22+ things to know before going to South Korea 🇰🇷

so you plan on going to korea but you don't know what to expect no worries i got you originally i wasn't planning on posting another korea video because i'm not physically there right now and not traveling there anytime soon so i didn't want to mislead people into thinking that i will be keep on delivering korea content when i like physically can't but i've been feeling aspire ladies [Music] when i was planning my own trip to korea back in october i joined this facebook group online that was meant for like south korea planning travel just because i wanted to get ideas of what i could do and i realized that i ended up contributing more than like seeking out advice in the group so today we're going to talk about things that you should know before you visit korea to help better prepare you for your trip let's go okay so first things first what should you pack when you go to korea most of these things are pretty common for whatever country that you visit but some things that i would personally recommend that i think are essential whenever i go visit korea or any east asian country is one make sure you have the proper adapter because the voltage is different in korea as well as the um outlet the second one that i would recommend is an external battery for your mobile device because you'll probably be using that to navigate yourself around when you're out and about so that will drain more battery as you go and having that external battery will be your lifesaver while you're out and about you'll probably be walking around a lot because korea is very walking friendly you're going to probably want to bring a really good pair of walking shoes whenever i'm in korea i'm always hitting like 10 000 12 000 steps a day and it's like i don't even realize it because i'm literally just walking four to five blocks at a time because i'm like oh it's too close to take a taxi or anything and so i'll just walk um and then that's how i end up navigating my whole day around and then the next one is not really what you want to pad but it's like well you should not pack but basically you want to save space in your luggage because you will most definitely buy stuff when you're in korea because things are cheap let me just tell you if you don't know what i'm talking about and you're a big fan of korean beauty your community skin care check out my haul video and you will see just how cheap things are and yeah make sure you have space in your luggage to you know fill up with all your goodies you'll thank me later yeah the last thing i would recommend bringing is having some cash on hand and that can be either your local currency or korean wan if you don't have the luxury of getting korean one in your country then you can always bring your local currency and then exchange it at the airport so next we're going to talk about things that you need in order to get around korea and these are things that you don't necessarily need to bring with you because there are things that you can acquire once you get to korea but you can also prep it beforehand so that you know you have more peace of mind one of them is going to be a wi-fi egg or a local sim card i don't think you need both if you choose to go with a local sim card you can always get a data plan with that and then if you don't really need a local number because you're only going to be there for a short period of time a wi-fi egg works just as well and that can be purchased either at the airport on arrival or you can purchase it through online sites like tracy or clook that next one that i would highly highly recommend is downloading either cacao maps or neighbor maps onto your phone because google maps works in korea but it's not really that accurate so if you really want to you know get the best directions and most accurate times having naver maps or cacao maps would be your go-to naver is kind of like korea's google the next one is also closely related to transportation is getting a t-money card and you can get a t-money card at any convenience store in korea you do have to pay for it with cash and then you can recharge it at the subway stations also with cash only or at any convenience store then that will be your golden ticket to using any of the public transportation and that includes the subway buses even taxis and speaking of public transportation it is going to be your best friend in korea the subway lines and bus lines are so convenient to use especially in metropolitan cities like seoul and busan that like there really is no need to take a taxi because you're just gonna be spending more money and more time on the road a lot of the subway lines hit a lot of the main tourist spots so my favorite is line two the green line because it hits all of the main areas that i like to frequent and that includes hongdae i can get to it's just it goes all around seoul very reliable very easy to use and way way way cheaper than taxis if you do want to use taxi i would highly recommend getting the app cacao taxi if you have a local phone number available or a phone number that works internationally it's basically like their version of uber another thing about public transportation though when you're taking a bus or a subway make sure you're not sitting in the priority seats unless you are allowed to the priority seats are always in pink um or yellow and then they are meant for the elderly and also pregnant women those seeds are always left vacant for those people so make sure that you are not being disrespectful and keeping those open for those who need it so the next thing we're going to talk about is when you're in korea and you're like shopping around this is where the cash monies comes in handy because when you are in korea card works for the most part especially if you have um a mastercard or visa card those are usually taken everywhere but the street vendors still require cash they do also sometimes allow for like local bank transfers but that's definitely harder especially if you're tourist probably won't have a local bank for you to transfer money to and from so having cash for those street vendors is definitely helpful and i would highly highly recommend visiting the street vendors because that's where you will get all the nice street food another thing with like shopping and buying things is that there are going to be some things that are not going to be widely available in korea and kind of hard to find and so that just might be something that you want to keep in mind when you are packing and some of those might include like deodorant hot cheetos or savory snacks it's really really hard to come by most of the snacks and foods run sweet in korea unfortunately and another one is tampons are really hard to find for those of you who need it the last one i want to talk about is fruits the fruits in korea are so good like the quality of them are usually like the best but they're also way way expensive so just keep that in mind when you are there so speaking of food next part we're going to talk about all things food related eating related you know restaurants related things first off tap water is technically safe but most places will still offer filter water for you the next one is one of the biggest cultural differences between us and korea when you're eating out is that the tipping culture does not exist everything is priced as marked and that's tax included too when you're eating in a restaurant the utensils are typically going to be self-service what i mean by that is they're going to be either in a box on top of the table for you to grab from or they're going to be in a drawer on the side of the table similarly a lot of the side dishes especially kimchi is going to be self-service as well so they'll have like a self-service bar for you to grab a plate and then just get out however much of the side dishes that you want also more commonly in barbecue restaurant but i've also seen it at other restaurants as well like chicken places the tables will have a little bell on it for you to click to call the waiter for if you need any help or you need to order more things however if you are ready to get the check or to pay that's usually done at the register the opposite of tipping culture is service since that is one of my favorite things in korea is the fact that when you have a large party or if the owner really really likes you for some reason they will give you service and that basically just means they'll give you free stuff i remember when i went to another bang with my friends we were the only people there and the lady running the noraebang i guess wanted to keep business so she kept on adding service for us and she kept on giving us like 20 extra minutes on top of what we had originally requested and then similarly when i went to this food stall in namdaemun the lady was asking me like where i was from and because i was a tourist she was like oh we haven't had tourists in so long so she decided to give me an extra order of ngn even though i didn't ask for it just because she was like for your travels here you can have more and it was so so nice of her and the food was so amazing i wouldn't expect service all the time but it is definitely a thing that is very common when people give you service or give you free things don't be scared nothing about restaurants and eating out in korea is that there are restrooms available typically but they are usually not within the same establishment especially in like seoul or busan with in these big metropolitan cities a lot of these establishments are part of a larger building so the restrooms are actually communal among the businesses and so you have to walk out of the establishment into like the main corridor of the business building to find the restroom speaking of bathrooms and this is like side note not really related to anything here in a typical korean home the bathroom will most likely not have a separate shower it is more common to see the shower head run through the same pipelines as the sink faucet there's a separate knob that you turn to either have the water flow through the sink faucet or through the shower head so in other words your whole bathroom will probably get really really wet so shower shoes are highly recommended in those situations um and it's just something to look out for and be aware of because it's not as common in western countries all right in the next part we're going to talk about some general things about people in korea and just about being in korea some things to expect first off is the people are very very trusting and coming from like america where things have been getting like scary and scary every day it's kind of comforting to know that when i go to korea i feel like i actually feel relatively safe even though i am in a foreign country and what i mean by that is there's cctvs everywhere so you will very very rarely hear of like petty crimes um and another thing is when you're eating at restaurants or cafes it's actually very common to see people just leave their belongings there while they go to the restroom or go out for a smoke or something like that use your best judgment of course when you're traveling abroad but for the most part people are quite respectful along the same lines of being trusting when you're in need like if your phone dies or it's like super low on battery and you don't have an external charger which you should because i definitely told you you should have brought one but if you don't you can always ask the people at the counters in a cafe or a restaurant if they have an extra phone charger laying around and most of the time they'll just ask oh do you have an iphone or do you have an android and you can just leave your phone with them while you're dying to charge the last point that i wanted to talk about that i've heard a lot of people voice concerns about is if you actually need to know korean in order to travel to korea and so i think if you're visiting a metropolitan city like seoul or busan it's actually very easy to get around with minimal korean i do still highly recommend that you learn your basic phrases of you know like hello thank you how much is this just to kind of get by but if you are really really struggling and you don't really know the language you actually can get by pretty well in those metropolitan cities with minimal korean proficiency the reason for that is a lot of the signs and menus are actually going to have an english version and also the younger generation are actually very very well educated in english they're just more shy about it and like they don't get to use it as much so they don't feel as comfortable if they are bombarded to speak up in english but they can understand you and kind of help you in that way to add on to that i do highly recommend downloading papago as your translator app on your phone it is going to be your best friend alright so those are all the things that i kind of have compiled myself that i feel like a lot of people ask about or that i tell a lot of people when they're first visiting korea or on what to expect and stuff like that and i've touched on and elaborated on a lot of these things in my faq video as well so be sure to check that out if you need more information if you have any other questions also feel free to comment down below and i'll try to help you out i hope that knowing these little tidbits will kind of you know soften the culture shock that you might get when you visit korea i hope that this was helpful and i hope you safe and happy travels to korea alright bye [Music] you

Channel: Adventures of Awkward Amy

Views: 406,956

Keywords: things to know before going to korea, things to know before going to south korea, korea travel tips, seoul korea travel tips, seoul travel tips, things to know before coming to korea, korea, seoul travel, south korea, south korea travel, south korea travel 2022, south korea travel vlog 2022, south korea travel guide, south korea travel guide 2022, travel to korea first time, korea travel, traveling to korea, korea travel guide, korea trip, visiting south korea

Id: k2v3WDsDbrw

Length: 15min 1sec (901 seconds)

Published: Fri May 27 2022