South Korea Travel Tips: 7 Things Nobody Tells You (2026)
Updated: 3 days ago
Our practical South Korea travel tips, from cash and KTX tickets to getting around Seoul and what to book before you fly
We'd done our homework. We'd read all about Tmoney, downloaded the app and arrived at the airport with KRW 15,000 each already loaded onto our foreigner Tmoney cards in our Apple Wallets, smugly prepared to use Seoul's public transport system like seasoned pros.
Except you can't use Tmoney for the AREX express train from Incheon Airport to Seoul Station.
Things didn't get much more graceful from there. Seoul Station may not be quite as overwhelming as Tokyo Station, but with carry-ons in tow, it was still a lot to traverse.
Then came the subway: stairs, passageways, more stairs and seemingly not an escalator or lift in sight. By the time we finally reached our hotel in Myeongdong in central Seoul, we were sweaty, exhausted and wondering why we'd made our arrival quite so complicated.
Then we realised something slightly irritating.
The taxi we'd just spent all that time avoiding would have cost us roughly the same as the public transport for two. Needless to say, we took a taxi back to the airport.
It was a useful reminder that however much research you do before a trip, there’s always something you only figure out once you’re on the ground.
So, before you open your 47th browser tab trying to work out how everything works, here are our South Korea travel tips covering a few very useful things to know before you go.
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01 Google maps won't save you
South Korea does things a little differently when it comes to maps. Google Maps isn't the navigation hero you might expect, so download Naver Map before you go and spend a little time getting familiar with it.
Download Naver Map
iOS →
Android →
Also, when searching for names, don’t assume they’ll be written the way you found the English translation on Google. They may be hyphenated, combined into one word or separated differently. Try a few variations before giving up and assuming Naver can’t find what you’re looking for.
02 Your feet are going to work overtime
Places in South Korea look deceptively manageable on a map. Then you discover enormous subway stations, sprawling palace and temple grounds, hills, fortress walls and neighbourhoods that seem to continue indefinitely.
Comfortable shoes aren't optional. They're a strategic investment.
03 Tmoney is simple for foreigners
Since foreign contactless credit and debit cards don't work at South Korean subway and bus gates, you'll need to get comfortable with Tmoney, the country's nationwide rechargeable transport card.
Until recently, using Tmoney meant buying a physical card and topping it up with cash at train and subway stations. Having found a similar system in Japan unnecessarily annoying, we were delighted to discover that Tmoney can now be added to your digital wallet and topped up through the app instead.
Download Tmoney
iOS →
Android →
The process is slightly odd, though. Register as a foreigner, add your Tmoney card to your digital wallet, then top it up through the app. Except, despite the word “register," you don't actually provide any personal information or go through anything resembling a proper registration process. And, somewhat annoyingly, you can only use Mastercard or American Express to top up, not Visa.
We loaded KRW 15,000 each before we left and, while we did eventually use the entire amount, in hindsight we'd have started with less. Once we realised how affordable taxis were for two people, we wished we'd left more of our journeys to the car rather than the subway.
04 Don't automatically take the subway
We arrived fully prepared to use Seoul's excellent public transport system, complete with our Tmoney cards loaded and ready in Apple Wallet. And we did use them.
But then we discovered something nobody had really warned us about: taxis can be ridiculously good value, particularly when you're travelling as a pair. For some journeys, the difference between two public transport fares and a taxi was surprisingly small, while the time saved was enormous.
K.ride is particularly useful for visitors, as you can book taxis and pay through the app without having to navigate Korean-language taxi apps. We were able to link our credit card, which made the whole process even more seamless, and we used K.ride alongside Uber to give us a couple of options.
K.Ride
iOS →
Android →
Using an app is also much easier than trying to hail a taxi on the street. The rise of ride-hailing apps means many taxis are already reserved, and most drivers don't speak or read English. Unless you fancy a rather elaborate game of international charades, it's much easier to enter your destination in the app and let the driver see the address in Korean than to point at an English place name in Naver Maps while they look increasingly confused.
05 Check your cards before you go
South Korea may be high-tech, shiny and impressively cashless, but you'll still need some Korean won (KRW), particularly once you venture outside Seoul. Traditional markets, street food stalls and smaller businesses don't always accept cards.
Before you go, check that your debit or credit card doesn't charge foreign transaction or overseas ATM fees, and make sure you know your PIN. Then, once you arrive, withdraw some KRW from an ATM rather than changing a load of cash before your trip.
When the ATM asks whether you want to be charged in KRW or your home currency, choose KRW. This declines the ATM's own currency conversion and lets your card issuer handle the exchange instead, which will usually give you a better rate. The same applies when paying by credit card: ALWAYS choose KRW rather than your home currency, and use a card with no foreign transaction fees.
06 Book the things likely to sell out
Some of the things you'll want most, from trains to traditional stays, need booking surprisingly early.
Getting from A to B
South Korea is wonderfully easy to navigate north to south, thanks to an excellent network of KTX and other fast trains. East to west is another matter entirely.
If you're planning a multi-stop Korea trip, book your KTX tickets as soon as they become available which is 60 days before departure. Popular routes can fill quickly, and when your itinerary depends on a particular train, there isn't always another convenient departure waiting behind it. Check the booking schedule for your dates and set an alarm if necessary. Foreign visitors can book through the KORAIL website for foreigners.
Experiences
Then there are the experiences where “we'll sort it out when we get there” is not a particularly successful strategy.
Changdeokgung Palace's Huwon (Secret Garden) is a prime example. This UNESCO-listed garden has separate timed-entry tickets, and the popular slots can disappear remarkably quickly. Online tickets are released at 2PM KST, 6 days before your visit, which meant we were setting a 2AM alarm in London to snag ours. Worth the sleep deprivation.
We'd also recommend booking tours, guides and workshops in advance, particularly if you're after something specific. The best experiences aren't necessarily the ones with the most availability, and in smaller destinations there may be only one English-speaking guide or one particularly special class running during your visit.
We were lucky with our private tour of Boseong tea fields, where the only English-speaking local guide turned out to be fantastic and became one of the highlights of our trip.
We also booked a workshop in Seoul to carve our own stone seals in Insadong. There may be plenty of places offering similar experiences, but only one offered a class with a world-renowned calligraphy expert, so that was another one we weren't leaving to chance.
Where you're staying
Accommodation deserves a mention too, particularly outside Seoul. If you're after one of Korea's beautiful traditional hanoks, book well ahead: the best ones can sell out surprisingly quickly. And in some of the smaller towns you'll use as a base, the choice of genuinely nice places to stay can be surprisingly limited. Don't assume you'll have your pick just because you're travelling somewhere less touristy.
We were particularly surprised by Gwangju, where the Holiday Inn was booking up around our dates. The hotel is popular with business travellers, not least because of Gwangju's automotive industry, and we hadn't expected a relatively large city hotel to be something we'd need to think about booking well in advance. We managed to snag a room, but the fact that it was filling up so quickly was a useful lesson: book your accommodation earlier than you might expect, particularly outside Seoul.
07 You can relax about safety (and cleanliness)
One thing you notice very quickly in South Korea is just how safe and immaculate it is.
We saw people leave their luggage outside restaurants in Seoul Station while they sat down to eat inside. At cafes, people would leave their phones and wallets on tables while they went to collect their orders. We took the subway at all sorts of odd hours and always felt completely comfortable, regularly seeing young women travelling alone too.
Even the subway seems to have a gentle obsession with keeping everyone on their best behaviour. Instead of filling every screen with adverts, you’ll often see public service announcements about etiquette and safety.
And then there's the cleanliness.
Unlike New York or London, where you're quietly grateful you had a tetanus jab before touching anything, Seoul is so clean you could probably eat off the floor of the subway. We visited after a city-wide festival and still couldn't get over how little litter there was.
There are also plenty of clean public bathrooms around South Korea, which is always a welcome discovery when you're sightseeing all day. The only downside? Sometimes there's communal bars of soap and, more bafflingly, ineffective hand dryers. You win some, you lose some.
Thankfully, though, you don't have to carry your rubbish around all day. Unlike Japan, where finding a bin can become an unexpected sightseeing challenge, Seoul has plenty of places to dispose of things.
Obviously, use common sense and keep an eye on your belongings, as you would anywhere. But you can leave some of that big-city vigilance at home. South Korea is one of those places where you quickly realise you're not constantly looking over your shoulder.