Visiting Korea: The basics

So, you are planning on travelling to South Korea? Well, allow us to share some tips and insights from our recent trip.

1. To Visa or not to Visa?

As a South African passport holder you don’t need a Visa, but you will need to get the K-ETA. It is a very straightforward application that costs around R150. Mine (Mika) didn’t take longer than 48hours to get issued from the time I completed and submitted the application. I completed the application a week or two before the trip. I would advice you to do further independent research around the time of your trip just to make sure there aren’t any changes to the process.

2. Flights

We booked our flights with Cathay Pacific and the food was bussing! The total cost for the return flights was +-R16 000. We intentionally selected a flight with a 10hour layover in Hong Kong just to explore and as a South Africa passport holder you do not require a visa which gave us the opportunity to explore an additional country at no extra cost (flights and Visa wise).

3. Accommodation

We spent almost a month in Korea travelling from city to city (Seoul, Jeju, Busan and Seoul again) so we mixed it up with the accommodation. We booked an Airbnb in Jeju, a hotel in Busan and both Airbnb and hotel in Seoul (we were in Seoul for a while). The cost of accommodation will depend on the duration of your trip, where you wish to stay and your preferred type of accommodation. We stayed at 2 different Airbnb’s in Itaewon and found it to be affordable and convenient.

4. The Apps

There are a few apps you should download before your trip to South Korea, namely Papago, Kakao Taxi, Naver Maps, Kakao Maps, Kakao Talk, BucaCheck and the Korail app if you plan on taking the KTX.

5. Connectivity and transport

We purchased E-sims with unlimited data at the airport. It was very inexpensive. In terms of transport. We used both land and air modes transportation during our stay in Korea. We booked our flights to Jeju and from JeJu to Busan with JejuAir before arriving in Korea and the website was user friendly and had an English language option. No issues there. We used the KTX from Busan to Seoul. We made the booking on the app while in Korea and the app was user friendly and accepted international/foreign cards.

We purchased our T-Money cards at the airport upon our arrival at Incheon and used it for both the bus and Subway. The subway system was quite easy to navigate, it isn’t different from subway systems globally. The bus we found to be very easy to use and Kakao maps made it even easier but here you might need your good friend Papago for the translations.

6. Food

The food was so good. You will be spoilt for choice at a very low price. We literally would leave our hotel or Airbnb and be confronted with many good food options. The food options are yours to indulge in, but we will have a separate article on what we ate and what our favourite foods were.

7. Cost of the trip

Our trip worked out to be quite expensive but that’s because we were doing too much. You can definitely explore and enjoy Korea in an inexpensive and budge friendly way.

We hope these basics help and do enjoy your trip to Korea!

Article by Mikateko

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