From Seoul to Busan, you can now hop on a K-Drama tour to explore South Korea

Explore South Korea's K-drama filming locations with themed tours, offering a blend of entertainment and cultural experiences.

At the picturesque seaside city of Pohang in South Korea, there is a red lighthouse that looks all too familiar. Not too far away is a restaurant with a stunning view of the sea, a seemingly non-descript dental clinic, grocery and hardware stores, a bustling fish market, and a charming brick-wall house. 

If you watch and love K-dramas, chances are that Pohang is now part of your South Korea travel itinerary, given that all these locations featured in the 2021 smash-hit K-drama Hometown Cha Cha Cha, as the fictional town of Gongjin. Locations like these that have featured in memorable K-dramas over the years are plenty, and what better way to explore the country than to delve into places that you have seen and revelled in onscreen? 

Buoyed by the resurgence of the Hallyu wave during the pandemic, tourists to South Korea from across the world have only been steadily growing in numbers. Statistics from the Korean Tourism Organization indicate that 1,22,771 lakh tourists from India visited South Korea in 2023. In 2024, the country welcomed over 53,000 tourists from India till April, which marked a 95% increase compared to the same period in 2023. In February this year, KTO launched the K-incentive scheme 2.0, where travel agents will be incentivised for processing quick, simple, and hassle free tour visas for tourists from India, between February to September 2024. 

On a 2022 trip to South Korea, entrepreneur and licensed therapist Jeanie Chang visited and documented several K-drama filming sites on her Instagram page Noona’s Noonchi. ”I got several messages from people saying that if I ever do a K-drama tour, they would love to join in. This set the ball rolling for me,” she says. Jeanie went on to apply for a tourism and business licence, and set up a tour company Noona’s Noonchi tours. Since summer 2023, Jeanie has already gone on five tours, and has three more scheduled for the rest of the year. Guests on her tours are predominantly from the USA and Canada and Jeanie says given how her tour is priced(from $4,900 onwards) and the premium experience, the average age of her guests is around 45 to 50 years. 

The numbers too are steadily growing — for 2025, Noona’s Noonchi tours already have 12 tours scheduled, which includes K-pop themed ones as well. 

“Anyone can do a K-drama tour. But as a mental health expert, I add a layer of wellness,” says Jeanie, who has also authored the book, How K-Dramas Can Transform Your Life: Powerful Lessons on Belongingness, Healing, and Mental Health. During the tour, she speaks to her guests about the importance of mindfulness, has them do breathing exercises during workshops, discusses the themes in her book, and has meditation sessions at idyllic locations that have also served as K-drama filming locations. 

Her tour itineraries are packed — Jeanie laughs and says her guests do a minimum of 15,000 steps everyday. “There is so much to see and I want people who have travelled all the way to South Korea to see it all during my tour. Group tours work well given that we make it easier to access places that are remote,” she explains. From the restaurant where the protagonists in Moving enjoyed pork cutlets, and Vincenzo’s Geumga Plaza, to Yonsei University which has featured several popular K-dramas including True Beauty, and locations featured in the recent blockbuster Lovely Runner, her tour is packed with locations.