season


DESTINATIONS SOUTH KOREA | ASIA


i travelweekly.co.uk


n the autumn morning light, I can see every colour of her fur: white, ginger, gold and tabby. I approach, but this feral cat – which has made Seoul’s Bukhansan National Park her patch – will not be disturbed. She’s resting in front of a red-leaved Korean maple, on the edge of a precipice, blinking serenely into the sunlight. I pause to take in the scene as a man sits down silently beside her; man and cat both admiring the same view. Like yin and yang. Taegeuk – South Korea’s version of yin and yang – is everywhere you look. About 70% of the country’s land is covered in mountains, and uber-modern mega-cities such as Seoul spring up in the valleys. Yet comparatively few visitors venture out into Korea’s natural landscapes.


GROWING POPULARITY British travellers are increasingly interested in South Korea; InsideAsia says it’s the company’s fastest-growing destination, with about half of its enquiries focusing on the country. Korean culture has well and truly exploded: K-pop (which burst on to the international scene in 2012 with Gangnam Style) regularly makes the


music charts, TV shows such as Squid Game and Parasite are mainstream, and K-beauty and fashion are making their way on to British high streets. Though Korea’s tourism industry was slow to recover from the pandemic – 11 million people visited in 2023 compared with 17.5 million in 2019 – it’s determined to see those numbers grow. In fact, 2024 is ‘Visit Korea Year’, so the government has prolonged its ETA-waiver programme for British travellers until the end of the year. Seoul Hiking Tourism Center, which opened in 2022 near the entrance to Bukhansan National Park, caters to growing numbers of tourists keen to explore Korea’s hiking opportunities, offering information on trails, as well as lockers, showers and equipment rental. Our guide Roger gets us booted up and gives our group of international travel agents a choice of two routes to the top of 837m-high Baegundae mountain: the quicker way, which is a four to five-hour round trip, or a slightly easier but longer way.


FINDING THE WAY We choose the quicker route, but we’re immediately thrown into


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