Thousands of high-rise apartments merge and creep through valleys like glaciers, the toilets sing to you, and hotel receptions are staffed by robots
With 1,745km of dedicated, wide, and fast bike path in an area roughly the size of New Zealand’s North Island, South Korea has some of the best, most accessible cycling infrastructure in the world. You can ride for days on end without ever meeting a motorist. You can camp in the centre of towns. Everything is clean and neat and you can walk off and leave your bike unattended while you go into a convenience store because the crime rate is zero. While Aussies and Kiwis looking for active holidays in east Asia might think first of Japan, Korea is coming hot on its neighbour’s heels: it’s cheap and easy to get to, serves up delicious and varied cuisine, plus it offers Westerners the chance to really get out of their comfort zone.
First things first
We arrive in Seoul to a blur of late-night neon and head straight to bed at our hotel. The next morning, the sun dawns on a new world, where thousands of high-rise apartment blocks merge and creep through valleys like glaciers, the toilets sing to you, and hotel receptions are staffed by robots. The next thing we notice is that we don’t have jetlag. Depending on the time of year, there’s only one hour’s time difference between most of Australia and Seoul, so despite the 10-hour flight, we’re fresh
