Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
• Avoid traveling on long weekends and peak holiday periods such as the months
of July and August, when nearly everyone in the country is on their way some-
where. Airlines, hotels, and guesthouse operators are all pretty shameless about
jacking up prices when demand peaks, but also offer some real bargains in the
off-season.
• If you have to send money back to your home country regularly or are worried
about fluctuations in the exchange rate, consider opening a foreign-currency ac-
count with a local bank. These usually require minimum deposits but afford the
holder some protection against exchange rate variations and, at some banks, of-
fer more favorable interest rates and reduced remittance charges.
• If your city or area offers one—and most do—buy a contactless smart card (called
T-money in Seoul, Mybi in Busan, etc.) to pay subway and bus fares. These offer
an automatic discount on the fare every time they're used, frequently allow you
to transfer services within a certain time frame without paying twice, and some-
times even result in the odd discount at smart card-ready shops.
• If you can't survive without a regular intake of cheese, granola, frozen pizza, and
other Western delights, consider a membership in retailer Costco, which has
branches in major cities throughout South Korea. This warehouse-style super-
store imports much of its selection from its parent firm in the United States, and
as such, it is one of the best, and cheapest, sources of imported delicacies like
bagels, sausages, and coffee. In fact many of the foreign food stores in places
like Seoul simply buy their goods from Costco and mark them up for unwitting
consumers. Better to go to the source.
