About Real Korea
Real Korea is an independent English-language travel guide for foreign visitors who want to actually plan their days in Korea — not just read about it. We publish practical, single-place guides that tell you what a spot costs, when it opens, how to get there, and whether it is genuinely worth your time.
Who is behind Real Korea
Real Korea is a small independent editorial project, not a large media company. It is researched and maintained by the Real Korea editorial team — a handful of people who care about giving first-time visitors to Korea guidance they can act on. We are based in Seoul, which is why our coverage starts there and expands outward as we go.
How we research our guides
We build every guide from primary, verifiable sources rather than rehashing other blogs:
- Official tourism data — the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) and each venue’s official website for admission, hours, and closing days.
- Transit information — Seoul Metro and public transport data for the exact station, line, and exit.
- On-the-ground checks and visitor reports — we cross-check the practical details against current public information and reader feedback.
Prices and hours in Korea change often, so every guide carries a “Verified as of” date and we treat those figures as a guide, not gospel. When a reader tells us something has changed, we recheck it against the official source and update the page.
How we use AI — and where we draw the line
We are transparent about our process: our guides are researched and drafted with the help of AI writing tools, then checked by a human against official sources before publishing. Facts that matter on the ground — prices, opening hours, subway exits, closing days — are verified against primary sources rather than taken from a model’s output. Photographs are licensed images (Creative Commons or public-domain tourism photos), and every image is captioned with its source. We would rather tell you plainly how a guide was made than pretend otherwise.
What makes our guides different
Most English-language guides hand you the same long list of famous names with little you can act on. We do the opposite. Every guide covers one specific, named place in real detail: the address and nearest subway exit, the entry fee and opening hours, an honest verdict — including the downsides, not just the highlights — and what to pair it with nearby so the rest of your day plans itself.
Organized by place type
We group our guides by the kind of place you are visiting, so you can plan around what you actually want to see:
- Heritage Sites — palaces, shrines, tombs and Joseon-era royal grounds.
- Hanok Villages — traditional hanok streets and lanes.
- Markets & Shopping — traditional markets and street-food alleys.
- Parks & Nature — riverside parks and outdoor nature spots.
- Icons & Views — towers, observation decks and modern landmarks.
How Real Korea is funded
Real Korea is free to read and supported by advertising — we display ads, including Google-served ads, to cover hosting and research costs. Advertising never buys a place in our guides or changes a verdict: which places we cover, and whether we recommend them, is decided independently of any advertiser. We do not run sponsored posts or paid placements; if that ever changes, we will label it clearly on the page.
Corrections and contact
Spotted something out of date, or know a place we should cover? We genuinely want to hear it — corrections keep the guides trustworthy. Reach the editorial team through our Contact page, and we will recheck and update.