Accessible travel: what works well, and what still does not

Seoul's subway is among the more accessible metro systems anywhere. Almost every station has lift access, platform gaps are small, and priority spaces are marked and generally respected. Station staff will assist if asked.

Regional cities vary. Busan and Daegu are reasonable; smaller city networks and regional bus services are much less consistent, and rural buses are frequently not accessible at all.

Intercity trains have accessible carriages and spaces that can be booked, though the booking process is easier in Korean than in English. KTX stations are modern and step-free.

Historic sites are the hard case, and honestly so. Palaces, fortresses and mountain temples involve steps, thresholds, gravel and steep approaches that are original to the buildings and cannot be fully remediated. Some have partial routes; many do not.

Older neighbourhoods and traditional markets have narrow, uneven, sometimes absent pavements, with delivery scooters using them freely. These are genuinely difficult rather than merely inconvenient.

Small family-run restaurants often have a step at the entrance and floor seating inside. Larger restaurants and those in modern buildings are more straightforward.

Newer attractions, museums and large parks are built to modern standards and are generally excellent — lifts, ramps, accessible toilets and level paths.

Major hotels are reliable for accessible rooms; guesthouses, hanok stays and minbak usually are not, given the buildings themselves.

Staff are consistently willing to help, and asking directly tends to produce a practical solution even where signage suggests otherwise.

Confirm access directly with a venue rather than relying on a listing. Tourism records, including the data behind this site, do not reliably record step-free access, and an absence of information is not evidence of accessibility.

Build in more time than you would elsewhere. The transport is good but the last few hundred metres to a specific building is where the difficulty usually appears.

Consider basing yourself in a modern district and travelling out, rather than staying in a historic neighbourhood where the accommodation itself may be the obstacle.