Customer Reviews

Moon Handbooks South Korea

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Out of curiousity, when considering my next trip to Korea, I purchased the Moon Handbooks South Korea. I already had the 5th and 6th editions of the Lonely Planet Korea books, and am a self-avowed fan of Lonely Planet. On reviewing the Moon book, and comparing it to the LP products, I have to admit to being impressed by the breadth of coverage of Korea by the Moon Handbook. I lived there for a year (in Gumi, near Daegu), and have visited twice more for several weeks, but there were places mentioned in the Moon book that I was totally unaware of, despite spending several days in some areas with my LP guide book. In fact, Gumi isn't even mentioned in the LP at all (except on a map), while the Moon book does have a brief section about the city, which surprised me, as the only thing of note in Gumi is the fact that it is the birthplace of President Park Chung-hee.

While I would consider the LP books are slightly superior in some areas, such as "Facts for the visitor", "Getting there and away", and "Getting around" sections, for sights to see, the Moon book provides much greater depth and information. This is particularly the case for cities and regions outside of Seoul. Of course, this is partially due to the greater number of pages in the Moon Book which obviously allow greater amounts of information to be provided, but having said that, in size and weight, the Moon book isn't significantly larger than the LP books. This is due to the lighter papers used in the Moon book. Otherwise, in terms of content, Moon is similar to LP. There is a Korean language section at the back, and place names are given in hangul as well as english in the text. In some cases, information as to how to get to some places is relatively light, but this probably wouldn't be such a problem to a long term visitor.

For short-term visitors, the LP book will suffice as plenty of information is provided that will keep people with a limited amount of time in the country busy. But I would suggest for those planning a long term stay in Korea (for example as ESL teachers) to try out this book due to the higher amounts of sights listed. Not every teacher gets to work in Seoul, and one of the shortcomings of the LP book is its brevity of information provided for the smaller, but still significant cities of South Korea. This is where the Moon book really comes into its own in comparison to the LP book, as it does not stint in this area.

To detract from the book, the maps in some instances weren't as well or exactly detailed as the maps in the LP book. For those who think colours are important in the books they read, Moon is pretty light on colour - a couple of pages in the front of the book, otherwise its all black and white (does keep the weight of book down though, as color pages require higher grade, and hence heavier, paper). The book is also directed at the US market, so in some areas of the book, such as "practicalities", information relating to visas, airlines, and exchange rates is relatively light for readers from the UK, Australia and New Zealand. Still, I would recommend this book over the LP book, at least until the next edition of the LP book comes out, which I believe will be around August 2007.

I've been living in Korea for almost 5 months now, and I don't think I would have seen (or been able to find) half of the places I have been to so far without this book. This handbook has come in VERY handy and is full of interesting historical facts and can really help you maneuver around the country.

After a well written introduction explaining Korea's history, culture and other useful information, Nilsen breaks down the country into provinces. Each chapter on a province has a decent map and a history of the cities and sights. It also gives very current information on how to get there and the prices of public transportation. (You will want to take public transportation in Korea unless you are a VERY agressive driver)

I only gave this book 4 stars because it doesn't get into some of the other things to do in Korea, such as nightlife. Fun as it is to sightsee, sometimes you just want to go out dancing too. ;)

All in all, this is an outstanding book to take with you on a vacation. Its easy to follow and also has a fairly extensive phrase section and other useful vocabulary words written in English and Hangul (if you can't pronounce the words, the Hangul version is very useful). If you're planning on visiting Korea, this is definitely a book to pick up.

this is the best korea travel book currently in the market.
much better than the lonely planet one.
this guy seems to knows everything about south korea,
maybe more than native koreans.
the background info sections..(history,culture..)
is just amazing. a truly recommendable book.
if you're planning to visit korea, or just interested in
anything about korea, get this book.
you won't be disappointed.

I just spent a week in Seoul and I purchased two books for the trip (based upon reviews and currentness) -- this book and the Lonely Planet guide. While the information in the book was interesting, in a city without consistent street names and addresses, this book wasn't helpful in GUIDING us around the city. I mainly used it for background info and to find out which subway stop was near a site. However quotes like, 'it's steps from the Yaksu station,' weren't helpful as many stations had five to eight exits and you could often go in either direction once you got off the train.

For background, yes. As a guide, no. I would rely on the KNTO maps and info as they were much more helpful.

Book is broken out nicely into sections and provides relevant information about the area attractions. The book, however, was not as up to date as it really should have been. This was my first time to South Korea and this book was a great introduction to the country and all of its parts.

this guide must be useful like 20 years ago.

Not? not really.

Newerly developted and popularized travel places aren't listed in this book at all.

Aside from its cheap price, this book is next to useless.

Rather get some travel brochures from government and local municipalities, which updates yearly, if you can.

Way better and many of them are for foree.

The editors and author seem to not understand a travel book should guide the reader to what's most important to see and know about, especially in a country that is very foreign to most Westerners. There is an excess of needless information in this book, for example there is a useless laundry list of Seoul subway stops and then a listing of parks that have inexplicably long descriptions. The pages about Gyeongbokgung Palace could could have been condensed to a paragraph and the reader could have been advised to pick up the free, more relevant, and informative brochure at the Palace itself. The chapter on Seoul, the city most visitors to South Korea will visit, had such odd coverage and lack of clarity. A brief guide to interesting neighborhoods or top sites to visit would have been appreciated. Even coverage of other parts of Korea could be spotty - Boryeong, although not a "top" must-see attraction, did not adequately cover what there was to see but still seemed meandering.

This book does attempt to widely cover the country, so perhaps if the reader has time to travel extensively in South Korea, the book may be of use as an adjunct source. If you are traveling to Seoul, instead of this book, try to get your hands on free publications and maps from Seoul's Tourism Dept.

I bought this book before a one-week trip to the university of Pohang, Korea. I was hoping to find an introduction to the country and its culture, and also some information about sightseeing in Seoul and near Pohang.

I found the background information about South Korea a bit lacking. The book begins with a historic overview of Korea and South Korea, which is probably the traditional way of beginning a travel guide, but which is not the most interesting part. There are small pieces of information about South Korean culture here, but this doesn't always agree with what I observe on the roads (e.g. about clothing -- the book sounded as if Korea was very conservative, but people dress almost in Western style), and is also incomplete (e.g. no information about whether and when and what kind of tips to give).

There is no large map of Korea describing which cities are described in what part of the book, so I had to look through all chapters to find Pohang on the maps which begin each chapter.

I didn't find the book very useful. Browsing the web, looking e.g. at the CIA facts and Wikipedia entry about Korea, was almost as informative as this book.

This book got me through a ton traveling. If I could go back in time, I'd still buy this and the insight guide both pre-used. This one needs more color maps. You sould forget about most of the hotels in Korean travel books. You should just stay at a yeogwan. You'll know it by the symbol of a bath with three wavey lines. P.S. While traveling always remember to unlock your credit card for every country you travel to!!!

Not good for quick referencing when on the road. Not the sort of lengthy literature that one has time to read when they are looking for a good hostel and nearest transport points en-route to some far out place. The history and cultural information was good to read on long trips but I prefer to do my cultural learnings first-hand.
It did not detail some of the more essential points on disaparate and isolated locations. I found some of the views on modern cities like Seoul to be somewhat dated and missed the point slightly. Overall, it gave the impression of korea as some country stuck in medieval times with only monasteries and mountains for people to marvel at.