Gyeongju Temple Stay and 2 Days Private Tour Learning Monk's Martial Arts

Busan Review A quick summary before the details - This was one of the best tour experiences I’ve ever had. Our guide Jade is a class act, super friendly, highly knowledgeable and curious host and we quickly made friends and hope to see him again. The itinerary is perfect for a relaxed tour of some cultural sites, and the temple stay was peaceful and unique. The details: Being our first trip to Korea, we took a train to Busan from Seoul Station and stayed at our hotel overnight. After a 16 hour flight we were a little jet lagged, and needed to be in the lobby at 9am to start our day. We met Jade just outside the lobby to a warm greeting, and he packed our bags into a super comfortable van. In our ride he provided us water, and we talked all things culture and Korea. We instantly connected! Jade is super worldly and knew all things pop culture both at home and far away. We visited a cultural village and had a delicious tea. Jade is extremely knowledgeable of his history and culture and made it easily digestible for us. After the culture village, we had lunch at a local spot at Jade’s recommendation (which was fantastic) followed by a delicious tea. Then, it was time to check into the Temple for our overnight stay. To say the temple was fantastic was an understatement - it was a quiet evening full of warmups, yoga-like stretches and exercises, followed by a fantastic vegetarian dinner and an early night to sleep, which our jet lagged selfs definitely appreciated. The accommodations were modest and separated by male/female, which was a little strange but traditional for the Buddhist culture. The next morning we were up at 5 am for chants, walking exercises, more yoga-like activities, with extremely knowledgeable and patient staff at the temple. After a fantastic lunch it was time to check out of our relaxing temple stay. The views and scenery were serene and wonderful, and Jade was waiting for us for the second leg of our tour. The second leg hit a lot of excellent cultural sites quickly, and Jade gave us an excellent narration of what we were seeing and its importance in Korean history. I found the temples fascinating, and specifically the burial mounds and nature surroundings were a highlight. After a pretty packed second day Jade took us back to our hotel in Busan, giving us enlightened conversation in the process and filling our books with tons of stuff to check out in his hometown of Busan. A quick note about Busan - leave a few days to explore this beautiful coastal city with a laid back vibe. We checked out a beach on Jade’s recommendation, along with the BIFF Busan International Film Festival) site, and the fish market. All in all, we really loved this tour experience and found Jade to be an excellent and knowledgeable guide who made it truly special. We hope to stay in touch.