Ah, Seoul. Those who are smitten by hallyu undoubtedly have the South Korean capital on their list of dream destinations. Aside from K-pop and K-drama enthusiasts, travelers also admire Seoul for being an artistic and cultural hotspot. Simply put, it has become a popular tourist must-visit. Still, traveling to and around Seoul does not come cheap, which makes it harder for some of us to make that dream trip happen.
South Korean YouTuber Jina Kim went around Seoul for a day to see how little she can spend as a tourist in the city. She first explains that there can be two types of tourists: Type 1 would be those who are students or backpackers on a budget, and Type 2 are those who have the moolah and are willing to spend on luxurious travel.
If you're a Type 1 traveler that's on super tipid mode, Jina gave some tips to save as much money as possible when traveling around the neighborhoods of Gangnam and Hongdae. She starts off by eating out and getting Korean style beef soup for ?9,000 (approximately P400). The soup is in a large bowl and comes with free steamed rice and side dishes. She also talked about taking the trains instead of hailing taxi cabs for transpo.
Travel tip: you can buy a reloadable T-Money card which you can use to pay subway, bus, and certain taxi fares instead of buying one-way tickets for a more convenient transpo experience. You can actually use the card to pay for purchases at some convenience stores, too.
The YouTuber also mentions that you can buy tasty breads and pastries around for $3 (approximately P153) and while there are a lot (Read: A LOT.) of coffee shops around Seoul, you can always opt to get your caffeine fix from convenience store-bought coffee beverages if you really don't want to spend so much on it.
Jina stayed at a guest house (a room lined with several bunk beds and shared with other guests), which is one of the cheapest accommodations to get when traveling especially if you'll spend majority of the day out and about anyway. She spent approximately P700 for one night there and had a cozy bunk bed with curtains for privacy. She notes, however, that if privacy is a non-negotiable, then this type of accommodation might not be for you. Watch more of Jina's day as a tourist in Seoul here:
