LET THE JOURNEY BEGIN ...

12 days itinerary, travelling in South Korea.

4:15:00 PM

This post is going to be very long, since its my 12 days itinerary, I will do a summarize write up :) 

This itinerary was kind of exhausting but full of great memories, okay, let's get started ~



Day 1  - After arriving in Busan, we went to information counter to ask about the airport bus to city, it is the same as the one in Seoul, they drop by most of the hotel and hostel, however you need to check which bus number drop by to the place where you stay. This time, we were staying near Haeundae, hence we choose to take the Airport Limousine Bus.


Accomodation : IndyHouse Hostel

One of the reason why I love staying in Hostel is not only about the price, but also they always have a very informative website which helps you from your way in airport to their location so please check it out! I would strongly recommend IndyHouse if you would like to stay near to Haeundae, the rooms are very clean and they provide free breakfast as well, most importantly, near to metro station "Haeundae" !

First day doesn't has much time left, so after checking in we went out for a walk to look for dinner, don't miss out Dwaeji Gukbap in Busan! It's the pork stew soup with rice, must try though :) Since we have some time left after dinner, we went to Gukje market and BIFF Square, really love the Christmas atmosphere here!

Getting to BIFF Square : Get off at Jagalchi Station (Line 1), Exit 7.

Day 2 - Simply a tourist in Busan, because we only have one full day today so we wanted to fit in most of the sightseeing into the day, and our routine starts from visiting Haedong Yonggungsa Temple in the morning. Getting there from where we stay is easy, just walk to "Haeundae" metro station, at the exit 2 take bus 181 and get off at Yonggungsa Temple. Couldn't recall how much does it cost, check with the hostel receptionist :)


After Yonggungsa Temple, we head straight to Gamcheon Culture Village. Getting to Gamcheon is a little complicated, I remembered my first visit to Gamcheon was by taxi, and he simply drop us in a place in Gamcheon which is not the entrance for tourist, we end up walking about 100-200 meters and reverse back as we couldn't see anyone else visiting this place LOL. We learnt our lesson so this time we went by bus! I couldn't remember how we get from Yonggungsa Temple to Gamcheon, but definitely we took the same bus 181 back to some metro station.

Direction to Gamcheon Culture Village : Goejeong Station (Line 1), Exit 6 and get on local bus Sakha 1 or Sakha 1-1 / Toseongdong Station (Line 1), Exit 6 and get on local bus Saha 1-1, Seogu 2 or Seogu 2-2.


After Gamchon visit, we went back to Jagalchi Market, from the wet market, we walk through to BIFF Square to look for the stairway up to Busan Tower which situated at Yongdusan Park. There are 2 ways to go to Busan Tower, one is by walking up the hill whereby you can see a lot of locals exercising and the other easy way is by the escalator stairway directly lead up to Busan Tower. My first visit we went through the hard way and I nearly shout out loud when I saw the stairway on the other side LOL. Every mistake is a lesson, as long as you are willing learn from it right :D


Strolling around these area could takes up to hours, eat shop and sight see, and then we packed up our day. One full day in Busan is really not enough to truly explore the city :( If you have got enough time, you could have visit beaches in Busan too!





Day 3 - Believe it or not, I slept at 2am and I woke up 4 in the morning to prepare myself because we're catching the first Airport Limousine Bus at 5.35AM to airport as we were flying off to Jeju Island today! zZz I wish I could snooze off the alarm T.T




Our flight with Air Busan, departed from Busan at 0745am and arrived in Jeju at 0835am, we bought it during sales time so it's about KRW 70,000 per person for one way.

As we only stay one night in Jeju, we choose to rent a car instead of taking public transport because driving on your own can save a lot of time! I know it's weird that we only stay one night here in Jeju whereby most people would have stay longer, but this is the only plan when you are so greedy and you wanted to visit all part of South Korea on your trip xD

Renting a car in Jeju Island is not expensive if you have 5 in a group, roughly about KRW 100,000 for 1~2 day. Our car rental company is KT Kumho, upon arriving in Jeju Airport, take a taxi to the nearest branch to check in for your car. FYI, driving in South Korea require you to have an international licence, so please change your licence before flying off to Korea!


Left-side driving is really very challenging to us who has been driving right-side for such a long time, however for a person like me, challenge never really beat me down :) I hate to admit it, but I am a good driver well-approved by most of my friends .......

Accomodation : MJ HOTEL
I couldn't find their official website for reservation, but you may book through website like Agoda or Booking.com. MJ Hotel provide free parking so you can park your car in, although the car park is in fact, very NARROW and only fit 5-6 cars!

We started our day with the visit to famous Seongsan Ilchulbong Peak, and not to forget, the famous abalone hotpot! You can simply spot one near Ilchulbong, strongly recommended :)



After our superb lunch, we drove to Seongup Folk Village, here you will know more about the culture in Jeju whereby they used to served their husband like a King back then.


Follow by the routine, we actually wanted to catch sunset in Jusangjeollidae Cliff however we couldn't find the way to this beautiful cliff and end up giving up as the sky is getting dark :(

Driving in the dark was scary, I learned that in many countries they are in fact, don't have much lights along the highway, but Malaysian, we used to drive with lot of lights, that is why I said scary! The sky turn dark at 6pm, therefore we drove back to our hotel. One thing good about MJ Hotel, you can have the famous barbeque black pork right in front of the hotel, and it was a good one :D





Day 4 - Again, we woke up early at 6am to do some sightseeing before catching our flight to Seoul at 1305pm. Can you believe it or not, we slept at 2am and slightly only after 4 hours later we woke up LOL. We didn't want to waste our time on sleeping, crazy huh?! But never regret a single thing though hehehe.

On this day, we went to Yongduam Rock and then follow by the so called "Mysterious Road". While on the way back to our hotel, we stop by a restaurant to have brunch. If you can't find any food in South Korea, don't worry, look out for a good restaurant sign, pretty sure you won't disappointed by it. Check out hotel, drop off the rental car and they have the shuttle to drop you to the airport.


Our flight to Seoul by Air Busan cost about KRW 47,000 per person for one way, please take note that there are 2 airports in Seoul, one is in Incheon name Incheon International Aiport and the other one is in Gimhae name Gimhae International Aiport. The domestic flight mostly depart in Gimhae.

Good news about Air Busan is that you can get refund on the check in counter if you failed to utilize your flight ticket, one of our friend drop out the trip, and we help her to get almost fully refunded ticket. If I am not mistaken, they only charged airport tax KRW 6600.

Upon arriving in Gimhae, check out for the airport city bus as well. The bus stop by right in front of the main road of our guesthouse, just about 100-200 meters walk.

Accomodation : Kimchee Guesthouse Dongdaemun

Today, was the day of New Year's eve, after knowing that 2014 SBS Drama Awards was held at the COEX Hall D, immediately we proceed to catch them on Red Carpet! Too good too be true, those faces which you could only see on screen is now walking right in front of your eyes.... :)

We didn't go in for the awards because we wanted to see countdown with fireworks, so we decided to go Jongno Tower, it was indeed, so crowded! Regret so much that we didn't go for club T.T

Direction : Get off at "Jonggak" Station on subway Line 1.

Dinner taken at Yoogane Dakgalbi, didn't know it was quite a famous restaurant in Korea with many branches in Seoul, we were waiting for our table outside with the temperature of -5°C !



Day 5 - I was kind of excited with this day, as we were going to stay in Dolce Bita Pension by Gdragon for a night, this place is located in Pocheon. I have previously wrote about it, click HERE to read about it :)




Day 6 - Exactly like I mentioned in the post, today was day that we have had a good rest! Waking up without alarm *winks

It's hard for us to leave this place, it meant nothing yet meant everything! I don't wanna goooo :(

After getting back to Seoul, we did some sightseeing and shopping to popular places such as N Seoul Tower, Myeongdong and Dongdaemun.


There are a few ways to get to N Seoul Tower, by bus or by cable car. I personally thinks that the cable car not really worth it, but you can choose to take bus up to the tower and catch the cable car down to Myeondong. Click HERE to check for more details about transport.

Accomodation : Kimchee Guesthouse Dongdaemun

We stayed here until the last day of our trip, it is not easy to change hostel if you were carrying big suitcase!

*Tips : Staying in the same hostel will always provide you free luggage storage if you plan to have a day or 2 away from Seoul city :)

Day 7 - A day in Danyang, we are going for Paragliding! My sister has blog about it, click HERE to find out more ;)




Day 8 - DMZ Tour, we book our tour through SeoulCityTour with the price at KRW 40,000 per person, the tour will pick you up in where you stay. 




Day 9 - Ski Tour! I have always wanted to learn about Ski, but we don't have the chance to do it in our tropical country :(  Although it is tough for beginner, but I am truly in love with it! Ski would have been a very good exercise. Here's a little advice, if this is your first time going for ski, strongly suggest you not to buy the Ski Lift access as you might end up not using it even for one time and it is quite expensive for the pass. FYI, ski lift refer to a lift which escalate you up to the hill so that you can ski all the way down.





Day 10 - Nami Island and Petite France. Click HERE to find out more about the transportation from Seoul.




Day 11 - A day for us to rest, more like a food hunting day :) We went to Hongdae, Insadong, Itaewon, Ewha.. mostly the popular places for local. And yeah we went for HanBok testing as well, you can simply find it in one of those historic palace.






Day 12 - Oh did I mention it? Gwangjang market is super nearby in where we stay, nonetheless, we went to have our breakfast before departing to airport.

I don't even want to admit that today was the last day of our trip T.T  I don't want to go home, I want to stay here in my 2nd home!

Travel made easy with Funtastic Korea! Book your private tour with them now :)
Want to know more about Korea? Read on some of my new updates!

What to see in Busan - Let's go!

Geoje & TongYeong - Let's go!

Unexplored Yeosu City - Let's go! 

Eco City Suncheon - Let's go!

Wearing Hanbok in Gyeongbokgung - Let's go!  

K-Style Hub in Seoul - Let's go!

You Might Also Like

28 comments

  1. 12 days is exhaustive is you pack every day full. I prefer to have some free and easy time every couple of days and also time to work on my blog in between. LOL.

    ReplyDelete
  2. IndyHouse Hostel sounds like a great place for accommodation :) because i want convenience too. will definitely consider this for my next trip

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wah your itinerary seems quite packed by traveling to 3 different places within 12 days. I would say it's a pretty tough challenge to follow through your itinerary, haha, but it's worth using it as reference :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wow, fully packed but I'm sure a lot of unforgettable memories there! Already start planning for 2nd times visit to Korea again right? Hehe

    ReplyDelete
  5. Nice reference. I am looking for some trails to do in Korea, your itin will come in handy when I start to plan the R&R after the climb. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wow I can't wait for my trip. All your food photos look tasty fully and nice scenery @

    ReplyDelete
  7. I've only been to Seoul when I went for my 6-day trip to South Korea. I wouldn't mind going back to that country to explore other places like Busan or Jeju and other less-explored places.

    ReplyDelete
  8. bookmarked!!!! My next destination is South Korea!!!hehe...

    ReplyDelete
  9. you photos look so nice and amazing!
    Now i wonder why am i still sitting here , i should google about it now! start planning my trip!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Oh wow... I am impressed... you manage to go to Seoul, Busan and Jeju

    ReplyDelete
  11. Wow! 12 refreshing days in Korea. Sounds cool! Your photos are bringing the location alive.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I am planning to travel to Busan this year, hopefully I can get cheap fare with AirAsia :) thanks for this post, am saving the link for my trip planning :)
    cheers, siennylovesdrawing

    ReplyDelete
  13. seriously you and baz are sister??? hahaha This was definitely a long journey spend in South Korea, looks so fun for travelling around!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Very detailed story, great story. Awesome

    ReplyDelete
  15. Gonna take note on the MJ hotel, trying to shop around for a cheap place to stay aside from airbnb for my trip there. Since I hardly spend any time in the hotel except for bathing and sleeping.

    ReplyDelete
  16. OMG YOU WENT paragliding! Would want to do that when i go again next time.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Korea is the country that I really really wish to go T.T looks like you have fun at Korea and I hope I can visit too

    ReplyDelete
  18. this post made me wanna visit South Korea. so nice la can drive in Jeju! but getting an international driving license is not that hard, right?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not hard at all, just need pay RM 100 for 1 year int' license in JPJ :)

      Delete
  19. I never try skating before and feel like trying it at Korea. You plan well your itinerary and full use your trip.

    ReplyDelete
  20. What a lovely holiday. Korea is such a great tourist destination. :)

    ReplyDelete
  21. Place looks so gorgeous and I can see how cold it was and must be amazing to enjoy the yummy food in this weather.

    ReplyDelete
  22. i also wanna follow you to korea la like that, more activities is better than dunno where to go

    ReplyDelete
  23. I was thinking visiting Korea this winter. Thanks for sharing. :)

    ReplyDelete
  24. Haven't been to South Korea before, will bookmark this post for my travel reference :)

    ReplyDelete
  25. Looks like you had fun dear - what an experience it must have been. Cheers to the share.

    ReplyDelete

trazy.com