Southern Korea when the maples turn — Haeundae beach, the painted hillside of Gamcheon, the thousand-year-old Bulguksa temple and the old Silla capital at Gyeongju.
Photo: Sung Jin Cho / Unsplash
Day 1
The group meets at Da Nang International Airport for the direct flight to Gimhae Airport in Busan. Your guide transfers you to the hotel in the Haeundae or Seomyeon district. In the evening you are free to walk Haeundae beach, whose lit promenade runs for nearly two kilometres.
Day 2
We start at Gamcheon Culture Village, a hillside settlement that was painted and covered in murals from 2009 onwards and is now the most photographed place in Busan. In the afternoon we drive out to Haedong Yonggungsa on the eastern coast — unusually for a Korean temple it sits at the sea's edge rather than on a mountain, with waves breaking below the steps. We finish at Jagalchi fish market, where you can choose seafood at the counter and have it prepared on the spot.
Day 3
An hour's drive brings us to Gyeongju. The morning is spent at Bulguksa, a temple founded in 751 whose main courtyard holds the Dabotap and Seokgatap stone pagodas — this is the season when the maples inside the temple grounds turn red. We continue up Mount Toham to the Seokguram Grotto and its granite Buddha, seated facing the East Sea. In the afternoon we visit the seventh-century Cheomseongdae observatory and the royal tomb mounds of Daereungwon. We stay into the evening to see Donggung Palace and Wolji Pond floodlit and reflected in the water.
Day 4
The morning is free along Hwangnidan-gil, a street of old Gyeongju houses now given over to cafés and small shops. We return to Busan at midday and go up Yongdusan Park to Busan Tower for the view over Korea's largest port. The late afternoon and evening are free in Nampodong and at BIFF Square, where the street food stalls are a Busan institution.
Day 5
We check out with time for shopping at a local supermarket before transferring to Gimhae International Airport for the flight back to Da Nang, where the programme ends.
Almost everyone’s first trip to Korea is to Seoul. Busan and Gyeongju are for people who have already done that, or who would rather have coastline and ruins than shopping streets.
We schedule this route for the autumn foliage because that is when Gyeongsang province is at its best — the courtyards of Bulguksa and the lanes of Gyeongju under red maple and yellow ginkgo. The exact week the leaves turn shifts from year to year, so departure dates are set once the forecast is out.
Busan has direct flights from Da Nang, so there is no connection through Seoul to lose half a day to. We handle the visa applications; hotel category, group size and flight schedule are agreed before the contract is signed.
Overseas ToursThe classic Korea route from Da Nang — Gyeongbokgung Palace, the tree-lined avenues of Nami Island, a full day at Everland and evenings in Myeongdong.
Overseas ToursEast to west across Japan — Senso-ji in Tokyo, Lake Kawaguchi beneath Mount Fuji, the torii gates of Fushimi Inari in Kyoto and Dotonbori after dark.