Last week we shared with you the first five (5) tips to planning an AMAZING vacation in South Korea based on our own experience, which included:

1. When is the best time to travel to South Korea?

2. What do I need to enter South Korea? 

3. How do I get to South Korea?

4. Where do I stay in South Korea? 

5. How do I move around in South Korea?

These questions and the sub-sections under each will help you plan your trip step by step from the very beginning and elemental stages. Let’s look at the next set of questions with the information you will need to round out your planning process.

6. Will my cell phone work in South Korea?

(Cellphones, international cell phone plans, and Korean SIM cards) 

In part 1 of this blog/episode, we talked about the importance of using Naver Maps to get around – but in order to do this, you need cell phone data. 

Before you head over to South Korea, we suggest you look into your carrier’s international plans to see what makes sense for you. One of the reasons we both have T-Mobile is that most of the plans (ours included) have free international data up to 356 kbps speeds, plus unlimited texting and calling at $0.25 per minute. This means that we usually don’t have to buy an additional data plan/pass as our needs are met with the roaming benefits included in our plan. Make sure to double check this as some carriers don’t have any roaming benefits and will charge a daily fee for using your phone internationally.

If your carrier plans are a little pricey or you want to make sure you’re making the right decision for you, there are options for getting a Korean SIM card during your trip. You can buy them online before heading to South Korea and just pick them up at any airport on the day of your arrival. There are different plans available for different lengths of stay. Make sure that you choose a plan that works for you as there are options for only data plans (no texting or calling) or a mixture of both. 

In our case, we were generally able to figure out our days with the roaming benefits included in our plans. We did notice that the Samsung Galaxy had better signal than the iPhone 13+ Pro Max. We still aren’t sure why this was the case (theories include the Galaxy being newer). We had seen TikToks and IG reels about some places (mostly restaurants) requiring a South Korean phone number in order to be able to join the sitting queue but we really didn’t experience it during our first day so we thought we could get away with just using our own plans; however, on our second day in Busan we wanted to go to a KBBQ place for lunch, but when we went to sign up, it required a Korean number. Because of this, we decided to get a Korean SIM card for only the last leg of our trip covering Seoul. We got a 5 day data plan that had 11,000 Won worth of credits for calls and text messages. And we did end up needing a Korean phone number at three different restaurants in Seoul!

TIP: If you buy your SIM card beforehand, make sure you allot enough time at the airport to pick it up. Also, if you plan (like us) to pick it up later during your trip, the SIM card pick-ups are at not available at every terminal. Here’s a short little story on how that went for us.  

We decided to pick up our SIM card after we landed in Seoul from Jeju Island at Gimpo International Airport. Since we wanted to make the most of our time in Seoul, we had a couple of activities planned and paid for that day already. Our timeline was TIGHT to say the least. We figured it’d be okay as we had already prepaid our SIM card… spoiler alert! There was a curveball. Since this is a service for foreigners, the pick up station is in the international terminal. This isn’t an issue if the terminals are connected, but both Incheon and Gimpo have their international and domestic terminals separate. This meant that our pick up time for our prepaid SIM card went from just 5 minutes to 30 minutes, as we had to take a bus from the domestic terminal to the international terminal. We were able to make all of our appointments that day but we believe it was just because we got lucky! 

Once we got to the SIM card kiosk, the pick up process was super quick and easy. It really did help us to have a Korean SIM card because the map speeds were faster and some restaurants did require a Korean phone number. 

TIP: If you want to extend your SIM card time, make sure you do it BEFORE the original plan expires. 

We weren’t paying close attention and allowed our SIM card to expire and unfortunately, we were down a cell phone for the last day because we couldn’t extend the time online without going to an actual store. 

Finally, make sure your cell phone is unlocked so that if you do choose to buy a Korean SIM card you can use it. 

7. What’s the best way to pay for things in South Korea?

(Samsung Pay, credit cards, debit cards, and cash)

1. Samsung Pay 

In the US, iPhones are more popular than Android phones. Most stores accept Apple Pay and just recently, stores started accepting Google Pay. Based on our research, we knew that in South Korea we wouldn’t be able to use either. The king in South Korea is Samsung Pay. Luckily, ½ of us has a Samsung Galaxy. We really thought we had it made! 

We did not have it made.

For some reason – not clear to us still – we were not able to make Samsung Pay work for us there. We have an inkling it may be because we don’t have a Korean card but we really aren’t sure. We spent hours trying to figure it out but honestly, by the 4th day we gave up and went straight to pulling out the physical card. 

2. Cash 

We mostly used cash and our credit cards to pay for everything there. During our research, we found many articles telling us that we wouldn’t really need cash and most places accept cards. Since we’re both a little anxious, we decided to bring some Korean Won with us. 

TIP! If you want to bring cash in the currency of the country you are visiting, a great way to get this is by requesting the foreign currency from your bank. 

The bank will usually give you a better exchange rate than the airport exchange kiosks or any currency exchange shop that may exist in your city. All you have to do is order the currency online at least 2 weeks in advance, and that’s it! The earlier you start monitoring the currency, the better, as we were able to take advantage of a sudden dip the Won had one month before our trip. 

We did need to take out cash once during the trip and we did so at a subway station. Usually, very public places are the best places to take out cash. Make sure that you fully understand the ATM fees that are attached to taking our money from banks outside your network as this can get costly if you do it a lot. One of our debit cards does not charge us any ATM fees so we made sure to use that one. To be super safe, we also encourage you to take a picture of the ATM number and location. This way if there is a problem with the transaction and  you have to reach your bank, you can tell them the exact location of the ATM you withdrew money from. One of us learned this the hard way during a previous trip. 

Aside from ATM fees, some debit cards also have foreign transaction fees. This just means that every time you swipe your card you get charged a certain percentage of money for the convenience of using your card somewhere outside of your home country. Unfortunately, one of us didn’t remember that one of our cards had this issue and we spent about $20 dollars extra just in foreign transaction fees.  

C. Credit Cards 

Credit cards can be your best friend when traveling abroad. We prefer using credit cards when traveling because it is easier to make claims in case there is any fraudulent activity and you will not have any of your money in limbo while the bank investigates your case. It will just affect your credit limit, which is a much better blow than actual money. VISA and MASTERCARD are preferred in Korea but some big chain hotels will also accept AMEX. 

D. Splitwise 

If you’re in need of keeping track of your expenses during the trip so you can split them evenly, we highly recommend the app/website Splitwise! We have been using Splitwise for YEARS (even to track our own podcast expenses or specific outings in our regular life), and it just makes life easy. You can input expenses quickly from the app, take pictures of the receipts in case you don’t want to carry them around or lose them, and it allows you to customize the split by percentages (or any custom way you choose). We did our best to keep up with our expenses consistently throughout the trip, as you tend to forget what you did when you’re trying to check 3-4 things or places off your list each day. We didn’t always add expenses in real-time because #unrealistic, but we didn’t let more than three days go between a mass-adding event.

TIP: when you’re abroad, your bank’s processing date might be different than the day you incurred the expense due to time zone differences. Since we traveled from the US, our bank logged almost all our transactions for the following day of when we made them, so when we were adding stuff on Splitwise we had to double-check the dates (we’re very organized and like to make sure everything is accounted for properly, you might not care for this level of detail!) to add our items in correctly.

8. Language: Do I need to learn to speak Korean before going to South Korea?

We don’t know Korean.

We knew how to say hello and thank you, and that’s about it.

You don’t need to know Korean to visit South Korea.

We repeat: you don’t need to know Korean to visit South Korea.

The one thing you do need for your trip is courage. You have to be okay with looking a little silly and using charades to get your point across. Most people we encountered were very gracious and understood that we were trying our best to communicate, and they reciprocated. As long as you respectfully try to speak Korean, even if you butcher it, people will appreciate the effort you are putting into speaking. Don’t be an entitled foreigner expecting the same level of service that you get in your own country. 

As with any other country, they cater their tourism to themselves. What does this mean? This means that the plaques at tourist sites oftentimes don’t include English (sort of like when you go to Italy not all the signs are in English). The only difference is Italian uses the same Roman alphabet as English speakers, so you’d have an easier time picking up words in an Italian sign. Because of this, although we said you don’t need to know Korean in order to visit South Korea (and we stand by that), it would absolutely make life significantly easier if you learn to read Hangul. This can make it possible for you to navigate things just a smidge faster (and you’ll have a blast every time you find an English word written in Hangul, we sure did!).

TIP: Download the Papago app and use it to translate signs. It has better translation compared to Google Translate. It can also help you communicate at a restaurant or pharmacy.

9. What kind of activities can I do in South Korea? How do I book them?

There are so many things to do in South Korea! We did so much but even so, we barely scraped the surface of what there is to do. South Korea really has something to offer every type of traveler and trip. You can immerse yourself in nature, history, culture, architecture, food, K-Pop, or even plan your trip around a cosmetic makeover. 

We suggest you don’t over-plan your days and instead prioritize the activities that are available. Make sure you are able to hit your top activity choices and give yourself a little leeway to get lost and explore. It’s impossible to have control over everything and things change in the blink of an eye. 

In terms of activities, we suggest you check out AirBnB experiences for inspiration. We were able to book two activities on AirBnB that were super fun. We did a Makgeolli (Korean rice wine) tasting and a photoshoot with a professional photographer (at a Hanok village wearing Hanboks!). We HIGHLY encourage you to book a professional photographer for a session at some point during your trip, because it will 1. ensure your entire party has good pictures together without risking asking strangers and 2. make your once-in-a-lifetime trip extra special with a high quality memento. Our photographer was very professional, and the pictures came out GORGEOUS. 

We will detail out the specific activities we chose to do in later blogs, but as a sneak peak (and aside from the Makgeolli tasting and photographer), we went to a K-Pop music show recording, rented hanboks, went to a K-Pop concert, experienced a speakeasy, and so much more!  

Things to Know Before Going to South Korea 

We wanted to make sure we also shared a couple of things we learned during our time in South Korea which we think may be helpful for some of you. 

1. Allergies 

½ of MIA2K Podcast is literally allergic to life, basically. If you are allergic to shellfish, you need to be extremely careful. South Korean cuisine has a lot of dishes that throw in everything but the kitchen sink into their recipes (which makes their food DELICIOUS, but potentially dangerous for those with allergies). As foreigners who don’t speak Korean, we found that it was a little hard to figure out all of the ingredients used to cook the dishes in the restaurants we went to. Even when the menus were in English, they didn’t have a detailed ingredient list and most of the time our servers didn’t speak English well enough to help us. Make sure to be extra cautious and travel with EpiPens and allergy medicine everywhere you go. We had an instance where our meal looked fine at first, but in the end, one of the side dishes was the culprit who brought out the emergency inhaler. 

2. Accessibility for People with Disabilities 

South Korea is not an accessible country. Subways stations don’t always have elevators easily available and not all buses have ramps. There are a ton of stairs everywhere, and uneven ground throughout. Some streets don’t even have sidewalks so you’re walking in the streets while cars are driving around you. People aren’t the main priority so these streets are a little stressful to maneuver because drivers will throw their car at you. 

3. Tips 

South Korea doesn’t have a tipping culture. Do not tip as it can be seen as rude. 

4. Voltage 

The voltage in South Korea is different than in the United States. You will need an adapter AND a converter. Some hotels do have American style wall plugs with the correct voltage. Just to be safe though, take an adapter with you! We’ve used this adapter and converter all-in-one in multiple countries and it always does the trick.

10. How much money do I need to save to go to South Korea?

(All the budget info is here!)  

When we first started planning for our trip (two years before actually going), we decided that we wanted to save $2,500 for our trip expenses. This number was just based on our previous trips to other cities and also based on the duration of the trip (we always knew we wanted to spend at least two weeks in South Korea). 

When the time came, we ended up spending more money on the flights that we had anticipated (Laura went to Japan for just $600 dollars!) but this was entirely our fault. South Korea removed the two-week quarantine requirement in June 2022. When we heard, we went back and forth and made the decision to just go for it not even two months before our trip. Kathy opted to use credit card points and spent $0 dollars out of pocket on the flight. 

Flights aside, we spent on average $170 per day for the two of us, which is just under the $2,500 dollar budget we had forecasted and saved. This included lots of drinks, some incidentals/miscellaneous expenses, and a few splurges. We are mid-range travelers (on the higher end), so this fit our usual travel experience. As we said during our episode, we’re working ladies in our 30s and we prioritize comfort and convenience whenever possible. A trip to South Korea can be really cheap if you plan accordingly.

If you have any questions about how to budget your trip or what to expect as far as expenses in certain cities, please feel free to email us at mia2korea@gmail.com. 

And here’s part 2 of our episode for your enjoyment!