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potaehyungto-blog · 9 years ago

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TIPS ON PLANNING YOUR SEOUL TRIP

A lot of fellow fangirls have been wondering and asking us why we’re always in Seoul. We consider it our happy place - a haven for people like us who have a deep fascination towards Korean pop culture, Korean food, Korean beauty/fashion and just about anything Korean!^^ That being said, we always find ourselves coming back to this country whenever time would permit us or an opportunity arises.

We have received emails/messages from people who are concerned about travel expenses, transportation, lodging, etc. We understand that as a first timer, you can’t help but feel anxious. Trust us, we felt the same way back when it was our first time, but after a few trips, we’ve somehow realized that it is quite easy with careful planning and the right preparation.

To help our fellow fangirls make their Seoul trip/s happen, we’d like to share a few, random and cost/time-efficient tips based on our experiences:

★ BOOK YOUR AIRFARE AHEAD OF TIME

If you’re planning to visit Seoul, determine the dates and number of days of intended stay as soon as you can so you could book a flight early. Thankfully, gone are the days when airfares are so expensive! These days, there are numerous flight promo offers from various airlines as long as you book ahead of time. We usually fly via AirAsia or Cebu Pacific since these two airlines always offer reasonable and budget-friendly flights to Incheon (the main airport hub of Korea where most international flights land/depart.) To give you an estimate, a roundtrip ticket per person would cost around Php 6,000 - Php 14,000. It could even go higher but of course, the price would depend on certain promo offers, how far or near the flight was booked prior to departure and the month or season of the intended trip. Airfare prices during peak seasons such as Holy Week and Christmas/New Year are understandably more expensive.

★ CHOOSE TO STAY IN A ‘GUESTHOUSE’ FOR YOUR LODGING

If you’re willing to forego the frills of staying in a hotel, then staying in a guesthouse is your best option for lodging that would be well within your budget. Guesthouses have become a really popular type of accommodation in Korea for tourists, especially backpackers. Maybe you’re wondering, what exactly is a guesthouse? It is a home that’s owned usually by a family or a couple which they re-model and transform into a space with many bedrooms and a shared kitchen/living room/ bathroom. One night’s stay at a guesthouse would cost around Php 900 - Php 3,000 depending on the location, size of the room and number of persons sharing a particular room. We’d love to go into more detail regarding guesthouses and give out our suggestions as to where to stay in particular so we’ll save all the nitty gritty of this topic for another post so do watch out for it!

★ PURCHASE A ‘T-MONEY’ CARD AT A LOCAL CONVENIENCE STORE

T-money is usually a card that you load with money and use to pay for transportation fares in Seoul such as the subway, bus or taxi. It’s very convenient because it saves you from the hassle of purchasing single journey tickets on the subway every time or taking out money from your wallet to pay for your bus or taxi fare.

Upon arrival at the airport, look for convenience stores such as 7-Eleven, CU, GS 25, Story Way, etc. and purchase a T-money card. It costs around Php 80 (KRW 2,000) and looks something like this:

If you are taking the subway to Seoul city, you will find T-money reloading machines before you enter the station. Just place your card on the machine and follow the instructions on how to load it with money. Don’t worry because the machine has an English guide. You can opt to either load a big amount that’s estimated to be more or less sufficient for your entire stay already or just load a small amount good for 2 days, it’s entirely up to you.

When you enter the subway station, tap your card above the sensor with the T-money logo on the turnstile and wait for the beep sound. You will see that two amounts will be displayed in red on a small screen. The one above indicates the amount that will be deducted from your card and the amount below indicates the remaining balance. Same with the bus, once you board, place your card on the sensor and also before you alight. When in the taxi, inform your driver that you intend to pay using T-money before placing your card on the sensor, which is located between the driver and passenger seat.

Side note: If you can, avoid taking the taxi at midnight until 4 am because there is a 20% additional surcharge on top of your fare.

There are also other T-money designs if you don’t want the regular ones found at convenience stores. For example, this T-money card has EXO Sehun’s photo on it. This one costs around Php 480 or KRW 12,000 (quite expensive since the card is holographic).

You can also opt for a phone charm T-money so you can just attach it to your mobile phone or to your keychain. This one costs around Php 400 or KRW 10,000.

★ DO NOT EXCHANGE ALL OF YOUR US DOLLARS OR PHILIPPINE PESOS AT THE AIRPORT BANK/AIRPORT MONEY CHANGER.

Based on our observation from previous trips, having your US dollar or local currency exchanged would best be done in Myeongdong shopping area than at the airport. Upon arrival, just exchange the amount you think you’ll need up until the time that you have the chance to go to Myeongdong. Since Myeongdong is a main spot for tourists, there are a lot of money changers there that offer good exchange rates. We suggest that you go around the area first to compare the rates before deciding on where to have your money exchanged.

★ EAT KOREAN STREET FOOD OR ‘CONVINI’ PACKED MEALS

This is just a tip if you are on a tight budget. If not, then by all means, splurge on all the deliciously, mouth-watering food Korea has to offer!

We don’t always splurge on food when we’re in Seoul because we need our fangirl funds too! However, it doesn’t mean that being on a budget would make you go hungry because you’ll find a lot of cheap eats in Seoul! In fact, Korean street food is really popular and you’ll be amazed at how yummy yet inexpensive they are! Some of our favorite street food are - odeng (fish cake), tteukbokki (spicy rice cakes), hotteok (pancake filled with japchae or brown sugar), egg bread and assorted sausages on sticks. The cost of these street eats range from around Php 40 - Php 100 which is not bad at all since they’re so filling!

Aside from street food, you can also opt to buy some snacks and packed meals at convenience stores. A popular convini snack would be kimbap (rice and other ingredients such as ham, tuna or vegetables rolled or wrapped in seaweed) - the triangle kimbap costs around Php 20 and the kimbap roll which is good for sharing costs around Php 80. Convini packed meals are also available for around Php 100 - Php 150 and these usually come with rice, vegetables and a viand.

★ CAREFULLY PLAN YOUR ITINERARY

As with any other trip, especially if it’s your first time visiting, it’s always good to prepare an itinerary. It’s up to you how detailed you want it to be, but before your trip, do a little research and make an outline or a list of places you want to see, food you want to eat, things you want to buy, etc. It will help save a lot of time and let you accomplish and maximize your trip.

★ DOWNLOAD THESE USEFUL AND HELPFUL MOBILE APPLICATIONS

The amazing power of technology lets you plan a trip with just a few movements of your fingertips! We would like to share with you some of the mobile apps that we find handy whenever we plan a Seoul trip or whenever we’re in Seoul.

AirAsia - Its simple mobile interface lets you search for flights and other details easily

Booking.com & Airbnb - These are the apps that we frequently use to book our guesthouses for our trips. You may filter your search results per area and per type of accommodation (for example: search for guesthouses in Hongdae or Myeongdong area; for the type of accommodation, if you don’t want a guesthouse type, you can also filter your results to hotels only)

Accuweather - Make it a habit to check the weather forecast during your planned trip so you can pack your things accordingly!

Jihachul - Korea has such an efficient subway system that we enjoy taking the subway whenever we’re there. This app has been extremely useful to us in finding out the stations of the places we go to, how many transfers we need to take and even how many minutes until a certain train arrives.

And there you have it! We hope that you’ll find these random tips useful for those of you who are planning to embark on their fangirl/fanboy adventure in Seoul! Enjoy~

P.S.

If you have any questions or comments regarding our tips, drop us a line here on our blog!

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potaehyungto-blog · 9 years ago

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