Travel around Korea in under 3 Weeks for $1000

A no-nonsense guide on seeing Korea in three weeks for $1000

The national flag of South Korea

This guide is aimed at the shoe-string traveler; the backpacker; the online 'entrepreneur' scraping by while seeing the world; the couple on a break from their ESL job somewhere; or just those who are nearby in other parts of Asia and fancy a quick low cost airline flight to see what all the fuss is about... 

Don't let the small budget make you think that you can't see and do a WHOLE lot while you're here... 

I'm going to show you exactly how to do everything worth doing and on a budget of around $50 a day. A budget which includes eating, sleeping and travelling. Everything. Sit back, kick-back, relax. Your questions will be answered. Ambitious? Perhaps, but certainly possible.

KTX bullet train

The first thing you need to know is how to get around once you are here. I would recommend traveling how the locals travel. In the city you should take the bus and use the subway whenever possible. As it costs around one dollar per journey you can abuse this form of transport relentlessly and have no worry about your budget. Additionally, you can switch from the bus to the subway and from the subway to the bus as long as its within a 30 minute time window. Taxis are also reasonably cheap, but... taxis are a last option because you want to use your money wisely! That said, taxis are still a good bet in comparison with the UK, USA, Australia or other developed western countries. Travel from city to city is also easy and affordable. You can use the bus or take the train. Each city has at least one bus terminal and train station. The bigger the city the more bus terminals and train stations you can find. Trains are especially cheap if you take the slower trains (which incidentally are the same speed as normal trains in the UK) and it's still reasonable in price if you take the KTX (bullet train). Seoul to Daejeon, for example, is around $20 on the KTX, and even cheaper if you take one of the slower trains.

Seoul subway ride

Between bus terminals, subway stations, trains and taxis you have all of your travel covered. Estimate to spend no more than $210 on travel during your stay in Korea and you will be fine. This may sound low but if you only use the cheaper buses and trains for city to city travel every couple of days and then only stick to using the subway system within the cities it is certainly possible.






The next essential part that you need to know about is where to sleep. This can burn money in every travelers pocket, but luckily the best money saving tip for you is to sleep in a jim-jil-bang!

What is a jim-jil-bang? I hear you ask. Well, it's basically a spa and sauna place with areas to relax (and sleep!). Every city has several of these places and they are usually no more than 9,000 won (roughly $9) for up to 24 hours of use. They offer a locker for your things (an average sized backpack would fit) so you can relax and feel safe in the knowledge your worldly travel possessions are fine.

Jim-jil-bang sleeping capsule

One caveat; the spa areas are separated and nudity is kind of the social norm! So expect to be naked in the changing areas but, don't worry, not a soul will care as they've seen it all before.

There is also a larger shared area that both genders can visit. Here there are a number of saunas, hot rooms, cool rooms and cold rooms. Usually there is a restaurant, a small shop, some singing rooms, a gym, some massage chairs, and (most importantly) some sleeping areas.

The sleeping areas are what you should especially take advantage of! 

So for around $9 a day you can sleep, wash, relax and feel refreshed in every city all throughout Korea. An important part is finding them. Remember the phrase 'Jim-jil-bang odi eh yo?' (where is the jim-jil-bang?) Ask people, use body language, or go online and search for expat groups on facebook and ask there (Daejeon Peeps is a helpful one, for example).

That is essentially the number one money saving tip while travelling in Korea - aside from couch-surfing. $9 over three weeks and you've spent just $189 on accommodation and add to that just $210 on travel.. you've just spent $400 and you've still got $600 left of our imaginary $1000 budget to spend on the rest of your stay.

Korean won

With $600 remaining for three weeks of spending is roughly $30 a day. We have accounted for sleeping in jim-jil-bangs and travel already; with buses, subways and cheaper slow trains city to city. So $600 will leave you a lot of room to play with when it comes to eating (it's cheaper than you think) and visiting tourist places (they're usually cheap or free), providing you know where to eat! So let's move on to that.. food.

Korean food is delicious. Here are some photos:

Ban-chan - side dishes

Bibimbap

Samgyetang

Galbi - Ribs

Well, it sure looks nice. So, how much does it cost? Surprisingly little, actually! It all depends on where you buy it. If you eat local where Korean people eat, then it is not expensive at all. For example, the side dishes that you see in these pics are free when you order a main meal. A main meal can be as simple as a roll of seaweed and rice (kimbab), a bowl of chicken soup (samgyetang), or a portion of mixed rice (bibimbap), and water or tea is usually free. 

Kimbap - Delicious - $1.50 - $4.00

Prices range from $1,50 for a kimbap roll up to around $9 for a large bowl of samgyetang (chicken broth soup with ginseng). There are of course, the corner shops. GS25, CU, SevenEleven and Buy The Way among others. These sell cheap refreshments like sandwiches, kimbap rolls, and Ramen. Ramen is a cheap and delicious way of eating a snack for a few dollars. I would spend around $15 a day on food and be comfortable. You can eat kimbap, bibimbap, sundae, so-gug-bap and many other dishes for that price in a day. Alternatively that's 12 of these:

Shin Cup Ramen - $1.25

If you want to go all out, then hit up the buffet. There are a number of chain buffets in Korea and they usually offer lunchtime specials. 'All that barbecue' is a popular chain and you can eat unlimited servings of several dishes for 10,000 won ($10) at lunch. I'd definitely recommend it.

Ok, so you've got the most important and expensive aspects of your trip under control, sleeping, traveling and eating. now you just need to decide where to go! Here are a list of ideas:

Haeundae Beach, Busan

Here is one of the most beautiful places in Korea. The national palace in Seoul.

경북궁 향원정 - Kyong-Bok-Palace

Starbucks Coffee- Insa-dong, Seoul

Korean Hangul - The Korean language

The Korean alphabet was invented by King Sejong to help the common people to become literate. The language is a very logical language and as such you can learn the basics in an afternoon (no really! check this out)

Kim Yuna - 김연아

Kim Yuna is considered the best ice skater in the world. Now retired. A national treasure.

Korean Air, as well as Air Asiana, are Korean owned airlines

Traditional Clothing

Of course, $1000 is easy to blow through in Korea, especially in Seoul, so be realistic about your budget. If you wanted to do it, you certainly could. Also, consider a shorter trip, 10 days and $1000 you could live very well, for example, and still see a majority of the country.

I'd recommend checking out the government tourist site: http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/index.kto

I hope this guide was useful! Feel free to leave comments or ask me questions. Peace!

Images sourced from https://www.flickr.com/search/advanced using the creative commons feature.