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56 of 58 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Epic Fail, February 26, 2009
As a frequent traveler to Korea, as a Korean linguist, and as a huge fan of Korean culture, I was thrilled to learn that a new guide to South Korea was being published. I ran to the store to buy it. Wow, what a disappointment! I don't even know where to begin with my condemnation of this tragic tome. Let's start here: as a guide that claims to inform the reader about little-known secrets about this amazing country--well, there are none. The Lonely Planet Guide and the Moon Guide offer 10 times more information. Also, there is MUCH out of date info. The author recommends shoppers to visit the Freya Town department store in Dongdaemun. That building was demolished years ago. She claims that dental floss is impossible to find--it is available at any convenience store. This factoid was probably "borrowed" from an earlier edition of the Lonely Planet guide when, years ago, this was the truth.
Even worse: when she does recommend the usual tourist-trap restaurants that both above-mentioned guides cite, she only gives the address. No map. Well, the first thing the first-time traveler to Korea needs to know is that Korean addresses are WORTHLESS. It's not like in the West, where buildings are numbered incrementally--you won't find numbers on buildings in Korea, as building numbers are only assigned to buildings as they are built. These numbers are used only by the post office. To find out a particular location in Korea, Koreans describe what is the near the building in question, or they fax each other maps.
What is more, whereas Lonely Planet uses BOTH the Ministry of Education transliteration system AND the Korean letters (Hangeul), the author saw fit to eschew Hangeul completely and use her own sloppy, inconsistent, misleading, and incomprehensible transliteration system. In short, the novice to Korea will be completely baffled. To make matters even worse, she includes a glossary of Korean and of Korean foods at the end of the work. Although the English seems fine, there are numerous mistakes in the Korean language she uses, and in some cases, the Korean and English terms don't even match up!
Shall I go on and on? For those who want to buy electronic devices, she mentions Yongsan Electronics Mart in Seoul and doesn't even mention Technomart, a much smarter place for foreigners to buy electronics. She mentions the most expensive places to stay in Jeonju but doesn't even mention that the best places to stay in Jeonju are right by the train station (most people go to Jeonju for the excellent food and the international film festival).
More? the author includes a subway map of Daegu, but not that of Seoul? Where is the wisdom in this decision? How many first time visitors to Korea will EVER go to Daegu. Highly unlikely.
Worst of all, the author recommends that visitors go to the DMZ as their first trip out of Seoul. Wow. No place on Earth is more boring. Anyone who has visited Korea will tell you this. It takes an entire day to go, there is a dress code, and the only food available is an expensive, tasteless, foreigner-based quasi version of the real stuff.
I could go on and on. I am so disgusted with Frommer's for allowing this unedited travesty to be published. Save your money. Buy the Lonely Planet Guide to Korea (and also their very good guide to Seoul). If you want lots of background info on cultural sites and Korean history also buy the Moon guide. Frommer's guide is just a waste of money. What a shame.
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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Very haphazard and sloppy, July 29, 2008
This book was apparently issued at the beginning of summer and I bought it to used during a recently completed trip to Korea. It had some good information but I found it maddeningly sloppy in execution and extremely frustrating to use. Maps were inaccurate--for example the map of downtown Seoul shows the magnificent National Museum of Korea near the city center, but in fact it is close to the river several miles away--having been moved from the place shown on the map in 2005. (The text does describe its new location and how to get there, but the map will confuse many readers who might be interested in the museum.) Was the map simply carried over from an earlier edition without any updating? A section on a region in central Korea describes a museum (the Independence museum) in the "second largest city" in the region but the regional map doesn't show the city. (It is, however, shown on the map of all of Korea at the beginning of the book.) Areas of Seoul are described but for many of them there is no map as to where (even in general) they actually are--e.g., Itawon. Very few restaurants are listed in Seoul and for many there is no map even indicating the general area where they are located. Two cities, Incheon and Daejeon are both described as the "fourth" largest city in Korea. (I could find no "third" largest city listed.) I could easily go on. There should be a thorough re-editing of the book if it is to be a helpful guidebook and not a frustrating experience for a traveller trying to negotiate his or her way through Korea.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Absolutely Worthless - Save your money, but Moon's, October 20, 2010
This review is from: Frommer's South Korea (Frommer's Complete Guides) (Paperback)
Where do I even begin. I had to buy this book because it was the only one available at the time in ebook format. It is by far the biggest waste of money I have ever spent. I'm not sure who "world traveler" is but I doubt they read the book or needed it to get where they were going. The author allows her personal bias to color everything and tries to force the reader into her mind set and views. I typically like Fodor's because it explains what each place is good at and what its bad at and gives me an idea of what the attraction is trying to convey, not tell me how I'm suppose to think and feel. This book is just an editorial from the author's point of view. If I wanted that, I could have just asked Joe Shmoe for his opinion.
First of all, she doesn't give you enough detail about the different sites and places in order for you to even visit them. Ironically most of the places she is talking about have great websites with address, schedules and information and she doesn't list a single one of the web pages. The author spends an enormous amount of time talking about the Korean Folk Village in Andong - si. There are a couple closer to our location, but she goes on about how commercial and worthless they are and how the village in Andong was the one everyone needed to see. My family - 19 month infant included, drove 3 hours to see Hahoe village. We even took one of our Korean friends with us - what a huge disappointment. Yes the village is old but every house is protected by 5 foot high walls so all you see are the streets and the tops of the buildings. The buildings are individual homes and you can't look inside. People actually live in these homes, so 1/2 of the homes had satellite dishes - how authentic is that? My Korean friend thought she got more out of text book than she did out of actually visiting the site. She also discusses the Mask Dance Festival and how it is held at HaHoe Village. A very small portion is held there, the actual Festival itself is held in Andong-si, in the city at a huge complex. No mention of that in her book.
We next tried to use the book to visit Mt Seoraksan, Korea's largest National park. Again she tells you the general vicinity, how you should visit and that's about it. She also disparages the Kensington Stars hotel, which is actually the nicest hotel up there. There is no usable information on the trails, the hikes and the fact that Koreans look at parks completely different from other nationalities - there are shops, restaurants and about anything else you can want before the park, in the park and along the trails - basically every km you run into a convenience store and restaurant. She does tell you to go in the Fall because the leaves are so nice, but forgets to mention that the majority of Koreans go in the fall as well, making it almost a ridiculous event and hard to enjoy with that many people around you. By this time, we had gotten the Moon's guide to Korea which actually had great information about the individual hikes and Seoraksan in general.
The last time we tried to use this book was to visit the Folk Village near Suwon. The book implies that it is close to the Fortress and Palace in Suwon. My family spent an hour lost in traffic in Suwon before we were finally able to speak to the English speaking tourist specialist and she explained that we weren't even in the right city. I don't know if the author excluded this particular Folk Village because she doesn't want you to go or because she doesn't know a thing about it. The author completely leaves out any mention of the fact that the Folk Village near Suwon has actual buildings that you can visit and go through, people dressed in period clothing, performances, artisans and craftsmen making wares and even a Korean wedding processional. But according to the author, its cheesy and not worth seeing. Seriously? The people buying this guide book are people who don't know a lot about the culture or the country. We didn't study it in school and know very little about it. This is at least a way of being able to comprehend and understand - a sort of living museum. If you're Korean or an expert on Korean History than this may seem cheesy, if you're an American living in a Foreign Country and trying to learn something about it, this would be considered educational. For whatever reason, this author doesn't want people to visit this Village.
My last mention will be the shopping and the author's very strong bias against the military. I have a really hard time believing that prostitution only exists in Korea because the US has a military presence. Which is what the author implies. I'm sure the military presence doesn't help but the last time I heard, prostitution existed in some form or the other all throughout the world, long before the Korean war. To blame the military for prostitutions existence in Korea is a bit of an exaggeration. She also discourages and denounces the shopping outside of Osan Air Base. I can't think that she's ever visited the area. 98% of the business are owned by Koreans and they sell to Koreans, Americans and Europeans. This is how these businesses and companies make their living. The business owners there seem very happy to take my money and the prices there are much more reasonable than Seoul. You can pay 1/2 the price for the same services and goods in Osan than you would in Seoul. It seems unfair to discourage people from going to this area just because America has a military presence there. Who is she really hurting, the visitors or the shop owners in the area?
Overall this book is beyond useless. Get the Moon's book or someone else's, anything you get is better than the junk is this book. Moon's does a good job but its a shame that Fodor's doesn't offer a decent book on Korea. It is such a great country to visit and worth exploring, just don't use Frommer's book to get around.
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