Private Full-Day Busan Tour with Personal Driver

We booked this tour of Busan through TripAdvisor because it was specifically advertised as a "tour with a private driver in English." While there were certainly positive aspects to our day, the experience was ultimately a big letdown due to the misleading advertising. On the positive side, our driver was very nice, the vehicle was comfortable, and the driving itself was pleasant. However, contrary to the listing, our driver spoke zero English and relied entirely on a translation app to communicate with us. As a result, we received absolutely no historical information, context, or perspective at any of the stops. We expected at least a bare minimum of guided explanation based on the tour's description, but we received none. The Verdict: If you are simply looking for a reliable driver and a comfortable vehicle to take you around Busan, this service will work perfectly fine. However, I highly advise against booking this if you are looking for an actual guide. The description suggesting an English-speaking experience is very misleading, and travelers should know that they are paying for transportation only, not a guided tour.

We booked this tour of Busan through TripAdvisor because it was specifically advertised as a "tour with a private driver in English." While there were certainly positive aspects to our day, the experience was ultimately a big letdown due to the misleading advertising. On the positive side, our driver was very nice, the vehicle was comfortable, and the driving itself was pleasant. However, contrary to the listing, our driver spoke zero English and relied entirely on a translation app to communicate with us. As a result, we received absolutely no historical information, context, or perspective at any of the stops. We expected at least a bare minimum of guided explanation based on the tour's description, but we received none. The Verdict: If you are simply looking for a reliable driver and a comfortable vehicle to take you around Busan, this service will work perfectly fine. However, I highly advise against booking this if you are looking for an actual guide. The description suggesting an English-speaking experience is very misleading, and travelers should know that they are paying for transportation only, not a guided tour.

Organizer and driver who 100% customized our day according to our wishes

Very good organization Put in contact with a very pleasant driver, who personalized everything according to our wishes

Overall trip was very positive. We saw a lot of things in a full day tour. The communication through WhatsApp worked great and was very timely. The car was very comfortable. The BBQ lunch was a highlight. The driver worked very hard to ensure we were satisfied and he took lots of pictures for us. He spoke little English so that did create communication challenges. Because of the communication issues, there was no conversation about Busan history, culture, background on the sites we visited etc. This was a big disappointment of the day. Maybe I didn’t read the details carefully enough but I thought that would be part of the experience. It was also advertised that there would be drinks and snacks available in the car. That was not the case. When I asked Jin if he had water he said no but ran somewhere to buy 1. 1 water. For a 10-12 hour tour it would have been nice to have a cooler with drinks for the day. Overall we did enjoy the day but solving these issues would make it better.

What a wonderful day we had in Busan. Our river, Jin, picked us up in a nice clean van and provided candies (which the kids loved!). We communicated mostly by Google translate, but we had some fun conversations. He took us not only to the places on the tour, but also some lookouts he liked. Insisted on taking group pictures, and found us a wonderful Korean BBQ for lunch. A great day!

We LOVED having Jin as our driver! He really didn't speak much English but he was amazing w the Google translator. He loved helping us take family pictures. He was kind, considerate, funny, flexible and very accomodating!!!! He took us to an excellent, local Korean bbq restaurant for lunch.Highly recommended awesome day in Busan!

I would highly recommend this 'Private Full-Day Busan Tour with Personal Driver' tour. The CozyBusan company was very responsive, from the moment I originally reserved their services even up to answering my post-tour question. Since this was a private tour, we provided them a list of Busan sights we potentially wanted to see. They reviewed the list and messaged back a charted course that would strategically allow us to see most of the sights. They even helped us get Sky Capsule tickets. Our driver (Gem?) was very professional and overall a kind person. He sincerely wanted us to have a good experience. His English was limited, but we did not miss a beat. Specifically, whenever there was something he could not say, he used technology to easily translate. Although this is ‘not a tour where the guide follows you around all day’, the driver explained the locations and showed us where to enter the attractions. He even suggested a few places to stand for optimal photos. Thank you for a great day. “Busan is Good” and so is CozyBusan.

Viator allowed me to book this despite the supplier advising them there was no availability beforehand. The supplier then contacted me to advise and advised he would send them a refund I then had to chase Viator for it, they made false promises agreed to follow up next day etc and said the supplier had not informed them but the supplier had sent me proof via WhatsApp. The tour op / supplier was fantastic just dissapointed Viator didnt update their systems before hand as could have booked another day with them

We did appreciate very much that the tour were able to provide us tickets for the 'capsule ride', which we requested.. However, it was quite frustrating that our driver did not speak any English, so communication was not good. He had to keep calling the office to speak with a person that could communicate and translate into English. There was no narrative as we drove around the area, the driver could not answer our questions, nor inform us of anything. In looking for a lunch spot, which time was to be allotted for in our tour for this, the first restaurant he took us to opened at 4:00, that was the time we had to be back to the ship. He then took us to another place, which the menu was extremely limited and quite pricy, some in the group could not eat the selections available. (We had just wanted a local place to try local Korean food). By the time we found another eating place, which was where he should have taken us in the fist place, a "a Food Hall-where the locals go", it was good and reasonable, a neighborhood "Food Hall" on the water, we would have been able to see other areas of the city on our tour, which we didn't see because so much time was wasted looking for a restaurant and trying to communicate. If this tour company would provide an English driver-one that could communicate in English, and take travelers to the local popular "Food Hall" on the water, that would make the difference of a good review. If you book, request a driver that can communicate well and not waste time searching for a 'local restaurant', so you can see all the sights in Busan, that we missed. That would make this tour much more enjoyable.