This review is not of the tour, but of the travel agency. I booked the tour three months in advance. Shortly before my trip I found out that a friend would be in Korea at the same time so I called Cosmojin to ask about the possibility of adding another person to our tour. The woman who answered said that the tour was fully booked. I asked about the possibilty of cancelling the tour, but she said that a refund was not possible. She asked if I wanted to cancel, and I specifically said no, since my money would not be refunded. Two days before the tour I called Cosmojin to get clarification on the pickup area for the tour. Imagine my surprise when I was told that my reservation had been cancelled. Cosmojin said that they would not refund my money, even though I had not authorized the cancellation. They said that they could substitute another DMZ tour, but I was not interested because it did not have the same features as the JSA tour. I was willing to substitute other tours that Cosmojin offered but they would only offer the DMZ tour and nothing else. Cosmojin never budged on their 'no refund' policy. I had to ask Veltra (online booker) to intercede on my behalf and even Veltra was not able to negotiate with Cosmojin. My advice...go with another tour/travel agency and stay away from Cosmojin. Their customer service policy is a joke.

The tour guide that day was SP Hong. He is knowledgeable, fun and speaks good English. He follows the time schedule very strict and detailed. However, there are a few things about the company policy I m not happy with. I started the tour with a van pick me up in the morning from my hotel to President hotel which has a bigger bus to bring us to DMZ. During the tour, I have never heard that I will never get picked up again at the end of the tour back to my hotel. I keep thinking there is going to be a van bringing me back there. In the end, I walked back to hotel which just took 10 mins and it s not a big deal for me. What if the person cellphone dies, no maps, not knowing Korean or English to ask directions, or money running down due to buying stuff at the shopping area not enough pay taxi, etc.? I think the company is very ignorant and irresponsible for abandoning a foreigner like that especially the tour itself is not cheap. Another thing is Mr.Hong moved very fast and he did not care if anyone for left behind or lost. The tour itself is serious and important because of how they checked our passports at the entry point. But looking at the way Mr.Hong moved, he certainly does not care if another case like Travis King happened again. There are a lot of other company to choose from, just avoid this one.

UPDATE: Due to not getting to the DMZ, the company granted the 50% refund we requested. Between that customer service and our guide Irene who sought to make the best of a difficult situation, I’ve updated this review. We were picked up as normal and taken to the ticket office well before the masses, but somehow after 1 hr of waiting around, our tour guide was in the back of the line for our tickets and they were sold out by the time she got to the window. Very disappointing. So we went instead on a gondola ride and visited other sites including an observatory where we saw into North Korea. Be aware when you book the DMZ, you may not get in due to them closing the restricted area or running out of tickets. This photo was as close as we got to see anything :(

Do not book! We booked a tour to the Dora Observatory and tunnel with a North Korean defector tour guide, and they did not inform us that they could not take us to the sights that we paid to see until after we were in the van headed north of Seoul. (Other companies said up front they couldn’t go to those sites because they were closed, but this agency had told us up until our confirmation the day beforehand that we could still go.) Our tour did not include a NK defector and instead of the tour we booked, they brought us to two tourist sites. One was near the DMZ, but one was not. On the way back to Seoul, they made an unscheduled stop at a Foreigners-only jewelry shop, where they’d get a cut if we bought something. Do not trust this company.

DONT WASTE YOUR MONEY After carefully researching possible tours I regretfully landed on this tour. The dmz was closed due to a swing flu outbreak on the day of my tour. understandably this is out of Cosmonjin's control. what was upsetting was that the tour guide accidentally leaked that the dmz has been closed for nearly a month. that mean cosmojin co consciously took our money with no warning that this tour had no chance of running. the tour then turned in to an hour and a half drive, one way, to get a glimpse of what they say wasNorth Korea.we were then taken to a jeweler to be sold rocks, taken to a free museum, then another shop for a sales pitch. giant waste of money

We booked a DMZ tour, which was very interesting, and in particular our guide Park was awesome! A few negatives though: - We paid by credit card at the agency, and for some reason they charged us in USD instead of KRW and gave a 3% fee for that. This doesn't make sense since my visa is EUR. - After the tour, we were forced to visit a cosmetics shop. That's not cool. We don't want have shopping forced down our throats when we already paid 66000 KRW for your tour. - Our tour was combined with a group of Japanese that didn't speak English and had their own guide. It was sometimes difficult to follow our Guide over the noise of the other tour guide in the background.

I used Cosmojin tours last Saturday to visit the DMZ. Han was excellent, informative and engaging. Worth visiting even though the JSA is currently closed (fault of a wayward US Army private). Third tunnel was very interesting and to think that there may be 15-20 tunnels. Also excellent viewing platform with binoculars to view in to NK.

Tracey was a great tour guide and the only reason they will get 2 stars. If you are thinking the DMZ is where the North and south korea troops are at the border it us NOT! It is a tunnel and an observatory, you need to keep paying for add ons, I would NOT do this tour, to say dissapointed is an understatement. Not happy

Friend from overseas came to visit me a few weeks ago, and while she was in Korea, she wanted to go to this DMZ tour. so I looked up and found Cosmojin. I couldnt go coz of my work, but my friend said that she loved the tour and it was very…

Le guide est sympathique, le tour a été raccourci car les autorités militaires ont bloqué les accès, ceci semble courant mais nous avons été prévenu au moment du départ. Le seul reproche est l obligation d aller visiter une usine de pierre…

Recomiendo usar esta compañía para el DMZ Tour. El guía muy profesional y salió todo según lo previsto. Lo único a mejorar es la parte final del trayecto, la visita a la tienda de joyas para comprar. Mucha gente no bajó del autobús, no…

Recently had a JSA & DMZ combined tour with Cosmojin Travel and the tour was very neat and educative and most of all it was fun! Definitely worth trying! Plus the tour was cheaper than other JSA & DMZ combined tour providers.

Tracey -perfect female guide. Delay was not her fault. At the end after 10 hours we were all very hungry. Interesting but weird what people can do to each other.

Fantastic tour agency - our DMZ tour was well organised and a thoroughly unique experience.

Excellent tour guide and pickup service, had a great time with their tours

thank you for dmz tour's gide. very goooooooood!!!! was awesome :)

Never update their contact detail and one hand cancel my tour

Awesome dmz tour! Thank you , cosmojin.