Before going to South Korea I was under the impression that it would be an expensive country to travel. This seems to be a common mistake by travellers, as I’ve spoken to other people who have avoided South Korea due to the belief that prices were similar to Japan. I was pleased to find out that this wasn’t the case and, while South Korea certainly isn’t cheap like most destinations in South East Asia, you really don’t have to spend a huge amount of money here.
I wouldn’t describe myself as a budget traveller but I would say that I’m cost conscious while travelling. By that, I mean I normally stay in hostel dorms, try and avoid expensive restaurants and usually don’t take taxis unless necessary. I don’t restrict myself to a shoestring budget or skip activities I want to do because of the cost.
Aside from accommodation, which I know the costs for thanks to my booking history on various platforms, I’m not going to include a detailed breakdown of how I spent my money in South Korea as I simply don’t keep a record of day to day personal spending. However, I will give some tips on how to control your costs in South Korea and I know what my total expenditure was from bank/credit card statements, which I’ve detailed in the summary at the bottom of this article.
Currency in South Korea
The currency used here is the South Korean won (₩ or KRW). A single won is divided into 100 jeon, though jeon is no longer used for everyday transactions due to its low value and only appears in foreign exchange rates. Notes are on denominations of 10,000, 5,000 and 1,000 and coins are in denominations of 500, 100, 50 and 10.
Some common exchange rates as of February 2020 are:
1,000 won = £0.64 GBP
1,000 won = $0.82 USD
1,000 won = €0.75 EUR
ATMs are easily accessible throughout the country. Some ATMs only accept local cards, but you shouldn’t have any trouble finding machines that accept foreign cards providing you have a Visa or Mastercard. Most of the ATMs charge a fee but some do not – KB Kookmin Bank offers free withdrawals and the banks that charge tend to bill between 3,000-5,000 won. Note that most, but not all, banks charge a fee for using their debit card abroad. If you can, sign up for a debit card which offers free withdrawals overseas.
Many businesses will accept credit cards but I always recommend carrying sufficient cash with you. You won’t be able to use your card at the markets after all!
Another thing to note is that some ATMs and businesses (this applies anywhere in the world) will offer to charge you in your local currency , which is known as dynamic currency conversion (or DCC for short). I always reject this when offered as the mark up rate tends to be very high for DCC. While it does mean the exchange rate is locked in, withdrawing/paying through DCC is almost certain to result in a bigger figure coming out of your bank account. On a few occasions when ATMs have offered DCC to me, I’ve compared the quoted rate to the amount that has come out of my bank account by rejecting DCC and in every case I’ve saved at least £10 by not using it. As far as I’m concerned DCC is nothing more than a rip off, don’t accept it!
Accommodation costs in South Korea
Of the 31 nights I spent in South Korea, 29 were in hostels and the other 2 were in a private Airbnb in Jinju, as the available dorm rooms in the city were fully booked out for their annual lantern festival when I looked. I found the quality of hostels to be fine in South Korea – facilities were decent and all of them provided a breakfast (basic in most cases) and toiletries. Outside of Seoul, Busan, Gyeongju and Sokcho however, I didn’t find much of a backpacker vibe in the hostels. This perhaps isn’t surprising, as the other locations are not heavily visited. In total, I spent £478 on 31 nights accommodation, which works out to £15.42 per night. This comprises of £413 spent on hostels for 29 nights plus £65 spent on 2 nights in an Airbnb.
It’s worth noting that I spent roughly £14.50 per night for the twelve nights I stayed in Seoul between two hostels. A brief look online shows that this about average, but there are a number of hostels with positive ratings that are about £10 per night, so there is easily scope to knock around £50 off the total accommodation costs I’ve given here in Seoul alone. The £65 spent on 2 nights in an Airbnb also made my accommodation costs higher than they needed to be. I noticed that many hostels in South Korea were not listed on Hostelworld so make use of Booking.com or another alternative.
Hotels are obviously more expensive and will significantly increase your costs of a trip to South Korea if you choose this option.
Food and drink costs in South Korea
There are a whole range of options here and, if you choose to, you can certainly spend a lot dining in high end restaurants and partying in Gangnam’s nightclubs. Generally speaking, I ate in normal restaurants or at the markets. The quality of food in Korea is excellent, so you don’t have to splash out to get a tasty meal. I remember several great nights at local Korean BBQ restaurants in Seoul – for a good amount of food, beer and soju, the cost came to approximately £10 per person each time. Other local restaurants cost slightly less and eating at the markets will reduce your costs further.
Of course, drinking in bars and clubs will get expensive if you do this a lot, something I may have been guilty of. Many locals and backpackers save money by buying beers or soju from convenience stores, something I may also have been guilty of…
Transport costs in South Korea
Getting around South Korea doesn’t need to be expensive or difficult. Intercity buses are a cheap, comfortable way of getting around the country and, while it depends on where you’re going, they are usually no slower than taking the train service. I used the train once just to try it and went back to intercity buses afterwards.
Seoul, Busan and Daegu all had subway systems which I used to get around these cities. Signs are all in English as well as Korean. Bus networks were in place in the smaller places I visited. Thanks to South Korea’s public transport system, I only took taxis on two occasions, which were to/from Gangneung bus station and the hostel I stayed at there.
Upon arrival I’d advise getting a T-money card – this is a rechargeable smart card which can be used on public transport around South Korea. You simply tap in/out on local buses and at barriers at the subway stations. The card worked everywhere I went in South Korea on the local buses and subways. Make sure you tap out when leaving the buses – you will receive a discount if you’re boarding another bus or subway within the next 30 minutes. It can also be used as a payment method at some attractions, stores and for some train and intercity bus tickets. The card can also be used on taxis with the T-money or Cashbee logo affixed.
The card can be bought at Incheon Internatonal Airport (the airport for Seoul), major Seoul subway stations and many convenience stores. In addition to the convenience, the T-money card offers lower fares than paying in cash.
As an alternative to the standard T-money card, there is also a version available for foreigners, which offers discounted entry to various attractions and also discounts in some shops. I didn’t know about this card at the time, so I got the normal version and didn’t get discounted entry to any of the attractions. Annoying!
The card can be recharged in convenience stores and at machines (instructions in English and Korean) in subway stations. When leaving the country, you can get a refund providing the balance on the card is no more than 20,000 KRW. A service fee of 500 KRW will be charged for this.
Activity costs in South Korea
I should start this by saying that tours to the DMZ/JSA were cancelled at the time I visited South Korea. The tour I had booked, which was fully refunded, costs 96,600 won (£62) so my overall spending would have been slightly higher had this gone ahead. There are no activities I did in South Korea that stood out as being expensive. Of course, if you book tours it will be more expensive then getting to attractions via public transport. South Korea isn’t particularly known for adrenaline raising adventure activities so most of your costs here should just be travel expenses and entrance fees to attractions. To give you a few examples of entrance fees:
Seoul Palaces combination ticket – 10,000 won (individual tickets to each location included total 14,000 won).
Namsan Tower (Seoul) – 11,000 won for the observatory and 9,500 won for a round trip on the cable car (there may be a cheaper, combined ticket but I can’t remember and google isn’t helping to jog my memory!) You can avoid the cable car and hike up/down.
Nami Island – 13,000 won.
Seoraksan National Park – 2,500 won per day.
Daereungwon Tomb Complex (Gyeongju) – 3,000 won.
Haesindan Penis Park – 3,000 won and worth every single jeon of it.
Gamcheon Culture Village (Busan) – free!
Generally speaking, entrance costs to any individual location won’t cost you more than 3,000 won (1.92 GBP, 2.26 EUR, 2.48 USD). Some popular attractions are more expensive, but they’re not that pricey.
Summary
My total spend for 31 nights here as a solo traveller was £1,467, or £47 per day. £478 of this was on accommodation and the remaining £989 was on food, drink, transport, activities and any miscellaneous spending. I didn’t do any shopping while in South Korea, so budget extra if you plan to buy clothes, souvenirs etc while here. It’s also worth noting that I might have spent an excessive amount on alcohol during my 12 nights in Seoul, so there is scope to reduce costs here.
The figures I’ve given above don’t include airfare or any other pre trip costs, such as travel insurance and vaccinations.
While you can’t travel South Korea as cheaply as you can in say, Thailand, the costs really aren’t that bad if you go about things sensibly. I averaged a spend of £47 per day during my time in South Korea and it’s possible to do it for less as I’ve outlined in this blog. So, if you want to visit South Korea but have been put off by its perceived high cost, think again!
[…] Upon arrival I’d advise getting a T-money card – this is a rechargeable smart card which can be used on public transport around South Korea. You simply tap in/out on local buses and at barriers at the subway stations. I’ve put more detail about this in my post on the costs of travelling South Korea. […]