South Korea Budget Tips: Estimate Your Daily Travel Costs (2024)

Traveling to South Korea on a budget? Spend less on admission tickets with this bundled pass for Everland, Lotte World, N Seoul Tower, and more!

In a nutshell

• How much money do I need in South Korea per day? Many travelers allocate around $100 per day for a comfortable travel experience. However, South Korea has a wide range of options for budget travelers, so it is absolutely possible to spend less than this amount.
• How can I save money in South Korea? There are a couple of ways. For starters, instead of booking an airport transfer that costs more than $100, you can take this express train. You can also book this T-Money and SIM card bundle to get both a transportation card and a SIM card in one.
• How much money should I prepare for meals? Having $8 or ₩10,000 will get you a filling meal. If you don’t mind scrimping on food so you can use your money on sightseeing or shopping, you can also have gimbap or Korean rice roll for a meal. A serving costs less than $4 in a resto-style snack bar and around $2 in a convenience store.

Exploring South Korea on a Budget: Tips for Tourists

Planning your budget for your upcoming South Korea trip? To help you find out how much money you’ll need per day, below we’ve listed the average price points of and budget-friendly options for accommodations, tours, meals, and other travel essentials, as well as deals that we think you may like!

1. Book a FREE South Korea eSIM

Our first tip is to get a South Korea eSIM data plan for FREE! 😲 Yes, you read that right. GigSky, an official partner of Apple and Visa, is offering this data plan starting at $0 — absolutely free with no credit card required. This is a special offer designed to help first-time eSIM users try out a GigSky eSIM, which can be reused in 200+ destinations worldwide. Learn more and grab their free Korea eSIM data plan offer below:

2. Find cheap accommodations in Korea

Let’s continue with your hotel, guesthouse, or Airbnb. If you’re looking to spend $30-100 per night for a hotel, guesthouse, or an Airbnb, then check out these most popular options that are comfortable, accessible, and affordable:

Popular Budget-friendly stays in South Korea

• Step Inn Myeongdong 1 (around $35 per night)
• Hi Guesthouse in Insadong (around $38 per night)
• DW Stay in Hongdae (around $50 per night)
• Gongsimga Hanok Guesthouse in Jung-gu (around $70 per night)
• Nine Tree Premier Hotel Myeongdong 2 (around $70 per night)

Of course, if you’re looking for an excellent place to stay and budget is really not an issue, we’d recommend staying in any of the following properties:

Best Luxury hotels in South Korea

• The Shilla Seoul in Jung-gu (starts at $230 per night)
• Signiel Seoul in Songpa-gu (starts at $450 per night)
• Grand Walkerhill in Gwangjin-gu (starts at $160 per night)
• Lotte Hotel Seoul in Jung-gu (starts at $190 per night)

If you want to experience the best of South Korea, we’d definitely recommend staying in one of these homegrown luxury hotel brands, spefically The Shilla Seoul. Aside from its superb central location, excellent hospitality, and commendable facilities, it’s also home to La Yeon, the first Korean restaurant in the world to be awarded a 3-star Michelin rating!

Of course, if you’d like to stay in globally-known hotel brands like Conrad, Marriott, Novotel, IHG, etc., you can click here to see all your options!

To save money, book your accommodation here with promo code HOTELONAPP and get 5% off!

Tips!

• Try searching for accommodations that are not in touristy places such as Gangnam and Itaewon. Hostels and university dorms outside these areas usually offer the cheapest rates, which can go as low as $10-20 on platforms like Airbnb. Just note that if you’re looking to explore the bustling areas of Seoul, you’ll most likely spend more time commuting to and fro.
• If you prefer to be in the center of all action, such as famous shopping districts and night markets, you will find cheap capsule hotels and hostels in Myeongdong or Hongdae that can offer $15-30 per night, give or take.
• You can also spend a night at a jjimjilbang, which is a Korean sauna with sleeping quarters. These saunas typically charge around $6-12 for one night.

3. Transportation Costs in Korea

Your transportation costs really depend upon your itinerary, i.e. the attractions and locations that you want to visit in Korea. However, you can do the following to help you save some money:

Take the AREX or KAL instead of an airport transfer

If you’ll enter South Korea via Incheon Airport, do take the Airport Railroad Express Train or the KAL Limousine Bus to get to downtown Seoul. Compared to booking a private airport transfer or renting a car, you’ll definitely save a lot of money!

• AREX Express Train 🚆
  • Est. travel time: 43 minutes (Terminal 1) & 51 minutes (Terminal 2)
  • Est. price: $7.2

• Airport Limousine Bus 🚎
  • Est. travel time: 1-2 hours (depending on traffic conditions)
  • Est. price: $14.3

• Private Airport Transfer 🚘
  • Est. travel time: 1-1.5 hours (depending on traffic conditions)
  • Est. price: $90-120

Travel with T-Money

Buy a T-Money card to pay for your subway, taxi, and bus fares. This transportation card will give you a discount of at least ₩100 (or $0.1) on the fares. The savings per ride wouldn’t really seem to help if you think about it. However, at the end of my 14-day trip, I was able to save nearly as much as the cost of an Iced Americano offered in Starbucks. You can book this money-saving 2-in SIM Card + T-Money card online here.

Here are the Seoul subway base fares for T-Money card users

• Adults: around $1.1 per trip (vs. regular price of $1.2)
• Teens: around $0.6 per trip (vs. regular price of $1.1)
• Children: around $0.4 per trip
• Infants: FREE

Get a Korail Pass

To get to Busan, Daegu, or Daejeon from Seoul, you can save more money when you purchase the Korail Pass. With this transportation card, you’ll get unlimited train rides that can take you to over 600 train stations in the country. You can check how much it costs and purchase one here.

Tips!

• Do note that T-Money cannot be used to pay for your inter-city train transfers, i.e. Seoul to Busan or Daegu to Daejeon. T-Money can only be used to pay for the subway lines within each city.
• Taxis in Seoul have a base fare of around $3.8.

4. Enjoy value-for-money meals in Korea

Similar to transportation, your meal expenses depend upon whether you want to try out as many authentic Korean food as possible and how big (or small) of an eater you are.

If you’re like me who’s willing to spend more on food but who’s still on the conservative side in terms of daily budget, here’s how I worked it out: I allotted at least ₩10,000 per meal and ₩5,500 for coffee. Per day, that would be around ₩35,000 or less than $30.

Some of the ways you can further lower the cost:

• Get personal recommendations from your host or find low-key, unassuming restaurants near your hostel/apartment. These restaurants are commonly homey-looking and found in alleys. They have their menus up on their windows so you can see their price range. Full lunch or dinner set meals can go as low as ₩6,500 or $5.5.
• Look for an accommodation in Korea that offers free breakfast. You can save money if you don’t mind having instant ramen, toast, and 3-in-1 coffee for breakfast.
• Fill up with Korean street food. If you want a quick fill, get some Korean street food in Myeongdong. Each item usually sells for ₩2,000-3,000 (or $1-3). There are also kimbap shops that sell rice treats (carbs!) for around $2 only.
• CVS munchies, anyone? Convenience stores in Korea like 7-Eleven and CU offer triangular rice kimbaps (samgak kimbap) and other food items (sausage-on-stick, fish cakes, cup ramen, instant jjajangmyeon, and cooked rice) for only ₩1,500-2,500 or less than $1-2.
• Other information that might be helpful: If you’ll spend time in a cafe, allot around ₩10,000 for a cup of coffee and pastry. Ordering fast food in Korea may cost you around ₩6,000-9,000 (₱280 or $5.3).

If you want to splurge a little bit, click below to find some good restaurants to visit in Seoul:

Estimating the Cost of Your Korea Trip

If you are required to apply for a South Korea tourist visa, you will be asked to provide an estimated cost of your trip. Below we list down some of the must-have travel items and activities whose price you may want to take note of:

Last Update: July 8, 2024