First-person notes from the editor — why we built Korea Code, decisions we made, and what hosting 100+ foreign friends taught us about traveling in Korea.
Editor's Column
Every January my inbox fills with the same question — when should we book for cherry blossoms? The honest answer requires me to redo my own work each February, because the dates move more than most travel sites admit.
Editor's Column
Every June my inbox fills with a version of the same question: is July a lost cause for a Korea trip? The answer is more nuanced than the forecast suggests, and the mistake is in the question itself.
Editor's Column
Korean autumn foliage is real and worth the trip, but the famous places people post on social media are often crowded, mid-color, or both. Here is how I actually decide where to send a friend who is visiting in October.
Editor's Column
The subway, bus, and KTX system in Korea is excellent, but every foreign friend stumbles on the same five things on day one. Here is what those are, and how to skip them.
Editor's Column
The pattern of what foreign friends said they missed once back home — and what it suggests about which Korean things travel the worst back to their countries.
Editor's Column
Foreign friends always ask if they need to carry cash. The short answer is no — most of the time. The long answer matters: there are a few specific places where it is the difference between an easy day and a stuck one.
Editor's Column
Not the dishes the food guides tell you to eat. The ones the friends I hosted actually asked for again on day five, and the ones they kept talking about after they flew home.
Editor's Column
A short trip to Japan taught me how much homework a foreign traveler has to do before stepping off the plane. I came home and started building the site I wished I had — for foreigners coming the other way.
Editor's Column
Eight years of helping foreign friends travel in Korea — the pattern that shows up in every trip, the questions I still get every week, and why most "10 must-see places" lists miss the point.
Editor's Column
I deleted 119 region-theme guides in one afternoon. Here is what I found when I actually opened them — and why I decided accuracy mattered more than catalog size.