Mobile Applications
Solo Traveling has become a trend all over the world. However, for travelers who do not know Korean, some things might be hard to understand in Korea. Especially when looking for directions and the confusing and neverending subway map of Korea. Which is why mobile apps will come in handy when touching down in Seoul or any other cities in Korea. It will ease your experience as a traveler and will surely reduce the time consumed to look for things. Apart from that, there are also apps that gives you a better experience as a traveler in Korea on a day-to-day basis.
#1 Kakao Taxi
Catching a Taxi in a busy city, especially a city like Seoul will be impossible especially during specific times of the day. Even when you extend your hand to stop a taxi, most of these taxis won’t stop for you. This is because most of these taxis are already reserved by someone else. This is why downloading Kakao Taxi, a super useful app for reserving Taxi is important in your travels. You can even choose the type of taxi you want, ranging from regular to exclusive taxis.
Download links -
#2 Naver or Kakao Map
Testing out your luck with Google Maps will test your patience. Unfortunately, Google Maps does not run very well in South Korea. Especially if you are looking to get to a place where you need to take the public transportation. By installing these two apps, your journey in South Korea will run more smoothly. Naver Map uses english so it is much more foreigner friendly, and Kakao Map unfortunately only uses Korean. These two maps also provide Star ratings for different places, which provides to be useful in your search of good food.
Download links -
Naver Map
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/naver-map-navigation/id311867728Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nhn.android.nmap&hl=en&gl=US
Kakao Map
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/kakaomap-korea-no-1-map/id304608425
Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.daum.android.map&hl=en&gl=US
#3 Subway Korea
Subway Korea is an app that calculates the fare of your journey and on top of that provides you with the best routes for your destination. It even provides you with the information of which train cart you should take that is closest to your exit or your line exchange. It also shows the accurate timing of every arrival and departure of the train, guaranteeing a smooth journey with hard-to-miss time calculation.
Download links -
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/subway-korea/id325924444
Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.imagedrome.jihachul&hl=en
#4 PM10
Transportation apps are indeed useful, but there are also other apps that is necessary in Korea either as a traveler or as residents. One of it is PM10. This app provides information about the hourly fine dust forecast. This is very important as fine dust issues have been apparent in South Korea for a few years now. However this is not something to worry about. By using this app, you can see which day has a lower fine dust count, so you can schedule your outdoor outing during these times. There are several apps that provide these functions, so any app that can does this will do the work just fine.
Download links -
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pm10-tracker-미세먼지알림이/id991670217
Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.airvisual&hl=en&gl=US
#5 Baedal Minjok or Baedal Yogiyo
Korea is a land of delivered food. The food delivery system here is very well-established that you will be able to get food from just about anywhere. Especially as a traveler, if you crave for some late-night munch, these two apps will provide you with the best food choices from areas nearby. Some popular midnight foods includes, Jjajangmyeon - black bean paste noodle, Dakbal - chicken feet, and Fried Chicken. It is not a complete trip if you don't order from food deliveries in Korea. The downside is that these apps operate in Korean, so it might be difficult to navigate if you don't read Korean.
Download links -
Baedal Minjok
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/배달의민족/id378084485
Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sampleapp&hl=en&gl=US
Baedal Yogiy
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/배달요기요-필수앱/id543831532
Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fineapp.yogiyo&hl=en&gl=US