Quote from: Kiwi4Eva on October 29, 2013, 03:25:50 PM
Taxis are wildly cheap - only 10% of the cost of what they are here. But only take the ORANGE cabs. The others (there are millions) don't have the same reputation, and all the orange cabs have a translation service. We never spent more than $14 and that was for a 40 minute taxi fare!
As I think you are in pounds, you could budget for no more than $70 pounds max, per day. And that's eating out 2 or 3 times a day, and I'm not talking Pizza Hut, but nice food, or at least seemingly up-market food outlets/restaraunts. In saying that I'm quoting for two people.
We stayed in Gangnam. It takes maybe 10 minutes by taxi to get to Yeson from there, and you could walk it in 13 minutes. Be prepared to be stared at and stared through, because you are not Korean.
Seoul is huge - the biggest city I have ever been in, so you do need to have a little bit of inner compass.
I don't smoke but cigarettes are $2.70 a packet of 20. Here they are $20
But a two litre bottle of water is $15!
Visiting Seoul is not so much challenging.
I am also tired of being stared here everyday. Some people study my face more than 1 min. This is the same in foreign countries. Recently I visited Germany, Slovenia, Finland, Russia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and Canada. The only places where people did not stare at me so much were Japan and Canada.
Young Koreans are generally more fluent in English, and workers in hotels can help you in translation.
For ordinary tax, if you pronounce the destination in Korean clearly, then most taxi drivers will understand it and take you there. Or you can show the driver a map or a memo on the destination written in Korean, which workers in hotels can prepare for you. Drivers can not cheat you, because the fee is displayed in the meter.
Or, you have a phone or others can make a call for you, you can call a taxi and they will come within a few minutes. The prices is nearly the same.
http://www.korea4expats.com/article-call-reserve-taxi-seoul.htmlI usually call a taxi, rather than waiting in the street.
Transportation cost within Korea is far cheaper than other countries, because the government severely regulates the fees. For example, from Seoul to Jeju island by plane, taking about 1 hour, it costs < US$100, and you can take one every 5 mins. From Seoul to Busan, by the express train, taking about 2.5 hours for ca. 400 km = 250 mile, it costs about US$50, and you can take it every 15 minutes. You can travel to other cities or places in Korea with far cheaper budget.
For comparison, in Canada, they asked ca. US$400 for just a 20 min. trip from Vancouver to Nanaimo by the small plane. It was cancelled from the dense fog, and I took a ferry from Nanaimo to Vancouver at ca. US$15. And, I paid Canada $90 to the Vancouver airport by the taxi, including the tip.
In Seoul, I can have nice breakfast or lunch at a minimum of ca. US$ 3, but mostly US$ 7-8.
Water bottles are not not so much expensive. They cost about US$ 1 at convenient stores (at my home town, it costs about US$ 0.5).
Hotels in Seoul are mostly expensive. I can search and find for affordable hotels < US$50, but I would not recommend these hotels to you. Most hotels in Seoul are old, except those in Gangnam. In Gangnam, the minimum cost is about US$80 per night. This is nearly the same as in New York Manhattan. But the hotel prices in Seoul are less expensive than Helsinki or Saint Petersburg, Russia, I am sure. When I was in a Marriott hotel at Okinawa, Japan, I paid ca. US$300 per night, even though it was winter, not a high-demand season. And, two weeks ago in Nanaimo, Canada, I paid US$ 75 per night, although it was the cheapest one in the area.
Cigarette is cheaper than other countries, but beer and wine are more expensive in Seoul, because of absurdly higher tax on alcohol products. I like Korean traditional rice wine, but it is very difficult to find nice Makeolli bottles in Seoul:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makgeolli It is cheaper and above all very nice for your health.
barbie~~
