A Comprehensive Small-Group Busan Tour with Hotel Pickup

Mr Han is an absolutely fantastic tour guide! Friendly, engaging, and incredibly knowledgeable. They made the tour fun, informative, and unforgettable. Highly recommend to anyone visiting!

Everything was perfectly organized from start to finish. The guide was friendly, professional, and incredibly knowledgeable about the area. We visited beautiful locations, learned a lot about Korean culture and history, and never felt rushed at any point during the day. The transportation was comfortable, the itinerary was well planned, and the communication before the tour was excellent. What impressed me most was how much effort the guide put into making sure every guest had a great experience. If you are visiting Korea and want a memorable, stress-free, and enjoyable tour, I highly recommend this company. It exceeded all of my expectations, and I would definitely book with them again on my next visit. Thank you for an amazing day and unforgettable memories

I read the great reviews about this tour, booked it on Klook, and was looking forward to seeing the best of Busan with Eden Tours. In my 30 years of taking tours, I have never ever had a tour operator cancel a tour on me at the last minute just because I wanted to confirm the pick-up time. I used to work in tourism and am trained in customer service, and this was not it. I would never treat a guest so poorly. Perhaps there was another reason at play. During my communication with them, there were a couple of instances where I sensed their reluctance to have me, a solo traveller, on their tour, and they eventually used my question about the pick-up time to cancel my tour. For this review, I have referred to my Whatsapp messages with them and have quoted what was actually said to me. 1) The day before the tour, I received a message from them to ask if I would be able to postpone my tour by a day. (No reason was given). I apologised that I could not as I would be leaving Busan and asked if it was still possible for me to go ahead on the original date. They did not reply to my question directly but instead shared a photo of their vehicle which had been damaged by a rock. They replied “…We’ll just rent another car”, making it seem that a replacement car had not been rented yet. Thinking that this was the reason they’d asked me to postpone my tour, I replied “Ok let me know if you manage to get another vehicle for tomorrow” To which, they replied that they had ALREADY rented a 15-seater passenger van. This exchange left me a little confused. If they had already rented a vehicle, why did they ask me to postpone my tour, and why did they initially say “We’ll just rent another car”? Though I thought it unusual, I decided not to dwell on it. 2) At the time of booking, I was asked to enter a hotel pick up time between 8am-9am (see photo). I randomly entered 8.30am and took note that the operator would reconfirm the pick-up time, and was fully prepared for that. I received a long (>110 words) message, the gist of it was “…Typically,pickups are scheduled between 8:00and 9:00a.m., and we plan to pick you up at 8:00a.m.…. since there can be some morning traffic, please allow for about a 10-15 minutes variation. If you could be ready a bit early, that would help with a smooth pickup …. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or concerns” The way I interpreted this long message is – pickups are between 8am-9am and my pick up is at 8am but I should be ready "a bit early" and since the variation can be 10-15 minutes, should I plan to be ready at 7.45am? As I did indeed have a question/concern and was invited to ask, I asked them “Does that mean I have to be ready at 7.45am?”. They were unresponsive for over 6 hours until I sent a follow up message. Instead of just simply answering “Yes” or “No” to my question, I was lectured over 3 messages about “this is not a private tour” and “If you want to set the pick up time at 8.30, you would need to book a private tour instead… would you like me to change your booking to a private tour” I was a little stunned by this response. Firstly, it was them who asked me to input the time for the small group tour. I never once acted as if I had booked a private tour. Secondly, why the reluctance to answer my question about whether I should ready at 7.45am (a yes/no will suffice). Thirdly, why the hurry to push me off the small group tour to a private tour (this was the 2nd time they indicated they did not want me on their small group tour) I was then informed “We have a total of seven groups tomorrow, and the rest of the groups have all agreed with the message I sent and will meet at the scheduled pickup time as notifie”. By comparing me to other guests, I assume this message was meant to make me feel like I had asked an silly/invalid question? This came across as being mean-spirited. There is never a need to compare guests. Noting that they had STILL not answered my original question, I tried again asking if I should be ready at 8am? That was my scheduled pick up time, but since they had also said to be ready "earlier", I wanted to be sure being ready at 8am would be ok. This time, they asked me to book a tour with another company and they would refund me. I was perplexed at this decision – they would rather cancel my tour than confirm the pick-up time, a relatively simple question. I maintained multiple times that I did nothing wrong to warrant a unilateral cancellation. I did not agree to the cancellation but they were ADAMENT about cancelling on me, 12h before the actual tour, and proceeded with the cancellation. They sent me several messages, pushing the blame onto me to justify why they were cancelling my tour. Here is a sample of what was said to me: “..If there’s a lack of cooperation from the start regarding pickup times or other arrangements, it often leads to a less than satisfactory experience.” --> It is unfair to accuse me of a lack of co-operation. I was agreeable to meeting at whatever time was needed, once they confirmed the time. I asked if I should plan to be ready by 7.45 or 8am. It’s them who refused to answer this question. ” …we provided a clear explanation of why the pickup needs to be at 8 a.m., and we also gave further details afterward. However, since this is a point you are still unable to accept, we are unable to make adjustments regarding this” --> This is also unfair. I never said anything about not accepting it. They said to be ready early. I asked if it meant I should be ready at 7.45am, which they never answered. “The full refund has already been requested on your behalf.” -> This made it seem that I requested the refund when I did not. I did not appreciate being bullied, belittled or gaslighted nor being left in the lurch at the last minute. Thanks to Eden Tours, I went home with a really negative impression of Busan. Truly, this is my worst tour experience in 30 years.

Han was a wonderful guide. Friendly, knowledgeable and made this tour super fun. It was a long day and we saw so much. Totally worth it!

This is a great tour if you don’t have much time in Busan. It was a long day, nearly 11 hours but we visited many Busan highlights. Josh was our tour guide and was friendly, knowledgeable and his English was excellent.

We had an amazing experience on our Busan tour, all thanks to Josh! He was incredibly accommodating and went out of his way to make sure everyone was having a great time. His knowledge of the city was impressive, and his enthusiasm made the tour engaging and fun. Josh’s dedication to ensuring a memorable experience really stood out, and we couldn’t recommend him more highly. If you’re planning a tour in Busan, Josh is the guide you want!

Great experience and guide. Top choice if you want to see many interesting places during one day.

Enjoyable day out. Steven was helpful in showing us the best photo spots and allowing us enough time to enjoy each attraction.

The tour was better than I expected, the places were amazing, tour guide Steven was 100%, 6 stars, good english, funny and knowlegable about the places and history. Had privileged to meet great people from around the world.

We had a great time spending a full day in Busan! Truly recommend this trip for those who want to experience the best of Busan! Our tour guy Steven was awesome! We all appreciated your kindness and humor!