jbfield

I've had a look 7 pages deep but no results on this front.
Search doesn't seem to be working so here's a new thread...

I'm going to be spending 2.5 weeks on holiday in South Korea quite soon. I've decided I'll most likily rent a car (Avis probably) once I'm out of Seoul rather than take the buses and trains.

I just want to reaffirm my assumption that this is a good idea. Am I right to think that if I were reliant on local buses and trains in rural areas it *would* be hard to reach the out-of-the-way spots...(the reason I'd miss using public transport is missing the potential social interaction with locals and the reduced cost).

Thank you in advance

mosburger

I would advice against renting a car, because:

-Traffic patterns are aggressive and drunk driving is common in Korea

- You'll have language problems at gas stations and toll booths if no Korean ability

- Regarding accidents, a foreign driver is 99% sure to be found quilty regardless of circumstances. Korea is still a comparatively insular country and mistrust of foreigners runs deep despite the general hospitality.

bgriff

I would also strongly recommend against renting a car unless you have a solid knowledge of Korean (written and spoken). English is used far less in Korea than in, say, Japan, so even in Seoul it can be hard to find someone who speaks English--once you get out into the countryside, I would not be surprised if street signs do not have English at all.

I think from a cost perspective your best bet may be to seek out organized bus tours to the various rural areas you want to visit. Unless you want to go somewhere that's exceptionally out of the way, you should be able to find various group tours that would take much of the stress out of the experience for you.

vprp

How rural of a place do you want to go? You can take a train to that area and then take cabs wherever you end up staying at. If there are no cabs, there is surely to be a bus system.

jbfield

Hi,
thank you all for you replies.

Your strong warnings have made me quite concerned now - not quite what I was expecting!

The rural places I mention are more places I come across and choose to explore rather than a specific town/village/hamlet or region. I'm thinking of exploring on a whim really; if somewhere seems interesting I might head down the road to find out where it goes, that kind of thing (assuming it's legal and safe). I worry that relying on a bus might mean waiting an hour or two or getting stuck at dead-ends, or having to miss out exploring such places completely.
Plus I can keep supplies in the car in case I get completely lost.

My general idea is to spend a couple of days in Seoul when I arrive and then when leaving the city rent a car. First head to the DMZ to take a tour and then slowly head to the east coast along Highways 3, 43 and 5 (or 56) [via Gimhwa]. Explore the east coast including the National Parks, meandering southwards (no specific route). I'll decide what and where to go from the south once I get there though. Probably avoiding the big cities.

I'm not sure how aggressive you mean by aggressive...is it comparable to anywhere? I've had experience with being on the roads in India, the Middle East and France... (as well as in London).

The drunk driving and "foreign driver is 99% sure to be found guilty" worry me the most though. Insurance would normally cover these accidents financially though wouldn't they???

bgriff

The driving is probably less aggressive in more rural areas, but in Seoul, the drivers deal with 16-lane streets and consistently terrible traffic, so they're definitely dealing with some high nerves. My Lonely Planet tour book said that pedestrian fatality rates in Seoul are much higher than in most major cities. But there is (some level of) order on the streets; it's not as though it's a free-for-all in the way that I've heard it can be in, say, Moscow.

Your plan does indeed sound difficult to accomplish by using mass transit. But do be aware that you'll probably be trying to navigate without much by way of English signage, so make sure you have a good map (itself hard to come by in English, even for Seoul, so likely impossible to find with much detail for rural areas) and an even better Korean phrasebook. And plenty of time and patience.

As far as insurance cover goes, you would probably be covered for any financial penalty (though do check the terms of your policy on international cover; it's not always included). But I think the bigger concern is that you could potentially get called up on some sort of criminal offense. Granted, the chances of anything that dramatic happening are slim, and at that point your embassy would likely get involved, but I have heard that the Korean justice system can be less than completely transparent.

You'll want a mobile phone as well--Koreans do not use the GSM standard as is found elsewhere in the world, so you'll need to rent a phone or buy a new one locally, as your current one won't work (not even on roaming).

And obviously, it would be a good idea to see if you can find some information on Korean traffic laws and practices before you go, so at least you know what the laws are should you run into trouble.

jpdx

Having driven in Seoul, I would advise against driving. Korean drivers strike me as being extremely aggressive, making frequent lane changes, and turning a four-lane road into a six-lane road. I never observed a "flow" of traffic, or the sometimes playful interaction that can be found in Southern Europe; in Seoul, it's pure aggression, and at every traffic light/merge situation you're inches away from making contact with another car. In addition, few road signs are based on pictorials, so you will get lost unless you are able to read Korean. At the same time, cabs are very cheap, and I've hired drivers for as little as 15k KRW per hour (black cab). So I'd say, driving is just not worth the hassle. Only exception: I would not have any concerns about driving on Jeju island.

hyunja

First, a comment about your wish to tour DMZ. During one of my visits to Korea, I wanted to tour the DMZ area and asked the hotel concierge to find a tour for me. Due to the short notice, no Korean tour group was available BUT he found a USO tour to be available. I found out later that the Korean tour does NOT go to all of the places the USO takes you, so do that rather than driving up there by yourself.
As for other places, what I would do is look for few interesting places you'd like to visit using whatever guide you can. You might ask here for the suggestions. After you've decided on the places, use public transportation to get from one place to the next but hire a cab on a daily basis to get around the area. You can probably hire the cab to take you places AND have the driver act as a guide. If you don't speak any Korean or the cab driver doesn't speak your language, that could be a major problem BUT I think this will work out better than having you drive around the country looking for places to visit and things to do. I think you might get lost more than you planned, then the two week trip will be something you'd wish to forget rather than remember.
Good luck and have fun. I wish I had the time to do what you are planning.

Hyunja

jbfield

I want to stress that I'm not intending on driving in Seoul, but rather pick up a car once I'm leaving the city or elsewhere in the country if necessary.

I think from all your responses, what I will do is to wait until I get there to see how public transport will work out for me. At the moment I don't feel too worried about getting lost due to the language problems (which I thought would also be present when trying to get a bus or train as well) but this could be completely different on the ground so to say.
I expect I'll head to my first destination outside of Seoul and if I feel like I'm not exploring as much as I hoped, then I'll book a car on the internet as I would at home.

I'll look into booking a USO DMZ tour as soon as possible too.

I will report back as to how I get/got on.

Thank you all again!

jpdx

Outside of big cities, orientation will be the biggest issue. The country has a network of relatively well-marked freeways, which should be relatively easy to negotiate. On minor highways, though, orientation will be tough (in my experience, even finding a bi-lingual map was a challenge in some places). Do make sure to bring an international driver's permit; Korea is one of the few countries where I've always been asked for it when renting.

jbfield

Ta, renewed mine yesterday!

mosburger

[QUOTE=jbfield;7582175]
I think from all your responses, what I will do is to wait until I get there to see how public transport will work out for me. At the moment I don't feel too worried about getting lost due to the language problems (which I thought would also be present when trying to get a bus or train as well) but this could be completely different on the ground so to say.
I expect I'll head to my first destination outside of Seoul and if I feel like I'm not exploring as much as I hoped, then I'll book a car on the internet as I would at home.
QUOTE]

The Korean Hangul "alphabet" is a really logical and even easy to learn system compared to Chinese characters. You could do worse than devote an hour or so each day to practice reading skills.

Only very few Koreans outside certain enclaves in Seoul speak or understand other languages than Korean and even then you are as likely to meet a Chinese or Japanese as English speaker.

Also, one thing to notice is that tourism in Korea is geared towards the Korean way of life which doesn't really include individual travelling but groups of friends keen on golf, mountain hiking, saunas, communal dining and drinking in hostess bars.

jbfield

I thought I had best report back in case it helps anyone else in the future.

Thanks for all your advice it was appreciated although a few things turned out to be better than expected.

After arriving in ROK, within a few days I did decide to rent a car and escape Seoul. I managed to find a very good 2007 English/Korea roadmap in the Youngpoong Book Store (Near to National Visitor Centre in Downtown Seoul) along with a pocket dictionary/phrasebook.

When I picked up my car, the Avis agents offered me a GPS system. They programmed this to the English setting for me as well as give me an English manual and this was for no charge!

I spent 5 - 10 minutes getting used to the car and setting the GPS before heading onto the roads (which I was very glad I did before setting off) and although getting used to the directions given by the GPS took a little while (at first I did miss a few turns and highway exits) I eventually did get out to where I was going.
Traffic was very busy when I picked up the car but it didn't feel impossible to navigate and other drivers knew their vehicle dimensions well so although they got close, we never touched. ^

Once well out of the city the roads were practically empty. Getting around here was easy often because there were only one or two roads to choose so didn't really need to follow place names. And when I was driving in the north there were plenty of military checkpoints that prevented me from going down the wrong road. I think I could have managed these with just my road atlas and a compass, but the city areas would have been impossible without the GPS.

The GPS system warned me about speed cameras (as did the Avis agents) so I think I avoided these fines. The only big problem I was worried about was once when the police waved their orange batons up and down at a T-junction - I think I sped off when I was supposed to stop!

Petrol (Gas) Stations were all either Petrol or LPG and attendant served so filling up the car was actually easy. I just had to tell them to fill it all the way up or add KRW 20,000 worth (showing two fingers for 20,000 worked) so it was very straight forward compared to what self-service would have been like. Quite how much fuel I was buying I never knew though it did feel a tad expensive.

A few of the places I visited were only accessible by car so I definitely wouldn't have seen them without it. Similarly a lot of the farm roads and temples I explored would have been to out of the way to get to by public transport or at least not served regularly enough to visit in a day.

I only ever used the Expressways twice. The first time I picked the right time of day and avoided the jams. The second time was on the way back to Seoul and after a lot of queuing I exited (first exit after joining) and used the back roads. Not only were these back roads free but also quicker as there was a lot less traffic and no queuing.

I would say however that the design of the roads and the manner of parked cars or other obstructions blocking lanes without warning did mean I had to drive with a view to expecting them all the times.

Getting back into the centre of Seoul to return the car wasn't a huge problem except the routing the GPS gave - it involved a few U-turns and getting to the entrance to my accommodation was hard (I knew the area but not the address).
Finding my rental office to drop the car off was also hard - so a good tip for the future is to save the rental location in the GPS when the car is first picked up. It was right next to a cross roads and I couldn't tell which road it was on so I ending up getting help at the local police station.

Almost ready to return the car, somewhat surprised but very happy that I had avoided any problems during the past 2 weeks, a moped driver parked their bike behind my car whilst I was going to the station.

The moped driver parked with about half an inch to spare (quite why they did this I don't know) and then proceeded to drop the bike onto my car! With a scratch and dent to my paintwork I tried to get annoyed with the rider but I just couldn't manage to for some reason. I never exchanged details but I did take the licence number.
Fortunately the damage wasn't spotted when I returned the car (the car did come with a lot of scratches and small dents anyway) so I still walked away with a smile.

All in all, I had a great time and would do it again. Not as hard as you might expect but still a worry if something does go wrong. And I did see a lot of people jumping red lights so you really do have to be careful!

Editted To ADD:
I forgot to mention...the police often drive around with their lights flashing and can be a little concerning. However, this doesn't mean they're pulling you over or trying to get passed; it just seems to be about being more noticed when they are driving about generally.
I learnt that it's only when their sirens are sounded that you have to move out the way!

brahms77

OP, I am glad that you have a safe and sound trip to Korea. Some of the FTers who were concerned about you driving in Korea were telling you out of caution. Really, Korea, compared to all most all of other Asian countries, is fairly safe place to drive. Perhaps Japan may be slightly better than Korea, but Japan also has its fair share of crazy drivers. I have definately seen worse driving conditions in Boston compared to Korea many times over.

shengwan

Beside Lotto, any other local rental chain? Would it be bad for someone with zero Korean ability to rent a car to go the Everland for a day?