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Seokguram Grotto, South Korea

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Travel to South Korea

Flying to South Korea

Airlines with flights to South Korea are Asiana Airlines (OZ) (http://eu.flyasiana.com) and Korean Air (KE) (www.koreanair.com).

Flight times:

From London to Seoul is 11 hours; and from New York is 13 hours 30 minutes.

Departure tax:

None. There may be a KRW4,000-17,000 passenger service charge to pay if this has not been included in the cost of the ticket.

Travel by rail

Test trains crossed the border to the Republic of Korea in May 2007 for the first time in over 50 years. However, there are no passenger services at present. North Korea can only accessed by train from China, with services between Beijing and Pyongyang; South Korea is not accessible overland as travel between North and South Korea is forbidden. For details of China-North Korea tours, try Koryo Tours, run by Westerners based in China (www.koryogroup.com).

Rail passes:

Korea-China Through-ticket and Korea-Japan Through-ticket provide discounts on travel between the countries, including transport by ferry and train. For more information, contact the tourist board.

Driving to South Korea

There are currently no routes by land to South Korea, as travel by bus or car through North Korea is prohibited.

Getting to South Korea by boat

Main ports: Busan (in the far south) ( www.busanferry.co.kr), Jeju (www.jejucvb.or.kr) and Incheon (due west of Seoul) (http://english.incheon.go.kr).

Ferry operators:

Sailings to Japan from Busan include Korea Ferry (www.koreaferry.co.kr), Mirejet (www.mirejet.com) offers the speedy 3-hour service to Fukuoa, and Pukwan.

There are many options to sail to China from Incehon: the fastest is Hwadong Haeun's (www.huadong.co.kr) service to Shi Dao, which takes 12 hours. Others include Weidong Ferry (www.weidong.com) from Incheon to Qingdao. See the tourist board's site for useful details of Korea-China crossings.

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