Korea Trip - Preparation and post review!

Ok, so to wrap up on my Korea travelogue, I shall do a review of my preparation efforts and post review, including a rough expenses breakdown.

Preparation:

This was supposed to be piggy's grad trip so it was meant to be a long trip. I've always wanted to go on a long trip and also such that I don't have to rush through my itinerary or give up on the attractions I want to visit. I shortlisted Seoul, Busan and Jeju as the places I want to visit (somehow), and decided on the length of stay as 15 full days. Then I started visiting wiki and travelwiki to shortlist the attractions I want to visit in these 3 states.

I started thinking about the route that I would want to take first before booking my air tickets. I started planning since late Dec and only book the air tickets in late Feb. I decided to take mid night flight so that I do not waste time on the plane and proceed straight to Jeju to start my sight seeing. Then I briefly map out how many days to stay in each state before booking my air tickets. I booked Korean Air including my domestic to Jeju. I compared between Korean Air, Asiana and Singapore Airlines as these are the only ones which flies direct to Korea. However, SQ was too expensive and Asiana had an accident so we kinda lost confidence.

Then subsequently, I visited many travelogues and travel websites to better plan my itinerary. I'm really thankful to all the bloggers for writing such informative and detailed travelogue! I tried writing too but it's really tedious to include all the information. And I get lazier as time passes. So my travelogue ended up more like a pictorial summary of my trip.

I am that type who like to maximize my time when I'm on holidays so I wanna make sure that I dont waste time figuring out the directions and getting lost. So I prepared my Wu Lin Mi Ji with all the maps that I need and directions. I also visited the Korea Tourism Board to get all the information needed for the planning.

I also planned how much money to bring for my 2 weeks trip. I roughly estimated the amount spent on food, transport and admission fees. And also what and how much I'm intending to buy. I don't want to have insufficient money for shopping but also don't want to change too much as the exchange rates were bad that time.

Post review:

There were some places where i wanted to go but we did not visit in the end, due to time and location constraints). Also, some places which I didn't manage to find there. For example, the Choi Ji Woo gallery at Taejongdae park. Idk if I missed it or it was closed. Perhaps, I should have included the exact location. I would also want to spend more time at some places, like Haeundae and Gwangalli beach etc!

Many other places that I would want to visit but did not as I only decided to visit the 3 states! I wished to visit Gangwondo! The Alpenski Water Park! (or maybe simply cos it’s heechul’s home town wahaha. Others like Everland/ Lotte World, Nami Island and Petite France! Till then my next korea trip!

Also, Korea being the land of cosmetic and skin care, I should have bought a lot more! But sadly, I've only started recently to take care of my skin, which is really late. So I've only bought very basic stuff like toner, moisturizer and masks. All those emulsion ampoule stuff, I dint get any. I should have done more research on what to get there. >< Really regret starting to take care of my skin only when I'm mid twenties! After coming back, I actually regreted not getting a lot of other skin care and cosmetics! Hurhur.

And of cos, the really pretty accessories! There were so many but I din't get any as I don't wear them to work. Was trying to be practical but I ended regretting it sobs. (Though to be honest, now that I dont wear necklaces to work as i wear landyard at work, I don't even wear out on weekends too. )

Also, I should have bought more clothes! Of different style. The style I bought are quite similar. N I dint rly dare to spend much initially as I’ve 15 full days. So I only started to spend more during the later parts.

Though we were there for 15 days, but there were so much that I wanted to eat but dint try! And even the must eat Korean food, I only tried lk once throughout 15 days. Oh why?! I only had bibimbap, jjajangmyeon, tteokbokki, tofu stew once! So sad.. And I want more street food!

I shall learn from all these and plan for another trip to Korea soon! Maybe next year!

Expenses:

Food was affordable actually. Though you can't find 3 4 sgd food like in our hawker centres. But their portion can be quite big. We usually spent around 8000krw per pax per meal. Best part is there's free flow water! We hardly bought any drinks throughout our trip. I only remembered getting coffee from Dunkin Donut on day 1 and PB when we were in Busan and once an isotonic drink when lunching at Gangam. We usually just drink the plan water haha so healthy us! We din't have have a lot of snacks as well, and we mostly shared. Iirc, we spent about 500,000krw on food, and admission fees and petrol in Jeju. Transport, i think about 60,000krw.

I bought 19kg full of cosmetics and skin care products back (masks are heavy!) and another hand carry of snacks. I changed 2000SGD to krw (1sgd to 805krw) and it was more than enough. I had about 200SGD left. But I mainly bought items that were on sale as I dint have any items that I must buy.

Summary of trip cost:

Air tickets and accomodations - Per pax (All in SGD)

Korean Air (including domestic to Jeju) : 1039

Accomodation (14 nights): 450

Domestic (Jeju to Busan): 52

Car rental @ Jeju: 185 (to be divided by 3)

KTX (Busan to Seoul): 72