First time travelling to Korea

So, you’re thinking of using your holiday time travelling to South Korea? It’s an amazing place, a great blend of culture, traditional activities and modern, fast-paced city life. Here are some tips we wish we knew to fully enjoy your time in South Korea.

Where to stay and how long?

Stay at Seoul for short trips around 5 days

Add on Jeju island for longer trips around 10 days total

Check out Busan for even longer trips

Is Korea safe?

We felt very safe strolling the streets late at night. It seemed to be very common for Koreans to leave their belongings like their phone, designer handbags and wallets on the table and walk away to get their food, drinks or go to the toilet confirming the claims that theft hardly occurs in Korea. The Visit Korea site, a great place to start when planning your trip, confirms the streets of Korea are quite safe and theft or assault us hardly seen or heard of, and crime rates are low.

Getting around is super easy but working out the way there is harder

Seoul and Busan are well supported with public transport. Catching subways and buses are really easy to do, even if having to transfer between lines. For longer trips, catching a bullet train is simple (booking SRT tickets require a bit more work).

Trains are so cheap and come very frequently. One of the very first things you need to do is buy a Tmoney card. If you're like us and find it scary trying to navigate language barriers after a long flight, you will love their easy to use vending machines near the airport train station. You can easily buy a Tmoney card at the airport station vending machine. Find the vending machine with the Korea tour card for KRW 4,000, giving you access to discounts across Korea.

Next step is to top up your newly purchased Tmoney card. Go to the top up machine with instructions in multiple languages near the vending machines to top up. We recommend a minimum of KRW 10,000 to cover the cost of catching the AREX train to your accommodation.

Driving is a step up in difficulty, especially if you’re like us from Australia who drive on the left side of the road. Remember to get an international driver’s license if you are hiring a car.

Check out our getting around Korea guide to easily know how to navigate where you want to go. Be aware finding the best public transport and walking routes to use require a bit more effort. So plan ahead and…

Get ready to use Korea specific apps alongside your usual navigation apps

Unlike other countries, using only Google maps to navigate around will be a challenge in Korea. Google maps do not have accurate walking directions in Korea with walking estimates if you could fly or walk through buildings from one location to another. Google maps also do not have any driving instructions in Korea. We still recommend having Google maps because it is fantastic at easily finding out the best public transport to get to your location.

According to Google maps, from the subway exit, smash your way through some buildings and then walk over the Han river.

So, what other apps should you download? We use Kakao Maps (iOS and android) together with Google maps as it adds on accurate walking and driving directions. Naver (iOS and android) is a highly rated alternative. That being said, it's not the easiest using Kakao Maps with Google maps because a lot of places in Kakao maps will only be known in Korean. Check out the tips we wish we knew before arriving in Korea in our Essential apps holidaying in Korea guide so you can navigate around Korea like a pro.

Not all foreign credit cards will work. Bring some small cash.

We rarely have to take out physical money in our everyday life and pay everything on card. We always bring our debit card and Latitude 28° Global Platinum credit card which do not have any additional fees for foreign currency conversions when exploring the world. To our surprise, our trusty Latitude credit card wasn't accepted at Starbucks in Korea! We even successfully used it at other stores in Korea! To save yourself from an embarrassing situation like we have, you can use your Tmoney as a prepaid card or use a debit card because that never failed.

A thing to know in Korea when using foreign cards is that you have to insert the chip into their machine and occasionally sign for orders using their electronic machine. It's something to adjust into compared to our tap and go habits in Australia.

Paying for things on card can be done widely across Korea but always bring some small cash with you. You'll want some cash if you walk past a great food stall selling delicious Hotteok. You also will need cash if you want to top up your Tmoney card at a subway station because the machines only accept cash.

Mobile internet access makes life easier. Having a Korean phone number is even better

We easily used the most data we have ever used in Korea compared to other countries we have visited. It's probably because we were using apps all the time to get to where we want to go and translation apps. So, prepare and get tonnes of data so you don't get hit with a huge roaming cost! Restaurants and even hotels may ask if you have a Korean phone number so they can call you when a table or your room is available. They generally won't accept a foreign number. So, prepare in advance and try to get a Korean phone number so you don't miss out! will be needed. We used Korea SIM Card International Shipping Service - Trazy which also has tonnes of data (affiliate link to help support us without it costing you any extra). It was so simple and easy. Order in advance and it gets sent right to your place before you arrive in Korea. It only took around a week from ordering for it to arrive in our letter box (but we do advise ordering it even earlier than that just in case).

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