Seoul summary and travel tips – South Korea

After a week in the big city of Seoul, I have summarised all you need to know when visiting. In conclusion, we found Seoul a great place to visit. It is clean, friendly, super high tech and a great mix of old and new. Hope you find this helpful, especially my kiwi friend, who is […]

Gangnam and Taekwondo – Seoul, South Korea

For our final day in Seoul, I planned a day for the teens. We went to the ‘cool’ district. Dubbed the Beverley Hills of Seoul, Gangnam had a distinctly different feel to it. I’ll explain with cars….. Where we are staying in Dongdaemun it is all Hyundai and Kia (good models with all the bells […]

Gwanghwamun and Jongno-gu – Seoul, South Korea

Today was a grey, snowy day and so was the mood. Although I could pretend we have no issues with the children travelling, that would be a lie. At some point, there is always a struggle day, where fatigue and irritability set in….. today was it. After our huge day yesterday, it isn’t a surprise. […]

The border – DMZ – South Korea

Wow, what an eye opener. Much to the teen Bee’s disgust, it was a 7:30am pick up for our long debated DMZ tour. Master 17 had maintained for months, he didn’t want to go. As a 6 foot 4 blonde fellow, he felt he would be a clear target…….. for what, I’m not sure because […]

Dongdaemun – Seoul, South Korea

In stark contrast to day 1, today we explored the hip and modern area of Dongdaemun. This eastern part of Seoul is home to many markets, shops, restaurants and hotels, including ours, allowing us to explore on foot. To start, we strolled along the Cheong-gye-cheon, a stream cutting through the city. Once, a raised highway, […]

Namsan and surrounds – Seoul South Korea

For our first day in Seoul, we struck a bluebird day, bright sunshine but absolutely freezing (-5). This meant our day was interspersed with several trips to heated and welcoming coffee shops. Fortunately, the Koreans like their coffee and cafes are found on every second corner. As tour guide, I decided we should start our […]

Kyoto by Tomo

Following on from our success with a private guide in Tokyo, we did the same for our very short amount of time in Kyoto. We are staying in Osaka so could only fit in one day or as it happens part there of. We caught a train and Tomo met us at the station. My […]

Osaka: the food capital of Japan

From the get go Osaka felt different to Tokyo. It might just be the places we visited, but Tokyo seemed more orderly. For example; check out this photo of commuters lining up to get on the subway. I’ve never seen anything like it! They take polite to the extreme. Osaka seemed more relaxed in terms […]

Club Med Sahoro-Hokkaido 2024

Something very strange has happened to me…….I think I actually like skiing! At the beginning of the week I told the family I would hire skis for two days and then snowshoe. Today is day five, I still have the skis and I’ve been skiing all day, everyday! It seems the key has been to […]

Sahoro-Hokkaido bloopers

As you can imagine, I am not short on material for a bloopers blog. Skiing, especially when I am involved, can be rather entertaining. The first two bloopers however are more related to the extreme exhaustion that travel and skiing lead to. 1. I’m at a different train station Bless her little heart, when we […]