Korea Travel Tips: Ultimate Korea Travel Guide 2025

If you plan to go to Korea this year, next year, or sometime in the future, then this video is for you. Here is my ultimate Korea travel guide. Let's talk Korean airlines. So we have Airpremia, Asiana, and Korean Air. Now, Korean Air recently adopted Asiana into their family, but overall, Asiana flights are still going to run as Asiana. Now, Airpremia is actually a more recent airline. Let's make a budget-friendly-ish airline from LA to Korea. That's such a big rich person move. Honestly, it depends how important the flight is to you. If I had to choose, I would choose Asiana or Korean Air. But at the end of the day, if the price is right, I would go on Airpremia. Domestic airlines like Delta or United, they will also fly to Korea. But just know that these airlines are a bit smaller, and unless you get upgraded to a seat, the economy seat is not going to be the same experience as these Korean airlines. Making a list of all the things you want to do is going to be your first step. I do have a blank template available down below if you want to use my and my friend's way of planning trips, or I do have my Korea itinerary if you want to buy one that's already curated. Next is accommodations and where you want to stay. Are you an Airbnb person because you want to split it with other people, or do you want to stay at a hotel? In Asia, I highly recommend staying in a hotel just because a lot of these Airbnbs are not allowed to function. There are verified homestay places. There's a website called WeHome, and these people are allowed to kind of rent out their place to tourists and things like that, but the price is more expensive. So I found that someone who is listing their home on homestay, they're on Airbnb too. So if I see that, then I feel like it's a lot more trustworthy. After you figure out what you want to do, on Google Maps, even though Google Maps doesn't work in Korea, in the States, you can kind of map out, okay, how long does it take you to get to certain places, and you can figure out where you want to stay. For example, from Gangnam to Myeongdong, it's going to take some time. So if most of your activities are around the city center of Seoul, then staying in Gangnam is a little bit far. For my grandma, she lives 30 minutes away from Gangnam, so I don't mind staying there so I could be near her. The top destinations when people go to Korea are Seoul and then Busan, but you do need to take a train to Busan to get there. And then Jeju Island, you must fly there because it is an island. Think of it as like from LA to Hawaii, but shorter. And then a lot of people like to go to the DMZ or like the border of where North Korea is. Think crash landing on you. I have yet to go. I don't really have a strong desire to go there, but it's a very popular tourist attraction. If you go to Jeju Island, you do need a car just because public transportation is not as abundant as it is in Seoul. If you're going to rent a car, you're also going to need an international driver's license. You can get an international driver's license from AAA. It cost me $20 to get one. Next is cultural etiquette in Korea. So whenever we enter a space, we usually bow and we say 안녕하세요 and they usually ask like how many people and you're going to hear lots of clinking. You're going to hear lots of slurping and when you're slurping your noodles, it's like you're telling the people who work at the restaurant that the food is delicious. So it's not considered rude or anything when you're slurping your noodles. I think it's also very important to learn a couple of phrases when you are going to Korea. 안녕하세요 is hello in the polite formal way or you could just say 안녕 which is informal. 감사합니다 is thank you. And one of the most important phrases for me is 화장실 어디 있어요? Which is where is the bathroom? There's also no toilet seat covers in Korea. That's really actually more of a Western thing. It's very normal in Korean bathrooms to just see a bar of soap on a stick and everybody just uses that same bar of soap. If that makes you uncomfortable then bring hand sanitizer or hand wipes to keep that in mind. I am Korean American. I was born in the U.S. but I grew up speaking Korean with my parents but I've spent more time talking in English in school as a teacher. So it really doesn't hurt for me to review my Korean especially when I want to talk to my relatives and I want to make sure that I can keep this language. So thank you to Rosanna Stone who is kindly partnering with me for a portion of this video. But when I was a 5th grade teacher, my students all used Rosanna Stone and they could choose which language they wanted to learn which I think is really special. So Rosanna Stone is an immersive language learning app that uses pictures, audio, and native pronunciation tools to help you confidently speak and retain a new language as if it were your first. So this type of learning allows our brain to naturally make connections through the context and then the reasoning. It's such a great tool for anyone who's looking to connect deeply with their own heritage just like me or if you're preparing to travel or you just want to learn a new language as a hobby. Rosanna Stone's true accent pronunciation tool is also a really cool feature because it helps learners pronounce words with the appropriate accent by comparing your tone and speech to real native speakers and it gives you instant feedback on whether you're pronouncing words correctly. What I really love is how Rosanna Stone fits seamlessly into any schedule. The lessons are short. Some are like five minutes. The app is super versatile too. So whether I'm on my phone or computer, I can pick up where I left off and keep my learning really consistent. For me, Rosanna Stone isn't about just brushing up on my Korean, but it's to connect with my family members and my heritage. If you're looking to learn a new language this year or connect to a language that you already kind of know, definitely check out Rosanna Stone. You can get 60% off of a lifetime subscription with my exclusive link in the description and you can check out any of Rosanna Stone's 25 different languages. I think it's respectful to just try to learn a little bit of the language of whatever country you are visiting, especially Korea. Korean food guide. So there's just so many delicious things in Korea and it's a lot more affordable than in California. You have to try our tteokbokki on the streets. You have to try Korean barbecue naengmyeon. There's just so many things that you can eat. Anything that looks good to you, eat it. But also be mindful of what time things open. Cafe hopping culture is really big in Korea and they make really cute cafes, but you'll be surprised that they actually open at like 10 or 11 o'clock. There's a handful of cafes that will open at maybe 8 o'clock, but here in the States, it's normal to find a cafe that opens at 7 a.m., but in Korea, you're really not going to find that. So I have found that some people struggle of what do I do until 10 a.m. before I can have my coffee? So just be mindful of how you're planning your itinerary because the place may not even be open yet. Next is transportation tips. Of course, there are taxis and there are Ubers in Korea, but you're not going to get the best rate, especially when public transportation is so good. You might as well just learn how to use the public transportation. The map in Korea, it is color-coded. It looks crazy, but you just got to follow the colors and wherever the colors intersect, that means that there is a stop to go on that other colored line wherever you go. There's colors and there's numbers. For example, the 2 train, it's green. So let's talk about the T-money card. So you can get the T-money card at the airport and I've talked about this in what you need to know before going to Korea, but you can also use T-money cards at convenience stores. I honestly think T-money cards are just so helpful. You can literally use them in Busan too, not just in Seoul. It's just like an all-in-one card. Imagine if you're a metro card also pay for things at 7-Eleven. It's like so interesting, right? But if you want to take a bullet train from Seoul to Busan or anywhere else, you're going to have to buy a separate ticket. So you can go online and get a KTX train and you literally just show up to the train station. You do want to kind of plan ahead because sometimes on the weekends, these KTX schedules, they do sell out. One time, my cousin accidentally booked us the wrong time. So my mom and I were trying to get the earlier time, but it was all sold out. So we just had to kind of wait around at the train station. But there's food there too, so it's okay. Now there is a climate card for tourists in Korea. But what I like about T-money is that it doesn't expire. So I do plan to go back to Korea often. I just keep whatever amount is in there and I'll just reuse it. But if you know you're not going to go back to Korea for a while and you just want like a one-and-done easy card, then the climate card may be for you. You can only use it in Seoul. So if you're just going to stay in Seoul, that's fine. You can go anywhere else outside of Seoul. Here is the information on the climate card. I feel like this Reddit post really explains it fully. But for me personally, I would just get the T-money card because I can do a lot more with it. Shopping and markets. So Myeongdong, Dongdaemun, and Namdaemun are like very popular areas for shopping or if you're trying to go to the upscale places that would be Gangnam or Apgujeong. But I'm more of a food girly and during these street markets, they also have lots of food on the streets and I like to eat those places. Gwangjang Market is a very very popular touristy spot and there's lots of Netflix specials on it. But Namdaemun also has really good food too and they have one of the best japchae hotteoks I've ever had. I think it's worth checking out both just to see if it's your first time. But because I've been to Gwangjang Market so many times, I don't know if I need to go again unless I'm with someone who's going for the first time. Festivals and events. So in Korea, of course they have cherry blossom festivals, they have K-pop events, like BTS is coming back out of the military in June and I know the city's gonna be crazy. But Korea, they really celebrate their K-pop idols' birthdays and they go hard. So it's just cool to see, you know, K-pop artists literally everywhere, actresses, actors on every commercial. And then in Hongdae, you can see busking at night where people are doing dance performances, singing. It's so fun. Also, popular K-drama spots and pop-ups. So in Korea, they also have lots of cute, fun events for you to go to and the malls are so pretty. But they also have K-drama locations like the university, very popular in most shows that you can visit. I think it's worth just checking out. Korea also has a lot of temples and places where you could dress up in a hanbok. Honestly, you can go to any of them and they have a pretty decent deal. I like to just look at places that have Google reviews so I can make sure, you know, I'm aware if there's anything I need to know. Weather in Korea. In the wintertime, it is freezing. In the spring, it's beautiful. In the summer, it's humid, really humid. And it's like monsoon season, so it'll rain like crazy randomly. So just having an umbrella is helpful. And then in the fall, it's beautiful weather too. So they just have very extreme weather, but it's normal. In California, I feel like we're mostly sunny all the time. For technology, in Korea, you do need a plug adapter if you're coming from the United States. They have different plugs and ours are not gonna work while we're there. You need to make sure it has like the prongs. If you have T-Mobile or an international plan, just know that it doesn't really work well while you're in Korea. I tried to rely on it and it was just not happening. So you're going to need an eSIM or pocket Wi-Fi. And I go into more detail in my other video. But in Korea, they make it pretty affordable and it's good. But the eSIM works perfectly too. All in all, Korea is a beautiful place. The convenience store food and just culture. And people do dress up and they do look nice. It's not as popular to see athleisure wear in Korea like it is in LA. If you don't want to stick out, then dress up a little bit. But those are my quick, you must know type of tips for Korea. If you have any specific questions, go ahead and leave a comment below and I'll try to get back to you. If you like what you see, please like and subscribe and I'll see you later. Bye!