What to pack for Korea, by season

Korean travel involves far more walking than most people plan for. Subway interchanges are long, palace grounds are large, and temples and fortresses are almost always up a slope. One pair of shoes you have already broken in matters more than everything else in the bag put together.

You will also take them off regularly — at temple stays, at restaurants with floor seating, in guesthouses, in anyone's home. Shoes you can get in and out of without sitting down are worth more here than elsewhere, and socks without holes stop being a joke and become a genuine consideration.

Spring is mild and pleasant and swings more from day to day than the averages suggest. Layers, and something windproof if you are going up a mountain.

Summer is hot, and from roughly late June a monsoon period brings sustained heavy rain, followed by a humid August. Light clothing and something that dries. An umbrella is not worth suitcase space — every convenience store sells one the moment it starts.

Autumn is the most comfortable season and needs the least planning. A jacket for the evenings.

Winter is genuinely cold, particularly in Seoul and the north, with a dry wind that makes the numbers feel worse than they read. A proper coat, gloves and a hat, rather than a heavier jumper. Our winter guide covers what the season is actually like.

Toiletries. Korean skincare and cosmetics are inexpensive, everywhere, and a substantial part of what visitors end up buying anyway. Carrying three months of shampoo across the world past a shop that sells it is a common mistake.

A universal adaptor, unless your plugs are not the European two-pin type. Korea uses that shape at 220 volts.

Formal clothes, unless you have a specific reason for them. Korean dressing is neat rather than formal, and nowhere a visitor is likely to go enforces a dress code.

Wet-weather gear beyond one packable layer.

A power bank. Days are long and you will lean on maps and translation constantly. Korean cafés are generous with sockets, but you will not always be sitting in one.

Prescription medication with its documentation, since brand names differ and a pharmacist will not recognise yours.

Deodorant, which is stocked far less widely than visitors expect and is one of the few genuine gaps in Korean shops.

Room in the bag. Korea is a place people buy things — see our guide to shopping beyond the obvious — and arriving full is the regret people mention most.