OZU /SOUTH KOREA /SEOUL /GUIDE
Seoul: practical tips
5 stopsUpdated July 2026
Google Maps doesn’t work properly in South Korea and it isn’t a coverage problem or your phone: it’s a law. For national security reasons, the country doesn’t allow its detailed mapping data to be exported to foreign servers, so Google doesn’t have what it needs: it gives no driving directions and its walking and transit directions are incomplete. It’s been like this for years and it isn’t changing tomorrow.
The solution is downloading Naver Map or KakaoMap before you leave home: they’re what everyone here uses, they have English interfaces and they work perfectly. It’s the most important piece of advice on this page by a distance, because it affects every journey you make. The rest of Korea is extremely easy: everything works, everything is signed in English and there’s wifi under the paving stones.
The route, stop by stop
5 STOPS- 01
Naver Map or KakaoMap
Korean law prohibits taking high-precision mapping data out of the country, and Google hasn’t accepted the conditions it would be given to operate with it inside. The result, for you, is concrete: Google Maps won’t give you driving directions, and its walking and transit directions are incomplete or wrong. It isn’t failing: it doesn’t have the data.
Naver Map and KakaoMap are the two apps the whole of Korea uses, both have English versions and both are excellent: walking routes, subway with real times, buses, and even the specific exit from the station you want, which in stations with fifteen exits isn’t a detail.
Download them before you leave home. If you take one thing from this page, take this.
- 02
The T-money card
A rechargeable card bought in any convenience store for small change and topped up there or at the subway machines. It works on the subway, on city buses, in many taxis and even to pay in the convenience stores themselves. There’s no arithmetic and no tickets to buy.
And it has a function almost nobody uses that here is the norm: transferring between subway and bus is free or nearly if you tap the card on the way out, within a time window. That’s why you have to tap it getting off the bus too, which foreigners forget and get penalised for.
Seoul’s subway is among the best in the world, with mobile coverage in every tunnel, platform screen doors at every station and heated seats in winter, which is a luxury that throws you.
- 03
The seats nobody takes
On the Seoul subway you’ll see something odd: the seats at the ends of each carriage are empty even when the rest is full and people are standing pressed together. They’re the priority seats, for older people, pregnant women and people with disabilities, and they aren’t taken. It isn’t that they’re given up if someone arrives: they aren’t used, full stop, not even when the carriage is bursting.
And there are pink seats in the middle of the carriages, marked with a symbol, only for pregnant women, even if they aren’t showing. Those are empty too.
This isn’t a written rule with a fine: it’s a very strong social convention, and sitting there as a young foreigner will earn you looks and, with luck, a telling-off from an older woman. It’s the place in the world where you best see how respect for age works, and it works in silence.
- 04
The age system changed in 2023
For centuries, in Korea you were born one year old and gained another every 1 January, not on your birthday. So a baby born on 31 December was two years old the next day. The consequence was that almost everyone was one or two years “older” than their international age, and three different systems coexisted depending on the paperwork: one for the law, one for military service and one for daily life.
In June 2023 it was abolished: international age is now used for everything, and the whole country got one or two years younger overnight by decree.
We’re telling you for two reasons: because if you meet it in a Korean film or series you’ll know what it was, and because age matters here, it determines how people speak to you and which verb forms they use, so asking it isn’t rude, it’s among the first questions in any conversation.
- 05
Mobile data
Few countries on the planet connect better than South Korea: there’s coverage in every subway tunnel, public wifi on buses and in stations, and speeds that don’t exist in Europe. None of that helps if you land without data and with Google Maps half-working, which is exactly the combination that will strand you at exit 12 of a station with fifteen exits.
Because here the phone isn’t a convenience, it’s the country’s operating system: the maps, the payment, the taxi, the food order to the park, the translation of a menu.
An eSIM activates before you leave home and works on landing, which at Incheon covers the first thing you’ll do: check which coach route goes to your hotel, because each one goes to a different district and there isn’t one that goes “downtown”.
Frequently asked
Does Google Maps work in South Korea?
Badly, and it isn’t a fault: it’s a law. The country doesn’t allow its detailed mapping data to be exported to foreign servers for national security reasons, so Google gives no driving directions and its walking and transit directions are incomplete. Download Naver Map or KakaoMap before travelling: they’re what everyone uses and they have English.
What is the T-money card?
A rechargeable card bought in any convenience store that works on the subway, buses, many taxis and even to pay in the shops themselves. Tap it getting off the bus too: the subway-bus transfer is free or nearly if you do, and forgetting carries a penalty.
Why are there empty seats on the Seoul subway?
They’re the priority seats, at the ends of each carriage, for older people, pregnant women and people with disabilities, and they aren’t taken even when the carriage is full. The pink ones in the middle are only for pregnant women. It isn’t a rule with a fine, it’s a very strong social convention: sitting there will earn you looks.