Lonely Planet™ · Thorn Tree Forum · 2020

DMZ Tour other than USO

Country forums / North-East Asia / South Korea

Hello,

I am only going to be in South Korea from a Sunday to a Wednesday.

I would really love to do the DMZ tour.

Unfortunately the USO does not offer tours on these days, so trying to take this tour is impossible for my circumstances. I have seen many threads from people that say "Only do the USO tour", but for me that just cannot happen.

Is it still worth going with a private tour company? And if so which one?

I have seen many people online say that the private companies will not take you to the JSA/Panmunjom, which a lot have said is the most important place to see.

However, when I look at Panmunjom Travel Center or TourDMZ, they all offer the tour specifically to Panmunjon.

Can someone explain to me how this works?

Thanks so much to any help you can offer

There are actually quite a lot of companies in Seoul who offer trips to the DMZ but we had already booked our tour with USO before we got to Korea. You are right about the JSA/Panmunjon part being the best bit and I think there are quite a lot of companies offering tours to that part only. I think the thing is, is that the USO are quite possibly one of the cheapest and they also combine the 3rd tunnel, Dora Station etc into one tour whereas other companies do them separately.

To be honest though, if I knew then what I know now about the tours, I wouldn't bother with the 3rd tunnel or Dora Station etc - they are a real anti-climax after being at the actual JSA so if you can get a tour to the JSA only, book that and don't bother with the rest. If you do want to go to the third tunnel though, best to avoid the weekends as everyone goes there whereas the JSA is less busy as South Koreans aren't allowed to visit there. Hope this helps a bit.

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same issue here
also only in seoul from sat to wednesday
any info appreciated!!!

2