Important: All prices are displayed in the original Korean currency (Korean Won or KRW), with the conversion to euros and U.S. dollars shown in parentheses, using today’s exchange rate as of November 7, 2024.
Incheon Airport to Seoul
The options are: train, bus, KakaoT (formerly KakaoTaxi), or Uber.
Our hotel was located in the Myeongdong area, and since we landed quite late at night (9:00 PM), we decided to take an Uber. It cost us about 82,000 KRW, which is equivalent to almost 55€ or 60 USD.
The trip took about 35 to 40 minutes, which is much faster than the train or bus, which usually take an hour and a half. The train and bus are much cheaper, so it depends on how much you want to spend. If anyone has information about the buses or trains, feel free to send it to me so I can add it to the article.
Taxi services: Uber and KakaoT
The few times we’ve used taxis, Uber was always cheaper. But we’ve only used it a few times, so we can’t say it will always be cheaper than KakaoT. What about you? Have you used Uber or KakaoT while in Seoul?
Tell us about your experience!
Download KakaoT for Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kakao.taxi&hl=en
Download KakaoT for iPhone: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/kakao-t/id981110422
Climate Card
You can use this card to get around Seoul after loading it at one of the machines in the subway.
With this card, you have unlimited access to buses, subways, the Gimpo Gold Line, and Seoul’s bike-sharing system.
The card costs 3,000 KRW (€2 or $2.1) and can be purchased at any 7-Eleven store.
After purchasing it, you must load it for a specific number of days at the transit machines inside
Seoul subway stations (Lines 1–9, Ui-Sinseol Line, and Sillim Line).
IMPORTANT: If you are a foreigner, you can only load the Climate Card using cash! If you want to use a credit card to load it, it must be a Korean credit card!
The prices are:
- 1 day: 5,000 KRW (€3.3 or $3.5)
- 2 days: 8,000 KRW (€5.3 or $5.7)
- 3 days: 10,000 KRW (€6.6 or $7.1)
- 5 days: 15,000 KRW (€9.9 or $10.7)
- 7 days: 20,000 KRW (€13.3 or $14.2)
- 30 days: 62,000 or 65,000 KRW (€41.1/€43.1 or $44.2/$46.3)
A good app for viewing all subway stations in Seoul in Korean and English is Mapway.
Walking
Google Maps doesn’t work very well in Seoul. You can see your current location and search for other places, but you can’t calculate the route between your starting point and destination.
During our stay, we used a combination of Google Maps and KakaoMap. KakaoMap works better and lets you calculate the route, but to search for a location using the Latin alphabet, it’s better to use Google Maps.
For example: we couldn’t find our hotel on KakaoMap, but we could on Google Maps.
Many places are quite close, and you can walk there. We found that it took about half an hour to walk from Myeongdong to visit a palace. Plus, walking lets you see much more and discover hidden gems.
Download KakaoMap for Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.daum.android.map&hl=en
Download KakaoMap for iPhone: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/kakaomap-korea-no-1-map/id304608425
