Autumn 2024. Ten years after my first trip to Seoul in 2014, I am returning to the Republic of Korea, better known as South Korea. Not solo this time, but with Oriol, who has never been to Korea. On the itinerary: flying with Qatar Airways to Incheon via Doha, capital Seoul, the historic city of Gyeongju, Busan, Jeju Island and a second stint in Seoul, where we are joined by Sehyeon. We’re spending two weeks in South Korea. The ROK is such a popular destination now. Will we experience overtourism?

Oriol and I have been researching Korea and travelling to Korea on and off for he last months. We even have several WhatsApp groups dedicated to links, ideas, Instagram reels, YouTube videos and shorts, tips, tricks, … regarding South Korea. 

I almost have an overdose. Content creators compete for our attention: do this, don’t do that in Korea. Be prepared, Avoid this. Download that.

It’s almost scary. Should I be scared of travelling to South Korea?

“What you know, doesn’t work”

“Don’t trust Google Maps” is one of the first warnings I received. “Instead use KakaoMap and Naver.”

Okay then. These were two of the many Korea-specific apps I dowloaded.

Apps to download

Other apps I installed especially for South Korea are:

• KakaoTalk, the main chat and communication app in South Korea.
• Kakao T, its taxi app.
• K.Ride, Kakao T’s version for foreigners. 
• Papago, as I was advised it is better than Google Translate for Korean.
• Jack’d, which is the leader in gay dating apps in the regio (and not Grindr).

How to pay?

Korea relies on cash. Perhaps not as much as Japan. We’ll be able to compare in 2025. 

But cash cards or pay cards are popular. Cards which you top up with cash and you can use to pay public transport and pay in convenience stores. Tmoney is the standard in that regard. 

A new player on that market is WOWpass. WOWpass combines being a credit card, a public transport card and it also offers or offered a discount on the Airport Railroad Express Train (AREX) and it can contain a uSIM (a physical SIM card) or an eSIM. 

I chose the eSim. Oddly, I will only receive the QR code at the SKT Roaming Booth at Incheon Airport Terminal 1 once I redeem my physical WOWpass card. 

So, what is the advantage of an eSIM if you don’t get the QR code in advance? If I did, I wiould be able to be online once we land. 

There are other options, such as the Seoul Climate Card Tourist Pass, which charges USD 2 per day for public transport and also offers discounts to some attractions. But it only works in Seoul.

Maybe the WOWpass wasn’t the best option, but it’s hard to tell in advance. 

Booking in advance

It’s 2024 and you need to book things in advance. Our Korail train from Seoul to Gyeongju was fully booked in first class, so we booked second class. Our journey from Gyeongju to Busan will be in first class, because that’s how we roll. 

Some activities have to be booked in advance as well. If you want to go up the Hallasan, you need to book. But we decided not to do it as it seems too time-consuming and too hard. I’m no hiking champion.

Hallasan (한라산) is a shield volcano on Jeju Island. Its summit, at 1,947 metres  or 6,388 feet, is the highest point in the country. The area around the mountain is a designated national park, named Hallasan National Park. Hallasan is commonly considered to be one of the three main mountains of South Korea, along with Jirisan and Seoraksan. 

Maybe there are other attractions to book in advance, but at the time I’m writing this, I haven’t.

Check-in

It was Oriol who made the hotel bookings, so it is him who receives communications from them. Our hotel in Seoul mailed us.

Warm greetings from Fraser Place Namdaemun Seoul.

Kindly inform if the check-in is the next day or if there is a change in the schedule, please contact the hotel before check-in.

If you don’t arrive at the hotel by 12 p.m. the day after check-in without saying anything, you will be charged a no-show fee for one night, and if you check-in after 12 p.m., you can make a reservation at the lowest price provided by the hotel, not the existing Booking.com rate. If you have booked a non-cancellation or non-changeable condition, you may be charged a no-show fee for full amount.

Should you require further assistance, please not hesitate to contact us.

Thank you!

Best Regards,

Fraser Place Namdaemun Seoul

Funnily, Oriol received a similar message from his hotel in Lisbon in Portugal when he went there in September 2024. Do these hotels have experience with people messing up time zones and dates? 

But as we land at Incheon in the early evening, this will be no issue for us. 

So?

Oriol and I are planners, but not every detail is planned. So there is room for improvisation and spontaneity. We are fast travellers and tend to do a lot in one day. Hong Kong and Macau in 2023 and Iceland in 2022 illustrate that.

I feel Korea demanded a lot of research. Is it exaggerated? We’ll see. Did we prepare well? We’ll see.

This blog post was written en put in the content management system (CMS) shortly before we left for South Korea at the end of September 2024. 

I haven’t updated it since, so it (re)presents my train of thoughts before the trip. Photos used are from visit to Seoul in 2014. 

Seoul 2014

• Gyeongbokgung Palace and National Folk Museum.
• Deoksugung Palace by night.
• Changdeokgung Palace.
• War Memorial of Korea.
• PHOTOS | Korea’s DMZ and Joint Security Area (JSA) up close and personal.
• Dongdaemun Design Plaza.
• N Seoul Tower / Namsam Tower, the realm of couples.
• Impressions of Seoul.
• Lessons learned from travelling solo to Seoul.