9 Travel Tips for 1st timer in South Korea
May 03, 2018
South Korea is one of the sought to visit places in Asia. South Korea have 4 seasons - Summer, Spring, Autumn, and Winter.We visited last Winter 2017. So my travel tips may apply other seasons and other travels but some are for snowy and cold months.
1. Have your money exchange before your travel. Never have your money exchange at airports because currency exchange there are low. But if that cannot be avoided exchange with just a lil amount.
(That is TIP #2. Sorry for the error, I was too lazy to re-edit. Peace!)
2. Please RENT A WIFI ahead of time. I had planned to rent a flytpack back then but wasn't able to pushed through since I wasn't able to book in advance. And since me and my sister had read an article that buying a sim card with unlimited mobile data for 5 days + can be reloaded are way cheaper than renting a pocket wifi. But we had a hard time finding one, so I ended up using my data plan roaming services. And i'm grateful though, since it was really convenient than wandering around the chilly weather looking for a sim card. It was a bit expensive (my globe data roaming services) compared to renting a pocket wifi. So please don't be like me, lol. Rent in advance for your travel convenience.
3. Always check weather temperature months and weeks before the travel. Before heading to a place you've never been of, research ahead their weather temperature. I did research months prior to our visit. I go to accuweather.com for temp checking every now and then. So you will know which pieces you will bring for your travel.
4. In relation to TIP #3, please BRING clothes appropriate for the weather condition. Since ours was winter so I had to bring heattechs top and bottom, additional layers such as leggings, thick stockings, warm socks, inner tops and sweaters. To add, never ever forget to bring warm scarves, beanie hats, ear muffs, and gloves to keep you warm so you can enjoy strolling around. For coats - look for a wool trench coats, for jackets choose the thermal ones since winter in Korea is surprisingly freezing cold. We ended up buying some garments over there since it was sooooo cold, what we brought wasn't enough to suffice the coldness.
6. Buy T-Money card for transportation. If you really want to experience Korea, I recommend you ride buses and trains. You can buy a T-MONEY Card for transpo in 7/11 stores or C2U or any convenience stores which are plenty of them around Korea. Or you can even buy it at subway stations. Reloading can also be done in convenience stores or at subways.
7. Download waze. Or get your google maps ready. Since we didn't avail a travel package, it was all DIY. So we didn't have a tour guide with us (except for our DAY 3 tour), so internet is really important to help you with going through around the city. We are just so lucky, my brother is sooo good with directions so we didn't had hard time.
8. BRING POWERBANK ALL THE TIME. I don't know why but apple phone battery dies in extreme cold. Even if it's fully charged because same goes with my dad's and brother's phone. Fortunately, we brought powerbanks with us. Since my Mom and sister's phone are android so they didn't have to worry a thing. But if you're a heavy user, just bring with you your powerbanks so you won't miss anything nice to take photo of. If you have camera then much better.
9. Enjoy and have a wonderful time. Since South Korea have so much to offer, from food, culture, and a beautiful sceneries - every corner is just so amazingly pretty and plenty of places you can visit to. Five or Seven days of stay wasn't enough to see all those beautiful spots. Hoping next time to visit SPRING TIME because Korea is always my dream place to be.
Note: Tips are based on our own experience. All photos are taken by me featuring my lovely family using Fuji x-a2 in a 35mm lens.
Hope you all enjoy reading my post. Leave love, leave a comment. Thank You!
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