- Route plan

  Korea has always been on our list as a preview of the future trip to Japan and for 2023 it took priority because it was announced that the League Of Legends Worlds would be there and because Eva has been getting hooked on Korean dramas and wants to go there. So we looked at it and, without even having the dates for the LOL Worlds, we ended up choosing ours based on what the Worlds has been having on previous years, which puts us in October, which is already a classic month for us and one of the best months to visit Korea.

  We were clear that Seoul was going to take up most of the days and that we had to visit Jeju Island, which is the wonder of this trip. Further research made us put Gyeongju as a must-visit and that placed Busan on our route as it is the closest airport. So, the itinerary looks like this:

Our itinerary in Korea

  We consider that three days will be enough to see the highlights of Jeju Island and we have the flexibility the train gives us to extend or reduce the time in Busan, Gyeongju and the first day back in Seoul. Although we have set the nights to be able to reserve the accommodation.

  Later the LOL Worlds schedule became official and the entire event fell out of our stay. For the first time they had been delayed towards November due to the Asian Games.

  So, finally, the definitive route plan (number of day and where we'll spend the night), is the following, starting by September 25th of 2023:

1 y 2: Seoul
3, 4 y 5: Jeju Island
6 y 7: Busan
8: Gyeongju
9, 10, 11 y 12: Seoul
13: Flight

  The total price for this travel has been about €2700 for both of us, where almost 70% has been spent on the flights, which is explained by how far away this country is and a better value for money allocation available.

- Flights

  Before we were clear about the distribution of the days in the country, we bought the tickets to Seoul from Barcelona when we saw that the offer we had detected with Etihad disappeared at the beginning of February. So, as we only had one alternative to that if we didn't want to pay more than a thousand euros per person, we grabbed it immediately to end up flying with one of our regulars on our trips to Asia: Qatar Airways.

  But keeping the price we had seen requires us to advance the trip a week and have the departure in September.

  Finally, the return flights bought to Qatar Airways by a total of 1446€ for the two of us are the following:

09/24/2023   BCN  16:25      DOH   23:35  
09/25/2023   DOH  02:10      ICN    16:55
10/08/2023   ICN   01:30      DOH   05:55
10/08/2023   DOH  08:10      BCN   14:20

  Visiting Jeju Island forces us to look for round-trip flights. The only alternative is to take a ferry from Busan, but the travel time is much longer.

  We play with the itinerary until we decide if Busan is before or after Jeju. Finally, we decided to visit the island as soon as possible, after a day of rest in Seoul, and return to the capital step by step, after passing through Busan and Gyeongju and ending with nearly a week in Seoul.

  We looked at the price options and schedules of the two airlines that cover these local routes. So, finally, we bought the flight to Jeju from Seoul to Korean Air by 193€ (96,5€ p.p.):

09/27/2023    GMP 10:45      CJU  11:55

  And the flight from Jeju to Busan will be with Jin Air by 146€ (73€ p.p.):

09/30/2023    CJU 10:30       PUS  11:30

  With this, the total expense in flights is 1785€.

- Hotels

  Given the number of nights we have to spend in each place, we go to booking.com to evaluate the options and prices, prioritizing the location as much as possible.
   
  We immediately knew that the area we wanted to stay in Seoul was Myeongdong. In addition to being close to several attractions, we have the Seoul train station and stations on different Metro lines for more distant visits. We chose the Hotel Thomas Myeongdong, a three-star hotel that seems ideal for our plans in the city. We have to make two reservations: one for the first two days and another for the final days. The first two nights cost €137 and the last four nights cost €270, which gives us an average of about €68 per night.

  We used a similar strategy for our two nights in Busan and ended up booking the Hotel Central Park by €52 per night, €104 in total.

   We are only going to spend one night in Gyeongju, so we look for accommodation as close as possible to what we want to see most in that city, which is in the old town, where there are no big buildings and, therefore, no hotels like the previous ones. We ended up choosing a traditional home, which seems to be the common type of lodging in this area, to try. We choose Namuae, one of the best-rated options next to the tombs of the kings. We paid €84 for the night we will spend there.

  We have three nights left on Jeju Island which, since we are going to travel on an itinerary around it, requires spending each night in a different place. When we make our route joining the places we want to visit the areas in which to spend the night begin to become clear.

  Since we are going to do our tour clockwise, the first night had to be near Seongsan Ilchulbong, the volcanic crater that emerges from the sea at the east of the island and which we want to make sure we'll have the opportunity to climb. Among the accommodations that allow walking access, we choose the Hotel Stay Keumho by 38€.

  Seeing what we had left, we should spend the next night near Seogwipo, in the south of the island, where the largest number of places we want to visit are concentrated. This way, if we cannot see them all the day before we would be in a good spot to see them the next. From all the offers we make an effort to book a four-star hotel that catches our attention, it is the Jeju Hotel Scarboro, where we booked for €92.

  The last night is the one with the clearest location, since we have the flight in the next morning and we must deliver the car the previous evening, so it should be in Jeju city, the beginning and end of the itinerary. We choose another four-star hotel, the Gloucester Hotel Jeju, by 54€.

Hotels in Jeju Island

  As can be seen in the map above, our three accommodations follow the route along the coast as they are located in the East, Southwest and North.

  Having this, the total expense in hotels is €779 which, divided by the twelve nights that we will be in Korea, leaves a good average of about €65 per night.

-Rental car

  We have rented a car to do the itinerary around Jeju Island, which we will pick up upon landing and deliver the night before taking off.

  I have had to obtain an international driving license as it is a mandatory requirement to rent a car in South Korea.

  The three-day car rental, with all insurance, costs 260,000 won (about €180), of which we have already paid 20% as a deposit.

-Other expenses

  The only additional expense has been the purchase of bullet train tickets for the routes from Busan to Gyeongju and from Gyeongju to Seoul which, as there has been no way to complete the payment with a non-Korean card on the official KTX website, we will buy them once we are there.

  The tickets price is as follows:

  10/03/2023 Busan         09:57   Singyeongju  10:24    11000 won pp
  10/04/2023 Singyeongju 22:38   Seoul           00:41    69000 won pp

  Detailed plan, then, is like this:

SEPTEMBER and OCTOBER

Day Night Morning Afternoon
25 Flight Flight Seoul
26 Seoul Seoul Seoul
27 Flight Jeju Island Jeju Island
28 Jeju Island Jeju Island Jeju Island
29 Jeju Island Jeju Island Jeju Island
30 Flight Busan Busan
1 Busan Busan Busan
2 Train Gyeongju Gyeongju
3 Gyeongju Train Seoul
4 Seoul Seoul Seoul
5 Seoul Seoul Seoul
6 Seoul Seoul Seoul
7 Flight Seoul Seoul
8 Home Flight Home