Getting Around Seoul: Cards, Fares and the Transfer Window

Seoul charges by journey, not by vehicle. Tap out of the metro, tap onto a bus within thirty minutes, and the second ride is free — the system charges the highest base fare among the modes you used, plus distance beyond ten kilometres. Up to five consecutive rides count, and between 21:00 and 07:00 the window stretches to sixty minutes.

The practical consequence is that a bus is never a mistake. Visitors default to the metro because the signage is easier, then walk twenty minutes from an exit when a village bus outside the station would have been free. It also means the cheap way across the river at night is metro-then-bus rather than a taxi.

Two conditions catch people. You must tap out as well as in — a missed tap-out charges the maximum fare and breaks the chain. And the transfer only works on a card: a single-journey paper ticket buys one ride and nothing else.

Until this year the standard advice for a week in Seoul was the 30-day Climate Card at ₩62,000, or ₩65,000 with the Ttareungi bike share. That advice is now wrong. Seoul stopped allowing recharges of the 30-day pass after 31 August 2026, and its replacement — the Climate Pass, launched in Q3 2026 — is registered through the national K-Pass system and available on the basis of residence in Seoul. A visitor cannot buy it.

What survives is the short-term ladder, and for a normal trip it was always the better product anyway: ₩5,000 for one day, ₩8,000 for two, ₩10,000 for three, ₩15,000 for five and ₩20,000 for seven, covering Seoul metro and Seoul-licensed buses without limit. Ttareungi bikes and the Hangang Bus river service are not included in the short passes.

The break-even is easy arithmetic. At ₩1,550 a ride, a three-day pass at ₩10,000 pays for itself at roughly six and a half rides across the three days — a little over two a day. A visitor doing palaces in the morning and a neighbourhood in the evening usually crosses that; someone staying in Myeongdong and walking to Gyeongbokgung often does not.

One detail on validity: a one-day pass runs to the last train or bus of that calendar day, not for twenty-four hours from the tap. Charging it at 18:00 wastes most of it.

The short-term ladder against pay-as-you-go, at the ₩1,550 metro fare. Break-even is the number of rides at which the pass stops costing you money.

Every line has a number and a colour, every station has a number too, and both appear in English on the signs, the platform screens and the announcements. That station number is the thing to write down: telling a taxi driver "three-two-seven" is more reliable than pronouncing a name.

Exits are numbered and they matter more than in most cities, because Seoul's stations are enormous and the wrong exit can leave you a signalled crossing and four hundred metres from where you meant to be. Gyeongbokgung's Exit 5 comes up inside the palace forecourt; Exit 3 at Anguk puts you at the foot of Bukchon. Every attraction page on this site names the exit rather than only the station.

Trains run from about 05:30 to shortly after midnight, with last-train times posted at each platform — they vary by line and direction, and the last train from Gangnam is earlier than people assume. Priority seats at the ends of each carriage are genuinely respected and stay empty even in a crush; sitting in one as a visitor reads badly. Eating is not done on the trains, and phone calls are taken quietly or not at all.

Seoul's buses are colour-coded and the code is the route logic. Blue buses run long trunk routes across the city. Green buses feed those trunks from neighbourhoods and are the ones you take for the last kilometre. Yellow buses circle a single district — the Namsan circular is the one visitors use. Red buses run to satellite cities in Gyeonggi and cost more.

Stops carry an English name and a stop number, and the arrival displays are accurate to the minute. Tap on at the front door and, on green and blue buses, tap off at the back — without the tap-off you lose the transfer and can be charged a distance penalty.

For Namsan and N Seoul Tower the yellow circular is the route that avoids both the cable-car queue and the climb. For Bukchon the green village bus from Anguk saves the hill. Both are the sort of thing a metro-only visitor never discovers.

Taxis start at ₩4,800 for the first 1.6 kilometres and add ₩100 every 131 metres or thirty seconds, with a surcharge late at night. By the standards of Tokyo or London that is cheap, and after the metro closes it is the only option — but between 18:00 and 20:00 in Gangnam or Hongdae the traffic makes it the slowest choice in the city.

Hail with Kakao T rather than on the street; it works in English, takes a card, and removes the address problem. Most drivers speak little English, and a Korean address read aloud rarely lands. Show the destination on a phone screen instead.

The map problem is worth stating plainly: Google Maps does not give reliable walking or driving directions in South Korea, because export of detailed map data is restricted by law. Transit directions are usable; everything else is not. Install Naver Map or KakaoMap before you arrive — both have English interfaces, both give exit numbers, and both know which subway carriage puts you nearest your exit.

From Incheon the choice is the AREX train, a limousine bus or a taxi, and the right answer depends on where you sleep and how much luggage you have. The all-stop AREX train is the cheapest and runs on a transport card like any metro ride; the express is faster to Seoul Station and sold separately. Limousine buses drop at hotel clusters and beat the train if you are not near a station. Taxis are the expensive default and the only realistic option after the trains stop.

Gimpo is closer, connected to two metro lines, and is the airport most domestic and short-haul flights use.

The full comparison, with journey times and the early-morning problem, is on the Incheon airport to Seoul page.