Good country, exhausting tourist industry

South Korea is a genuinely beautiful and interesting place. Jeju Haenyeo is worth every superlative thrown at it. The Korean BBQ is legitimately excellent. K-pop and beauty culture gave the trip real depth.

What I struggled with: the tourist infrastructure around the headline sites in Incheon is relentlessly commercial and everything moves at high pace is a genuine friction point. You can feel the gap between authentic South Korea and the packaged version sold to tourists. The authentic version wins, but you have to work to find it.