I went with my friend last December and the weather was pretty cold as it is situated near the seaside and the land is pretty flat. We took the train from Seoul station and it took about 5 hours to reach there. We didn't make any hotel arrangements therefore the first thing we did was to search for accommodation. After our 3rd attempt, we managed to find a cheap and simple hostel with korean-style heating floor and it cost us 12,000won per night. We put our stuff in the room and ventured to the local market and found a really nice small restaurant that sells Bibimbap with lots of side dishes and vegetables.
After our heavy lunch, we walked for about 30 minutes and we found Cheomseongdae in Wolseong Park, the oldest astrological observatory constructed between 632 and 646. It constructed simply with 12 stones on the base which symbolise the months of the year and 30 stones from top to bottom which represent the days of each month with a total of 366 stones. At present, this area is an attractive park with walls and ruins. We kept walking for another 30 minutes and we reached Gyeongju National Museum, several buildings housing the best collection of historical artefacts in Korea. Over here you could also see many original, glimmering pieces exacavated from the Tumuli Park site including gold, glass and jade. The gold jewellery worn by the previous Silla kings were beautifully made with exquisite design. We left the museum around 5 pm and since we walked there, we didn't know where to take a bus back to the station so we decided to take the back lane and walk back again. However the weather was really chilly in the evening and we didn't see any taxi on the way so we waved to a police car and guess what.... the police officer stopped his car and told us to get on his car. He said that we were crazy to walk in this cold weather and we managed to get a free ride to the station. That was my first time in a police car and in Korea. Ha ha!
On the next day, we took the local bus to Namsan area thinking that we could just hop around the temples and statues. However it was not that easy as it took about 1-2 hours hiking in the mountains to get to one and there are about 122 temple sites, 64 stone pagodas, 57 stone Buddhas and hundreds of paths. Due to that, we decided on Chibulan and hiked for about 1.5 hrs. On the way up the mountains we only saw three people probably with the same interest and chatted with a grandpa who also led us all the way to Chibulan and recommended us to drink the spring water near Chibulan. 
It was a huge rock carved with 7 buddha statues and beside this rock, there was a temple which one could stay to study buddhism. The area was serene and we saw people coming from the other way, stopping, saying their prayers, eating their lunch and moving on again. We took a long break, drinking some hot coffee, ate our lunch and we took the same path back as we were not familiar with the area.
After another 1.5 hours hike, my friend decided to take the bus back to the hostel while I took the other bus to Bulguksa, which is the crowning glory of the Silla temple architectural and is on the UNESCO World Cultural List due to the excellence carpentry work, excellent painters' skills and the subtlety of its landscape. 
There were many praying halls and I stopped by almost every hall to pray for my family's health and happiness. Make sure that you have a good pair of hiking shoes and water as there was a lot of walking involved with lots of stairs.
On our final day, we decided to go to the seaside to see the sea tomb of King Munmu by taking a Bus #150 towards Yangnam (for 1 hr) and we got off at Bonggil Beach. King Munmu was the Silla king who unified the peninsula in 668 and it's the only underwater tomb in the world with the idea that his spirit would become a dragon to protect the eastern shores of the Silla Kingdom from Japanese pirates. However don't expect that you could see any tomb as the islets are off-limits and it could be dangerous to reach there during strong tides. 
Apart from that, we were delighted to be there as the weather was sunny and we saw a lot of seagulls and blue sea. We walked along the coast picking up rocks and we saw squids drying on the string near the local restaurants. We decided to go into one to try some fresh fish. We weren't sure what to order so we just looked at what other families were eating and ordered the same one. For 2 people, we had raw fish, fried fish, shrimp, escargots, vegetables to wrap the raw fish, side dishes like kimchi, egg, fried pork... it was a huge feast yet mouthwatering and delicious.
After that we walked around and bought some fish pieces (oval shapes - filefish or leatherfish) for snacks on the train. We took the bus back to Gyeongju station and bought some local food - Gyeongju buns with red bean paste for our friends. It was definitely a memorable trip with my friend and I hope to go there again in the spring.
