Nami Island+Alpaca+Gapyeong Rail Bike+Garden of Morning Calm

Posted By : Neftali_P
We had such great time the places are must do and see specially Nami Island. Our tour guide Andrew was very friendly and always helping us to take pictures…if you like nature, beautiful pictures escenario or dramas these locations are a must.
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Posted On : 2024-05-29 16:39:13

Posted By : Kim_D
Paul was an amazing tour guide! Not only was he our driver but he was also our very knowledgeable tour guide. Paul is full of fun facts about Seoul and we learnt so much by the end of the tour. Paul was not only our driver and tour guide but also ended up being our search engine, he was amazing with making recommendations for us to explore in our own time as well.
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Posted On : 2023-10-16 20:15:48

Posted By : Nina_D
This was a really great tour! I especially enjoyed the rail bike. It was nice to get out of Seoul and see the beauty of South Korea. Paul, our tour guide was excellent!
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Posted On : 2023-06-10 05:39:42

Posted By : Ruth_V
Our tour guide was the best! He was polite, attentive and patient! Because of him we had a pleasant and awesome experience! 100% recommend this tour!
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Posted On : 2023-05-18 20:10:53

Posted By : Lam_L
Our tour guy Joy is very friendly and funny. He is very informative each location. We have plenty of time to check out 4 places. I wouldn’t do more than 4. He even recommended us a good lunch place at Nami island. I would total go with him again for next tour.
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Posted On : 2023-05-01 20:11:45

Posted By : Jason_K
Nami Island and the Garden of the Morning Calm were absolute highlights for this trip and showcased the natural beauty of Korea’s outdoors. The cart ride thru the mountains and over the water was also very thrilling. Traffic can get pretty rough getting from Seoul to the rest of Gyeonggi province but Tex (sorry if I got the name wrong) expertly guided us from location to location without a hitch.
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Posted On : 2023-05-01 20:11:42

Posted By : Eleanor_D
Overall the tour is a hands-off, passive tour (mainly they will transport you to the locations and then you've got free time). They make it easier to get to, and then into, each location, so it's worthwhile if these places are on your list. The guide was lovely and friendly. However, don't expect this to be a 'guided' tour as such. Once you were at the location, you were just told when to be back. These locations are relatively long/ difficult to get to by public transport in one day. By car or coach seems easiest.

All the locations are tourist hot spots and are extremely busy/ people taking Instagram photos at every opportunity. I went on a weekday in relatively poor weather and they were all very busy.

Nami Island: a small island where a few dramas have been filmed. Autumn would be a perfect time to visit due to the yellow-leafed trees lining the main routes (can't remember the type!). There is actually an interesting history behind it (named after General Nami, and his tomb is there) but like much of S. Korea, the focus is on pretty pictures and good food, so his tomb isn't really the focus. We had about an hour on the island and I'd walked around the whole thing in that time at a leisurely pace. I'd recommend taking the zip wire to the island (at an extra cost). It looked fun!

Petite France: again, Instagram photo opportunity and not much else. More dramas filmed here. I found this the worst of the day. It doesn't take long to walk round and is just pretty buildings which no one even intends to go inside. It's about taking photos where the drama scenes happened.

Gapyeong Rail: I believe there's another rail nearby that may be longer so don't confuse them. Was about 20 min ride in a straight line, a ten minute rest, then 20 minutes back. I'd recommend getting a drink at the rest stop as the cups they give you make nice souvenirs. The ride is nice, and would definitely be lovely when the cherry blossoms bloom. But overall not as long as I thought (8k, but 4k one direction and then back the same way).

Garden of morning calm: by far the highlight. An actually intriguing garden, though not very big, but well designed. Accentuates the Korean aesthetic of asymmetry, isosceles triangles and smooth curves (all new knowledge from the visit!). There's a 1000 year old juniper tree. Takes advantage of the natural landscape and so sits well in the valley. Beautiful at all times of year.

Overall: the tour was exactly as described and enabled us to get to the locations and into them easily. I ticked off a lot of locations advertised as "must visits" near Seoul. Personally, I don't think the tour was exactly to my taste but that's to do with the locations rather than how it was organised! There was a small number of us on the tour so it was easy to make friends as a solo traveller. The guide was great and said we could text him at any time during our stay in Korea if we needed help or recommendations.

Tips: make sure you have WhatsApp and internet as this is how they communicated with me the day prior to the tour. They responded quickly. They arrived on time at the location advertised.
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Posted On : 2023-04-14 07:41:57

Posted By : Pooja_M
I missed out on this trip (with no refund) due to variation in timing between the email that viator sent me and the tour company . I rebooked with another company which was more organised and cheaper - the group leader sent a WhatsApp message the night before to make sure everyone was on the same page Vs this company where I had to go through an intermediary .
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Posted On : 2023-02-15 18:40:32

Posted By : JessieAapd
Brian was amazing! Very attentive to his tour group; took care of everyone and kept us on schedule without pressure or rushing. (Oh, and very funny 😄)
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Posted On : 2022-12-29 19:08:03

Posted By : Steven_N
garden of morning calm, especially that it rained. The rail bike is a new wohle experience.

Tour guide (Bryan) is also very accommodating, helpful. recommended a BBQ lunch which was good.
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Posted On : 2022-12-19 11:17:36