Pre Travel : Seoul

Planning  to travel comfort countries are relaxing because you know more about the place that you do not worry. this trip is 12 years in the making (after my last soujorn in 2012) . I am not sure if i plan to go there anytime soon after this trip. 


1  Find which airlines travel to the city you are going to. 

For Korea, Jeju Air/Tway Air/Korean Airlines/SQ.  You can decide to go budget or splurge. It costs anywhere between S$500 to S$700. Do be on a look out for fare promotions,  who knows, you might just snag a good deal. 

2 Decide on the dates you want to travel 

When do you want to go? Is it summer, winter, late spring? Are there events or concerts you would want to go to while you are there?  Is there an upcoming long weekend? Do research on the upcoming holidays in the country that you are going (unless you are going on a package tour - and you will just go with the flow).  Avoid Chuseok and Lunar New year, and any potential long weekend. 

3 Settle on a price which you are comfortable to buy tickets. 

Settle on the places you want to visit 

Is it Gyeongju or Jeonju or Sokcho?  For this trip, I have decided to go to Busan (just because i wasn't able to go there last time). I also did research on what nearby provinces are near to Busan and how to go there (usually need to find day trips from kkday, klook) and Jeonju 

Are there any other day trips you can visit? (You will also not know what other gems Seoul has to offer). 

4 See if you need visa

Most Singaporeans do not need visa to travel. However, in Korea, they still would require you to do K-ETA (which had been suspended for quite sometime now). If you belong to the general population where you need to apply visa to every country, you need to go to an agent for them to process your visa. The service on its own, costs S$90 to S$100 excluding visa fees. 

 The agent will advise if you are ok to take single visa or multiple visa.If you are applying for first time (even though you've been Korea in the past - but you did not go to Korea within 5 years from applying), you will have to apply single entry. Then on succeeding year , can opt to apply for multiple visa (which is valid for 5 years) 

After booking the airline: 

Research on how to go from Airport to City

Some countries offer shuttle services like in the US. Countries like Japan and South Korea have airport limousine buses that ply the cities (sometimes even province).  Most is by airport train (provided you do not have a lot of luggage to carry, bus is still the convenient way to travel albeit it takes longer time)

Research which hotels are near to the subway station (and if it is an airport limousine bus stop);My default will be in myeongdeong (just because it happens to be a shopping hub and the night market is there). You will not ran out of things to do or places to eat.   

Do ask the following from the hotels you are staying: 

  • ask hotels if they allow to store luggage before check in time? 
  • if they allow to store luggage after check out (is it only for a day or over a period time? will it incur any charges) 
  • ask for directions on how to go to their hotel (if you can't see in Google Map) 

Research on the activities you plan to do 

Day trips are usually the way to go (so you get to see more without planning your transport) include night view as well in the itinerary (in case you do not wish to do night market shopping all the time) 

Research which activities can be book (without the need for local sim and what are the other alternatives) 

Foreigners are usually at a disadvantage. They can't do online reservation (for express bus , other activities) because it needs a local sim card (that needs to be registered) .  For example, 

Blue House, you need to go 09:00 or 13:30 (30 mins before) if you want to do onsite visit inside the palace. 

Blue Line Sky Capsule (has option of email), reserve 2-3 weeks ahead of your intended date. 

Do get those promo code from the internet esp for Klook, KKDay. 

Download the necessary apps 

You can quickly go IG/Tiktok and find what apps people are downloading 

For Transport : Uber,  KakaoT, KorailTalk (or try to hail or board at the taxi stand) 

For Navigation: NaverMap (put a star on all your favorite location so that you can just refer to them when you want to travel) (Jeonju, Seoul , Busan) 

For Translator: Papago (I used this as my dictionary when  I study for my Korean) , DeepL 

Book your train tickets and other activities in advance 

the landscape has already changed and there are a lot of tourists these days (once summer hits) , if last time you have to queue at the station and buy your tix, this time around you have avenues to book your tix in advance (1 month before your planned trip). As much as I want to advocate and play by ear, it is best to just buy your tickets in advance 

so that we can take the timings that we wanted, we booked our KTX train online (at least this ensures us a seat, execution wise, I pray we get there in time , will spend 1.5h or early for transport, esp in areas where we are not sure on how to navigate around). We also avoided rush hr period (although yes, it will be a waste of day BUT at least we wont feel stressed). Weekday rush: 7-9AM, 5-7PM 

Check the timings 

Sunset during summer are starts quite late, sun only goes down from 0730PM (so basically since the blueline closes at 8PM, last ride at 730PM ) you many only get to ride the last train timing. However, if you are still going to other places like Gwanggalli for the drone show at 0800PM, you actually don't have a choice but to miss the sunset ride. 

also check if there are any events (festival, fireworks, or fountain shows) 

Things to make it a habit 

1. Go to Convenience store (esp on the country that you are visiting). If you still have empty space on your luggage you can buy some beverage to check in at least you can still taste and bring home snacks before flying off. 

2. Go to airport 4 - 5h before your flight (unless you are living in SG where end to end will only take you 45mins by taxi) 

3. Empty your bag the night before going to an airport. You need to check again if you have extra >100ml bottles hiding inside your bag. You only need bottled water for drinking. (which you can bring empty before you go through immigration. Some countries have a centralized security checks, which means that after clearing immigration, you need to clear security check. 

4. Check for payments (see which ones are already paid for, which aren't) and of course don't forget your bills 

Lastly, enjoy your trip and may the luck be ever in your favor (hope you don't get stuck seated in a plane with a shrieking child behind you). 

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