SOUTH KOREA: North Korea Views On A Private DMZ Tour
A signature feature of every Roaming Around With Robin & Allison (RAWRA) trip is the bespoke experiences we offer. We do extensive research on each destination we visit and select the very best vendors for every activity. Where we can source an exclusive experience we will. South Korea’s DMZ is no exception. The DMZ attracts ~1.2 million visitors every year and there are literally hundreds of ‘join in’ tours on offer. RAWRA are never content to be one of the crowd and join the masses so we searched high and low for the perfect private DMZ tour. We came within 170m of the North Korean boarder and that’s as close as we want to get …
DMZ Overview
The DMZ (De-Militarised Zone) is a 250klm long 4klm wide strip of land separating North and South Korea. The areas is heavily fortified and both sides maintain significant troop numbers. The DMZ was created on 27 July 1953 when North and South Korea both agreed to move their troops back 2klms from the front line in an armistice agreement. The Military Demarcation Line (MDL) runs through the center of the DMZ and indicates where the front was when the agreement was signed. Over the years there have been occasional incidents and skirmishes, some of them quite serious including North Korea destroying the road between the two nations just the week before we visited. Given the difficulty in visiting North Korea, the DMZ is the closest most people will come to the secretive nation.
Our Private DMZ Tour Itinerary
The beauty of doing a private tour is that you get to set the itinerary. You are not beholden to someone else’s idea of the perfect day and you control the pace. The DMZ is about an hour away from Seoul so our eight hour tour gave us six hours to play with. We chose to visit the ‘big 3’; Imjingak Park, the DMZ and Dora Observatory. We made a brief lunch stop in Paju and were dropped off at Seoul Marina at 5pm just in time for another of our bespoke experiences; our private yacht dinner cruise.
Heading Off On Our Private DMZ Tour
At RAWRA we are control freaks. We plan every detail and leave nothing to chance, but the one thing we cannot control is the weather. And it was not on our side. Thankfully we provided all our travellers with the cutest personalised purple travel umbrellas in their welcome bags on arrival. Emily, our brilliant guide, met us in the foyer of our hotel about 15 minutes prior to our scheduled departure. We made sure everyone had their passports as they are required to enter the DMZ and we piled on to our comfortable and roomy private bus.
Imjingak Park
Imjingak Park was our first stop and the rain was persistent. After a brief introduction by Emily we were free to roam around on our own. Before the gang could disperse too far we grabbed them for a group photo and those handy purple umbrellas featured heavily. One of the most poignant moments in our visit was the seated bronze statues of stoic young girls placed as a tribute to the suspected 200,000 Korean women forcible taken as sex slaves by Japanese soldiers during WWII. The issue of ‘comfort women’ is still a source of ongoing tension between South Korea and Japan and almost weekly protects are held at the Japanese Embassy in Seoul. Similar statues are dotted around the world including in Sydney and San Francisco. At the time it was customary for Koreans (both men and women) not to cut their hair and in effort to break these women their hair was brutally hacked off. As a result all statues reflect the women and girls with short hair.
DMZ
After a quick unremarkable lunch stop at Paju we headed to the DMZ. Bus numbers are limited and we had to combine with another bus to enter as we had less than 30 people onboard. A blue line on the road signifies the entry point. As with Imjingak we had free time to explore on our own. A few brave souls make the steep trek down the third infiltration tunnel which ends just 170m from the North Korea border.
Dora Observatory
Our final stop of the day was the the Dora Observatory (no relation to Dora the Explorer!). The rain had kicked in again which made visibility difficult, but with Emily’s help we were able to spot some key landmarks in North Korea including the propaganda village and the flag pole.
Souvenirs From Our Private DMZ Tour
While shopping is fairly limited at Imjingak Park, the DMZ and Dora Observatory, we still managed to pick up a couple of very unique souvenirs that are not available any where else in the world including a piece of the barbed wire fence and a North Korean banknote.
Want More?
The private DMZ tour is just one of many bespoke experiences RAWRA travellers have enjoyed. While our Asia 2024 trip is now just a memory we have two amazing upcoming trips which promise to be equally as spectacular. Will you be travelling with us soon?
Disclosure Statement: This post is not sponsored. We paid for our DMZ private tour in full and the information provided is based on our own personal experience and has not been influenced in any way. This post may contain affiliate links and any purchases will earn us a small commission at no additional cost to you.
