Travelling to South Korea or thinking of it? Read on as 2016 draws to close

Posted: 31/12/2016

31 December 2016 - RPS Partnership

As 2016 draws to a close, we thought we would bring you this interesting blog from one of our RPS Partnership consultants who has recently returned from South Korea. Not a place which is often visited, so we are providing you here with some advice and top tips for travel to Seoul.

Contact us on [email protected] for more details on travel to South Korea and to speak to our consultant for assistance. Also contact us for advice on training and security consultancy to assist you and your staff in 2017.

"South Korea is a fascinating place to visit and full of surprises for travellers to uncover", says our RPS Partnership consultant....

During the late 1970s South Korea was transformed from a primary agricultural country into an industrialised one. Despite a couple of short economic crisis periods, it has managed to maintain its position as one of the leading economic powers of the world, with an increasing concentration of high tech consumer goods.

Arriving in South Korea

If you are a holder of a British Citizen passport, then you can enter South Korea as a tourist for up to 90 days without a visa.  Your passport must be valid for at least 3 months from the date of entry into South Korea. You must also been able to show an onward or return ticket.

There are 7 international airports into South Korea, the largest and primary airport serving the Seoul capital area is Incheon International Airport (sometimes referred to as Seoul – Incheon). It is one of the busiest airports in the world.  That said, since 2005 it has been rated as the best airport worldwide.

Airport authorities claim that it takes on average 12 minutes to clear customs on arrival and 19 minutes on departure.  In my experience, the arrival clearance was certainly trouble free and within 10 minutes; however our departure through customs was a lot slower. We queued for half an hour just to enter into the custom area, where it then took 15 minutes to be processed through the scanning machines – so make sure you allow sufficient time to clear customs on exit.

Interesting fact: 16 June 2011 Two soldiers of the Republic of Korea Marine Corps, fired a total of 99 bullets at an Asiana Airlines flight as it came into land at Incheon airport, as the soldiers had misidentified the aircraft as belonging to the North Korean Military. The aircraft made a safe landing without sustaining any damage.

Incheon International airport is located 48km (30 miles) west of Seoul city centre and was built on artificially created land, opened in 2001.

Transport

Buses – buses are available outside of the arrivals area on the first floor. Standard buses run to Gimpo Airport and Songjeong Station.

Rail – AREX is the airport railroad express and is located in the transport centre, adjacent to the main terminal building. It provides high speed services to Gimpo Airport and Seoul.  Many stations along the AREX line provide connections to the Incheon subway and Seoul Metro subway.

Car hire – Car rental is located near the long term parking lot within the arrival terminal building. We used Avis, which had very helpful staff who spoke good English. Sat navs are available to rent and I would strongly advise taking one.

Once in Seoul city it is very difficult to park, no on side road parking is allowed, and there are very few public car parks. We found that once we arrived and parked at our hotel, we didn’t use the car again until we drove back to the airport. The metro is very clean, efficient and easy to use.

Top tip: it would have been cheaper for us to take the train or even taxi from the airport to hotel and back.

Driving from the airport to Seoul city centre is via the new expressway. There is a toll to pay which is 6,600.00 Won. This expressway is new, easy to navigate and not very much traffic.

Seoul

Seoul is the capital of South Korea, and is a huge metropolis where modern skyscrapers, high -tech subways and pop culture meet Buddist temples, palaces and street markets.

A population of over 11 million – yet this is hard to believe as you walk through the sprawling wide avenues. Much of Seoul`s infrastructure is exceptionally modern and clean.

Seoul is truly vast – although the casual traveller can see most of the main sights in a few days; as we did in between work……a dedicated traveller could spend weeks exploring all the alleyways and far off neighbourhoods.

Seoul is a very well organised city covering over 600m2

It is devided up into 25 districts (gu) each with an area and population of a small city. These districts are subdivided into 522 sub districts (dong).

The sheer size of the city means that to a traveller, it is difficult to find a true `centre’ of Seoul. It is more like a collection of cities that are bunched together; each with their own business and commercial districts. The two largest core areas are Jongno / Jung in the north and Gangnam in the south.

The best way to get around is by far the subway system (the third largest in the world) which is exceptional and easy to navigate. That said we did manage to get a little geographically confused late one evening, when we left the subway from a different exit, with no city map; it was somewhat challenging to relocate the hotel !

Top tip: I found it very difficult when I was in the area of Jongno (exit 3 from subway line 1) at 1030pm to flag down a taxi. I later found out from a local man, that Korean taxi drivers are very reluctant to pick up lone western female passengers late at night. This ended up with me walking for 20 minutes back to the hotel. As a frequent lone traveller; I wasn’t too put out, but had I known this was the culture, then I may have decided to have a colleague meet with me.

The following evening, when I was travelling in the same area with a male friend; we had no problem at all flagging down a taxi.

Food / Eating out

As with most main cities around the world these days, if the tourist wants to eat westernised familiar food then there is plenty of opportunity to do so – Seoul is no exception, from the usual Macdonalds, KFC, Costa Coffee etc there are lots to chose from.

We decided to wander off the beaten track and down some side alleys to find some good local Korean food and we certainly were not disappointed. From local noodle shops try their Budae Jigae – Korean Army Stew (Im a huge spice lover; but boy some dishes are very picante !) to an alley full of plastic sheeted seating area for local workers – here we tried Gogigui – Korean BBQ, which was a delicious selection of belly pork, spiced to your liking and grilled on the hot plate in the middle of the table. All washed down of course with the local Soju.

Tourist Spots

There are lots of organised tours that anyone can book onto to see Seoul and the surrounding places of interest, but to be honest a lot of them are close by and easily accessable by foot or metro.

All the sights have information in several languages; or you can chose to go on a guided tour spoken in English. We found that the entrance fee was very little, generally under the equivalent of £1.00

There are also several taxi drivers who will offer to take you to the De militarized Zone (DMZ) for as little as 50 dollars from Seoul city centre. It takes around 90 minutes to get there. Apparently you have to be clear of the DMZ by 3pm or else face a night in custody !! 

Be very careful if you chose to go to the DMZ. There have been a lot of incidents occurring around the area over the years. If you do chose to go, then you are required to take a legitimate form of identification and / or passport.

There are rules for taking photos, so be sure to understand and abide by them !

Interesting fact: The DMZ was established in July 1953. It is an area 2 ½ miles (4km) wide and it stretches 151 miles (243km) on land and 37 miles (59.5km) through the Han River estuary, right across the peninsula.

Despite being called a de militarized zone, it is one of the most fortified regions in the world. It acts as a buffer zone between the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (North Korea) with the Republic of Korea (South Korea).

Hotels

There are a good variety of hotels within all price ranges in Seoul city. Reception staff speak English, although it may be limited. It’s good practice to get the staff to write down the hotel address in Korean for you, just in case you take a taxi or become lost. Many taxi drivers don’t speak English.

Top tip: Take a look and make yourself familiar with any safety equipment within your room. Take a look at the picture to see what I found in my room, as a form of room escape through the window. Great idea and seemingly very practical, until you realise that I am on the 10th floor with only 15 metres of rope!!! Maybe not quite as useful as I first thought!

Whilst you are travelling its advisable to ask local people / hotel staff if there are any protest or marches planned whilst you are there.

We came across a large demonstration being held in the square that was adjacent to our hotel. Well it was actually all just breaking up as we arrived back at the hotel, but watching the footage on TV later that evening, there were around 5,000 people who had attended.

Try to stay away from any large crowds, as emotions run high amongst local people especially when it involves politics. What looks lke and seems peaceful one minute can suddenly change and become a very violent protest.

Contact us on [email protected] for more information on travel to South Korea or any of your travel and security concerns for 2017.

Photos: RPS Partnership

Seoul subway

Escape rope to get out of high rise hotels

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