NYE in South Korea ?

[jhm]

Having spent NYE in SIN and HKG the last two years, I was wondering where to go this year.

Can anyone please advise what it's like in South Korea, e.g. Seoul ? I've had a quick Google and it seems that it's not like Japan (which seems to shut down between 29 December to 3 December with shops, restaurants etc shut for all or part of that period as people spend time with their families). I'm aware that 1 Jan is a holiday in South Korea but that it's not as important a holiday as the Korean New Year later.

Korea - good idea ? Bad idea ?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

[KeithMEL]

I showed your post to the other half who's lived in Seoul and he has this to say:

I can't honestly remember I day when there wasn't something open during Christmas or NYE. Basically NYE isn't that big a deal over there. More celebrations are held around Lunar New Year and Choosok. The annual harvest festival of Choosuk (a Korean style 'Thanksgiving') is a much bigger event than Christmas, even then, however, there are always restaurants open and ready to provide you with delicious local cuisine.

Parties etc, more likely to be organised by commercial interests such as hotels etc. Locally it will be mostly business as usual.

[jhm]

Excellent! Thanks, Keith (and +1)!

Over X'mas and the New Year, I'll be flying then LHR-(BA)-TYO-(NH)-SEL-(MU)-PEK-(BA)-LHR with 4 days in Japan and 4 days in Korea (including NYE). Sorted!

[KeithMEL]

2 fantastic cities. Enjoy!

[MAN Flyer]

Korea - good idea ? Bad idea ?

I am not sure I would go as far as to say it was a bad idea, but I personally would not call it a good idea. Unless you haven't been before, in which case it's always worth trying something new.

Maybe it's because I go there regularly for work (Seoul and Busan) and don't get chance to do much else, but it doesn't do a lot of me, except for ICN (the airport), which is one of my favourite airports.

[Kyo]

I'd much, much rather be in TPE for New Year's... if you have to be in that region... do you have to?

A BKK NYE is also pretty exciting... and anything can happen..

[jhm]

I'd much, much rather be in TPE for New Year's... if you have to be in that region... do you have to?

It's just my circumstances.

My tix ends in ICN and I have to get home. I also want to work on requalifying on BA.

The cheapest and easiest option from ICN is a BA I-class to London. That fare allows MU to PEK/PVG; NH (but not JL) to HND; or CX/KA to HKG (with a stopover permitted in each) - and from each of those points BA to LHR.

HKG is out because there's no I-class availability on the two BA daily flights on Sun 3 Jan and the days before.

HND is out because Japan is shutdown during this period.

I've spent X'mas and NYE in China before so I don't fancy doing the same again in PEK or PVG.

So, at the moment, my booking is such that I spend NYE in South Korea (I've never been there) and connect through PEK (just over 2 hours which seems to be within the MCT - I hope MU will be on time!) back to LHR.

I can of course fly ICN-TPE and start a tix to London from there but most ex-TPE fares (such as BA but MH appears to be one exception) seem to require immediate ticketing/payment now. My current ex-ICN fare which I'm holding seems to have no ticketing deadline despite it being a restricted I-class so I can - if I read it right - pay a few days before departure.

[Kyo]

Noted. From my one experience in PEK plus what others have said, including relatives, it's a regular occurrence for a national carrier to be delayed for all sorts of reasons. To be honest, it's a 100% delay rate going by all 5 occurrences I've heard about. Of course, you could be the odd-one out and get a perfect, on-time departure... but I'd not trust PEK with a 10-foot pole at the moment..

Do MH ex TPE if you can... that place fully goes off for New Year's, without a doubt... imagine seeing the Taipei 101 explode in front of your eyes. Very few things can compare to that, I'd say...