We Went to South Korea (everything to see and do)

Could you imagine being a fairy and you could just fly through all these? So pretty! Hey everyone and welcome to South Korea. We're Flying the Nest, a little traveling family from Australia and the absolute beauty you're looking at is right in the south of South Korea. It's hard to believe that some of these spots are not from a fairy tale. Here we go. This is like bucket list doing this I think. This is adorable. The water is like crystal blue. And not to mention we're here during the rare time of year when the cherry blossoms are blooming. So come along on an adventure with us and our kiddos here in South Korea for a magical road trip. The Busan train station. We're currently in the south of South Korea and this is definitely a spot I recommend you add onto your Korean travel itinerary. It's a quick couple of hours on the bullet train they have and you can head straight into Busan. But we have something exciting. We're going to be doing a road trip. We hopped on a KTX line which is a bullet train and it was so simple especially coming from Seoul. The beautiful train station is so simple to work out where to go. Essentially cheaper than flying and just get to sit down for a couple hours and watch as the countryside goes by. Now if you guys would have seen the last time we headed to Japan we actually did a little bit of a mini road trip and we loved it so much. Now when we did rent that car so many of you guys had so many questions and I realized we didn't show you the process. So this video is going to show you guys how easy it is to rent a car here in Korea. We actually rented through a company called Lottie Car Rental and they were kind enough to invite us out here so we can show you guys the whole process. How easy it is to rent one and as you can see we're at the Busan train station. The car rental pickup is literally located here and there's even one 300 meters away. So you can fly into Seoul or fly into Busan, catch the train to Busan if you want and easily just pick up a car from the train station which makes it so simple. Being Korea's number one largest car rental company it was super easy for us to pick a suitable vehicle based on our family size. It just meant we could have a nice safe and comfortable car based on what we wanted. Also as we weren't currently traveling with car seats it was super simple to add both car seats for the kids. So if you guys have never rented a car overseas there's a few things I recommend you picking up. Of course make sure you bring your driver's license, credit card, passport to verify it and the one that we always miss all the time is actually the international driver's license. So I recommend you pick one of these up. If you're Australian go to the RSC you can get it. Usually lasts for about a year but a lot of places need that verification so they can cross-check between the international and your domestic license. The entire process was so simple. Of course when we booked our car rental which I'll leave a link below got like an instant email confirmation and then one thing of course you might be anxious about renting a car in Asia, Southeast Asia. Thankfully here at Lottie Car Rental everyone speaks perfectly good English so I was able to have conversations. They've even printed everything out with full waiver on the car so if you are a little bit nervous if you accidentally get like a bump because they do drive on the other side of the road here in Korea or the same side if you're in America. Just waiting a couple of moments and we're gonna go pick up our car. Awesome hope you guys enjoyed seeing the whole process literally so simple. There I see they have like Hondas, Toyotas but I decided to rent our exact car that we have back home. We drive a Kia. Google Maps doesn't really work in Korea so you have to use their local maps but knowing I've got like a built-in map system here easy. Anyway gonna go to the hotel pick up Jess, Hunter and Koa and let's go show you guys around the city of Busan. We've been here in 2019. It was a quick visit. Loved it. Still had so many things more on our bucket list. At least it's like a pretty easy city to drive around. So let's go show you guys around the south of South Korea. At pick up notice our car was super clean inside and out which meant having a car driving around Korea is just such a convenience not having to rely on public transport or Ubers. So excited for this road trip. I actually need to show you guys this. This is not blurred. We parked at the bottom. Most people come up to the top but we found there's like a car park just down there and we're walking up. Jess is actually halfway up the road and I saw someone ordering a drink from a hot air balloon and I was like you know what I'm pretty parched. Don't order a drink from a hot air balloon. Right I've ordered. Are you ready for? Essentially an iPad. Are you ready for your drink to drop from the sky? I love how this is essentially the whole cafe. It is a couple of benches and an alfresco. Someone's coffee must be ready. This is so good. I swear some people have the cleverest idea. They're like there's so many cafes around. They're like how can we get them to come to my cafe at a hot air balloon? And we've come. It's so good and it's so bad. So what they do is they call your number and then they wait for someone to get ready and then he goes are you ready? And then he closes the door, the window. Then he reopens it and he's like hi your coffee's ready. Oh my gosh it's adorable. It's so good I'm crying. And we're part of the problem. Ordering a drink for you guys. Oh my gosh. Oh Hunter you're so excited. I think it's your turn next. Okay you ready? Okay yep. My favorite bit is him going back in. I can't get over how good it is. Wait that was actually worth it and absolutely adorable and I recommend especially if you've just walked up a big hill. That was adorable and he was so sweet and super sweet to Hunter. Was that fun? She's so happy. She has an iced chocolate and a lemonade. Oh is it sour? Wait and the drink we got it was called an iced. Is this area called gum? Gumtian. Yeah it was called a gumtian ice latte. So I don't know what makes it fancy but let's see. Yum it's like an ice sweet coffee. It's so good Steve. Hot. Okay get this. This is awesome. It's yum. I need that after that walk. I know we're gonna fight over that now. All right we're doing it. Are you ready? Steepy. Luckily we just got fuel at the little cafe across the road. You got this. I got this. You got this Koa. Look how beautiful it looks though. It's gonna be worth it. There's cherry blossoms. Dad. You're going backwards. Help me. Okay. So this is so beautiful. We just saw a sign that said temple. Like let's have a look. Also this is how safe and how much we love Korea. I ended up just bailing on the pram and left it at the bottom. And uh there are cherry blossoms. So gorgeous. We're like right at the end of the cherry blossom season. But we've still got some. I can see a couple of leaves starting. This means these are gonna be gone in like a week. Oh man you can like see the whole city from here Steve. This is so gorgeous and no one is here. I love when you just aimlessly walk and you stumble upon something that's so pretty. And just all to yourself. Oh look at the cherry blossoms. Wow. So pretty. Honestly at this point we've just come on so many side missions. And I'm so happy like parking at the bottom of the village. And it was an effort to get up but we found the hot air balloon cafe. And then we actually were aiming for this kachi kachi cafe. Because it had like hummus and we had some shakshuka. We just wanted a little bit different flavors while we're here in Korea. And just across the road it said temple. And wow I'm so glad we came up this way. Because that was a beautiful side quest. Alrighty everybody. I thought we'd finally introduce you guys to the Gamcheon cultural village. Which is the beautiful and colorful village. We're currently walking around. And it's built on the side of a cliff top. Now it's not just cute bakeries and hot air balloon cafes. It actually has quite a history that's not so colorful. It essentially was built during the Korean war. Where a lot of refugees came here. And of course essentially they tried to just build houses where they could. The main objective of no one blocking the view. So it essentially looks like Santorini or Cinque Terre. Like it is absolutely stunning to come look here. But this place didn't always look like this. It was a very run down. Not the nicest area up until about 2009. And that's kind of when some artists came through. Started painting all the different houses. If you have a look there's a lot of art installations around. I'd honestly recommend. So we're currently doing the loop. Which is what everyone kind of does. Where you walk past because it has the best view. But we recommend maybe walking downwards to see like inside the village. Oh so this is where we write. I don't know what this is. No this is. What and then you put the date on it. You choose what date you want to send it. No way. I love that idea. Is you could like send yourself a postcard in a year's time. Right or you can send yourself a Christmas postcard. Oh yeah. Have you ever seen it in your life? It doesn't look good. We should also say how big our room is. We have a room with four beds. That's why I booked it. It's like a hundred dollars a night. Look how big it is. And has a big parking lot. And four beds. Profoundly full. Pretty good. Hunter and I are such suckers for Starbucks merch. We came in just to get a coffee. And then we've left with these guys. Aren't they adorable? We were like which one should we get? And then I was like we can't separate them. And I'm like we could put them on our tree together. So they're dressed up in the little traditional hanbok. Aren't they so cute? Little girl. She was called a hanbok barista. Aren't these adorable? So everyone welcome to the Blue Line Sky Patrols. These are so cool. This dates back to like 1935. And as you can see there are these little pods that we hop in. The sky patrols. And they're so cool because they're all different colors. And you pretty much hop on this. It's on a two kilometer track. And you go one way. Here we go. Wait this is gonna be so pretty. Look at the water. All right this is like bucket list doing this I think. This is adorable. Now if you want a quick tip from us. We went from the Mipo Line. And the Mipo Line means you do your one way along the ocean. That's the other way. But I suppose you're just one track across. If you have the choice. Either way. If you could only get the other one. Doesn't matter. Very same experience but. It's more if you do them from Mipo across. You're on the side of the water. So there's like no obstruction to your view. And look how gorgeous. Like Busan City from here looks so beautiful. The water is like crystal blue. And I actually see below. It looks like there's a walking track. So I think you can also walk this line as well. So you can walk it. Or you can go in the Sky Capsule. And I definitely recommend. If you have time book early. And come and do the Sky Capsule. This is so cute. The views are gorgeous. And you can actually go one way on the Sky Capsule. And then after. That's what we're gonna do. We're gonna go back along the beach train. Which we'll show you after this. Oh you look right now. No buildings. It's just the ocean. This is gorgeous. This is so cool. Okay. I think that was so worth it. So beautiful. We are now arrived at the station. But how long was that? 25 minutes? Yeah. Wasn't that long. But it's so beautiful. We're at the station. Oh yeah. If you guys were wondering. How it turns around. This is like really cool turntable system. That just turns them around. And I don't know how. This train feels old. And they're still keeping it running. Like I feel like Disney has more breakdowns on their rides. And this little old Sky Capsule is still chugging. So everyone. This is the beach train. So if you book your ticket on the official website. You get like a return ticket. So you do the Sky Capsule one way. And you do the beach train the other way. In case you've like left your car there. Or you want to keep exploring Meepo. That's kind of cool. As you can see. All the chairs face towards the view. At the moment. Because we're leaving from the other train station. We're in the forest. But I think it's going to open up. You can probably see the kind of supporting structure of the Sky Capsule. Which is essentially right above our head. But it's kind of cool how it's all set up. As we go along the coastline. If you didn't book a ticket. You can like walk up and buy a ticket. It's about eight dollars a person one way. As we hopped off the train. So we're back at Meepo station. We noticed this little dessert shop. And it looks like they're going to have beautiful views of the Sky Capsule. So we're going to head up. Have a little coffee. Maybe we'll have to get a dessert. Just because we're here at a dessert bar. So this little cafe has two sections. This is a downstairs section. Which is kind of cool. They have left out like these little white postcards. And a lot of people have drawn little pictures. Only thing is upstairs. Where of course is where the incredible view is. No kids allowed. Which makes me feel like there's not much railing. So let's just go check it out. I got myself a little iced latte. Let's go see this view. It's so cool. It's just here. Guys well worth coming out here. Coffee was good. If you can come here for sunset. Which I'm sure this place is absolutely packed. Not saying it's a hidden gem at all. But it is a very cool way. Because when you're inside them. You're experiencing it. But of course sometimes you can't see them. It's nice to see in the view of the ocean. Like the Busan is really beautiful. You need to do both cities. Go to Seoul for like that big city vibes. Come here for the beach and just relaxation vibes. This place is stunning. Who's ready for a road trip? Okay seeing as we are here. Right at the end of the cherry blossom season. We thought let's jump in the car. And go and find some beautiful spots. And we are actually only an hour drive away from Jinhae. And that is where the biggest Korean cherry blossom festival is held. And it only ended like four or five days ago. So I have a feeling we're going to see cherry blossoms. They have 300,000 cherry blossoms in that one town. Like how beautiful would that be during like full peak blossom. Yeah we just jumped onto the road. I'm heading out. There are tolls here in Korea. But I decided to. It's about 35 dollars. 35,000 won. You get like a high pass card. That's just going to cover you for all your tolls. And then it's funny enough. It goes in here. Yeah it goes up in this. But it means you don't have to stop and pay cash at every toll. It's cash at every toll. So at least that I'm covered for the whole time. Makes it way easier. And we're just saying all these beautiful trees here. I bet you were during autumn. These drives would be so beautiful. And Hunter's here opening Pokemon cars that she found at the service station. What did you get honey? I got a hit. I got an extra cool one. I got the extra cool one. What did you get? Oh you got the cover. That's so cool. You got the cover yes. That's so good. Good one Hunter. Experiencing our first service here in Korea. Why is he so exciting? I got distracted. Side mission. Do you want Ditto Charmander? Wait for it. What? I want to take it out and see. Wait I'll give it to you Hunter. Ditto Pikachu. What are they though? Stop. That's so cute. Do you want Ditto Squirtle? Oh my gosh. Stop. Oh this is so cute. Well the red one's original. The one with Charmander. Stop. Why are these the cutest Pokesticks ever? It's like our favorite snack. Wait this is the OG. You don't know what a Pokestick looks like. Are you ready? Literally a stick covered in chocolate. Oh it's Lottie. Lottie's version. Tastes good. Tastes good? Oh my gosh it's so cute. I know the packaging. It's become like an impromptu little snack haul. It's filled with chocolate. It's even better. Even better? Yeah even better. Pikachu beats Charmander. And now what about Squirtle? Here you go. White chocolate cookie cream. Is it good? That beats Pikachu. Does it? Squirtle wins. Yeah that wins. That wins. We have made it to Junhae. And we're seeing lots of cherry blossom trees. I found like a public parking spot which was super easy to find. And then we're just going to walk around the town. But fingers crossed we're in the last legs of the cherry blossoms because that's a good sign. If you guys were wondering it's of course cherry blossom. And then it gets these like green leaves. As you can see getting half and half at the moment. I feel like and if you're from Korea or Japan or a place where cherry blossoms do bloom. It's got to be like a fable or a story that parents teach kids about being patient for the beauty of life. Because it's crazy that they only bloom for two weeks a year and then they're gone. What is it? It's a big cherry blossom conductor. For the train? Yeah. So like Jess said we missed the festival by a week. So this place is usually pretty lively and of course more blooming flowers. But it's kind of cool. It's held in an old train station which is fully shut down. You can see they've put like a train just here. Of course I think they even switch on the lights sometimes during the festival. And you get like a photo with the with the fake train. But they've got like the old train station just here. And I'm not sure if they've turned it into like a museum or a gift shop. But it's just this cute little small building. Is this a train station? It is. Wow what is this? It's like a little tiny tiny train station. Thank you. Look how superior the maps are here in Korea. We're at a green light right now about to go through. And there is a countdown of how long until it turns red. Like this is so cool. Stop. It's a Pokemon petrol station. I'm sure it's Mewtwo. Oh my gosh. This is so cute. Pikachu saying hi to us. What are the petrol stations here in Korea? Oh so cool. It's like Pokemon themed. Fully decked out. The entire gas station. You can see this giant mural. Even where you fill up the pumps. So we just need to pop some gasoline in to top up. So we can continue on. That's what they call it here. Gasoline. So we can continue on our road trip. I got stickers all over my face don't I? Koaw had some fun. So we've just driven and... Can you take me seriously with this on? This is called mum life. Mum life. We've just driven an hour out of Busan. And we've come to the most beautiful town. Oh no he's come with another sheet of stickers. Cool Koaw. Very serious. So we've come to Gyeongju. And this place is absolutely beautiful. If you're looking for like a beautiful ancient town to come to. This actually a thousand years ago used to be the capital of Korea. And it is just... I'm getting covered. And we've just arrived. We've come first of all to like this ancient village. It's free to enter. And we've come in and we've already been blown away by the architecture. Walked through and saw this gorgeous bridge behind me. So we're going to go walk across it. There's another sticker for you Dada. Thanks buddy. And what we're going to do is we're going to walk along. Walk along this gorgeous bridge. And then I see everyone walking back along these like stepping stones. Yeah this place looks amazing. We're going to spend all day here. I absolutely love always combining like a city with the small towns. Like I don't think I see a single high rise here. Which is nice because we are out here. See a bit more culture. They always call this like city the museum with no walls. Because there's so much of it. Where you can just walk around and it's like a living breathing museum. Which is really cool. Just like we'll go show you guys the cultural village just there. We just walked around here. We're going to come across the stunning bridge. As we're heading north a bit more cherry blossoms. Because they've kind of almost ended in Busan. So this wooden bridge that we're walking across at the moment is about 1200 years old. So about the 8th century. And it was built to kind of show power and prestige. This is a full reconstruction. But they've done a very good job at it. Super colorful. You can kind of see these greens up here. The red pillars. And the best thing is it's along the stream. So it looks absolutely stunning. Especially you can see the little stepping stone walkways. I see some leftover cherry blossoms. And then you can see the cultural village just in front. It's just nice to see green hills and pastures. Because we have been in the city for about a week now. Across Seoul and Busan. And it's just beautiful to be out here in the countryside. And there's like this little crisp air. It's a good day. Thank you. That looks so good. Look how incredible these look. Do you see our ice choccy? You got it? Good job. Stop. Your ginger smells so good. We went into the cafe. And we're like, it smells so much like ginger. And she was like, do you want an ice ginger? We're like, yes. We want a nice ginger. Oh my goodness. Look at it. I saw her just... You don't mind if I try it? Yeah, go ahead. I was going to say, if you had a cold, this is what you need. Oh my goodness. That is gingery. This is like a ginger shot. But huge. You need to try that. It's such a cool. So it's in, of course, a traditional house. And they've just turned it into like a cafe. I saw laundry was out the back. It's like beautiful. And I love being here in springtime. They also had handmade cookies, which I need to jump into. Oh, that's good. That is so good. This is the best. You need to try this. I need to try this. It's like a little bit bitter and a little bit chocolatey. Yeah, it is. Because it's so like... Oh, it's so good. That looks so good. Mum, do you think you're going to order one of these next time? So good. Cheers. We just saw this really, really busy park. And we saw it must be like a windy park. And everyone was flying kites. We're going to go find a kite. All the tulips are at this park. And they're all in bloom. And I've never seen a tulip field before. And it is so beautiful. I definitely think if you come to Korea, come in the spring. The flowers here are next level. And look, look at this. Tulips, tulips. Could you imagine being a fairy and you can just fly through all these? Yeah. So pretty. I'm going to pick a cute one. Thank you. Let's release it. What? Here we go. Kawa, you're doing it as well. You like that, huh? Okay, Hunter, come hold it. Okay, that's yours. Okay, Kawa, do you want me to do yours? She's having fun. Is that ready? Alrighty, everybody. I hope you've enjoyed our little road trip here in the south of South Korea. We are now actually just dropping our car rental off. Thank you so much to Lottie Car Rental for sponsoring this video, inviting us out to Korea. And I appreciate you guys allowing us to partner with amazing brands. We can show you these beautiful areas. But it's so simple to come and drop our car off. As we have full comprehensive, then there's like no inspection. We can literally just drop our keys and head to the train station because we are heading to Seoul. If you guys are new around here, make sure you subscribe because we have another episode here in Korea. See you next time, guys. Bye.