So here we go! A set of travel tips and experiences from the point of view of someone who did a very very spontaneous trip to Korea to watch a k-pop concert! This first blog post was meant to be a general finding your way around post, but I ended up writing a lot so I'll save more finding your way around tips for later LOLOL;; Small disclaimer, I did have a friend come with me who speaks Korean and has been to Korea before so that did help when I was going around, but I think these tips should still be useful even if you or anyone in your group can't speak Korean.
Okay so I heard from a lot of people that you can't really use Google Maps in Korea because of something to do with their GPS? I don't know the exact reason, but everyone told me you can't use Google Maps in Korea but didn't offer me an alternative! Or at least a good one. So here are the apps I frequently used while going around!
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| Kakao Maps Screenshot |
IN ALL THE ARTICLES I LOOKED UP ABOUT TRAVELING TO KOREA NOBODY RECOMMENDED KAKAO MAPS AND I'M JUST LIKE? DID I NOT LOOK UP THE RIGHT BLOGS? But anyways this and all the other Kakao apps are my number one recommended apps! First of all, it's in English which I did not expect at ALL when downloading it. Second of all, it's incredibly easy to use, very comparable to Google Maps!
But anyways, just like Google Maps, you can find places of interest with this app, make directions, and the GPS tracking is actually really accurate! There's also reviews to places, but a lot of them are in Korean so I never paid much attention to it.
A small disclaimer, it IS helpful to know a little bit of Hangul when using this app (at least consonants) because not everything is in English. For example, my motel was still in Hangul, and as you can see, Meerkat Cafe here is written as Meerkat Cafe when you click it, but it still reads 미어캣프랜즈 on the actual map. Search also has to be done in Hangul. Usually I look up the place I need to go and copy paste the Hangul in the search bar. Plus, when you make directions, bus and subway directions are still all in Hangul. But that's no big deal because ayyy Kakao has a SEPARATE APP for bus and subway!
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| Kakao Subway Main Page |
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| Kakao Subway Directions |
Kakao Subway
I actually downloaded this app first, and I was blown away at how useful it was? It's really intuitive to use. You tap what subway station you're coming from and then what station you're going to. Then it makes the directions, just like that! And it works outside of Seoul! They have maps for Busan, Daegu, Gwangju, and Daejeon. We used it with no problem when we went to Busan~
Also I don't think it requires internet connection? At least after the initial download where it'll download all the timetables for everything. Which means if you're stranded somewhere and your wifi egg died or something, you can still find your way home! Disclaimer that never happened to me, but I'm sure it would've if I stayed in Korea long enough lolol OH, the bad thing about this is that it won't update real time, but Korean subway times are really really accurate so I don't think you should worry about that too much?
Anyways, some of my favorite things about this app is it tells you everything you need to know about riding the subway. Like it has what trains you'll need to take, how many transfers you're gonna need, how much it'll cost, about how long it'll take, and the directions the doors will open! That last one is super useful during rush hour when there's tons of people on the train and you wanna get out as quickly as possible.
There's also two ways you can make directions, a fast or simple way. Fast is, of course, the fastest route, and simple is the one with the least amount of transfers. Usually I go for simple because I'm never in a big enough hurry that I want to save like... 3 minutes or something. It's usually not a huge difference. And it's also not worth getting lost in a station for.
On a side note though - finding the subways you need to take is pretty easy! All the lines were clearly marked in Korean, English, Chinese, and Japanese so just pic a language!!! Just pay attention to signs! Signs are your friends! You may look and feel silly just looking blank everywhere but it's better than getting lost or taking a wrong train eyyy~
Also, I never used it, but there's also an ALARM feature?! It'll wake you up 2 minutes before your last stop. If I had an hour long train or something I'm sure this would have been useful!
OH AND the loading screen has Ryan dancing and it almost makes waiting fun :'D
Kakao Bus
Okay huge disclaimer here, I downloaded Kakao Bus, but I didn't really use it..? We never really took the bus because we could get around and go to all the places we need to the metro. The one time we took the bus was to go to Namsan Tower, but I was able to find where the bus stop and what busses to take online rather than using the app to look up directions and such. It DOES have some really useful stuff like being able to look up bus schedules and stuff! If you're planning on taking the bus a lot, I'm sure this app would be useful!
Anyways, this app was pretty self explanatory to use! If you know how to use Uber you can use this app! It'll inform you of who your driver is, what their car looks like/license plate number. I don't think I can get a screencap of it now, but I'm pretty sure it tells you around how much the taxi will cost? So you're not cheated out of your money or anything like that! It also says you can pay with credit card (like online I guess?) but you can't do that unless you have a Korean phone number. Thankfully they accept cash, and I actually think some taxis do have a credit card reader in their cars? But I've always paid just cash for my taxi rides.
Naver Maps
A lot of blog posts I read from 2013 to 2016-ish praise and recommend Naver Maps, but they're also like eyyy to use this map you should learn Hangul! It only takes 2 hours! And here I am like I am a month away from this trip, I don't have time to learn and practice Hangul?! Okay, I ended up learning a couple of characters because I've been meaning to, but I was nowhere fluent enough to read it with any sort of speed.
But anyways, Naver Maps was the first app I downloaded because I didn't know what else there was, and I had a hard time using it so I ended up just fudging my way around with Google Maps in the end anyways. It was pretty sad, would not recommend ahahaa;; In any case, if you can read Hangul or know a little bit of Korean, I'm sure Naver Maps would be useful so I'm still including it here!
If you read up to this point so far, thank you for reading!!! I'm sorry I ramble so much HAHAHA;; But I guess to give a little more insight on how to use these apps, this is how I got around:
I actually downloaded this app first, and I was blown away at how useful it was? It's really intuitive to use. You tap what subway station you're coming from and then what station you're going to. Then it makes the directions, just like that! And it works outside of Seoul! They have maps for Busan, Daegu, Gwangju, and Daejeon. We used it with no problem when we went to Busan~
Also I don't think it requires internet connection? At least after the initial download where it'll download all the timetables for everything. Which means if you're stranded somewhere and your wifi egg died or something, you can still find your way home! Disclaimer that never happened to me, but I'm sure it would've if I stayed in Korea long enough lolol OH, the bad thing about this is that it won't update real time, but Korean subway times are really really accurate so I don't think you should worry about that too much?
Anyways, some of my favorite things about this app is it tells you everything you need to know about riding the subway. Like it has what trains you'll need to take, how many transfers you're gonna need, how much it'll cost, about how long it'll take, and the directions the doors will open! That last one is super useful during rush hour when there's tons of people on the train and you wanna get out as quickly as possible.
There's also two ways you can make directions, a fast or simple way. Fast is, of course, the fastest route, and simple is the one with the least amount of transfers. Usually I go for simple because I'm never in a big enough hurry that I want to save like... 3 minutes or something. It's usually not a huge difference. And it's also not worth getting lost in a station for.
On a side note though - finding the subways you need to take is pretty easy! All the lines were clearly marked in Korean, English, Chinese, and Japanese so just pic a language!!! Just pay attention to signs! Signs are your friends! You may look and feel silly just looking blank everywhere but it's better than getting lost or taking a wrong train eyyy~
Also, I never used it, but there's also an ALARM feature?! It'll wake you up 2 minutes before your last stop. If I had an hour long train or something I'm sure this would have been useful!
OH AND the loading screen has Ryan dancing and it almost makes waiting fun :'D
Kakao Bus
Okay huge disclaimer here, I downloaded Kakao Bus, but I didn't really use it..? We never really took the bus because we could get around and go to all the places we need to the metro. The one time we took the bus was to go to Namsan Tower, but I was able to find where the bus stop and what busses to take online rather than using the app to look up directions and such. It DOES have some really useful stuff like being able to look up bus schedules and stuff! If you're planning on taking the bus a lot, I'm sure this app would be useful!
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| Requesting Taxi |
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| Setting the Start Point |
Oh boy was this app a lifesaver when I was trying to get to Wanna One's concert on time! I heard they have Uber? But we didn't use it because taxis were pretty prominent everywhere. At least, that's what I thought lmao;; I personally had a hard time hailing a taxi off the street so this app saved my life! Unlike a rideshare app, it's more of a calling a taxi app? We didn't have Korean phone numbers so we weren't able to call up a taxi when we needed it and my Busan Airbnb was like I don't need to call a taxi for you, they're everywhere here! I don't blame him for saying that though, haha. We stayed by Gwanghwalli beach and they WERE everywhere! Just... not coming by soon enough!
Anyways, this app was pretty self explanatory to use! If you know how to use Uber you can use this app! It'll inform you of who your driver is, what their car looks like/license plate number. I don't think I can get a screencap of it now, but I'm pretty sure it tells you around how much the taxi will cost? So you're not cheated out of your money or anything like that! It also says you can pay with credit card (like online I guess?) but you can't do that unless you have a Korean phone number. Thankfully they accept cash, and I actually think some taxis do have a credit card reader in their cars? But I've always paid just cash for my taxi rides.
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| Naver Maps |
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| Naver Maps Directions |
A lot of blog posts I read from 2013 to 2016-ish praise and recommend Naver Maps, but they're also like eyyy to use this map you should learn Hangul! It only takes 2 hours! And here I am like I am a month away from this trip, I don't have time to learn and practice Hangul?! Okay, I ended up learning a couple of characters because I've been meaning to, but I was nowhere fluent enough to read it with any sort of speed.
But anyways, Naver Maps was the first app I downloaded because I didn't know what else there was, and I had a hard time using it so I ended up just fudging my way around with Google Maps in the end anyways. It was pretty sad, would not recommend ahahaa;; In any case, if you can read Hangul or know a little bit of Korean, I'm sure Naver Maps would be useful so I'm still including it here!
If you read up to this point so far, thank you for reading!!! I'm sorry I ramble so much HAHAHA;; But I guess to give a little more insight on how to use these apps, this is how I got around:
- Decide where I wanted to go! Let's use the Meerkat Cafe up there as an example!
- Find the address of the place. For this instance, I looked it up on Google and just typed in the Hangul into Kakao Maps.
- Find the closest subway station to the cafe. Make sure it's within walking distance or you'll have to find another alternative.
- Make directions to the subway station using Kakao Subway.
- Once reaching the subway, make directions to the cafe.
- PET ALL THE MEERKATS.
It may be a bit redundant to use two apps because you can make directions on Kakao maps, but I just.. never did that? LOLOL IDK I'm a redundant person.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask them through comments or ask me on Twitter @merongmochi or @yachusada!
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