I just came back from a two week trip to Korea. While there I managed to visit two of the most popular theme parks (Everland and Lotte World) and stumbled upon two other smaller amusement parks. Some notes and links to photos below:

The first amusement park I managed to stumble across was at one of the DMZ viewpoints. You could stand at a lookout point and hear the propaganda from North Korea and then walk 100 feet and see families in South Korea playing, going on rides, enjoying carnival type food and Korean and American pop music blasting. A very surreal experience.

DMZ Photo Album

Another day I went to a Korean Folk Village. It's a reproduction but very detailed with homes from various regions of Korea during different periods. It's so well done many shows are filmed here. They have a lot of fun traditional presentations throughout the day (including some political humor from their recently removed president). There is a bridge towards the entrance that crosses into the next surprise amusement park. Large areas were being remodeled but there were plenty of rides and walk throughs. Additionally, this area connected to an art museum, hostel, and their own mini version of World Showcase.

Korean Folk Village

When I was planning my trip I knew I wanted to visit either Everland or Lotte World. I was lucky enough to get to visit both!

Everland is the more beautiful of the two parks. Things were just starting to bloom so the outdoor garden area had not reached its zenith yet. There was a flower festival going on while I was there so my allergies took a major beating. The pros of this park is that it's definitely great for smaller children. A lot of off the shelf amusement park rides, play areas, and dining areas it's not home to many original type attractions. The cons are the food is very monotonous and you have to earn it at this park. And what I mean by that is there are numerous steep hills to get to different areas and you have to hike it or go up/down steep stairs. There are very few wheelchairs or strollers in the park and everyone walks once they are able to. It's not a full day park for the experienced theme park visitor, but it's very lovely even if the attractions leave a lot to be desired. In regards to food, there are a lot of locations but they serve the same 3 types of food or 3 types of snacks. I tried the bulgogi pastry and it was too sweet. Oddly more suited for a typical American palette versus Korean tastes.

Everland

Lotte World was a surprise trip. I wasn't looking forward to a day of shopping in Gangnam so my cousin offered to go with me to Lotte World instead. Hooray! While Everland is beautiful, Lotte World definitely has more to do. Attached to a mall, there is an indoor skating rink that has two levels of amusement park above it and an entire outdoor area as well. So, while this area definitely has more interesting attractions, they are obviously ripped off from a lot of popular attractions. I give them props for trying to do something to the level of Disney and Universal but you can tell they often would say "I want an Indiana Jones/Mummy ride. No, like mash them together. Yeah, like that." There are also A LOT of ex pats (mostly Russian) who play the face characters in the park or are performers. It was a bit odd. They did have the CUTEST cotton candy ever for sale and yes, I had to buy one.

Lotte World

Hope you enjoy these pics of some Korean amusement/theme parks!