Rating: 
Summary: A bit thick for short trips
Review: I'm in Gumi, Korea on business, so I needed a guide book for occasional weekend travel only. This book is generally good at describing most sites to visit, and even gave some bus routes to take for those daring enough to try, especially since Korean city buses generally have no English. However, the book is a bit thick so it wasn't so convenient to carry, thus I end up carrying the Lonely Planet book most of the time. Below are a few complaints about the book:1. In year 2000, the Korean government adopted a new Romanized spelling for Korean language. If you can't read Hangul (Korean alphabet), you may have difficulty matching up names of places. For example, the ancient Silla capital city is now officially spelled Gyeongju but this book spells it the old way Kyonchu. If you can read Hangul which takes a few hours to learn, that may not be a problem since the book does give location names in Hangul. This book also teaches Hangul for those who wants to learn. 2. For the Korean phrases that they teach at the end of the book, they left out many simple phrases like "I don't speak Korean" or "I want to check-out". They taught complex useless phrases like "I speak little Korean" and didn't teach much on checking in and out of hotels. In small motels, the front desk speaks no English at all so that is important.
Rating:
Summary: A Fantastic Guide
Review: I've been living in Korea for almost 5 months now, and I don't think I would have seen (or been able to find) half of the places I have been to so far without this book. This handbook has come in VERY handy and is full of interesting historical facts and can really help you maneuver around the country.
After a well written introduction explaining Korea's history, culture and other useful information, Nilsen breaks down the country into provinces. Each chapter on a province has a decent map and a history of the cities and sights. It also gives very current information on how to get there and the prices of public transportation. (You will want to take public transportation in Korea unless you are a VERY agressive driver)
I only gave this book 4 stars because it doesn't get into some of the other things to do in Korea, such as nightlife. Fun as it is to sightsee, sometimes you just want to go out dancing too. ;)
All in all, this is an outstanding book to take with you on a vacation. Its easy to follow and also has a fairly extensive phrase section and other useful vocabulary words written in English and Hangul (if you can't pronounce the words, the Hangul version is very useful). If you're planning on visiting Korea, this is definitely a book to pick up.
Rating: 
Summary: Five years in Korea - This is the best book about Korea
Review: I've lived for Korea for the past five years. I've looked at all the guides and books about Korea. Well, most of them. This is the best book I've encountered about Korea. I always use. It's much more thorough than the competions (you know who's) guide book. If you're going to Korea, this is the book you need.
Rating: 
Summary: hmmm, not quite what i'd hoped for.
Review: If you draw only one thing from this book, it must surely be the conclusion that Robert Nilsen has a deep love of Korea. The historical, cultural and practical information he provides is certainly not lacking in detail and for the most part is very useful. However, his partisan attitude is also the root of many of my critisisms. I travelled for 3 weeks with a Japanese friend and found that Japanese (nor English for that matter) is not particularly widely spoken at all, although Mr Nilsen appears to think it is. Some of his descriptions of historical events read like propaganda, somewhat lacking in objectivity, which also applies to some descriptions of places to visit. His tendency to wax lyrical can raise your expectations and leave you a little disappointed. At one point, he compares the: half dozen temples; one worthwhile museum; couple of peculiarities and seemingly several million burial mounds and buddist statues/paraphernalia, which all look exactly alike, of Kyong-ju, to the hundreds of temples, castles, palaces, zen gardens, museums etc, etc of Kyoto, in Japan. My other major critisism of this book is that it is badly in need of an update. Korea appears to have suffered from horrific inflation since the last time Mr Nilsen was there and prices quoted in the book may have risen by as much as 50%. If you use this book to budget your trip add AT LEAST another 30% onto your total. So, in conclusion.... Worthwhile reading, generally useful and informative, but take it with just a little pinch of salt - you've been warned!
Rating:
Summary: A truly wonderful guidebook
Review: Last year, I lived in Korea for 10 months. I took two guidebooks with me, Lonely Planet and Moon Handbooks. Moon handbooks was by far the superior book. It has everything in it. The first two hundred pages give an introduction to the history, culture, and important travel tips. This was very useful if you're going to the country to learn about the culture as well as see the sights. This book gives a lot of history and even myths and stories about the sites around Korea. Lonely Planet didn't give much information on the cities and sites(Kyoungju, one of the cultural sites of the world, had only a couple of pages on it, whereas the Moon guide had 50); many of the places I went weren't even in Lonely Planet. It tended to focus on hotels and places to eat. I didn't stay in a lot of hotels while I was there, but the ones I did stay at were in the Moon Handbook and were everything they said they'd be. If you're going to Korea and want to learn about the places you're going to, take the Moon Handbook. I never used my Lonely Planet handbook, and left it there when I came home. I still have my Moon Handbook and hope to use it if I get the chance to return.
Rating:
Summary: Just an excellent guidebook!
Review: South Korea is not as tourist-accesible as other countries and as someone who lived in Korea for two years I really think this was a must-have. I loved traveling all over S. Korea and was able to get many destination ideas from places that Mr. Nilsen described. This book was invaluable in giving information about historic/important sites that I would otherwise have overlooked or just never have known about. Well-researched and clearly written by an author who knows and cares about his subject. That was important to me because I really grew to love Korea in the time I spent there.
Rating:
Summary: This book is Great.
Review: The Moon Travel South Korean Handbook is one of the finest travelbooks and despite its age remains the best guide to seeing anything of interest to see on the peninsula. I am Korean and I use this guide when I tour temples or others attractions here.
Posters on this forum complain there are not enough refence to hotels and restaurants but dont realize that in Korea restaurants and many hotels come and go so fast that this information would be useless before the book hit the presses.
This is also true of bus numbers etc.
The information with regard to Cultural Attractions has super attention to detail and this is true when Nilsen describes out of the way more hidden treasures Korea has to offer.
Get this book !!!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent and Detailed Guidebook
Review: The South Korea Handbook is the best guidebook available for Korea. It's coverage is much more complete than its major competitor, Lonely Planet.
Rating:
Summary: Good general reference book...
Review: This is a good general reference book for what is available to do in South Korea. While the "attractions" mentioned are mostly "tourist traps" or information available from the tourist kiosks in Korea, this guide provides an excellent overview. It really shines in the cultural aspects, providing useful information on the culture and the history of Korea. The worst part of this book is that it doesn't have as many hotel listings as other guides. Nothing is worse then not having a place to sleep.
Rating:
Summary: Good general reference book...
Review: This is a good general reference book for what is available to do in South Korea. While the "attractions" mentioned are mostly "tourist traps" or information available from the tourist kiosks in Korea, this guide provides an excellent overview. It really shines in the cultural aspects, providing useful information on the culture and the history of Korea. The worst part of this book is that it doesn't have as many hotel listings as other guides. Nothing is worse then not having a place to sleep.
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