How to Take a Day Trip to South Korea for Free

Did you know that some airlines will allow an extra-long layover in choice cities without inflating your flight ticket price? For example, Cota Airlines allows guests traveling from the US to South America to stop over in Panama City (even overnight) for the same ticket cost. Qatar Airlines offers an overnight in Qatar for just a few dollars more than your flight, and this includes a hotel for the night! This can be a lovely “free” way to experience a day trip to a city that may otherwise not be on your short list of destinations. We took advantage of this very thing on our layover from Los Angeles to China, by way of Seoul, South Korea.

In this instance, we flew Asiana Airlines, and we really enjoyed our experience with them! We were happy to take advantage of the extra long layover in Seoul, and delighted that our checked bags were transferred for us to China so we didn’t have to worry about retrieving them and storing them in Seoul while we explored the city.

If you would like to take advantage of this very thing, here are some suggestions to help you on your day trip to Seoul: 

The first thing to do, after making it through immigration and customs, is to withdraw or exchange some cash. ($100 USD should do it for a day) Cash in hand, purchase a TMoney card from a CV in the airport or from the train station. Once you purchase the card for 5,000KRW you will need to fill it up, in cash. Perhaps 30,000KRW per card for a day would cover the public transportation needed for your trip. Keep in mind it costs 18,000KRW just to get back to the airport later in the day, but you can top up anytime if you start to run low. If you overshoot, you can use your TMoney card for other things, like any purchases made at a CV.

Tmoney card in hand, jump on the the all-stop metro train to the city center, its the cheapest option and takes about an hour. From Seoul Station you can transfer to other lines, depending on your destination. We went to Bukchon Hanok Village, with a stop for breakfast at Cafe Onion. After a lovely breakfast and brisk walk through the village, walk the 20 minutes to Gyeongbokgung Palace. Consider renting a hanbok for some super cute pictures, and catching the changing of the guard at 10am. You could also visit Jingwansa Temple or N Seoul Tower, or a market such as Myeong-dong. If you get hungry for lunch or dinner -or something in between- there are unlimited options for great Korean Barbecue in the Markets! From here you can take the subway to Gangnam COEX for the Gangnam Style statue and the Starfield Library. It’s at least an hour on the metro or bus to get back to the airport from here. Remember you will want to be at the airport 2 hours before your scheduled connection flight, just in case. For this day trip, You’ll need a layover no shorter than 9 hours, and that’s if you’re hustling around. Best to choose the 11 hour or even overnight option so you can see the main points of interest.

We also found time to purchase some Korean beauty products and K-Pop souvenirs, which is a must! There are several other great options to be had, including a day trip to the DMZ, but we just did not have time on this visit. Seoul is a lovely city, the people are kind, and its clean and easily walkable. We found our day trip there very enjoyable and would definitely return for a longer trip someday.