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Seoul and Busan are not known to be the most budget-friendly cities, but I believe that with a little research and effort it’s easy to find ways to save money when visiting these two beautiful places.

Here are some tips that I learned on my recent trip to Seoul and Busan that may be able to help you on your future travels to South Korea.

Related Posts: 20 things you must do in Seoul

Booking your flight

Start looking into airfare prices early (at least two months before your departure date).

Flying from North America to South Korea can be quite expensive, which is why it is critical to start looking into airfare prices early to ensure you get the best deal.

I like using Skyscanner to compare flight prices. I recommend signing up for their email alert so you can know when the cheapest flight is available.

I booked round trip tickets from Toronto to Seoul for my trip (one stop in Detroit) for $850 CAD / $770 USD. This sale was for travel in April with Delta Airlines.

Being able to get a good deal involves having patience and being flexible with your travel dates.

Related: 23 secrets to booking cheap flights

My favorite Seoul travel guides for 2018:

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Booking your hotel

Before booking your hotel, map out a rough itinerary of activities and places you want to see in Seoul and Busan. Then look for a hotel in the area where most of your sightseeing will take place.

This will help you save on transportation costs and time since you will be able to walk easily to most of the activities on your itinerary.

If you are on a budget, try to avoid staying at a Western hotel chain. They can run anywhere from $200-$400 per night.

Instead, consider staying at a Korean hotel or Guesthouse. They are very reasonably priced and you can check online reviews and photos before booking.

For our trip, we stayed at GS Hotel in the Jongno-gu (종로구) district of Seoul. This was a central area for sightseeing which made it the perfect location for us. Our room was a queen bed with private bathroom and breakfast, which came to $95 CAD per night (after taxes and fees). The staff were extremely friendly and professional. For the price and location, I wouldn’t hesitate to stay there again!

If you are on an even tighter budget, you can choose to stay in a Guesthouse for $30-$70 per night which usually includes shared bathrooms. If you are looking for a private bathroom, I recommend staying at Guesthouse on the Hill in the Myeongdong (명동) district of Seoul. The owner is extremely friendly and speaks fluent English. We stayed here for 1 night in a queen bed with private bathroom and breakfast for $70 CAD per night.

In Busan, we chose to stay in the Haeundae Beach area since there is lots to see and explore there. Hotel Foret is only a 2 minute walk from the beach and cost us only $62 CAD per night for a queen bed and private bathroom.

Related: 18 ways to save money on your hotel accommodation

Planning your sightseeing itinerary

Many of the top things to do in Seoul and Busan are free or reasonably priced.

For activities and museums that may cost a little more, make a list of the places you must see and set a budget for them. Remember that you may only be visiting this country once, so go ahead and visit all the places you wish to see.

To save on transportation and time, plan your daily itinerary to areas in close proximity to each other. That way you don’t visit one place in the morning and have to head across town to visit another place in the afternoon.

It is much easier to map out things to do in areas that are close together in order to utilize your time and save money on transportation cost.

Getting around town

There are a few ways to get from the Seoul Incheon airport to Seoul Station: taxi, train, or airport express train.

The taxi will set you back around $60-$70 CAD since it takes about one hour to get into the city.

We opted to take the Seoul metro instead when we arrived. It took about one hour to get to our hotel and cost only $4.50 CAD.

On the way home, we took the airport express train, which takes about 45 minutes to get to the airport and cost $8 CAD.

To get from Seoul to Busan (and back) we took the KTX high speed train. This took about 2 hours and 45 minutes to get between the two cities and cost $60 CAD each way.

This was more expensive than their regular trains, but by paying a little more we were able to save time so we could do more sightseeing.

The Seoul and Busan metro system are excellent and allow you to easily get to just about anywhere in the city. It is also very affordable (around $1-$2 CAD for a single journey ticket).

In Seoul you can purchase a T-card which allows you to easily reload money on to the card at a discounted rate compared to a single journey ticket.

For Busan, we found that the best thing to do was to purchase an unlimited transit pass for the day which cost $4 CAD.

Taxis are also affordable in Seoul and Busan, just make sure to have your destination written in Korean for the driver to understand.

Tipping in South Korea

Tipping is generally not required in Korea. That means you are not expected to tip at a restaurant, but a few extra Korean Won is appreciated.

You do not need to tip your taxi driver, the bellman at the hotel or the maid staff. We left money out for the maid staff on the first night and it was there when we returned; they did not take the tip.

Since we were not required to leave a tip at meals and in our hotel, this helped us save even more money to spend on activities and sightseeing.

Eating & drinking

If breakfast is included in your hotel cost, this can help save you money instead of eating out for breakfast.

Donut and coffee shops are extremely popular in Seoul and Busan, but they can get expensive. Avoid going to Starbucks as it cost 2-3x times more for coffee there than in an American or Canadian Starbucks.

We found that the cheapest place to get coffee was at McDonalds since it only cost $1 CAD. Their Egg McMuffin only cost $1.50 CAD as well if you preferred to have your breakfast outside of the hotel.

For lunch and dinner, choose to eat Korean food instead of Western food. Korea food was very cheap and delicious.

If you do not know how to read Korean, most restaurants offered an English translation or colorful photos of food on their menu. This made it easy to order and know what we were getting.

Korean beer and drinks were also very reasonable. Korean beer at most places cost $2.50-$5 CAD per pint.

Soju (their vodka-like drink) cost only $4 CAD for a bottle at restaurants (or $1 CAD at a convenience shop). Back home in Toronto, a bottle of Soju at a restaurant cost at least $15 CAD or more!

Shopping

I found that brand name and designer clothes, shoes, accessories were around the same prices as in Canada.

Instead, choose to shop for Korean made products and brands – they are much more affordable and still good. I found this to be true for Korean skincare products, they were very cheap compared to Korean skincare found in Canada, which is why I stocked up!

I tried to not do too much shopping and only purchased items that I needed or were affordable so I could stick to my budget. This tip is easier said than done.

Over to you — how do you stay on budget when visiting Seoul or Busan?

My must-have Korea accessories:

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