Hi -

I'm going to be heading to Seoul for a few days in mid-March with my mom. We usually take care of our own travel/lodging/meals but like to take a day tour when in town to get our bearings.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a good, reputable tour operator with information that I could book prior to arriving? I hate leaving it to the concierge after I arrive.

For example, when we went to Japan a couple of years ago, I booked all my day tours through JTB while still here in the US and it worked pretty seamlessly.

Thanks in advance!

I am not sure you really need to do any formal tours. The main sights in the city are pretty much clustered together and you can spend a pleasant and informative day just meandering through them yourself. The subway is easy to use, or just take a cab to the starting point and back to your hotel when finished, or on to the next location.

The only organized tour you would need to do, if it is of interest, is one to the DMZ. I'll be back in Seoul in mid-March myself and have booked one of these with the USO. It's $44 for civilians, $22 for military/vets. You can find details on their website: www.uso.org/korea .

Check out the Korean government travel site (North American version) and order up their latest guide. It is very good and lays out several walking tours of the areas you may want to visit.

I've heard great things about the USO tour, but unfortunately it returns too late for me to make a connecting flight.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a half-day DMZ tour that returns in time to catch a 4pm departure out of ICN (so probably returns to Seoul by 1pm)?

I'll be in town March 11/12th if anyone's around...

I fly in on the 12th (but not until 5:15p) and will be staying at the airport Hyatt, then flying off to HKG next morning.

Not sure of any half-day tours but you can check out www.dmz.ne.kr . There will be some links to tour companies on the English version.