trip out of Seoul. Wow. No place on Earth is more boring. Anyone who has visited Korea will tell you this. It takes an entire day to go, there is a dress code, and the only food available is an expensive, tasteless, foreigner-based quasi version of the real stuff.
I could go on and on. I am so disgusted with Frommer's for allowing this unedited travesty to be published. Save your money. Buy the Lonely Planet Guide to Korea (and also their very good guide to Seoul). If you want lots of background info on cultural sites and Korean history also buy the Moon guide. Frommer's guide is just a waste of money. What a shame.

Very haphazard and sloppy
This book was apparently issued at the beginning of summer and I bought it to used during a recently completed trip to Korea. It had some good information but I found it maddeningly sloppy in execution and extremely frustrating to use. Maps were inaccurate--for example the map of downtown Seoul shows the magnificent National Museum of Korea near the city center, but in fact it is close to the river several miles away--having been moved from the place shown on the map in 2005. (The text does describe its new location and how to get there, but the map will confuse many readers who might be interested in the museum.) Was the map simply carried over from an earlier edition without any updating? A section on a region in central Korea describes a museum (the Independence museum) in the "second largest city" in the region but the regional map doesn't show the city. (It is, however, shown on the map of all of Korea at the beginning of the book.) Areas of Seoul are described but for many of them there is no map as to where (even in general) they actually are--e.g., Itawon. Very few restaurants are listed in Seoul and for many there is no map even indicating the general area where they are located. Two cities, Incheon and Daejeon are both described as the "fourth" largest city in Korea. (I could find no "third" largest city listed.) I could easily go on. There should be a thorough re-editing of the book if it is to be a helpful guidebook and not a frustrating experience for a traveller trying to negotiate his or her way through Korea.

Avoid this awful guide at all costs!
Just to note, this review focuses on portions of the book dedicated to Seoul.

I have to agree with what has been said in previous reviews. This is a deeply flawed guide.
To give them the benefit of the doubt, this is probably geared for the very, very casual tourist who just wants to see the top touristy sites and not delve into the local culture.

There are very few maps in this book, and none are very useful. They only stick to the more popular sites, and for such a jammed packed city, you will be missing a lot of cool stuff. Street names on maps is a must for an aimless wanderer like me, {even Lonely Planet sometimes comes up lacking in this regard}, but some of the Frommer's neighborhood maps for Seoul are just atrocious. Entire neighborhoods are reduced to just a few named roads and a couple of dozen blank lines.
They have very limited map indexes, and no map page references in the attraction listings, so no fast flipping back and forth between the two like you can with the Lonely Planet guides. You have to turn back and forth to try to find the corresponding map, if there even is one.

The lack of vital information in the maps is not the only place they dumb it down. Their directions to points of interest often contain no more than a subway station name and number followed by a series of turns left or right. This can simplify things sometimes, but with no street names so you know where you are walking to, and no time frame to figure out how long a walk it should be, we often overshot our target. What really burned me was when they would say, "walk in the direction of" something (like a school), but not have the aforementioned landmark on the map or to even show the Korean text so we could try to recognize it.
The total absence of Korean text was a real bummer. This comes in handy when you need a cab and don't speak the language (of course the book fails to mention when you really need one).

Just a tip: If visiting the Seoul Tower via subway and then cable car, their directions take you on a steep 25 min. hike uphill just to get to the cable car. An easier, faster route is to get off at the Myeongdong station. Use exit 4, walk straight until you hit the next major intersection (Banporo), turn left and walk one (long) block till you hit the Funicular tram that will take you up the hill straight to the cable car. This may be new, as it wasn't included in the book, and it will save some strength you will need for the stairs you will encounter further up.

Combined with a printout of the WikiTravel guide, you can get around with relative ease and see all the major things to see, but don't expect much more. We were lucky to have a friend in the city to show us the true heart of Seoul, but this is the first time using a guidebook where we felt we needed that kind of help.
We never felt lost, but with this book alone, we never would have experienced the best of Korean culture and hospitality.

When we return, and I really hope we do, it will be with a different book.