A few months ago I did two posts remembering my trips to Japan and giving ideas and tips to anyone who might be interested. As Japan is one of the top tourist destinations in the world it made sense that it did well. As time has gone on though and as the pandemic travel bans have finally been lifted, traveling hasn't really been the same since. It seems like the prices and popularity of it have gone up and it feels like it's harder now to find great deals to go to these more popular destinations like Japan. So this time I decided to take a trip to the country just across the sea in South Korea and its (slightly far) neighbor Taiwan. Two countries that I've always been interested in, but never got the chance to go to until recently.
I decided to go in the early fall as I found the flights around that time to be pretty cheap compared to a lot of the year. Usually, Sept to Oct or Feb to Early April are good times to try to go as the flights are cheaper. Both times should also have decent weather, though probably more chance of rainy weather in the spring months. Going in the middle of fall gets you cooler weather and the changing leaf colors that make South Korea and Taiwan look (even more) amazing.
I split my time in each country in half by going to South Korea for 4.5 days and Taiwan for 3 full days. This not counting the long travel time it takes to get there for me, which sadly cost me 2 days of the trip. But there are a lot of things about each country that will be different culturally of course, but they do have a lot of similar aspects. The hardest part of it was that both places speak completely different languages Korean and Mandarin Chinese. Mandarin was the harder of the two to pick up, as learning basics in Korean wasn't too crazy and even learning to read Korean is somewhat simple because their alphabet Hangul is only 24 letters. There is actually a site called letslearnhangul that really simplified it and made it easy to learn in a few hours or less.
Arriving in Seoul was... well pretty rough at first to be honest. The main airport is Incheon that's about 40 minutes from the city by train and a little more by car/bus. I came into the airport at about 6-7 PM and it took almost 3 hours to get through the Immigration process. Maybe I came at a bad time because the second time I was at the airport the line seemed a lot less chaotic. For Korea, you have to have a visa approved before you enter, which you can apply for ahead of time at the K-ETA official website for 40 USD. By the way, 1 USD is worth around 1300 South Korean Won right now. Most places take cards, but as always it's good to have some cash with you since there are a lot of markets where they only want that cash. You will also need cash to buy and refresh a T-Money card, which is used to ride the subway, trains, and buses all over Korea and is extremely useful to have.
Getting out of the airport is easy after you get past the security stations and are finally allowed to enter the country. There's a train that can take you straight to the city center with no stops for less than 7 dollars if you order ahead of time on Klook, or just buy it at the station for slightly more. Getting around the city is as easy as in a city like Tokyo, as they have plenty of subways and buses that take you anywhere you want in the city and run frequently. You won't need a car at all unless you really want to experience driving in Korea or want to go to places way outside the city. I ended up staying at a hotel near the city center to avoid having to carry luggage all over the place after the airport. The Daeyoung Hotel is a nice place for one or two people and it's in a great location. But there are plenty of other fancier places if you want to spend a little more. Actually, around September I found they have lots of really nice hotels in Seoul for really cheap so you might not have to spend a lot to get a 4-5 star hotel in the city... unless you are like me and just want a nice place to sleep without spending a lot, but I made up for that later. The point is, around the Fall is a good time to go if you want to stay at a fancy hotel for really cheap.
Day 1
I arrived at the hotel at around 10PM after the long line and train ride from the Airport, so no time to really do anything there. The first full day I just wanted to walk around Seoul and get a feel for it while also stopping by at some famous spots. Getting around the city is pretty easy, there are plenty of subway stations around and most of them stop near the iconic tourist spots. I spent the whole first day around the center of Seoul going to all the temples and some markets around the area. At the end of the day, I made my way to the N Seoul Tower and took the cable car up to it which was really cool. The cost of taking the cable car and going to the top of the tower can be a bit much, but I think it's worth it, especially on a clear day/night when you can really see the entire city in all its massive glory. I went on a Sunday and it wasn't too bad, so maybe it's not so busy in the fall or on Sundays. There will be plenty of food around the area too, if you want a more Korean experience and a lot of it isn't too expensive unless you really want to go to a classy place. Korean BBQ is usually better with at least another person for the portion sizes and a cool thing to know is they have endless side dishes in a lot of places, so you can fill up on those as well. I also recommend trying some Korean-style corn dogs called Tokkebi. The best ones can usually be found at night markets around Seoul.
Day 2/3
On the second day, I took a trip to the south coast city of Busan. Busan is the second most popular destination in the country as it's got some great beaches and very affordable hotels. The train ride to Busan on a bullet train is really short too, only 2.5 hours on certain trains to go from Seoul to Busan. I was able to find a really nice hotel right next to the beach for about 60 a night, with a nice view of the beach and a full kitchen inside. Busan is a great place to go to if you want to spend a few days at the beach at a really nice hotel without spending too much money. Lots of affordable places to eat and drink around the area and it just has a lot of great vibes. The T-Money card you bought in Busan will work here too for the Subway and the Buses. The subway is a little more limited in Busan, but the buses there make up for it and are frequent and cheap.
Besides the beach, there are two major tourist stops I recommend and that's Yonggungsa Temple and Gamcheon Culture Village. Unfortunately, they are on opposite sides of the city and both are a little hard to get to. It's really worth the trek though as they are incredibly unique places you have to see with your own eyes. The Temple is a very beautifully crafted one that sits right next to the ocean. Tons of amazing sculptures and really cool buildings. Gamcheon sits on the west side of Busan and you have to take a bus up some steep hills to get to it, or hike up the hills if you hate your legs like I did. The village sits on top of the city with some amazing views of Busan alongside some really cool houses all painted bright colors. There are tons of cool shops and lots of food to try there and it's all just very very cool, one of my favorite stops in the entire trip. One last thing to mention is the train rides that go alongside the coast of Busan. They have these tiny little trains that can fit one family that are adorable and give you great views of the coast. The only bad thing is how popular they are makes it so the wait times can be really bad. But, they do have bigger trains you can take that give you similar views, just not as cool of an experience.
Day 4
Back in Seoul for one last day in South Korea. I got a little unlucky because it ended up raining pretty much the entire day. At least the rain was fairly light so it didn't stop me from doing a few things. I did not have enough time to see everything I still hadn't seen but still was able to enjoy the few hours I had. The National Museum of Korea is a great place to go on a rainy day because you can spend hours there learning and seeing all the history of Korea and avoid the rain. Oh, and it's also free unless you want to go to the current special exhibition they are holding. Right next door is the Hangul Museum where you can learn about the creation of the alphabet and writing used in South Korea.
One last stop is to the southeast of the museums, a little place known as Gangnam. Famous for that one song by Psy... you know the one. It's basically the wealthy part of Seoul that's known for its shops, malls, food, and K-Pop. A must-stop if you love K-Pop as they have lots of shops and a BTS exhibit by the mall. There's also a famous library called the Starfield Library where the bookshelves reach the ceiling of the store and light up at night.
Day 5
Heading out of Seoul and to Taipei, Taiwan. The trip to Taipei was a lot easier than getting to Seoul. Mostly because it was only about 2 hours versus the 14 hours from Toronto, but also getting out of the airport once you arrive is a lot faster and easier, especially if you have a USA passport. Much like Seoul, there's a train that takes you from the airport to the city center in less than 1 hour. You can buy multi-day passes for unlimited rides on the metro on Klook for a good price. The hotels in Taipei were slightly more expensive than in Seoul, but not by too much. There are lots of great stays for affordable prices as long as you don't mind smaller rooms and possibly no windows. You won't have to pay much more for a more decent stay. Also, make sure you take out some cash to carry because it's going to be necessary for a lot of the food.
Getting to my hotel in the afternoon I didn't have much time left in the day so I ate at this nice Australian-themed cafe and explored one of the nearby night markets. There are a bunch of great night markets in Taipei you can choose to explore, but one of the more famous ones is Shilin Night Market in the northern part of the city. It's a bit out of the way from a lot of the other famous tourist spots, but worth a visit at night if you want to experience the fun culture of night markers in the city. Also... tons of great street food.
Day 6
One full day to explore the city of Taipei. In one day you can see all the iconic locations of the city as well as some of the other great spots. Starting from the main station you can walk to the National Museum, which has a nice park in the area that's great to walk around. From there you can cross a few streets to see the amazing Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and climb the steps to get a nice view of the area. From there you can take the Metro to the World Trade Center and see the huge Tapei 101 tower. It costs about 20 or so to take the elevator to the top of the tower, but it's worth it to see the city views and there are a lot of cool decorations up there to take pictures with. If you have time and energy you can hike the Elephant mountain steps not too far from the Taipei 101 to get a really cool view of the buildings and the Taipei 101 itself.
On the way back to the main station you can stop at the Bangka area to see one of the most beautiful temples Bangka Longshan which is also near the Bopiliao Historical Block worth checking out. A little further north on the metro you can stop at Shi-men Ting, an area that's full of more modern shopping and food, really popular with younger people in the city. It reminded me a lot of Shibuya in Tokyo with the big crowds and lots of different stores to shop at. There's a really popular rice noodle stand in this area called Ay-Chung that's a good place to stop and eat. I will say eating really hot soup on an already hot day was an interesting choice, but the food was good so it was worth the heat overload.
Day 7
One thing you have to do in Taipei is book a day tour of Jiufen Old Street and the surrounding areas. You can book these at lots of different tour sites, but I used Klook to book mine and it went really well. The tour was in English and included 4 stops all worth checking out. Yehliu Geopark is a cool place to see some unique rock formations and beautiful views of the ocean. Then you'll go to Jiufen, a market that's high above in the mountains with some great views of the area and tons of great food and shops to buy souvenirs. After that, you get to see the famous waterfall nearby before stopping at Shifen Old Street. Shifen is another place with lots of food stands, but the two unique things to do here are see the train that passes by through the middle of the market and release floating lanterns into the sky that float high above the city. It's the easiest way to see all these places without having to rent a car yourself and drive through all the mountains. You can book tours that take you to Jiufen at night time, which is supposed to be a really cool experience with how they light up the area with lanterns.
Finale
So that was my trip to South Korea and Taiwan. I think in a perfect world spending one week in each country would have been the perfect way to split the trip for me to see everything I wanted without having to feel rushed. I still enjoyed the trip a ton despite the shorter time I had to explore. I think giving each country more time would be necessary to fully experience the culture and see everything outside of just the popular tourist spots. But if you're like me and don't get a lot of time to travel this was a cool way to see two amazing countries. Even if you want to see just one of these I hope this gave you some ideas for how to explore these places.
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