travel tales: Budget Travel: How much does it cost to travel to South Korea

Hi traveler! You may be asking - How much does it cost for a trip to South Korea? How much does it cost to eat in South Korea? How much should I budget for a trip to Korea? What would probably be your spending pattern in your upcoming Seoul Trip?

If you are in the middle of filling-up your visa application on Page 4 Section 10.1 Estimated travel cost, the quickest answer would be a safe estimate of 5,000php (100 USD) per day. With minimum of 500-600USD per person for a 5-7 days trip.

If you would like to know more details on budget planning, continue reading. This will not promise you the cheapest value of the trip, but a smart spending when travelling abroad. This entry was inspired by the recent inquiry in Trip Advisor. Hopefully this can help you plan your budget for your trip.

Flight Fare

You might already bought your ticket by now. But for those who are asking what could be the average or acceptable flight fares to Seoul or Busan, kindly refer to this section.

[Did you know?] That it is cheaper to buy the baggage at initial booking, than managing it later on before your flight. It is more costly when doing the transaction over the phone as the small (15kg) baggage will cost you 800 php (2017) additional fee.

Apart from from flight fare, here are the top factors where you'll be spending your money in South Korea.

Accommodation

Year	Bought	City	Name	Room Type	Bedroom Type	Person	Month Before	Php/Per Night (USD)	Php/Per Person
2011	Agoda	Incheon	Global Guest House	Double	Private	2	1.6	2,389 (50)	1,195
2011	Agoda	Myeong-dong	ZaZa Backpackers Hostel	Double	Private	2	1.3	2,638 (60)	1,319
2011	Direct	Nami Island	Naminara Hotel	Ondol	Private	2	3.5	3,080 (70)	1,540
2011	Direct	Myeong-dong	ZaZa Backpackers Hostel	Twin	Private	2	1.1	2,200 (50)	1,100
2013	Agoda	Myeong-dong	K Pop Residence II	Double	Private	2	2.9	3,268 (70)	1,634
2014	Agoda	Hongdae	24 Guesthouse Sinchon	Twin Bed	Private	2	6.4	2,214 (50)	1,107
2016	Agoda	Hongdae	Swanhouse	Studio 2	Private	3	7.7	4,020 (90)	1,340
2016	Agoda	Busan	Busan Sukbak Dot Com Guest House	6-Bed Dorm	Dorm	1	0.4	634 (20)	634
2016	Agoda	Gyeong-ju	Chacharang Guesthouse	6-Bed Dorm	Dorm	1	0.8	878 (20)	878
2016	Agoda	Suncheon	Suncheon Guesthouse Happy Tour	Ondol	Private	1	0.7	2,049 (50)	2,049
2016	Agoda	Daegu	Sono Business Hotel	Double	Private	1	0.2	2,573 (60)	2,573
2016	Agoda	Suncheon	Suncheon Guesthouse Happy Tour	4-Bed Dorm	Dorm	1	0.4	953 (20)	953
2017	Agoda	Hongdae	Cocoon Stay Hongdae Guesthouse	Economy Single	Private	1	10.4	1,131 (30)	1,131

For solo travelers, you can choose to stay in dorm rooms (with 4, 6, upto 10 beds) with shared bathroom on the range of 600 - 1000PHP/night (~12-20 USD/night = ~14,000-23,000 KRW/night). Please stay away from hospital-bed type of room, they are unsteady. I prefer the thick-wooden bed, so you would not wake-up the other person from your movements.
For 2 persons, you can opt to choose double or twin beds with private bathroom on the range of 2200 - 3500php/night/room (on average of 1,500 PHP/night/person = ~30 USD = ~34,000 KRW)
For families or friends of 3, you can opt to choose from private room starting from 3500-4000php/night/room (~80 USD = ~90,000 KRW).

If money is not a problem, you can choose from 5-star hotels (Seoul station or Myeongdong). Other cheaper accommodation would be hostels, guesthouses, bed and breakfast , ondol beds found in hanok houses (Bukchon Village) or stay in dorm rooms in university areas (Hongdae, Sinchon, Ewha).

Food

Breakfast

If you'll be having breakfast in coffee shops, hot teas and basic coffee would be the cheapest choice at 4,500 KRW (4 USD, 180 PHP). Special blended drinks at regular size would cost at round: white hot chocolate (5,200 KRW = 5 USD, 208 PHP), real dark hot chocolate (5,800 KRW = 6 USD, 232 PHP). For coffee shop adventure, click here.

Snacks
If you are on a budget, why not buy bread and bottled coffee from convenience stores. You can still enjoy branded coffee drinks at an affordable price of 2000-3000 KRW (2~3 USD, 80-120 PHP).

Lunch or Dinner
Decent restaurants have food which costs roughly 10,000 KRW (10 USD, 400 PHP). But you can also find affordable ramyeon at 5000 KRW (5USD, 200 PHP). For complete food report, click here.

Street Food

There are cheaper local food that you can enjoy in Seoul, mostly found in streets of Myeongdong and Hongdae. Others would be in traditional markets (as you have seen in Running Man or 2 days 1 night variety shows). There are variety to choose from like egg, barbeque, twisted potatoes, etc. that normally starts from 1000 KRW (1 USD, 40 PHP) or 2000 KRW (2 USD, 80 PHP).

Drinks

Here would be a sample of how much alcohol drinks would be in a pizza parlor (not yet the party club prices). Soda in can can cost as much as 3000 KRW (3 USD, 120 PHP) in restaurants, but can be cheaper in convenience stores.

You may find it cheaper when buying them from street food and convenience stores and just chillax in the roof deck of your hostel. (Watch out drinking in common areas as they may not allow public drinking beyond certain hours - i.e. common spaces in guesthouses would post signs like "no drinking after 11 pm")

Transportation

Short Distances - Your subway trip using a T-money transit card would start at regular price of 1250 KRW (1~2 USD, 50PHP, 2017).

Reference: Cyber Station

Long Distances - If you'll be using KTX train for long distance travel to provinces like Busan, you can spend direct train at the range of 59,800 KRW (60 USD) to 83,700 KRW (84 USD) for 2.5 hrs travel. Or a cheaper option of 28,600 KRW (29 USD) for a longer travel time at 5.5 hrs.

Attraction

The most expensive attraction in Korea would be when visiting theme parks like Everland, Lotte World and Seoul Land. Another place that has expensive entrance fee would be if you are in idol adventure and would visit 4D concerts (tickets would depend on the duration and the featured artist).

If you prefer to know on How to travel cheap in Korea, why not visit free attractions like hanok villages, local markets, street concerts or street party, universities and parks.

For theme parks, there are two types of ticket: the all day and admission. The all-day will cover all the rides and featured places inside the theme park. The admission ticket will be cheaper since it will only cover limited rides.
Also, look for combined tickets like 1 ticket for 5 royal palaces. 1 ticket for both Changdeokgung Palace and Secret Garden, etc.
If you are travelling with a senior citizen or kids, ask the ticket counter for discounts by showing their passport and letting them know of their age.
Also, there are plenty of discount coupons online for tourist destinations in Seoul, for sure you'll find one that is applicable to your target destination.

Shopping

This will totally depend on your spending pattern. Shirts in Doota mall can be as cheap as 200php (low quality) to 400php (better quality cotton). Souvenir items (magnets at 7,000 KRW = 7 USD = 280 PHP) depends on where you are from palaces, to Myeongdong underground market, to Insadong, to Hongdae, to Dongdaemun.

How much to bring to Korea for 7 days?
The estimate below is for an average to middle-of-the-road kind of traveler. I don't prefer spending much on trips and be empty handed. But I choose to spend wisely on the journey and the experience over the inexpensive unsavory and unsatisfactory trip.

Factors	PHP	KRW	USD	%	Details (7 days stay in Seoul) / per person
Accommodation	10,500	262,500	~260	41%	1500 php * 7 days
Food	7,000	175,000	156	27%	(5000krw for breakfast + 10000krw lunch + 10000krw dinner) krw * 7 days * 0.04
Transportation	2,000	50,000	44	8%	AREX + (1500 est. * 4 routes for 3 attractions/day * 7 days) * 0.04, excluding KTX to Busan
Attraction	3,500	87,500	78	14%	1 theme park + visit at the palaces + other attractions
Shopping	2,500	62,500	56	10%	depends on personal shopping pattern (i.e. limit to 2500 php)
Total	25,500	637,500	~600	100%

Other sample itineraries:

For my further sample itinerary, expense, trip reports and PDF guides, please visit links below:

Monday, October 2, 2017

Budget Travel: How much does it cost to travel to South Korea

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