Some traveling logistics for Korea
Korea by a Korean-American "kyo-po": Part 2.
You can find a list of all my Korea favorites by downloading NAVERMap onto your iPhone.
Welcome the to the second installment of my series on Korea (first installment here). As promised, this entry will be about the logistics of our trip, which I have organized into five sections: 1) The Prep; 2) The Itinerary; 3) The Sleep; 4) The Budget; 5) The Takeaways.
FYI, we’re not huge travelers so this post is not meant to be all-encompassing from a travel standpoint. I also dislike how much redundancy is out there with Internet travel —it’s truly exhaustive! Thus please refer to the links I’ve included below if you’d like more info. I hate to waste anyone’s time.
I had a few overarching considerations as I organized the trip, mainly from my experience backpacking thru Europe in college. The first one was that the fun of the trip was the trip in and of itself—the time together with family, figuring out how other people live their daily lives (i.e., my kids loved the subway), trying different kinds of foods, and just taking the whole experience in. It would not be in seeing everything on the list (for me) or eating every kind of Korean street food (for my kids), and definitely not stressing about those things! I think travel’s more about what happens in between the big attractions.
Second, time is of the essence when traveling on a tight schedule. Thus spend less on fancy meals and souvenirs and the like and more on saving time—you won’t regret it! Korean food is not meant to be fancy anyway.
1) The Prep: Read a guide and download apps.
2) The Itinerary: Set a rough itinerary of one major attraction a day. This allows time to wander and explore as you wish. It also helps ease jet-lag.
3) The Sleep: Time is of the essence! And we didn’t need a kitchenette.
4) The Budget: Under $10k for 11 days total, incl. travel
5) The Takeaways: We’re so glad we went!
1) The Prep: Read a guide and download apps.
I first read thru a “Korea With Kids Itinerary” by Show them the Globe at a cousin’s suggestion. It was incredibly helpful to orient myself to what would be the most interesting activities for my family. We went for the mostly the big hits, with a few more personal activities, and that was plenty.
I also downloaded the following apps, which were indispensable:
KakaoTalk: Chat with anyone or any business in Korea after creating an account with your American cell.
Kakao T: Affordable taxi service akin to Uber.
NAVERMap: GoogleMaps is not great in Korea. Good English cognates.
Subway Korea: Cheap and easy! Purchase a T-card at any convenience store and load up with cash only.
2) The Itinerary: Set a rough itinerary of one major attraction a day. This allows time to wander and explore as you wish. It also helps ease jet-lag.
Day 1: Seoul City Tour Bus
Back when I was in college, we study abroaders did NOT ever want to look like tourists. However by the end of my year, I threw in the towel. There is nothing more important than safety when traveling abroad, and getting geographically oriented is incredibly helpful unto that purpose. So get your big hate on and take that big red bus! It also served as a nice way to see what the kids were interested in after getting a bit more acquainted with the city.
Day 2: Gyeongbokgung Palace in traditional Korean Hanboks by day and Gwangjang Street Market by night
Rent a hanbok and receive free admission to the main Gyeongbokgung Palace around the corner. Besides a little history, observe the many present-day Chinese and Filipino tourists! That is the power of Korean drama, readers.
Day 3: Visit a hair salon, optometrist for affordable glasses, and find a skin clinic
More on this tomorrow.
Day 4: DMZ: The border between South and North Korea
I wish that we took a private tour as our kids are old enough to understand a bit of the history. It is around double the price ($50 for group, $100 for private; per person), but this is where the money would have gone a long way. Also, the DMZ actually is a very complex place and not just a barbed wire fence. I think there were actually five border/gates all told, and I for one got really confused after a while.
Days 5-7: Laundry, then travel to/from Jeju Island
(Laundry is widely available in the big tourist hotels. It was really nice to do a few loads mid-trip, and this also allowed us travel with just one rolling carry-on and backpack each. If we bought a ton of stuff to bring home, we planned to just buy a large bag to check on the flight back home. [We didn’t end up doing this though]. It also was nice not to deal with checking bags for the Jeju flight.)
Jeju Island is famous for being a honeymoon destination for Koreans. I was hoping that it would give us a breath of fresh air after a few days in the big city. It ended up being pretty blustery, but we did see something different from Seoul for sure.
Though I was originally interested in taking the train to Jeju so we could see more of the Korean countryside, it ended up being an 8-hour train journey! We opted for the 1-hour flight for less than $50 roundtrip. Depart from Seoul’s smaller Gimpo Airport direct to Jeju.
But again, time is of the essence! Jeju is actually quite large, and it took us a good 90 minutes to get to our hotel from the airport. Thus if you have just a day or two in Jeju, make sure to stay at a hotel near the airport to cut back on time.
Day 7: Old Korean Hanok Village
We are a sports family, so I knew this would be a fun experience. Take the subway and buy tickets at the stadium for cheap. Season runs roughly from April thru October.
Day 9: Yonsei University
Day 10: Skin clinic appointment at right before heading to the airport
More on this tomorrow.
3) The Sleep: Again, time is of the essence! And we didn’t need a kitchenette.
We ended up staying in three different neighborhoods in Seoul—Myeongdong, Gangnam and Jungnang. If we could do it over, we would have chosen to stay closer to the city center for the duration of our trip, as Seoul is a big city, and subway time can eat into more important things. I thus recommend properties in Myeongdong, Hongdae, Dongdaemun—all close to the city center, or Gangnam (20 minutes out by subway).
Our first Seoul hotel was more like a $89/night hotel in the U.S., but at $200/night. We thus ended up moving after two nights to our home away from home, the Hilton Garden Inn in Gangnam, also at $200/night. We walked in and the place just sparkled! The attendants’ suits were crisp, there was a snack bar with 10 different ramen options, and fresh coffee. Yay!
My family has stayed at our fair share of HGI’s up and down the West Coast. The kids love the (sometimes) free breakfast, my husband loves the price and I love the cleanliness. You just can’t beat it! After this trip, I’m going to look for HGI’s internationally. There is just something to coming home to a clean space after a long day out, especially when in a foreign land.
I am always on the lookout for hotels with kitchenettes, as it is really nice to not have to eat every meal out. I thus tried to book the expat favorite Orakai Insadong Suites, but it was full. But food is generally very affordable in Seoul, so we didn’t even end up using the kitchen in our hotels that had them. Food was also a major part of our experience. Thus I say go ahead and book just a regular room over the more expensive suites w/kitchenettes.
4) The Budget: Under $10k for 11 days total, incl. travel
R/T flights from Oregon to Korea, and Jeju Island: $5000
Hotels: $2500
Everything else (WiFi, attractions, subway/taxis, food): $1500
5) The Takeaways: We’re so glad we went!
We had so much fun and can’t wait to go back in the future sometime. Please feel free to ask any questions in the “Comments” section below (for paid subscribers only). I’ll answer them as best as I can!
And stay tuned for more posts this week on Korea. I intend to write about: 1) How to find the things a Kyo-po wants (hair salon, skin clinic and glasses that actually fit your face) and 2) The Korean Comfort Women Memorial at the DMZ.
I’ll close with a recommendation for Sulbing, which specializes in the Korean “bingsoo” dessert. I think we went five times in 11 days.
You can find a list of all my Korea favorites by downloading NAVERMap onto your iPhone.
Thank you for visiting.
Hi you! I think it depends on how busy the time of year you're visiting. I made all of our reservations for March in advance, but really wanted to switch hotels once we got there because of some hygiene issues. We were able to switch, but our options reduced from 3 hotels to 1 within an hour of searching online. So... maybe?
Do you think it’s possible to find reasonable hotel accommodations on arrival? I’ve always been concerned not to have our accommodations figured out ahead of time but it seems that this is likely an irrational concern? Love all the recommendations