It may come as something of a surprise to learn that Seoul is not Korea’s main international transport hub: that honour goes to Incheon, a city just to the west, yet essentially part of the same gigantic urban conurbation. Incheon is home to the country’s main international airport (often referred to as “Seoul Incheon” on departure boards), as well as a couple of international port terminals handling ferries to various cities on China’s eastern seaboard. There is no way to arrive in Seoul by land, since such opportunities are choked off by the spiky frontier with North Korea, though there are ferry links to Korea from both China and Japan.
Korean Air (
koreanair.com) and Asiana (flyasiana.com) are the two big Korean airlines, operating direct flights from a number of destinations around the world. Seoul increasingly features as a stopover on round-the-world trips, and the country is well served by dozens of international carriers. Fares increase for travel in the summer months and at Christmas time. A departure tax applies when leaving Korea, but will almost certainly be factored in to your ticket price.
British Airways (britishairways.com), Korean Air and Asiana have direct, daily connections from London Heathrow to Incheon. The journey takes eleven hours, with return fares costing around £600; this can rise to over £800 during summer and at Christmas, when it’s common for all flights to be fully booked weeks in advance. You can save money by taking an indirect flight, with prices often dipping to around £400 return during low season; good options include Finnair via Helsinki (finnair.com), Qatar Airways via Doha (qatarairways.com), Aeroflot via Moscow (aeroflot.ru) and Emirates via Dubai (emirates.com). It’s also worth checking deals with KLM (klm.com) and Air France (airfrance.com), whose routes are as close to direct as possible.
There are no direct flights to Korea from Ireland, so you’ll have to transfer in the UK or in mainland Europe.
If you are coming from the United States you have a number of options available to you: there are direct flights to Incheon from New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Detroit, Seattle, Chicago, Atlanta, Houston, Washington and Honolulu; carriers include Delta (delta.com) and United (united.com), as well as Asiana (flyasiana.com) and Korean Air (koreanair.com). Sample low-season return fares are $1400 from New York (a journey of around 14hr), $1200 from Chicago (14hr) and $1150 from Los Angeles (13hr). In all cases you may save hundreds of dollars by transferring – Beijing and Tokyo are popular hubs. Fares on many routes can almost double during summer and Christmas time.
Korean Air and Air Canada (aircanada.com) have direct flights from Incheon from two Canadian cities, Vancouver (11hr) and Toronto (13hr), but these can be very expensive when demand is high (over Can$2500 return); low-season prices can drop under Can$1000. Again, you’re likely to save money by taking an indirect flight.
From Australia, the only cities with direct connections to Korea are Sydney (10hr) and Brisbane (9hr). There have, in the past, also been direct flights from Melbourne and Cairns – check to see whether these connections have reappeared. The number of Koreans going to Australia means that bargain direct flights are few and far between, so check around for indirect flights via a Southeast Asian hub; return prices via Kuala Lumpur, Singapore or Hong Kong can often drop below Aus$1000.
For those travelling from New Zealand, there are direct flights from Auckland (11hr), though indirect flights are cheaper (sometimes under NZ$700 return). Going direct, keep your fingers crossed for a NZ$1400 fare, but assume you’ll pay around NZ$1900. At the time of writing, there were no direct flights from South Africa.
A better kind of travel
At Rough Guides we are passionately committed to travel. We believe it helps us understand the world we live in and the people we share it with – and of course tourism is vital to many developing economies. But the scale of modern tourism has also damaged some places irreparably, and climate change is accelerated by most forms of transport, especially flying. All Rough Guides’ flights are carbon-offset, and every year we donate money to a variety of environmental charities.
There are flights to Incheon from many cities across Japan (from $150 return) and China (starting at around $250 return from the major east-coast cities, but often cheaper from Qingdao). If Seoul isn’t your final destination, it may be worth checking for a connection to another Korean international airport: in decreasing order of importance, these include Busan’s Gimhae Airport, Jeju, Daegu and Gwangju. There’s also a handy, and extremely regular, connection between Seoul’s Gimpo Airport and Tokyo Haneda, both of which are closer to the centre of their respective capitals than the larger hubs, Incheon and Narita.
China and Japan aside, Incheon is served by flights from an ever-increasing number of other Asian countries, and the good news is that many of these routes are run by budget airlines; local carriers Eastar Jet (eastarjet.com), Jin Air (jinair.com), Jeju Air (en.jejuair.net) and T-way (twayair.com) have services from Thailand, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and more besides.
ebookers ebookers.com. Low fares on an extensive selection of scheduled flights and package deals.
North South Travel northsouthtravel.co.uk. Friendly, competitive travel agency, offering discounted fares worldwide. Profits are used to support projects in the developing world, especially the promotion of sustainable tourism.
STA Travel statravel.com. Worldwide specialists in independent travel; also student IDs, travel insurance, car rental, rail passes, and more. Good discounts for students and under-26s.
Trailfinders trailfinders.com. One of the best-informed and most efficient agents for independent travellers.
Grace Travel triptokorea.com. Outfit offering a wide range of good-value tours, including ski trips, out-of-town excursions and hiking adventures.
HaB Korea habkorea.com. In addition to the regular itineraries, this group also offers specialist tours dedicated to things such as K-pop (including the chance to meet a star or three) and photography. Can also set you up with tickets to musicals, shows and amusement parks.
HanaTour hanatouritc.com. Korea’s largest tour company by far offers a few interesting additions to the regular Seoul tours and DMZ trips, including nature, skiing and culinary tours.
O’ngo ongofood.com. Interesting food tours, mostly focused on Seoul but sometimes heading to the hinterlands; you’ll be able to wrap up the experience with a cooking class or two.
Despite the fact that South Korea is part of the Eurasian landmass, and technically connected to the rest of it by rail, the DMZ and North Korean red tape means that the country is currently inaccessible by land. Two old railway lines across the DMZ have been renovated, and 2007 saw trains rumble across the border as part of a peace ceremony, but overnight trains from Beijing to Seoul remain a distant prospect. Therefore access from the continent takes the form of ferries from Japan or China. Access from China can possibly be combined with a ride on the Trans-Siberian Railway (see seat61.com for more information), while, if you’re arriving from China or Japan, a combined rail and ferry ticket gives substantial discounts on what you’d pay separately (see letskorail.com for details).
There are several ferry routes from China’s East Coast to Incheon’s international terminals (see box). All the ferries have numerous classes of comfort, with one-way tickets starting at around 850 RMB. The most popular connections are from Dalian, Qingdao, and Tianjin’s port in Tanggu, which is the most convenient if you’re coming from Beijing.
Services from Japan depart from Fukuoka and Shimonoseki to the southern city of Busan: they arrive reasonably close to Busan train station, from where a high-speed service leaves every 10–20 minutes for Seoul (2hr 45min). Fukuoka is by far the better choice, since there are two different services to Korea – a regular ferry, departing Fukuoka every day except Sunday (6hr daytime from Japan, 11hr overnight back from Korea; ¥9000; koreaferry.co.kr), and a faster jetfoil with at least five services a day (3hr; ¥13,000; jrbeetle.co.jp). There’s also a longer ferry from Osaka (19hr; from ¥14,000; panstar.co.kr), three days a week – a beautiful ride through Japan’s island-studded inland sea.
Getting into Seoul from the airport or ferry terminals is simple. The airports are a little removed from the city centre, but the presence of tourist booths and English-language signage facilitates matters. For those arriving from elsewhere in Korea, Seoul’s train stations are all very central, and each is connected to at least one subway line; the main bus stations also have direct connections to the subway, but unfortunately they’re all rather awkwardly located to the south and east of the centre.
ferries from China
Chinese ports |
Departure from China |
Journey times |
Dalian |
Mon, Wed & Fri 6pm |
17hr |
Dandong |
Tues, Thurs & Sun 6pm |
16hr |
Qingdao |
Mon, Wed & Fri 5.30pm |
17hr |
Qinhuangdao |
Wed & Sun 1pm |
24hr |
Shidao |
Tues, Thurs & Sun 7pm |
14hr |
Tanggu (Tianjin) |
Thurs & Sun 11am |
24hr |
Weihai |
Tues, Thurs & Sun 6pm |
14hr |
Yantai |
Mon, Wed & Fri 6.30pm |
14hr |
Yingkou |
Mon & Thurs noon |
24hr |
Most people take the bus from Incheon Airport to Seoul, which takes about an hour, depending on your destination. There are no fewer than fifteen bus routes from the airport to the capital (W10,000), each stopping off at numerous locations, while more expensive limousine buses head straight to many of the top hotels (around W15,000); ask at an airport tourist booth for details of which bus to take.
Alternatively, the rather slow AREX (airport express) train runs several times an hour from Incheon Airport to Seoul train station (1hr; around W4000), where you can connect to the Seoul underground network (lines 1 and 4). The AREX also connects to the underground at Gimpo airport (the terminus for most domestic flights and a few short-haul international services) and Gongdeok for line 5, Digital Media City or Gongdeok for line 6 and Hongik University for line 2. Most services are subway-like in nature, though once an hour a more comfy train makes a direct run to Seoul station (43min; W9000). Korea’s high-speed KTX trains also reach the airport, though it’s not worth taking these if you’re only going to Seoul (it costs W12,500, and this stretch of line is no faster than the AREX).
A taxi from the airport will take around thirty minutes to get to central Seoul and cost W65,000–110,000 depending upon your destination and the time of day; the black “deluxe” taxis are more costly.
Ferries from China all land in the city of Incheon, just west of Seoul. To get to Seoul from Incheon, take a taxi to Dongincheon station (not too far to walk, if you’ve light luggage), which is on line 1 of the capital’s subway network – the journey to central Seoul will take around an hour.