The next article in the series sharing experiences about traveling to Korea is about money ^^
1, So the first question is how much money to prepare is enough? 🤔
Here I will list the basic costs preliminarily so everyone can calculate their own spending for the trip according to their own level, time, and needs:
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Airplane ticket money ✈️: I flew in November but booked tickets from August so the round-trip cost including 30kg checked baggage each way from Vietjet is about 5.5 million (if subtracting the credit card payment fee that gets refunded, it will be about 5 million). This price is not the lowest but it's also a low price that usually requires hunting early in sales periods, so advice for everyone is to book tickets early about 2-3 months before going, because the time I went was peak tourist season so booking tickets close to the date the direct flight round-trip price can go up to over ten million, if wanting cheaper a bit at 7-8 million then will have to transit through China for example.
Of course booking tickets early has many risks like missing the peak season for yellow leaves, red leaves or like my case booked tickets then just applied for visa and might stay home entirely, lose ticket money if visa fails. Booking close to the date, although cost is high but can time the right season right occasion then go also worth it, so depending on everyone's economic conditions to choose the suitable option, as for me poor so chose the high-risk high-reward option >.< -
Accommodation money 🏢: After browsing apps for booking rooms to know the general price level of accommodation in Korea then I set a budget average 1 million per night for 1 person because going alone. If you go 2 people then multiply that price accordingly will be the price for a basic double room.
A few tips for everyone when booking rooms, first is to book rooms early to get good prices and most importantly ensure that the hotels are clean, highly rated, convenient to travel and within budget still have rooms available to book.
Second is when choosing hotels should read reviews carefully on many platforms both booking apps and google or facebook if any, and if they have their own website then can contact to check prices to see where booking directly or through app gets better price. In the case of successfully booking through third-party apps then must contact directly to receive booking confirmation from them (can be via email or message in app) to ensure certainly that you have a room when arriving in Korea.
Third, travel time by public transport takes quite a lot, like 7-8km will take 40min-1h, 15-20km can take about 2 hours. So long because time walking to attractions, bus stops, subway stations, moving to transfer lines takes quite a bit so you need to base on the itinerary of attractions to book rooms near those areas to save travel time. Hotels closer to subway stations, buses the better, ideally within about 500m, if farther and in hilly terrain too and in Korea mostly hills and mountains then trust me, the task of pushing luggage to the hotel and when checking out will be a physical test that when doing it you wish you hadn't signed up 🥲 -
Transportation money 🚗: if only going by bus and subway then average about 10k won/day even less if you go few places, going KTX train depends on the route, but if short routes like from North-Central Korea, Central-South Korea and vice versa then about 20k-30k won one time depending on train type, train time and destination still running straight from North to South Korea then just multiply accordingly, seems a bit cheaper, to know exact price everyone can directly search on Korail web (I will make a guide article on booking tickets directly via web with credit card in the next article).
Moving by taxi in Korea is relatively expensive, price about 2-2.5 times compared to taxi price in Vietnam so I also limited, but there are also places that must go by taxi, for example trip about 20km will be about 20-25k won. -
Food money 🍜: if eating simply like in convenience stores or popular set meals like offal soup, bibimbap then about 10-15k won/meal, even some days I was busy moving between places skipped lunch I ate temporarily 2 breads 1k won/each and that's done the meal. Eating more fully like grilled meat, ginseng chicken soup,… then about 20-30k won or eating seafood 65k won for 1 person also have. Coming to Korea I craved green vegetables and fruits so after eating had to hunt to buy fruits so also spent about 10k won/day more.
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Money for visiting attractions ⛩️: I like natural tourist spots, historical sites so mostly the places I went are free or fee not too high about 5k won/visit and usually this cost is easy to search so you can accurately budget these costs when determined the places you want to go.
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Shopping money 🛍: This is the hardest to budget, depending on each person's needs and economy, I am not a shopping fanatic and checked baggage also not much spare weight so I only budgeted to buy a little cosmetics about 300k won.
In summary, with my spending level I calculated average 100k won/day for food and basic spending like transportation, attraction tickets. I went 10 days about 1 million won + 300k won cosmetics + 500k won for experiencing other services and incidents if any so I exchanged total 1.8 million won when going to Korea. This cost does not include airplane ticket, hotel, KTX train ticket money because I already paid these costs before from Vietnam but rest assured when returning I still had leftover about 350k won so spent comfortably.
2, Next question is how to exchange money and where? 💰
After estimating spending costs and foreign currency needed to exchange then need to find place to exchange money:
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Exchange at bank: Advantage is legal transaction, no worry about fake money but in return exchange rate high, and not all banks, branches handle Korean money, sometimes have to book in advance.
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Exchange at gold shops: This is also my choice in this trip because exchange rate better than bank, if exchange at reputable gold shops then also assured, procedures quick and available.
Here are a few tips for everyone when going to exchange money. First, should check prices before because if exchanging a lot then just 0.1k difference in rate also saves hundreds of k. For example before going to HN I checked prices at gold shops in HP then exchange rate about 19.1, I looked up phone numbers of gold stores on Ha Trung street like Quoc Trinh or Nhat Quang then respectively got quoted 19.0 and 18.9. At that time on google rate about 18.5 then banks about 19.4-19.5 for everyone to compare easily. Because also convenient going to HN to submit visa so I decided to go to Ha Trung street to exchange money to get better price.
Most gold shops will transact cash, so to have many choices you should withdraw cash to bring instead of transfer. Why I used the term "have more choices" because arriving Ha Trung I walked to check prices further after knowing the general price level, so having cash then you can exchange at any shop :v .
Everyone please try to bargain especially when exchanging large amounts because sometimes just differ a little they fear losing customer right to the shop next door when shops are next to each other like that so will lower price to keep customer and I applied that strategy and exchanged at rate 18.8 after several times coldly turning away accompanied by the sentence "yes, let me go to other shops to check more" while initially the shop I exchanged shouted price 19.4 (that's why should check prices before to not get ripped off) -
Additionally I see everyone can also exchange in groups or through students studying in Korea when going there, or friends going to Korea back with leftover money but I chicken, fear scam, fear fake money so I don't prioritize this method
3, Last question, exchanged money then how to spend money? 💳💸
In the days I was in Korea mainly I spent using wowpass card and I find it super convenient for the following reasons:
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Wowpass machines are at subway stations and big cities, details of wowpass machine locations can search on wowpass app to know the nearest ones. You can buy card in advance on app then pick up at airport or arrive airport then find machine to buy card also ok.
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Simple operations, has Vietnamese language and can directly exchange Vietnamese money (only accepts 500k bills) to Korean money at machine, rate also quite good (can check on app) so next time going to Korea I don't need to exchange Korean money before from Vietnam also ok.
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Card issuance fee 5k won, and each time withdrawing money from card fee 1k won, minimum 10k won/withdrawal I think
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Card integrates t-money so can swipe subway and bus freely and proactively top up from wowpass account to t-money via app or at wowpass machines. But note that from T-money cannot withdraw money back to wowpass account ok so just top up little by little.
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Except small mobile shops like street vendors using cash then all shops, taxis in Korea all swipe card and as long as swipe card then all can pay by wowpass so I don't need to fuss withdrawing money, counting money, sometimes holding coins jingling, also easily check balance changes without needing to note down, extremely convenient, withdraw card swipe done.
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Card has validity about 6 years so I keep the card can continue spending for next Korea trip
Above are my real experiences using wowpass card, when going back I wondered why such a convenient card so few people know. This time I see friends in group review tokpay card too, at the time I went this card not issued yet so no chance to experience, but if really has additional transfer money and exchange money directly on app then also much more convenient, if not then wowpass card also enough to meet my usage needs already 😊
Thank you everyone for reading this super long article, because I also have so many things want to share so put all at once into one topic worth it, hí hí. If still any questions don't hesitate to ask me ok 😃
Cre: Bình Giang
