The goal for our RTW trip is to keep spending to under $100 USD/day.
We assumed Korea would be one of the more expensive countries we visit during our trip, especially with us spending the majority of our time in Seoul. We came to Korea without much planned for our 13 day visit other than initial lodging, so we figured we would be pushing the $100 USD/day goal. After all was said and done, we were able to keep spending to $98.39 USD/day for 2 people. So, goal achieved!
Spending Breakdown
Accommodations: $424.26 USD
Transportation: $291.28 USD
Food: $498.10 USD
Sight Seeing: $18.79 USD
Other: $46.60 USD (restocking toiletries and phone charging cord)
Total Cost: $1,279.03 USD
Other stats from our time in South Korea
# of beds slept in: 2
# airports slept in: 0
# trains/buses/airplanes slept in: 1
Favorite Activity/Location: (Alana) Meeting up with a friend (Nadia) in Hongdae and going out for the night (Matt) Celebrating my birthday, the entire day was awesome!
Favorite Food: (Alana) Chop Chae (Matt) Korean BBQ/Brisket
Favorite Beer: (Alana) Cass (Matt) Skim45 IPA
Worst Experience: (Alana) Trying to find our AirBnB accommodations. We never found the place on our own, but our host eventually found us wandering the streets looking lost. (Matt) Unfortunately the smell in some areas wasn’t too pleasant, but for good reason. Many streets are lined with Ginkgo trees and these drop seed shells that get stepped on and smell terrible. Think vomit mixed with rotten eggs. And the alley where we entered our second guest house seemed to leave piles of garbage out overnight on a daily basis, so that hit us in the face each day when leaving the building.
Is Alana still a vegetarian (pescatarian)?: No! She was tricked into eating beef in a noodle dish. It was half gone before she realized there was meat in it.
Could we live here?: No – Seoul would not be a place for us to live long term. We enjoyed certain aspects of the city, but we didn’t fall in love with it like we did Kyoto. We would rank this similar to Tokyo, fun to visit but that’s about it.
How do you think we did?! Did you think the daily average would be higher?