This tour says you cannot wear jeans, is this true? Must one bring slacks or khakis?

http://www.tourdmz.com/rb/?r=eng&c=241/327/329/335

Also - is this tour just hitting the main highlight and leaving out what some reviewers feel is more 'boring'?

The dress code has relaxed over the years. Jeans will be ok. Overall the idea of the dress code is not to attract attention to yourself.

As far as the main highlights, that tour seems to be the one. The JSA visit is a must, everything else just adds flavor.

Provider
 

Bumping this thread. With the JSA being closed for now, I'm debating if it's worth the DMZ tour (tunnel and observatory). Any thoughts or any idea if/ when the JSA will be open for tours again?

Also, if I do the DMZ tour, I'm debating between using VIP Travel: https://www.vviptravel.com/tours/half-day-dmz-tour vs. Cosmojin which includes a North Korean defector: https://m.cosmojin.com/en/product/gu.../detail/100196

Any feedback or experiences with either? From what I can tell, here are the pros and cons of each:

Cosmjin

Pros:

• Recommended by my hotel
• Includes a North Korean defector (if he or she shows up, reviews seem to indicate it doesn't always happen)
• Pickup directly from my hotel

Cons:

• Includes forced shopping which probably kills an hour or so...
• Doesn't seem to have as many great reviews including the experience being rushed, as it's a smaller operation, seems to get canceled more frequently, and people are very unhappy about the forced shopping.

VIP Travel:

Pros:

• Great reviews on TripAdvisor (perhaps an unseemly number of 5 star reviews, so hard to know how accurate they are....)
• No forced shopping
• Larger operation so less likely to cancel due to lack of participants

Cons:

• Pickup from train station 30 minutes away
• No North Korean defector

We are in the area as well and currently thinking about these tours.

We are going to rent a car for a day and do the way on our own, I read that most of those area's are very touristic anyways and the guides just drop you off to walk on your own. Odusan Unification Tower + Dora Observation.

It should be ~1,5 hrs from Seoul driving.

I believe I read that you need to use an official tour company to visit the DMZ, although maybe that's only the JSA area which is currently closed.