VodkaRouge : Transportation - How to Get Around Seoul and Jeju

7D/6N South Korea Travel Series - Seoul + Jeju Island

Travelling in Seoul was very easy. The MRT system was much like of Singapore. Be sure to get a copy of the MRT map at the airport. When we arrived at Incheon airport the first thing that we did after claiming our luggages was to buy a T-money at 7-11. It is a preloaded card that you can use for bus, train and taxi. You can also use it to pay at several fast food chains and convenience stores. Just like our Ezlink in Singapore or Octopus card in Hongkong.

One card cost KRW2500. You can top up or reload the card using the machines available at each station. We charge our cards with 10,000KRW each.

They also have an M-pass or multiple pass which is a T-money card preloaded with fare credits that you can use for a certain number of days. You just get in and out of the MRT tapping your card many times as you need to. No reloading necessary. This card and the remaining balance is refundable at the airport. You can buy the M-pass at the Airport Information Booth.

M-Passes come in five different types: 1-day, 2-day, 3-day, 5-day and 7-day passes. They are valid for the designated time period, and expire at midnight on the last day of validity. (e.g. 3-day M-Pass  Activation: January 1, 2014 / Expiration: 11:59 p.m., January 3, 2014)

For more details about the T-money, click here.

Incheon Airport to Hotel:

From the airport, you can use 3 different ways to go to your hotel. By subway, by Airport Limousine Bus or by taxi. The airport is about 1 hour to 1.5 hours away from Seoul. The nearest train station to our hotel is Jongno 3-ga.

If you are going by Airport Railroad, it costs 3,500KRW to Seoul Station. From Seoul Station you can transfer to the line nearest to your hotel.

If you are going by bus, make sure that you do your research on which bus number you should take and which station you need to get off. Click here for the Airport Bus Terminals and Routes. You can ask the hotel in which bus number you should take from the airport. If I remember correctly, the fare was around 6,000-10,000KRW per pax.

We chose the taxi as we are carrying 2 big bags, 2 hand carry bags, a stroller and a baby. Our hotel is one block away from the Airport bus stop. There's no way we can carry those bags by ourselves. It costs KRW65,000 (around SGD80) from airport to our hotel. Yes it is more expensive than bus or train, almost triple the price but it is a matter of convenience. The fare varies depending on the location of your hotel. It took us about an hour to reach the hotel.

We also arranged with our cab driver to pick us up from our hotel to Gimpo Airport 4 days later as we are going to Jeju Island. He is very good in English and we called him a day before our flight through the help of the Front Desk in hotel. We paid him 35000KRW (around 40SGD) from our hotel to Gimpo Domestic Airport. If you need a car for your sight seeing, you can also arrange a city tour with him. Here is his contact details.

Mr. Mark Kim

+82-10-3719-0821

Getting around Seoul: We use the train for most of our sight seeing trip around the city. It is very easy as long as you are equipped with a map and you know before hand in which station you are getting off.

If you are carrying a stroller, an umbrella type is very advisable or the light weight ones that you can fold easily. The downside of using an mrt is a long walk from one line to another. Not all stations have elevators and most of them are just stairs.. Stairs, not even escalator. Freaks me out!!! Waaahh!! I remember walking up and down the stairs carrying the stroller while daddy K carried the baby. Those moments I wish I was back in Singapore. hehehe... With all those walking my feet really became painful to numb.

We go by cab at about 2-3 times going from one attraction to the next when we feel that a cab is much faster than using the MRT. The flag down of taxis is 3,000KRW.

After 4 days in Seoul, me and hubby still have around 3,500KRW left in our T-money cards. We use the remaining value to pay Mr. Kim for our cab fare from hotel to airport and the balance with cash.

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Jeju Airport to hotel: Our hotel is just around 15 minutes from airport. We flag a local taxi to bring us to the hotel. We paid around 10,000KRW. If you have a map of the hotel, it will be very useful as you can show the driver where to bring you. You can also have someone to write the hotel name and address in Korean.

Getting Around Jeju: There is no subway system in Jeju like in Seoul. Either you go by bus or by taxi or rent a car. If you want a tour by bus, it is available at 79,000KRW per pax including meal and admission fees. For more information about bus tours, click here (YEHA Bus Tour). They also offer a Private Tour and a Rent-a-Car Tour.

There are 3 different course of tour in Jeju. The East Course, West Course and the Udo Island Tour.

Before leaving the airport, we asks for brochures for bus tours and taxi tours from the Information Booth. We prefer the taxi tour so we can control where to go and how much time we spend at each attraction. Referring to the brochure, the taxi rent with English speaking driver costs 150,000KRW for 8 hours.

We arrived at the hotel at around 10.30am and asked the Front Desk staff to call the number in the brochure for the taxi tour. Within 20 minutes, our taxi arrived at the hotel.

We told our driver (Mr. Lee Tae Young) that we want to tour the East part of Jeju Island. I am ready with my list of places to go and for 30 mins inside the car, the driver was locating and plotting each place in the map. With this, the drive will be easy from one place knowing where to go next. I also checked the map in the Yeha Bus Tour brochure to see if I miss anything. We follow the Yeha Course guide actually. hihihi.. I cancelled some places like museums, tea farm and garden and add in some from my list like the Mysterious Road and the Hyeopjae beach.

Our driver/photographer/tour guide Mr. Lee is very helpful. He understands a bit of English but not fluent. However he has an app in his phone that translates what he wanted to say and we also key-in in his phone if we want to tell him something. Language gap didn't really matter because we understand each other and had a good time with the tour. He recommended some other nice places and tell us if one place is not nice to go. Some places are only good during winter or autumn so we cancelled the places that has nothing but grass during the month of May. Sad we are too late for spring. :(

Mr. Lee enjoying the amazing view with us

We paid around 130,000KRW (non-English speaking driver) for 8 hours. The next day we hired Mr. Lee again from 9AM-6PM. We covered the West Course and we went 10 attractions that day. We paid the same amount but give him extra for the extra hours which he refuses to accept. My hubby was insistent and Mr. Lee gave in. Mr. Lee even gave us tip on where to eat a nice BBQ Pork which is not expensive. The next day he send us to airport and did not charge us anything. So good of him.

I recommend that you hire Mr. Lee's taxi. He did his best effort to make our trip enjoyable. Aside from that he was so fond of my little girl as he has his own daughters. He gave my baby random gifts like a head band and clip (hand made by his wife), some hallabong (oranges) during the trip and before we left to airport he hand our baby 5 boxes of Jeju goodies (crunch and chocolates) as souvenir and a dog stuff toy which my baby likes very much.

Here is his contact number.

Mr Lee, Tae Young
Mobile: 010-9981-9320
Email: nytaxi5445@hanmail.net