Travel Tips

I will list down a few tips that will help travel make your travel in Korea easier. I don't claim to be a travel expert, not by any stretch of imagination at least. However based on my experience on travel to at least 12 different locations in Korea, I found these handy.

Tip 1. Purchase a travel card Ex. T Money POP card, the basic card costs 2500W (to be interpreted as 2500 won). You can charge for a minimum of 1000W and any amount upward, usually for a day's trip for distance of 30 km and back, by subway / buses, it will not exceed 6000W. So 10000W should be an ideal recharge amount. You can purchase the card in any departmental store. The card also applies in taxi's, however very used often in subways and public bus. The charge is not always a straight forward distance calculation, certain parameters like, time difference between first and second journey, distance difference between fist hop and second hop etc, play a role in fare calculation. A couple of trips should enlighten anybody about the tricks of the trade.

Tip 2. South Korea is very well connected by trains and the subway system is excellent. Any expat would find travel easy with the subway map. The subway map can be download to your phones or you can obtain a free copy at the tourism information center in any city. The subway system is based on line numbers, a close look at the map will help you reach any city by changing trains at appropriate line changing stations. Must have thing.

Tip 3. A little bit of google for possible routes, line exits, alternative travel options, distance and duration always help in planning your trip better. There are upteen websites which provide such information, in my opinion, the offical korea travel website Travel Korea is more reliable and updated.

Tip 4. All it takes is knowledge of a few handy Korean words to make it a successful trip along with all the planning. Do keep some words handy, you can find them in the links I shared in my previous posts. It always helps to know the name of the destination in terms of local language, as commoners may not be aware of the place by plain English reference names.

Finally, the key ingredient would be your enthusiasm to travel. You can get all the resources you want, but the lack of enthusiasm, cannot be equated for any amount of planning or resources. Korea is a beautiful country, the people are helpful and friendly, and transportation system is excellent. It cannot get better than this. Go out, get some sunshine !

Some more pics