TravelBeot exists to help travellers discover the Korea they would otherwise miss.

Why I made this

I wanted to make his next trip to Korea the best one ever.

I have always loved taking people around Korea, showing them the places I like and watching their faces light up. Seeing someone genuinely have a good time has always been one of my greatest pleasures.

In 2018, my closest friend Andrew told me he was planning to visit Korea. I was so excited that I kept my schedule as open as I could for his trip. I wanted to show him around and make it the best one I possibly could.

He came that October. When I saw the plan he and his brother had put together, I remember thinking, "These are cool, but so outdated. There's so much more to do here." So I started looking for places to take them. But the more I searched, the more I realized how limited the English-language information is, and how often it's out of date. Being Korean, it was never a problem for me. But that was the moment I thought how much it would help if what to see and do here were easier for visitors to find. I also realized my own knowledge was thinner than I'd assumed; I live here, so I never really go looking for places to travel. So I started gathering everything I could, from friends, from communities, online, from books.

It was around Halloween, so we went out to the bars and clubs the night before and the night of. We hit a local market, a restaurant called Ginza and a Korean BBQ place in Cheongdam, a steakhouse in Yongsan, a seafood buffet in Jamsil. One night down in Busan, we sat at the same table and talked for hours, and it didn't feel like hours at all. Time just stopped mattering; the conversation itself was that good. After a night out in Itaewon, walking down the street, we said the same thing to each other — that we hadn't had a conversation like this since I left Canada, that we were the only ones who could make these kinds of jokes, all these meaningless little things. For me especially, that was so true. It just felt like the good old days, back in high school, when we went to sushi restaurants every day and walked down the street making silly jokes. I missed those days a lot, and I miss them so much now, too. The trip became one of those moments that stay with you for a lifetime. I heard later that Andrew told everyone about his trip to Korea, over and over.

As good as it was, it still wasn't enough to show him everything I wanted. There just wasn't time. As his last day got closer, he told me he'd never expected there to be so much to do here. From what he'd found online, it had looked like a week would be more than enough. He'd half expected to run out of things to do. Instead, he was already planning a longer trip, and he asked me when the best time to come back would be. I wished I could have shown him more. I'd taken him mostly to the fancy places, wanting to give him the very best in the few days we had. So for next time, I wanted to show him the everyday Korea too, and all the things we never got to.

What I realized

You don't know what you're missing.

After he flew home to Canada, I decided to keep gathering, and when I had time, to build a website for it. Somewhere to store and organize everything for his next trip, and to make Korea more accessible for the people coming to visit, the way I'd wished it had been for him. Because the problem was never that Korea had too little to offer. It was that so much of it stayed out of reach for travellers who couldn't find the right information — left to luck, hit or miss.

That whole experience taught me something. When you don't speak the language, you only ever reach a small part of what a place really has to offer. Travellers end up at the same handful of spots again and again, not because those are the only ones worth seeing, but because outdated information keeps recirculating. Someone visits an old recommendation, posts it again, and suddenly it looks current, even though nothing has actually changed. And when you're not local, you often don't even know what you're missing. It's like how plenty of Koreans have heard of Canada but have no idea about something as ordinary and loved as poutine. Every country has these — foods, places, little cultural details that are obvious to the people who live there and invisible to everyone else.

After he was gone

I never got to tell him.

I had finally quit my job to work on this, to actually build the website.

About half a year in, a friend reached out: Andrew's parents were trying to find my contact. Things had gotten really bad for him. A day later, he passed away.

I booked a flight to Canada that night and flew in the next morning, for his funeral.

It didn't hit me when I first heard. My mind just went completely blank. The emotion came hours later. I cried out loud, and it felt like a huge blank space had opened up inside me. For months I carried an ache in my body. Every time I thought I'd finally cried it all out, the sorrow came back.

Even after all this time, it still feels devastating. Lately, it has hit me especially hard whenever I hear a best man's speech at a wedding. I wanted to save up money to get you the best flight ticket and the best accommodation, invite you to be the best man at my wedding, and say, "This is Andrew, my closest friend…"

He was not just a close friend. He was the kind of friend people say you're lucky to have even just once in your lifetime. He meant a lot to my life. He truly was like a brother to me. I miss you, buddy.

I wanted to tell him about the website — the one I'd made for the next time he came to Korea. But I couldn't anymore. It started to feel meaningless, and I stopped for a while.

But it wasn't only for Andrew. It had started from something I personally wanted, too, and that made the project more than just his trip. I still wanted to make Korea easier to reach for the people who come here, to help them have a wholesome time. That was reason enough. So I picked it back up, slowly but steadily. It's taken me far longer than I ever planned.

What is Beot?

Beot (벗) — Friend in old Korean

I like meeting new people and talking with them. And what I keep realizing is how much visitors to Korea miss here, without ever knowing they're missing it. Andrew's aunt told me that he used to tell her how good his trip was, and that she should visit Korea herself. She then told me that Andrew could have a trip like that because he had a local friend like me.

So that's what I want to give you, too: a good time in Korea, the way you'd have it with a real friend here. And not just any friend, but one who genuinely loves Korea and can actually make your trip so much better.

It isn't only personal, either. I have experience working as a tour guide here, watching how other guides in Korea do it, and working at a tourist site and a travel agency.

So far I've built up a database of 364 places, and I'm adding more every week, each one found and added by hand, in the order I think it's most worth visiting. And when I have the time, I visit these places myself and write a review of what they're actually like, so you know what to expect before you go. Those reviews live on We liked it here.

Thank you for reading

I want to be sincere with you

If there's one thing I want you to take from this page, it's this: nothing here is paid to be on the map. Every place is here because I researched it myself, picked it one by one, and genuinely think it's worth checking out.

The same goes for the reviews. As a former small business owner, I've sat in meetings with marketing companies, and known people paid to write reviews. I know how easily a review can be gamed, faked, or bought, and how a place locals barely visit can suddenly become a five-star favourite. So I keep a close eye on the ones here; I don't want a fake review shaping your trip.

I want TravelBeot to be a place filled with useful information that actually helps people make the most of their time in Korea. I want your time in Korea to become a memory that brings a smile to your face. If something here helps make that happen, then all of this was worth it.