Driving in Korea

This subject appears to be spreading into lots of threads. It seemed sensible to me to try to allow others to find it more easily in the future, so I started this.

My thoughts: driving in Seoul needs a good amount of knowledge of what lane to be in, how to avoid large traffic queues and specialist road info. I personally wouldn%26#39;t do it on my own even with SatNav.

On Expressways, it%26#39;s fine- you pay tolls fairly often, you get warned about speed cameras, and so long as you stay out of the HOV/bus lane you%26#39;re ok. It is dull however.

In the country, it%26#39;s fine. Destinations are signed in Roman characters, and drivers seem to be prety forgiving. You can turn right on red at lights.

Car hire/rental is cheap; fuel is not as expensive as Europe. LPG stations MAY not be ewasily found (in Gyeongju there are many ordinary service stations but only a few LPG ones)

Anyone want to add anything, ask quesiotns of others, please do. Also disagree with what I say ,PLEASE!

Driving in Korea

I agree with ethelman2. I just came back from Seoul, the traffic jam was bad. I made the right decision not to drive in Seoul. In Jeju, it%26#39;s ok. The lanes are wide and minimum traffic.

However the metro is very efficient and would get me to my destinations faster.

Taxis are ok, metered and have GPS. Although many drivers don%26#39;t speak English, just give the phone number of your destination if you dont have the address in Hangul.

Driving in Korea

Has anyone driven with a GPS in Korea, please?

If so, how was it?

On taxis: nearly all- especially the bigger black ones in Seoul, but also in the provinces- have ';Free Interpretation';.

You say ';Interpretation'; to the driver; he rings a number on his cellphone,passes it to you. You talk and pass it back to him, and the interpreter tells him what you said.

I agree with your thoughts on driving.

Getting out of Seoul can be a complete nightmare on a weekend. Better to get the train or bus for that.

In the one year I lived there I had very few problems with taxis. The only time I ever suggested to the driving using ';interpreter'; service he refused (or did not understand?) and I never tried again.

We rented a car with GPS in Jeju-do. Although it was in Korean, after a while my son managed to figure out which buttons to press. At first we got the help from the car rental staff to set the destination. Along the way there would always be a helpful Korean to help when we got stuck.

The GPS was very accurate. We just needed to key in the phone no of the tourist spot/destination of our choice. (We got a copy of the tourist book from our hotel)

It came with voice command, speed limit and camera warning and other functions which we didn%26#39;t bother to find out since the phone numbers were enough for us to get by.