Premium Dmz Small-group Tour With North Korean Defector Q&a

Marie was a wonderful and efficient guide. She was very knowledgeable and answered all our questions. Would recommend the small group tour.

The tour with Alex was really great and got a lot of insightful information about the DMZ and Korean history. Thank you Alex for the wonderful time.

I went alone on the small tour that i really recommend, because you get more out of the day then with a big tour. Our tourguide Alex was really competent and i enjoyed, that he explained so much of the history in interesting and funny way. He had a lot of information on the Ipad and could answer all the question, so it gave my a deep insight to the conflict, the history and the current situation. This trip is worth it and i highly recommend, since its a one in a lifetime experience.

Great day with Alex. He gave us a lot of explanations and very nice photos as a bonus. I recommand as 100%

We had the best day with our guide Alex. What a unique experience! We were lucky to have the most beautiful sunny day, so the view from the observatory was excellent. We loved the suspension bridge also. Very comfortable transport and a nice size group. Definitely a must do if you’re in Seoul. I would thoroughly recommend. Thanks again Alex for a truly memorable day🙏

Tour guide Alex is very patient. Takes time to explain all the necessary details. Thank you Alex for the little joys here and there and making it a relaxed, wonderful and enjoyable trip for us.

Alex was a wonderful tour guide. We really enjoyed our trip.

DO NOT BOOK with activity provider PLK Travel Inc. We feel scammed!! Dissatisfied and disappointed! Do not travel with this company - PLK Travel Inc !! Booked via Get Your Guide platform. Our group arrived at the area where all the Buses were located - we were all given 15 minutes to get refreshments. There were over 40 plus Buses waiting in the carpark - so very busy day! Upon getting back on the Bus our guide Victoria told us our DMZ tour was cancelled and that we could go on the Gondola instead. No other options provided. She did not provide specific reasons as to why. I don't believe this is the case. All the 40 plus other Buses were provided with the opportunity to visit DMZ. If this was cancelled- why was it that only about 3 Buses were doing the Gondola trip instead. This does not make sense!! RIPPED off! I also heard another tour guide say their tour was leaving at 10am. My suggestion is to book with another company on another platform perhaps !! Do not make the same mistake we did. I have provided the company with a review - I am sure it will not see the light of day. DO NOT book with Activity Provider: PLK Travel Inc Save your money and time - book with another company.

An amazing experience. It’s hard to believe that we are doing a tourist experience next to countries that are in the 74th year of their truce and with soldiers and heavy military weapons very close. Our guide Alex was fantastic and very informative on the journey to the DMZ and while there which made the whole journey an educational experience. You can only do it by a tour and this small group format was the absolute perfect way to do it. I highly recommend this tour and if you get Alex you are in for a great trip. He’s the best!

The tour is well organised and we got to visit the DMZ, the 3rd infltration tunnel, see North Korean people and meet a North Korean in a q and a. Alex is an enthusiastic and jovial guide who gave us excellent information and a great background of the dmz and the Korean War. The small group format was fast and efficient compared ro a large bus. The vehicle was fast, new and comfortable. Alex led the best tour I have done in the last 4 countires on my current trip. Alex is a fantastic guide.

The tour was most enjoyable thanks to Alex Kim. He made it most interesting. He gave us a lot of fun facts and provided much laughter. Though very tiring, the Tunnel was quite an exhiliarating experience. The small group tour in a bog van made it most comfortable. Thank you.

I would highly recommend this tour. We did the small group tour (11 people in total). There is little difference between that and the larger tour from what I could see except size of group. The main difference is that you travel in a smaller group, don’t have to wait for a coach to fill up, feels more intimate, get to ask more questions of the defector. That said you end up following a coach and so probably little difference overall for the price difference. We got picked up at 8:10am. On the small tour you visit the suspension bridge (which is interesting although exists only to fill time). Then on to the DMZ (my favourite part as you got to see North Korea from the observatory). Then on to the tunnel (number 3) - again that was interesting. Finally on to meet the defector in the afternoon - I appreciated Kim sharing her story and I recognise that doing so is difficult - tourists should remember this - her talk was a second highlight of the day and I wish her and her son well. We got back to the drop off point about 5:00pm. The only poor part of the tour was the lunch stop - better options must exist - we went to 7/11 as did everyone else in our group. Joseph was our guide - a very decent tour guide who took time to take photos of us all separately so no need to take selfies! Overall I would recommend the tour.

Moonyoung was great. Very enthusiastic, very chatty and very knowledgeable. The day was busy and we kept to an exact timeline. Felt it was all a bit of a rush but needed if we wanted to see everything. A great day out and we now have a better understanding of Korean life and the war. Gamsahamdida!

Won was a knowledgeable and friendly guide. He went out of his way to accommodate all group members and helped us to understand everything on the tour. We recommend this tour and Won highly as a guide.

Marie was an excellent guide! She showed us around and explained the story of Korea in so much details! This tour will keep being one of the highlights of my trip in korea ✨

Had an excellent experience Alex was an incredible guide! Very informative and supportive and made sure everything moved to schedule

The DMZ tour was an absolute highlight of the trip! Experiencing the area in person is truly unforgettable, and the perfect balance between historical gravity and engaging storytelling made the time fly by. A huge part of what made it so special was our guide, Alex. Alex is a top-tier professional, incredibly funny, and brings fantastic energy to the entire group.

Alex was really really great!!!

Alex was extremely friendly, informative, and was filled to the brim with facts about the history of the Korean War, and the current climate between North and South. It is clear that he holds a passion for showing off Korean culture to his guests; his tour is personal, professional, and had humorous moments without being too over-the-top (it's a war zone, not a comedy club). We chose the VIP Small Group experience for a smaller crowd, which was a great decision. We saw the suspension bridge, the Dora Observatory, the 3rd Infiltration Tunnel, and wrapped up with a Q&A with a North Korean defector. Our tour was on time, there were no surprises, and we enjoyed ourselves immensely. Thank you, Alex, for making our DMZ day such a memorable one.

Do this tour. ALEX is the best. He is an informative, fun and kind guide. He has great knowledge of the area and history. The itinerary was well balanced and highly recommend the smaller group.

Marie was a great guide. The small tour format is wonderful. Highly recommend!

Marie was an awesome guide! She gave us plenty of interesting facts and information. Definitely recommend her and the company PLK.

★★★★★ Alex was an absolutely fantastic guide, and I couldn’t recommend him more highly. He made our DMZ and North Korea tour one of the highlights of my trip to South Korea. Alex was incredibly knowledgeable and did an excellent job explaining the history, politics, and significance of everything we were seeing in a way that was fascinating and easy to understand. He was also warm, personable, patient, and genuinely enthusiastic throughout the entire day. I especially appreciated how attentive he was to everyone in the group and how willing he was to answer questions. Despite the very hot weather, Alex kept the experience fun, comfortable, and engaging from beginning to end. You can tell that he genuinely cares about his guests and wants them to leave with both great memories and a deeper understanding of Korea and the DMZ. If you are considering a DMZ tour, I highly recommend booking with Alex. He went above and beyond and made the experience truly memorable. Thank you, Alex, for such a wonderful day! ❤️

Nahee was very kind and profesionnal. 10/10

This was a perfect one day tour. Many questions were answered regarding the situation between South and North Korea and their people. I loved the small group concept. I learned a lot and thoroughly enjoyed it!

This was above expectations. Especially as we got to meet a defector and ask questions. As any other guided tour it felt rushed, but that's just the way it is, and we covered the essentials and learned a lot. The guide was very nice and accommodating. Although, as a retired guide myself, I do recommend he talks less. It was too intense with continuous talking. The sweet spot for professional guides is to talk 1/3 of the time. Yes, 1/3. The remaining 2/3 visitors need for interacting with each other and/or soaking in views or other impressions. Trust me, if you're a good guide, you can get it all done in 1/3 of the time.

It was really nice trip and the guide was very organized and detail-oriented. The whole day went really smoothly. Good value for money and time. Will definitely recommend it!

Our guide, Joseph, was very entertaining, and made a very good effort to explain the history of Korea. The itinerary and the trip was very well planned.

We had a great time.I would highly recommend Jin. She is very knowledgeable and gave us great advice throughout the trip to make it extra special. I traveled all over with my husband and son and we have done many tours. This was truly one of our more memorable tours due to Jin and our lovely driver!

Joseph was a nice guy with a good sense of humor. He explained everything perfectly fine and we had a lovely day!

Our trip to the DMZ with our guide Joseph was amazing! He was an awesome guide who explained everything to us and even took photos. He was highly proactive and brought great energy. I highly recommend doing this small group tour especially with Joseph.

I enjoyed my small group tour with Joseph. He was nice and made sure to take photos and memories for everyone. For the tour itself, it was a unique lifetime experience visiting invasion tunnels, asking questions to a NK defector, and seeing NK firsthand from Dora Observatory. I strongly recommend.

Absolutely fantastic tour with Joseph as our guide. This is a lifetime opportunity for me to visit the DMZ, I have wanted to do this for years. Joseph was friendly, knowledgeable and patient. Highly recommended! Many thanks

Great experience. Thank you Joseph!

Excellent tour, very informative. Jason, the tour guide, was very nice and accommodating. Highly recommend

Excellent tour! Our tour guide was Jiwon. Great English and very easy to understand! Very informative

I want to start off by saying I left my hotel's umbrella on the bus... and Sam—our guide, "Happy Sam"—actually brought it back to me. It may seem like a small gesture, but after the day we had, it felt like the perfect ending. The DMZ itself was fascinating. Walking through the 3rd Infiltration Tunnel and standing at the observation point gave us a sobering glimpse into one of the world's most divided places. But the highlight wasn't a location—it was a person. Meeting a North Korean defector and hearing her harrowing story was something I will never forget. Her courage, resilience, and hope in the face of unimaginable hardship were deeply moving. It was a powerful reminder that history isn't just found in museums or monuments—it's carried on by people. Thank you, Happy Sam, not only for sharing your knowledge and passion throughout the tour, but also for your kindness. Today wasn't just about visiting the DMZ—it was about sharing space with the incredible humans. I can't recommend this tour OR SAM, enough.

This was absolutely one of the greatest experiences of my life. Aside from the obvious appeal of seeing the DMZ, the 3rd tunnel, and North Korea itself in person, our guide Marie added so much context and texture for the tour that easily made this our favorite activity in our ten days in Korea. I had so many questions and she answered them all. Also a shout out to our driver and his top-shelf driving skills in the pouring Seoul rain. It was incredible to speak with a North Korean defector for a Q & A, having another defector sign her book, and then if that wasn't enough, being taken to eat at a restaurant that serves North Korean food with a North Korean chef and staff! They're really the kindest, most amazing people you'll ever meet, and it really puts things into perspective in a very solemn way. This is the type of day that changes who you are as a person. We will never forget the people we met and I hope to come back when the Joint Security Area re-opens (hopefully soon!) and request Marie again for our tour. Thank you again PLK and Marie!!

Was a great experience doing the DMZ tour. Dennis was a great guide, showing us the detector stories, observatory, tunnel and North Korean style lunch.

I had a great time and learned a lot. Dennis is great for both Korean and English speaking travelers. He is very thoughtful and knowledgeable.

The tour with Dennis was amazing. I really learned and experienced a lot from the tour, especially with the QnA sessions with the defector. Dennis was such an amazing tour guide and I would really recommend!

Dennis was the best. Very thoughtful, kind, funny, and highly knowledgeable. Most highly recommend!

Great experience! Very interesting history which Dennis was able to explain comprehensively.

From the very start, Jason warmly welcomed us, sharing a detailed history of Korea. The bus was comfortable, and with Jason's engaging storytelling, the journey felt both brief and enriching. Listening to the defector's story was truly touching, and having the chance to ask her questions was a special experience. The whole day was flawlessly organized and guided with great care by Jason. We highly recommend it—don't hesitate! It'll give you a painful but complete perspective of your visit to South Korea.

Unfortunately we had very bad weather, but the tour with Jason was great. He gave us a very good insight into the history of korea and the DMZ. Thank you.

Jason was an excelent guide, very informative and supportive through the trip

Our tour guide Jason was really good! He’s warm and friendly and explained everything really well. I highly recommend!

Marie from PLK is super attentive. We learned a lot about North Korea and the culture. She’s attentive to our needs. Highly recommended

Absolutely amazing experience - PLK tours were fantastic, especially our tour guide Marie - she was so enthusiastic, knowledgable and kind. Very well-organised and really interesting. We did the half-day tour - I’d recommend this to everyone. I learned so much about North Korea. The highlight was the observatory and being able to see across the border. Try and go on a clear day as you will get great views across into North Korea. Great experience, brilliant Guide - thank you Marie!