I did the 2DN1 Tour and can absolutely recommend it! The tour was so well organized, informative and fun.
Although I have been living in Korea for a year, I have not been to the DMZ yet. So it was more than time that I booked a tour!
And I am very glad that I chose this K-Story tour. As always, our tour guide was well prepared, funny and had lots of information at his fingertips.
During the drive from Seoul to Odusan Observatory, Dony explained to us the history of divided Korea. His explanation was short but full of the most important facts so that everyone could roughly understand how it came to be and how significant it is to this day.
From the Odusan Observatory, we could look at North Korea through normal or highly modern digital binoculars. Dony even showed us some North Korean field workers and explained that we were only about a kilometer away from a North Korean village. Inside the observatory is a gallery of drawings and texts from affected families, all about the desire for reunification.
The second stop was the actual DMZ in Imjingak. We walked to the Freedom Bridge, saw a small bunker, and took a cable car into the middle of the Demilitarized Zone. Since it does not have the highest security level there, we hardly saw any soldiers, so even though the Korean division is a very serious and sad topic, there was no dull or tense mood.
After a short lunch we went with our small private van to an apple farm and picked apples ourselves, took a small ride with a cart and ate warm apple pie and drank fresh apple juice.
Due to a small change of plans, we went to Pocheon Art Valley next, which was a really good twist. That way we could go up the mountain with the monorail without a hurry and enjoy a little walk and coffee with a wonderful view. Just in time for sunset we walked down the small hill again and saw the sun disappear behind the Fall Foliage covered mountains.
The hotel was well equipped and perfectly fine. Since there is a Noraebang (karaoke room) in the basement of the hotel and our room was right above it, it was quite loud until about 10 pm, but that was not a big problem for us and for a small city like Pocheon, the hotel was great.
In the morning of the second day we went directly to Herb Island, which is basically a small theme park without an obvious theme. :D
From a herbal museum, dinos, fairy tales, runningman, squid game, tanks, Halloween to couple photo spots and other attractions, I guess there is something for everyone. On weekends and with more visitors I imagine it to be quite funny because then the small booths will be open everywhere. Since we were there on weekdays, some booths were closed, but so we could at least make the best photos without waiting.
Our most important stop of the second day was Nami Island. And what can I say: I heard a lot about Nami Island in advance, but it exceeded my expectations by far.
I really just imagine the island to be so beautiful in any season and could have spent the whole day there. Although we came on weekdays, there were an incredible amount of people, but because of our top tour guide, everything went very smoothly and we didn't have to wait long or get stressed. We had enough time to walk around the island, have something to eat, take endless photos and admire the beautiful autumn colors. It was magical!
Last stop before we went back to Seoul was Petite France and an Italian Village near Nami Island. It wasn't really authentic there, but had a very unique charm because of the beautiful view. Again, I can imagine that it's a little more fun on the weekends than on weekdays.
All in all, the tour was just awesome and incredibly fun. My two highlights were the view to North Korea and Nami Island!