Dodori Korea TripSeoul
Your Korea travel guide, checked this morning in Seoul.
Practical guides to arriving, getting around, paying and eating, plus today's charts, prices and weather. Collected in Seoul every morning and written in English. Nothing unverified goes up.
Run day to day by a Korean editor living in Seoul — 서울에서 매일 확인하고 씁니다
Nice to meet you! What about Korea are you curious about?
Today, part by part
Some of these live at their own address too, updated the same way every morning: K-beauty, K-pop and Seoul, right now.
Plan around the calendar
When are you coming?
Put in the month and this will tell you what is running, what to pack for and whether you need a travel authorisation - each answer from the guide that says it, with the date it was checked.
Written by hand, checked before publishing
The things nobody explains properly
Which Korean apps actually work for you
Google Maps still cannot do walking directions here. And a Korean SIM does not unlock the apps most guides tell you to install.
READ → CHECKED 20 SEPTEMBER 2026
Eating
The convenience store, and what it replaces
Hot meals, parcels, transit top-ups and a small list of medicines. Most visitors use them for water and miss the other six things.
READ → CHECKED 15 AUGUST 2026 ArrivingComing in, and what you may bring with you
The allowance is USD 800, with drink and tobacco counted separately. Declaring what is over the line costs less than being caught with it.
READ → CHECKED 15 AUGUST 2026 EmergenciesWho to call when something goes wrong
Four numbers worth saving before you fly, and the one that handles the things that actually happen. Plus what your embassy will and will not do.
READ → CHECKED 23 AUGUST 2026 CultureEveryday etiquette, the parts that actually come up
Not a hundred rules. The handful that change how a meal, a taxi or a round of drinks actually goes, and which ones a visitor can safely skip.
READ → CHECKED 20 SEPTEMBER 2026
Arriving
The first two hours, in order
What to do at Incheon before you leave, what is cheaper in the city, and the two things that get genuinely harder once you have gone.
READ → CHECKED 15 AUGUST 2026 MoneyWhen your card gets declined in Korea
The same card that worked at the counter fails on the website. Four different walls, and only two of them have a way through.
READ → CHECKED 20 SEPTEMBER 2026 HealthGetting sick, and which number to call
Which of the four official numbers to call, how to find a pharmacy at 2am, and an honest account of what nobody publishes about the cost.
READ → CHECKED 20 SEPTEMBER 2026
Culture
Han River Drone Light Show
A free evening drone display at Ttukseom Hangang Park, announced only in Korean. What the poster and program actually say, translated.
READ → CHECKED 20 SEPTEMBER 2026 Getting aroundThe fast train, and what changed on 1 September
KTX and SRT have merged, fares fell about ten per cent, and Seoul to Busan is now 54,400 KRW. Every English guide written before September is wrong.
READ → CHECKED 13 SEPTEMBER 2026
Arriving
Getting from Incheon to Seoul
Four ways in, and the cheapest is not the answer for everyone. Real fares, and the one question that decides it.
READ → CHECKED 15 AUGUST 2026 Getting aroundThe bus, and the two websites nobody explains
Buses reach hundreds of towns the fast train never touches, booked through two separate systems depending on the bus type. Plus discounts that are published and almost never used.
READ → CHECKED 15 AUGUST 2026 ArrivingK-ETA, and whether you still need one
Most visitors currently do not need one - but the exemption has an end date and the rule returns the next day. Where it stands, and what changes.
READ → CHECKED 15 AUGUST 2026 CultureSeeing a Korean baseball game
Tickets open about a week before each game, not months. Which sites take a foreign card, which Seoul stadium has a roof, and the food rule nobody believes.
READ → CHECKED 20 SEPTEMBER 2026 ArrivingGetting online in Korea
Three ways to have data, decided by two questions that are not price. Plus the thing all three fail at.
READ → CHECKED 20 SEPTEMBER 2026 CultureHow old you are in Korea
The law changed in June 2023 and most English guides still describe the old system. What changed, what did not, and why people still ask your birth year.
READ → CHECKED 13 SEPTEMBER 2026 Getting aroundThe suitcase problem, on your last day
Checkout is at eleven, the flight is at nine. Subway lockers, staffed counters, and a service that carries your bag to Incheon while you spend the day elsewhere.
READ → CHECKED 15 AUGUST 2026
Getting around
Maps that actually work here
Google Maps has never given walking directions in Korea. That is changing, but not yet everywhere. Install the fallback before you land.
READ → CHECKED 20 SEPTEMBER 2026 CultureHow visitors actually meet people in Korea
Korean friend groups stay closed after school, which is why a whole layer of hobby meetups exists to route around it. Running crews, climbing gyms and language exchanges you can walk into on day one.
READ → CHECKED 20 SEPTEMBER 2026
Eating
Ordering, when the machine only speaks Korean
Four ordering systems, a queue forming behind you, and no English on the screen. Plus the rules about Korean restaurants that nothing on the screen explains.
READ → CHECKED 15 AUGUST 2026
Culture
Palaces, and the four ways in for nothing
Hanbok gets you in free. The rule has specific requirements the rental shops do not mention, and getting them wrong at the gate is avoidable.
READ → CHECKED 15 AUGUST 2026 ShoppingBooking a personal color analysis
The quoted prices look random and are not. Three things move them, and the cheapest option is usually a different service rather than a discount.
READ → CHECKED 22 AUGUST 2026
Shopping
Shopping in Seoul without wasting a day
Which store, which floor the refund desk is on, what time the doors close, and why the interesting retail is somewhere else.
READ → CHECKED 15 AUGUST 2026 WellnessSport and wellness as a visitor
Race entry closes months earlier than visitors expect, and foreign runners get a separate registration door. Plus the wellness bookings that genuinely run in English.
READ → CHECKED 20 SEPTEMBER 2026
Shopping
Getting the tax back
Three refund routes under the same two English words. Most visitors use one without realising, then queue at the airport for money they already got.
READ → CHECKED 15 AUGUST 2026
Getting around
Taxis, and the two things that go wrong
The app rejects your card and there is a surcharge people think applies to them. One has a two-second fix, the other is a myth about a service you have not booked.
READ → CHECKED 15 AUGUST 2026
Getting around
Getting your T-money money back
Two refunds, and almost every English guide mixes them up. One is a machine in the station. The other is a convenience store counter.
READ → CHECKED 15 AUGUST 2026
Seasons
The four seasons, and what they mean for your bag
Packing for the average of a season instead of what it actually does is the most common visitor mistake. What each one is really like.
READ → CHECKED 20 SEPTEMBER 2026Guides shaped like a whole day
Routes that don't double back
Itinerary
One day in Seoul, start to finish
Most lists have you crossing the city four times. This route goes one direction, with a map and the subway line between each stop.
READ → CHECKED 15 AUGUST 2026
Itinerary
Seongsu, Gangnam, and the river between them
The day for people who have already done the palaces. A factory district nobody planned, then a city drawn on paper, with the Han River in the middle.
READ → CHECKED 15 AUGUST 2026
Itinerary
A day around the land you could not enter
Itaewon is international because a foreign army was next door for a century. This route walks the edge of the old Yongsan garrison.
READ → CHECKED 15 AUGUST 2026
The letter · every week
Learn the Korean that people actually speak.
Not the textbook version. One expression a week, with the moment you would really use it, and what it signals when you say it.
Subscriptions open shortly. Nothing is collected here yet.