Shopping: what is actually worth buying, and where

Korean regions have distinct craft traditions and most are barely marketed to foreign visitors. Icheon and Yeoju are ceramics towns with working potteries and kiln shops. Hanji, traditional mulberry paper, comes from Jeonju and the surrounding area. Andong has its mask-carving tradition and its own soju.

Buying at source is usually cheaper than buying the same object in Seoul, and considerably more interesting — many workshops will let you watch the making.

Food is the other genuinely regional purchase: gim from the south coast, dried persimmon from Sangju, green tea from Boseong and Jeju, honey and wild vegetables from the mountain provinces.

Traditional markets are where you buy food, household goods and inexpensive clothing, and where haggling is normal for non-food items. Prices are lower and the experience is the point.

Department stores sit at the opposite end — immaculate, expensive, and with a food hall in the basement that is worth visiting regardless of whether you buy anything. Their staff are the most likely in Korea to speak English.

Underground shopping arcades attached to subway stations are a third category worth knowing: cheap clothing and accessories, cash-friendly, and a good rainy-day option.

Korean skincare is genuinely good value and the range in even a small-town branch exceeds what is exported. Staff will approach and offer help; a polite refusal is entirely acceptable and nothing further will be said.

The heavily touristed districts are not cheaper than ordinary neighbourhood branches of the same chains — they are simply better stocked with the products foreign visitors ask for.

Buy sunscreen. It is the one category where the local formulations are meaningfully ahead of what is sold in most other countries.

Visitors can reclaim VAT on purchases above a threshold at participating shops, either by immediate deduction at the till or by processing the receipts at an airport kiosk on departure.

Keep the receipts and your passport together, and allow extra time at the airport if you are claiming there — the queues at Incheon are genuinely long at peak hours.

The threshold is per-transaction, not per-trip, so consolidating a purchase in one shop can be the difference between qualifying and not.