Daegu Tourism Information
Daegu is South Korea third-largest city. It is rooted in tradition and has all the conveniences of a modern metropolis where nature and modernity collide. You can see here Hanok houses and traditional palaces.
The city is the hub of the textile industry and there are a lot of fashion exhibitions. It is also famous for shopping and has a large market in the city centre.
Daegu also offers a number of scenic attractions and beautiful mountains. You can enjoy scenic views of the Palgongsan and the Apsan mountains, as well as historical sites dating back to the Silla periods and the Joseon Dynasty. The city’s beautiful parks offer exquisite scenery, especially during fall and spring.
You can also spend time exploring unique museums, which showcase a number of artefacts dating back to ancient times.
In Daegu, the summers are warm, muggy, wet, and mostly cloudy and the winters are very cold, dry, and mostly clear. Over the course of the year, the temperature typically varies from -3°C to 33°C and is rarely below -8°C or above 35°C.
The best times of year to visit Daegu for comfortable warm-weather activities are from April to June and October and November.
Reaching Daegu can be done by train (the most popular way), bus or plane.
Taking the train from Seoul is around 2 hours, the same time from Busan as Daegu is situated between the two main cities, so it makes also for a good stopover. Travelling by train is done by the KTX which is the high speed train services in South Korea or you can also take the cheaper express trains. Book at Korail.com
If arriving by air, Daegu Airport has services to Seoul, Jeju, China, Japan and Taiwan. The airport is quite small and shared with the Airforce. To go to the centre of the city there is a bus (No. 401, Fare: W1,250) and you can also ride a taxi. (Dongsungro district (Centre of the city/fare around W8,000, 25min), Dongdaegu train station (Around W4,000, 10min)).
once in the city, local transport is reliable, you can find both busses and a small metro system which also accepts the T-Money APP or card. Daegu has well-developed public transportation system so you can easily understand how to use and take your way by Bus, Subway.
Regarding intra-city busses, there are 4 types of the intra-city buses; Express bus( Rapid bus), Blue bus, circular bus, and feeder bus. Express bus is for connecting downtown and suburb, blue bus is connecting downtown and sub-centre and suburb. Circular bus is circulating in the city and also connecting the blue, feeder buses and subway. Finally feeder bus is for residential area and small area.
You can transit in the busses for free up to 3 times, as long as the transfer waiting time is not more than 30 minutes. You can use the Kakao Map APP to know timetables, routes and info to plan your itinerary.
Below you can find the tourist highlights on the map below and the metro map image ready to download.
Daegu is the fourth largest city in South Korea and its economic and industrial hub. Since the 80s, the city experienced rapid economic progress and with the onset of the current century, it became the centre of multiple international events.
In the days of the Joseon Dynasty, Daegu, was the seat of the powerful governor of the now defunct Gyeongsang province. You can see his historic home and office at the Gyeongsang-gamyeong Park, which stages a changing of the guard ceremony on Saturdays in summer.
The city’s location at the junction of two important rivers gave rise to Seomun Market, which is famed for its fabrics, and is a street food mecca after nightfall.
Daegu’s cityscape is surrounded by mountains, which demand to be climbed not just for their views, but also Buddhist monuments like the fabulous Donghwasa temple and the 1,100-year-old Gatbawi Buddha, carved from granite on the same mountain.
Below you will find some of the highlights to see and do whilst you enjoy your trip in Daegu:
- Seomun Market: To give you a sense of its great age, Seomun Market was one of Korea’s three prime markets towards the end of the Joseon Dynasty. An interesting detail is that, even though the market has grown to many times its original size, the names of the alleys, date back centuries. Seomun Market, with more than 4,000 stores across several large buildings, is renowned for fabrics and textiles. True food explorers can try some exotic local picks like, makchang-gui, grilled beef abomasum (fourth stomach of a cow), sujaebe a hand-torn noodle soup, dotori-muk, a seasoned acorn jelly and mu tteokbokki the Daegu variation of Korea’s much-loved rice cakes.
- 7.83 Daegu Tower: The tower is easy to recognise as you will see it from many locations in Daegu. It opened in 1992 after eight years of construction. 83 Tower is just over 200 metres tall and is open during the day and night also, to admire the views in both light scenes. Tickets to the observatory are ₩11,000 for adults, but there’s free entry if you book a table at the revolving restaurant.
To get to the tower you can take busses 4-1 and 1-1 then walk around 20 minutes to the entrance of the tower. When you arrive, you will need to get the first lift to the upper floor where the base of the tower is and the ticket booth. After you purchase your ticket, you will be shown the entrance of the lift to go up to the viewing deck.
✔️Tip: If you enjoy walking and hiking, there is a nice view of the tower at Daegu Duryu Park, which is also a good place to visit in itself. The park was built near Duryusan and Geumbongsan mountains in 1977. Various statues and memorials including Memorial Tower that commemorates the high school students who started the Revolution, as well as a statue of Yi Sang-hwa. After the opening on October 1977, the park added a soccer field, a baseball field and other recreational facilities as well as private libraries.
- Daegu National Museum: There are three main indoor halls: The Archaeology Gallery is a chronology of Daegu, displaying artefacts from prehistory and up to the Three Kingdoms Period in the 7th century CE.
In the Art History Gallery you can pore over celadon and buncheong ceramics and find out about the region’s Buddhist culture through a variety of sculptures. The Traditional Folk Life Gallery has examples of traditional Korean houses and curates pieces from the Seonbi culture and the history Yeongnam Area, making up today’s provinces of North and South Gyeongsang. In the museum grounds, check out the five-storey stone pagoda and dates back to 1031. There’s also a collection of architectural fragments, dolmens, a Bronze Age house and a kiln from the Three Kingdoms Period.
To get there take bus 234 and 524 from the city centre or bus 349 from the station.
- Donghwasa Temple and Trails: Palgong Mountain, on the border between Daegu and the North Gyeongsan Province is a favourite hiking destination, sprinkled with temples and shrines, and no shortage of places to stop for food to recover your energy. Most people beat a path to Donghwasa, a Jogye Order temple on the southern slope, and with a history that can be tracked back to the end of the 5th century.
The current complex dates to 1732 after damage was inflicted during the Japanese invasions at the end of the 16th century. The Daeungjeon (Main Hall) is reached by stairs with railings in the form of a dragon, and has beautiful columns and carvings beneath its eaves.
To get there you can take express red bus number 1 from Daegu city centre and get off one stop before the last one.
✔️Tip: The If you're an active hiker and want to combine two sights, then why not visit as well the Gatbawi statue, with beautiful temples along the way! See info below!
- Gatbawi: Something to combine with your day-trip to Donghwasa, this amazing Buddha statue is also on Palgong Mountain and can be reached on a testing but rewarding climb from Gwanamsa Temple. Otherwise you can also reach it from another trails which are moderate level.
Gatbawi is a Korean National Treasure dating from Unified Silla in the 9th century CE. Carved in situ from the granite on the east flank of the mountain, this seated Buddha is four metres tall, and on his head is a slab, 15 cm thick. Some details to look for are the enlarged ears, the sturdy, slightly raised shoulders, the three wrinkles on the neck, and the left hand, thought to be holding a medicine jar (making him a Medicine Buddha).
To get there, you can take the trails from Donghwasa Temple (Hard difficult hiking level) or for a more moderate hike, you can take bus 401 from Daegu city centre to the last stop where you have some shops, café and information to decide which is the best hike for you! You can also take bus 3 from the main road from Donghwasa Temple.
- Suseong Lake: Up against the mountains that border the city to the south, Suseong Lake is a body of water traced by parkland and places to eat and grab coffee, and with striking views The shoreline has recently been improved, and there’s a promenade all the way around with footbridges over wetland sites, as well as a small amusement park for children on the west side.
By day you rent a duck boat for a paddle and it’s worth lingering until the evening to catch the musical fountain show (20:00 and 21:00 May, August, September and October, 20:30 and 21:30 June and July).
To get there you can take the metro to Suseongmot Station or by bus 403, 410, 449, 564.
- Apsan Park: the park encompasses the 600-metre mountain of the same name, while its valley is at the foot of two more peaks, Sanseong Mountain and Daedeok Mountain. Something you have to do is catch the cable car up to the Apsan Observatory to see Daegu laid out far below. At the lower station there’s a swimming pool, driving range and facilities for horseback riding and archery. The Nakdong River Battle Museum is in the park and details the Korean War, with aircraft and tanks from the conflict on show outside. Hikers can strike out on the park’s tangle of trails, to climb the two neighbouring mountains and seek out hidden Buddhist temples.
To get there take bus 410-1, or local green bus 1 and 1-1.
Nightlife in Daegu consists of music halls and opera houses hosting concerts year-round, to cool nightclubs that stay open until morning. While there’s no particular dress code to follow while visiting clubs or bars, Koreans usually love to dress up for these places.
Some of the best areas for night-time entertainment in Daegu include Yasi-golmok, Rodeo Street, and the Kyungpook University district. You’ll often see a long line outside popular clubs, but many are spacious enough to accommodate a huge crowd partygoers.
Lucky for any type of travellers, Yeosu offers a good variety of accommodation options, from budget to 4 Star Hotels.
There are basic small hotels which offer private bathroom for $30-40 a night and can range all the way up to $150 per night the higher end you prefer.
Also, Airbnb is quite popular in South Korea so you can find good alternative accommodation and budget options within the city centre or private homes for longer stays.
You will not need too long to explore Daegu, since its a small city and the main attractions are not too far from each other. Driving here, you can see and do everything easily within a day or two. Otherwise, by transport you might want to stay two or three nights in order to make the most of your trip here.
Daegu Photo Slide 📷
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