Trip to South Korea - Any Advice?

[WorldTraveler]

Hey all,

I'm starting to plan a trip to South Korea next year. Really excited to experience the culture and food. Has anyone here been and have any must-see recommendations or tips?

In particular, I'm curious about the best way to get around - is renting a car a good option or is public transit easy to use? Also open to suggestions on cool neighborhoods, markets or festivals to check out beyond the major tourist areas in Seoul.

And lastly, any Korean phrases I should learn before going? Even just basics like hello, thank you, please could be helpful.

Looking forward to browsing through past threads here for inspiration too. Let me know if you have any South Korea travel wisdom to share!

[WorldTraveler]

Unfortunately I didn't get any replies yet, so I did a search online and found this really useful guide about South Korea tourism statistics for 2023 https://gowithguide.com/blog/south-korea-tourism-statistics-2023-all-you-need-to-know-5254
(https://gowithguide.com/blog/south-korea-tourism-statistics-2023-all-you-need-to-know-5254)
It has a lot of great info on transportation options (looks like public transit is really convenient), top attractions to visit beyond just Seoul, and even trends for this year. The guide also includes some basic Korean phrases at the end which should be helpful.

Seems like their public transportation system will make it easy to get around the major cities from the sounds of it. And it gives some cool festival dates to check out if I happen to visit during any of them. Really helpful overview to get me started in the planning process.