Need Recommendation for Private Tour guide in Seoul

[familycruiserrr]

I am looking for a recommendation for a reputable tour guide who can pick up in Inchon (port city) and give a tour of Seoul. Any suggestions would be so appreciated!

[SANDRAMARTINEZ]

I could not find any recommendations on the CC boards for a Seoul tour group. Took a look on the internet and found Happmize Travel Ltd. As I recall, came to find them through official goverment travel agency list.

 

I personally can not speak to the quality of this tour agency as we will not be using them until March 13th. I will no doubt write a review when I come back. However, I can say that all email has been promptly responded to and I have felt well serviced by them to date. Another plus in my mind is that they accept credit card payment through Paypal, which if they do not produce, I can dispute payment via Paypal and/or credit card.

 

 

There is a summary of what we opted for

 

Intinerary--

[English-speaking guide]

[All entrance fees]

Pick up at Incheon Harbor

Hanok Village

Changdeokgung Palace/Biwon Garden

Traditional Korean style lunch

Gwangjang Market

Cheonggyechesn Stream

Drop off at Inchen Harbor

 

For ten of us it is going to be around 75USD pp

 

The contact was Jay Lee

Sales Manager / Client Care Desk

Happymize Travel Co., Ltd.

Web. http://www.happymize.com

Email. happymize@happymize.com

Tel. +82-70-8627-8080

Mobile. +82-10-4428-4444

 

Hope this helps!

[Trece]

We're on Ocean Princess at roughly the same time you're on Azamara and we'll be in Inchon two days after you. I've been looking for a guide company in a hit or miss fashion for two reasons: a) I've not found anyone on my thread interested in sharing tours and b) I'm not having much success with Japan, which is where the bulk of our cruise is, so I've been focusing on that country (one Japanese company quoted me US$1500 for a day tour! can you imagine?). Anyway I contacted Happymize and like you have to qualify my comments by saying I have not used them yet - but the "front office" experience has been extremely positive. Your itinerary appealed to us so I requested the "Sandra Martinez" itinerary! Anyway I just wanted to thank you for your response to the original post, it's been a big help to me. If you think you might be posting on Cruise Critic or could possibly e-mail me from your ship with any insights into your tour before I do mine, I wouldn't say no!! :) Thanks again for your post!

[SANDRAMARTINEZ]

Trece,

 

Glad your experience with Happymize has to date been great, as has mine so far.

 

The "SandraMartinez" itinerary was actually a custom collection of sites and activities I made up from a hybird of various cruise excursions highlights, recommendations from my former Korean neighbor, and an internet site of http://www.lifeinkorea.com/travel2/seoul (this site is a wealth of great info and photos). I really wanted to do so much more, but with the limited time the ship is in port, it was the best I could do with the time we had.

 

Sorry to hear that you are having a time of it getting other CCers to join you in the private tours. Too bad that you are probably already committed to all aspects of the Princess cruise though, because we have a great group going in our Azamara Cruise leaving on March 6th and arriving in Shanghai on March 20th. We have 5 private tours going actually.

 

As for your request for info re Seoul tour once we have actually taken the excursion with Happymize, if you email me at sandraalameda@hotmail.com on March 13th, I promise to email you back with a personalized take on our adventure and will try to answer any questions you may have.

Edited January 30, 2010 by SANDRAMARTINEZ

[ceb88]

please update about the experience with happymize travel, as I would also going to be in tour with them in end of march....hope they have a great service tour wise, I just dont want to be stranded waiting for them but never shows up... :)

[askyoyo]

Hi

We are on Ocean Prncess 2/20 Shanghai to Tokyo, is that the cruise you will be on? Would you like to share shore excursions? There are 2 of us.

[dhoogheralf]

Hi,

 

We’ll be in incheon next march ( nautica of oceania cruises ) and we’ve set up a tour with jasmine ( mail@seoulcitytour.net ) (http://www.seoulcitytour.net )

 

She always responded quickly to any questions and emails.

 

I don’t remember which site, but I had found one recommendation of a tourist we had used this company and had given a positive review.

 

I hope this is helpful.

 

Kind regards,

 

Ralf

belgium

[diebroke]

I understand the drive between Incheon & Seoul is 90 minutes each way. I am curious to learn from anyone who has done this trip if they feel it was worth spending 3 hours on a bus or whether it would be better to spend the day in Incheon.

[Maui Cruiser]

I understand the drive between Incheon & Seoul is 90 minutes each way. I am curious to learn from anyone who has done this trip if they feel it was worth spending 3 hours on a bus or whether it would be better to spend the day in Incheon.

 

I dont know where the port is, but when my wife went in April she took the subway into Seoul and it was alot faster than driving. There is also supposed to be a new highway that opened in Incheon to Seoul that is supposed to make the trip faster as well. You could go out to the DMZ which is closer than going into Seoul. I really enjoyed that.

[Ladybug1121]

Does anyone have a follow up to their trip to post? Or is it posted somewhere? I am very interested as we will be there next March.

[harbormaster]

We are going to be in Incheon/Seoul and Cheju City in October. Would really appreciate knowing if these tour companies worked out well and how much you were able to do. Any comments would be appreciated.

[Roq]

How did it all work? We want to use them Was all OK?

[kit23]

Hi,

 

We’ll be in incheon next march ( nautica of oceania cruises ) and we’ve set up a tour with jasmine ( mail@seoulcitytour.net ) (http://www.seoulcitytour.net )

 

She always responded quickly to any questions and emails.

 

I don’t remember which site, but I had found one recommendation of a tourist we had used this company and had given a positive review.

 

I hope this is helpful.

 

Kind regards,

 

Ralf

belgium

We will be on the Nautica cruise on March 11th. Have you set up a tour for more than two people and where are you going. About what are they going to charge you? I am traveling with my daughter in law and would like private tours rather than ship tours. Thank you Karen

[Trav100]

I would also be interested if anyone needs 2 people to make up numbers on a trip - would we all get a cheaper per person if we combined a trip say of 10?

 

Does the train go direct to Seoul from Incheon? Bound to be quicker than road isn't it?

[happimize]

I could not find any recommendations on the CC boards for a Seoul tour group. Took a look on the internet and found Happmize Travel Ltd. As I recall, came to find them through official goverment travel agency list.

 

I personally can not speak to the quality of this tour agency as we will not be using them until March 13th. I will no doubt write a review when I come back. However, I can say that all email has been promptly responded to and I have felt well serviced by them to date. Another plus in my mind is that they accept credit card payment through Paypal, which if they do not produce, I can dispute payment via Paypal and/or credit card.

 

 

There is a summary of what we opted for

 

Intinerary--

[English-speaking guide]

[All entrance fees]

Pick up at Incheon Harbor

Hanok Village

Changdeokgung Palace/Biwon Garden

Traditional Korean style lunch

Gwangjang Market

Cheonggyechesn Stream

Drop off at Inchen Harbor

 

For ten of us it is going to be around 75USD pp

 

The contact was Alex Lee

Sales Director / Client Care Desk

HAPPIMIZE TRAVEL

Web. http://www.koreatourbank.com

Email. koreatourbank@happimize.com

Tel. +82-70-8627-8080

Mobile. +82-10-3904-8080

 

 

ar

 

Hope this helps!

 

Trece,

 

Glad your experience with Happymize has to date been great, as has mine so far.

 

The "SandraMartinez" itinerary was actually a custom collection of sites and activities I made up from a hybird of various cruise excursions highlights, recommendations from my former Korean neighbor, and an internet site of http://www.lifeinkorea.com/travel2/seoul (this site is a wealth of great info and photos). I really wanted to do so much more, but with the limited time the ship is in port, it was the best I could do with the time we had.

 

Sorry to hear that you are having a time of it getting other CCers to join you in the private tours. Too bad that you are probably already committed to all aspects of the Princess cruise though, because we have a great group going in our Azamara Cruise leaving on March 6th and arriving in Shanghai on March 20th. We have 5 private tours going actually.

 

As for your request for info re Seoul tour once we have actually taken the excursion with HAPPIMIZE, if you email me at sandraalameda@hotmail.com on March 13th, I promise to email you back with a personalized take on our adventure and will try to answer any questions you may have.

 

Also, I am glad to let you know Seoul and Jeju shore excursion for Oceania Nautica, is scheduled on 7, 8th March 2016.

 

https://www.koreatourbank.com/category/all-tours/shore-excursions/

Edited February 9, 2016 by happimize