Private companion · Seoul, Korea
Most people come for five to seven days. We plan those days with you, book what needs booking, walk into the clinic beside you, and make sure the rest of the week is something you'd fly back for. We take nothing from any clinic — only from you.
Two journeys
Both deserve someone who speaks both languages — the medical one, and the one the city is actually lived in.
Korea's dermatology is genuinely a decade ahead — lasers, boosters, lifting, treatments that simply aren't offered at home yet, at prices that make the flight pay for itself. But the good clinics don't advertise in English, and the ones that do aren't always the good ones.
We talk it through before you fly, agree on a shortlist together, and book it. Then we're with you at the appointments — translating what the doctor actually said, not the sales version.
And because skin treatments leave you free by the afternoon, the rest of the week is yours: the food you've been reading about, the palaces, the pottery village two hours out, the Olive Young run where someone tells you which of the four hundred products is worth it.
Surgery abroad is a different kind of week. There's a consultation where every word matters, a morning you'd rather not face alone, and days afterward when you're swollen, tired, and eight thousand kilometres from anyone who knows you.
We're there for all of it. In the consultation room, interpreting the risks as carefully as the promises — and making sure the surgeon who consults you is named, in writing, as the one who operates. On the morning itself. And in the days after, when the swelling peaks and someone needs to bring the arnica, the cold compress, the soft food, the hat you can hide under.
Those supplies are bought and waiting before you land. That's the part nobody tells you about, and the part we take most seriously.
Whichever week you're here for — the city comes included.
Why any of this matters
We'd rather you heard this from us than discovered it at the counter. All of it has been reported by CNN, Al Jazeera and The Korea Herald — not by us.
The friendly English speaker at most clinics is employed to book procedures — fluent on the upsell, vague on the risks. Your careful description of what you want can arrive as one flat sentence. Informed consent needs a voice that answers only to you.
Brokers routinely add 30–50% — in documented cases up to 90% — on top of what Korean patients pay for the same procedure. Taxi drivers, hotel staff and Instagram "consultants" all collect referral fees. When your helper is paid by the clinic, you are the product.
Korea legislated operating-room CCTV in 2023 because surgeon substitution happened at scale. You have the right to request recording under general anaesthesia — but you must ask in writing, before surgery, and almost no foreign patient is told.
The procedure takes an hour. The week takes a week — in a city where you can't read a pharmacy label, in a hotel room, with a face you don't recognise yet. This is the part we were built for.
None of this means you shouldn't come.
It means you shouldn't come alone.
What's included
Not a menu of upgrades. This is simply what we do for everyone who comes.
Your week
It starts with a free video call. What you're hoping for, what worries you, what you can afford, how many days you can be away. Then, if you'd like us to, the real work: researching clinics against your case, sending you a shortlist with the reasoning, and — once you've chosen — arranging the appointments and finding you the right hotel, spaced so you're never rushed.
By the time you board, you know where you're sleeping, who you're seeing, and what each day looks like.
You'll make your own way in from Incheon — it's genuinely straightforward, and we'll have sent you exactly how, step by step, before you fly. If you'd rather be met, we'll arrange a private transfer for you at cost.
Then we meet at your hotel: the plan for the week, your questions, where the nearest pharmacy and convenience store are, and a first meal somewhere good.
Consultation, treatment, follow-up — we're with you from the start of the day. Interpreting, watching the paperwork, asking the questions you shouldn't have to know to ask. If it's surgery, we're there before you go in and there when you come round.
Afterwards, back to the hotel, with the supplies already in the room.
Three of your days include full accompaniment on a five-to-seven-day trip; four on a longer one. The others, Seoul is yours — with plans already made, reservations already booked, and one message away if anything at all comes up. Lost, confused, unwell, or just want company for dinner: message.
And if recovery turns harder than expected, we don't watch the clock. Staying longer because you need us is our call to make, and it isn't billed. Extra days are for the good version — when you're well and want another day out in the city.
Before you fly, a final check that you're fit to travel and clear on aftercare. After you're home, we stay your bridge to the clinic — questions relayed, answers translated, photos passed on. The conversation doesn't go quiet just because you did.
Pricing
We're the only service in Seoul that publishes its prices — because we're the only one whose price doesn't depend on which clinic you pick or what you spend there.
Three steps, and no surprises in any of them.
Talking to us is always free — the first video call costs nothing and carries no obligation at all. The deposit comes only when you decide to go ahead. It holds your dates and starts the clinic research: your case studied properly, credentials verified through the Korean registries, a shortlist built with honest reasoning, including what we didn't like.
If you come, the $100 comes off your total — so it costs you nothing in the end. If you cancel, we keep it. We take one client at a time, so holding your week means turning other people away, and the research is already done by then. It's the only protection we have, and we'd rather tell you plainly than hide it in small print.
The rest is settled face to face once you've arrived, in US dollars, in cash. Do bring it with you: Korean cash machines dispense won, not dollars. Nothing else is due before you fly — no large sum wired ahead to someone you've not yet met.
Your clinic, your hotel, your flights, your meals — all paid by you, in your own name, at the price they charge. We find the hotel, send you the exact booking and the reasons for it, and you confirm it on your own card. Your money never passes through our hands, so we can never take a cut of it.
Every week is quoted individually — the figures above are where it starts, and your written quote confirms the final number before you commit. It never moves afterwards. We take one client at a time, never two at once. Medical emergencies are answered at any hour, free, always — and if you need us beyond your accompanied days, we stay without charging you.
Your companion
Arum began with a simple observation: Seoul is full of helpful people, and almost none of them work for the patient. The coordinator works for the clinic. The agency is paid by the clinic. The lovely person who recommended a place took a fee for it.
Alison Kim is a Seoul native and a nationally certified Tourist Interpreter Guide — a Korean government licence requiring examination in language, culture and professional conduct. She grew up between the two worlds you'll be moving through: native-level English on one side, and on the other the unwritten codes of Korean clinics, pharmacies, paperwork, and which restaurant is worth the queue.
You won't be handed between staff. The person on your first video call is the person at your hotel, in the consultation room, outside the operating theatre, and at the Olive Young counter telling you that you don't need the expensive one. For the many people who travel here alone, that continuity is usually the reason they chose us.
Our lines in the sand
Not a referral fee, not a kickback, not a "marketing partnership", not a discount quietly passed to us instead of to you. Our entire income is the fee on your invoice. It is the reason everything else on this page can be true.
We research clinics against your case and tell you what we found — including what we didn't like. You decide; we book what you chose. Since no clinic can pay us, no clinic can buy its way onto your shortlist.
Your hotel costs what the hotel charges. Your treatment costs what the clinic charges. We don't take a slice of your bookings, and we'll show you the rates.
We're not doctors and won't pretend to be. Every medical decision belongs to you and the licensed physicians you choose. Our job is making sure nothing is lost between you.
Your package includes a set number of accompanied days. But if we judge that you need us longer — a hard recovery, a complication, a day that simply went wrong — we stay, and we don't charge you for it. Added days are for when you want more of Seoul, not for when you're struggling.
"This price expires Friday" is a sales tactic, not medicine. If anyone pressures you, we'll be the voice saying: you're allowed to sleep on it, and you're allowed to walk out.
Discretion is absolute. No testimonials without your written consent, no photos, no stories. We'll sign an NDA on request.
Answered honestly
Because "free" isn't free — it's just billed to you somewhere you can't see it. Agencies that cost you nothing are paid by clinics for delivering patients, and that money comes out of your quote. Documented broker commissions in Seoul have run from 30% to 90% of the surgery price.
So the real question isn't free versus paid. It's whether you'd rather pay a fee you can see, to someone who works for you, or a commission you can't see, to someone who works for the clinic. Ours is roughly what a US patient advocate charges for a single day — $150 to $325 an hour is the going rate there — for a week of care here.
Two payments, to us. A $100 deposit when you decide to go ahead, which holds your dates and starts the clinic research — and the balance in person in Seoul, in cash, once you've arrived. The deposit comes off your total, so if you come it costs you nothing extra. If you cancel, we keep it: by then the research is done and we've turned other clients away to keep your week free.
The balance is in US dollars only, so please bring cash with you — Korean ATMs give out won, not dollars, and changing money on arrival is an errand you won't want on day one.
Everything else you pay directly to whoever provides it: the clinic, the hotel, the airline, the restaurant. We'll tell you exactly which hotel and why, and send you the booking — but you confirm it on your own card, at their price. We take no commission and add no markup, and the simplest guarantee of that is that your money never touches our account.
No — we research it with you. We'll look properly into clinics suited to your case, check board certification through the Korean registries, and send you a shortlist with honest reasoning, including the reservations we have. You choose. Then we handle the booking and the scheduling.
The important part: because no clinic can pay us anything, nothing can buy its way onto that shortlist. That's what makes the recommendation worth having.
Honestly? Because it would raise everyone's price for something most people don't need. Incheon to central Seoul is one of the easiest airport journeys in the world — the express train and the airport buses are excellent, and we'll send you exact, step-by-step instructions for your terminal, your hotel, and your arrival time.
If you'd still prefer to be met, we'll arrange a private transfer at cost. We just won't pad the package with it.
On three of your days, we're with you from the morning — consultations, treatment, follow-ups, and whatever else that day holds. Those are the days that need a person, not a phone.
On the other days, the planning is already done: your reservations are made, your itinerary is in your hand, and we're one message away. If something goes sideways — you feel unwell, you're lost, a clinic calls — we respond.
And if it turns out you need us for longer than the package covers, we stay. That judgement is ours to make and we don't bill you for it. Added days are for the opposite case: when you're doing well and simply want more of the city.
Most of our clients do, and it's precisely why we exist. From your first day to your last, there's one consistent English-speaking person who knows your case, your plan, and your worries: at the clinic, on the difficult morning, and on the quiet afternoons when being alone in a foreign city feels heaviest. Solo travellers often say having a woman alongside is what made the trip feel possible at all.
That's the whole idea behind the Skin & Seoul week. Most dermatological treatments leave you free within hours, so the afternoons and the days between are genuinely yours — and we'll have planned them if you want, from the museums to the pottery village to the meal you'll still be thinking about next year.
Surgery is different, and we'll be straight with you about that: the days after are for resting. But even then there are gentle afternoons, and we'd rather plan those than pretend they don't exist.
We can't practise medicine and we won't promise outcomes — no honest person can. What we can promise: you will never face a problem through a language barrier. If a complication arises, we're at the clinic with you immediately, interpreting precisely, documenting everything in English, and making sure your concerns land in Korean as forcefully as you'd say them at home. Emergencies are answered at any hour, at no charge. And after you leave, we stay your bridge to the clinic rather than letting the conversation go silent.
Completely. Nothing is shared with anyone — no testimonials without written consent, no photographs, no stories. We'll sign an NDA on request. Discretion isn't a premium extra here; it's simply how we work.
Start the conversation
A free, unhurried video call — no obligation and no script. Just honest answers about what your week here would really involve, and what it would really cost.
We answer across US, UK and Australian time zones. While a client is in Seoul, the line is open at any hour.
English · 한국어