Seoul transport budget at a glance: an adult subway journey starts at ₩1,550 with a transit card, a regular blue or green bus costs ₩1,500, and a standard taxi starts at ₩4,800 during daytime. Airport services have separate fares. Compare the full trip to your hotel, including transfers.
Updated 14 September 2026 using the official fare sources below.
Incheon Airport to Seoul: compare the service you will use
| Service | How to budget |
|---|---|
| AREX all-stop train | Fare depends on your terminal and destination. Check the current station fare before departure. |
| AREX Express | A separate ticket; check the current adult fare and any booking discount on the official AREX booking page. |
| Airport Limousine bus 6001 (Seoul Station / Myeongdong) | Adult fare ₩17,000 on the operator's route page. Other routes can have different prices. |
| Taxi | Budget from the actual destination, vehicle type, time and tolls. Historical hotel examples are not a fixed current fare. |
Choose an airport bus for a convenient hotel stop, an all-stop train for connections along the line, or the Express for its direct Seoul Station service. Compare walking and onward travel as well as the ticket price. The airport is a separate part of the budget, not a ₩1,550 city-subway journey.
Getting around: the subway is 1,550 won, mostly
The adult base fare on the Seoul subway is 1,550 won with a transit card. Three things change that number, and all three are in the published rules.
| How you pay or ride | Adult fare |
|---|---|
| Transit card | 1,550 |
| Single-ride ticket bought from a machine | 1,650 |
| First ride before 6:30 AM, with a card | 1,240 |
| Beyond 10 km | +100 per 5 km |
So a card is 100 won cheaper than a paper ticket every single ride, an early start knocks 20 percent off, and a long cross-city journey costs a few hundred won more than a short hop. Nothing dramatic. Ten rides is around 16,000 won. If you are still deciding where those rides will actually go, the three-day Seoul route that keeps each day inside one zone is what keeps that daily number down in the first place.
Buses are priced by type, not by distance band. A regular trunk or branch bus is 1,500 won. A neighbourhood local bus is 1,200. The wide-area rapid buses are 3,000 and the late-night owl buses 2,500.
The transfer rule is where people lose money without noticing. You must tap your card again when you get off the bus. If you do not, the system cannot see where your journey ended, and your next boarding is charged as a fresh fare instead of a free transfer. Up to four transfers are allowed (five boardings in total), within 30 minutes of alighting, or 60 minutes between 9 PM and 7 AM; route and distance rules still apply.
Taxis: the meter is different at midnight
A medium sedan taxi starts at 4,800 won for the first 1.6 km in the daytime, then adds 100 won every 131 metres. Below 15.72 km/h, time and distance charging apply together, including 100 won per 30 seconds, which is why a jam is expensive.
At night the starting meter itself changes: 5,800 won from 10 PM, 6,700 won from 11 PM to 2 AM, back to 5,800 until 4 AM. That is roughly 40 percent more before you have moved. Crossing outside the city limits adds another 20 percent, and doing both at once can reach 60 percent.
Practically: a taxi across central Seoul in the afternoon is a reasonable 8,000 to 12,000 won and often worth it. The same ride after the subway closes is a different purchase, and worth deciding on deliberately rather than by default.
Sights are cheaper than everyone expects
| Site | Adult admission |
|---|---|
| Gyeongbokgung | 3,000 |
| Changdeokgung palace grounds | 3,000 |
| Changgyeonggung / Deoksugung / Jongmyo | 1,000 each |
| Combined ticket, four palaces plus Jongmyo | 6,000 |
The combined ticket is valid six months and covers one visit to each site, so it saves money only if the individual tickets you would otherwise buy total more than ₩6,000. Wearing hanbok gets you in free, and there is a written standard for what counts, explained in our hanbok admission rules guide. Check Gyeongbokgung opening hours and Tuesday closures before planning your route.
A worked day, using only published numbers
Example: three separate base-fare subway journeys, one separately charged bus ride and one combined palace ticket. Free transfers and distance surcharges would change this example:
| Item | Won |
|---|---|
| Subway, three rides | 4,650 |
| Bus, one ride | 1,500 |
| Combined palace ticket | 6,000 |
| Everything the government prices | 12,150 |
The example totals ₩12,150, and the palace ticket can be used across more than one day. Transport and sightseeing are not what makes Korea expensive or cheap. Food and accommodation decide your budget, and those are exactly the two things no official source will price for you.
Passes, and when they are worth it
A T-money card costs 3,000 to 5,000 won and then you load it. The Climate Card is Seoul's unlimited pass: 3,000 for the physical card plus 5,000 for one day up to 20,000 for seven days. Mpass, foreigner-only, runs 15,000 to 64,500 won for one to seven days and caps you at 20 rides a day.
Do the arithmetic before you buy. If you already own a Climate Card, a ₩5,000 recharge costs less than four separate ₩1,550 journeys. With a new ₩3,000 card, the one-day cost is ₩8,000 and becomes cheaper at six such journeys. Free transfers are not separate paid journeys. Our Climate Card vs M-PASS comparison includes every tourist-pass duration and the October 2026 coverage change.
Card purchase and charging may have different payment requirements. Carry Korean won and check your chosen outlet before relying on a foreign bank card.
What I am not going to make up
Meals, hotels, cafes, shopping, exchange rates and ATM fees are set by businesses, not published by anyone, and vary more than any average would suggest. I could quote a figure and it would be a guess wearing a suit.
What I can tell you is the shape of the problem. The published costs above come to roughly 12,000 won for a full day of moving around and seeing things. Whatever your total ends up being, nearly all of the variance sits in where you sleep and where you eat. That is the honest answer to "is $1,000 enough for two weeks" — the transport and admission portion of that fortnight is under 200,000 won, and the rest is a question about you.
Before you go, it is worth knowing how you will actually pay for all this, including the payment methods accepted at your chosen card outlet. For the airport run I compared the train, bus and taxi options in detail, the pass maths is in Climate Card versus Mpass, and if you plan to spend enough to claim tax back, three limits decide whether you get anything.
Sources
- Airport Limousine: route 6001 fare; AREX official booking
- Seoul Metropolitan Government: current subway, bus and taxi fares
- Seoul Metropolitan Government, Modes of Transport: Bus — fares effective 12 August 2023, transfer rules
- Seoul Metropolitan Government, Modes of Transport: Taxi — fares effective 1 February 2023
- Korea Heritage Service: admission fees
- Korea Tourism Organization: transportation cards
City fares, route 6001 pricing and palace admission guidance checked on 14 September 2026. AREX fares require a current route or booking lookup; check all operator notices before travel.
