Getting from Seoul to Busan is fairly simple and fuss free. Korail website (http://www.letskorail.com/) is foreigner friendly and somewhat easy to use. I took a flexible two-day pass as I'll be doing a roundtrip from Seoul to Busan. The cost was about ₩102,000 (~USD96) and you're free to use it twice. A normal class KTX ticket costs ₩53,900 per adult, so you'll save about ₩5800 (~USD5.50) with the pass. If you're taking the First Class ticket, then all you need is just to top-up the difference. A first class ticket costs about ₩75,500. Just to experience the difference, I had a first class ticket from Seoul to Busan and a normal class ticket when travelling back to Seoul from Busan.
One tip is to reserve your tickets early, especially during the holidays/peak periods. The trip had 'accidentally' coincided with
Chuseok and tickets were moving fast and hence, the available timings were limited. Remember to print out the Korail Pass and the tickets.
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| Seoul Station |
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| departure gate |
One thing to note is that the train ticket does not contain the information of which platform your train is at. The platform info will be displayed at the black electronic board about 20 minutes before departure time.
There are restaurants if you'd like to grab a quick bite but the Lotte fast food is forever full. No worries, inside the departure gate, there are small kiosks that sells bento/sandwiches. So you may grab some food just before boarding the train.
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| inside the departure gate - food kiosks |
The train usually will arrive about 15 minutes earlier prior to your boarding time, so there was no rush. Do be mindful that the train will depart on time.
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| train platform |
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| that's my ride |
The First Class seats are pretty spacious and for single traveller, there are single seats too.
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| First Class cabin |
Since I'd bought lunch, might as well enjoy the meal. 먹자! Bento seemed most appropriate for a two and half hour long train ride. I liked that my window seat came with a charging dock to plug in your USB connected devices. Power socket and free wifi are available too, so you could do work on your laptop, if you'd like.
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| bento/dosirak |
Bought my brunch from Hotto Motto kiosk and that'll be a Japanese lunch box. Priced at ₩7500 and it has lots of rice, meats, egg and pickles. Came with a small container of miso soup too! Too bad it's not hot food but still yummy. The bento came with chopsticks, a small cup of water, serviette and wet hand wipe too.
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| ほっともっと |
It is essential to bring your own food (if you'd be hungry) as the train vending machines will only contain bottled water/drinks and some light snacks such as peanuts/chocolates.
The journey was smooth and it turned out that most passengers in the first class cabin are all young parents with small child/children.
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| window seat |
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| mountain and fields |
The toilet is near the first class cabins and quite similar to airline toilets. And no, there isn't any zombies in the train....thankfully.
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| thank you for the safe ride |
For the return trip, I was in normal cabin and the main difference would be the space between the seats. Would you be willing to pay more for added comfort?
In the next episode, let's go see the accommodation in Busan! Till then, stay tuned.
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