THE ULTIMATE 7 DAY ITINERARY TO SEOUL & JEJU ISLAND

Assalamualaikum and hello!

It has been weeks since my trip to SoKor. The main lesson I learnt- NEVER GO ON AN EARLY JANUARY HOLIDAY IF YOU WORK IN ACCOUNTING / HR FIELD! HAHAHAHAHA!

let the adventures begin!

My last 2 weeks before departing was horrible. The accounting year end for the company I am currently working with is December, and GST submission is every month. Which means by hook or by crook, Im gonna have to settle things up and submit to our auditors before I depart, terrible- for both year end and GST! Then my boss chase me to settle the EA form also. Paling teruk- sudenly Customs officer called and asked us to submit documents for audit purpose.  😓😓😓

Then also have to deal with the salary calculation and gomen payments lagi. It was... horrible.

Thank God, Alhamdulillah, everything went well. And I did it. So, off to SoKor! What I'm going to share with you guys are our planned itinerary. We skipped some places, as we were exhausted and we were busy moving hostels.

 Beautiful houses in Bukchon Hanok Village

Oh ya, if you wanna stay in Seoul for 5 days, don't bother staying in a different hostel (like what we did), because it really waste a lot of your time. But the good side- our 1st stay was so cold even with heaters on to the max temp and 2nd stay was warm and so cozy. I can't imagine staying at the same hotel for 4 nights- can freeze to death hahaha!

|| THE ITINERARY     

Oh ya, you can just click on the day (Day 2, Day 3 and so on) to go directly to my post on the specific day! psst, I didn't do Day 1, Day 5 & Day 7 as most of the times spent on moving & travel.

 Day 1 
Depart from KLIA2 at 720am, arrive at 240pm.
Take AREX train to Seoul Station, change to subway to our Hotel in Jongno-3
Check in, went to Dongdaemun

I advise you to go to KTO on the very first day in Seoul so that you can get so many coupons. We got ours from KTO Malaysia, sadly some coupons cannot be used! So, better come here to get your coupons because we paid W 13,000 for Nami Island while some guys we met said they just need to pay W 4,500 with the coupon. TT~TT

 Day 2 
Nami Island, Entrance + Ferry W 13,000.00
Hongdae

 Day 3 
Ihwa Mural Village
Bukchon Hanok Village
Changdeokgung Palace, entrance fee W 3,000.00. Free entrance if you wear Hanbok (we skip, just lalu depan je hahah!)
Gwanghwamun Square
Cheonggyecheon Stream
Myeongdong

 Day 4 
Vivaldi ski park, booked via Trazy US$ 73 per person
Namsan Tower, Entrance fee (to observatory) W 8,000.00

 Day 5 
Banpo Hangang Park or Hallyu star street (we skipped, need more rest hahah!)
Gangnam Underground Shopping Terminal
to Gimpo Airport, Fly to Jeju Island
Pickup car upon arrival.

 Day 6 
Love Museum. Entrance fee W 8,000.00. we didn't get in LOL
GD Monsant Aewon Cafe
Camellia Hill, entrance W 8,000.00
Jeongbang waterfall, entrance W 2,000.00
Halla San
Dinner at Seopjikoji
Jeju Swiss Village (we skipped due to bad weather & dangerous to drive)

 Day 7 
return car & to airport - back home TT~TT

 Got that Europe vibe. Or is it me? HAHA

|| OUR OVERALL EXPENSES     

Flight
We bought ticket too early (LOL) and lepas beli ticket je, AA terus open direct flight to Jeju Island. So, never buy ticket too early (except if they are on sale!)
KL-Incheon Airport (Return) RM 1,107.00 per person- share luggage 20kg to ICN, 25kg back to KL
Gimpo-Jeju (book at JejuAir, Return) RM 186.00 per person
Total for flight =  RM 1,293.00 (can get cheaper if you buy during promo)

Hostel (all booked through Airbnb)
2 Nights at Jongno RM 145.94
2 Nights at Itaewon RM 152.28 **recommended**
2 Nights at Jeju RM 95.66 **recommended**
Total for Hostel = RM 393.88
Click HERE to register your Airbnb account and get discount on your bookings!

Transportation
T-Money in Seoul W 30,000.00 (click HERE for subway guide)
Arex train W 8,500.00 (supposed to get 6,500.00 but the staff said our coupons are not valid =.='' )
AJ Rentacar (using discount coupons) W 45,950.00 for 2 days / 2 pax =W 22,975.00
Fuel around W30,000.00 kot kalau tak silap, so, W 15,000 per person
Total for transportation = W 76,475 x 0.003737 (rate masa kitorang convert duit kat Mesia) = RM 285.79

Entrance fee
Nami, Namsan Tower, Camellia Hill, Jeongbang waterfall = W 31,000.00 (after convert RM 115.85)
Ski = US$73.00 (After convert RM 292.65 per person), we add W 15,000.00 per person (RM 56.05) for ski lesson
Total for entrance fee = RM 464.55

Total expenses = RM 2,437.22

You can save a lot now that AirAsia offers direct flight from KUL to Jeju Island (we purchased tickets months before they released the news, sob sob), and if you skip ski since that's the most expensive one. But we don't care because experience is worth more than that! Also, the exchange rate nowadays is not as high as last year (2017) so it means you can get more and save more too! Please rajin-rajin survey which money changer provide the best rates and don't change at the banks- the rates are higher!

You can really make your trip a lot cheaper if you go to KTO first and get the coupons for tourists, and another well known tip is to exchange your money depending on the currency rate! Staying in hostels would be easier but we want some privacy and security so we choose private room. Also, car rental will be cheaper if you share around 3-4 people instead of 2 people like us.

I exchanged RM 1,800.00 and use the cash for entrance fee, food, some shopoping & souvenirs, T-Money & all transportation expenses (thankfully AJ Rentacar accept cash!). Which means my total expenses including shopping - yes I shop some clothes & skincare too but not much souvenir, doesn't exceed RM 3,500.00. Of course, if you're a shoppaholic, you'll definitely need more cash 😂😂😂

Also, if you are planning to go on winter (and it's your first winter trip), please jangan bajet ciput. Because you will need hot packs, heat tech inner & leggings, winter jacket, muffler and glove! I will try my best to make a post on winter travel tips, so please show me your support as I need to shoot new photos if I wanna make that post hahaha.

Till then, 

Thank you for reading this entry!

hn