Last year, my family had the opportunity to travel to both Korea and Japan, and while they’re often mentioned together, the experiences couldn’t have felt more different. From the pace of daily life to how travel flows with kids, each country offered its own rhythm, challenges, and surprises. If you’re deciding between Japan and Korea or planning to visit both, these are the travel differences that stood out to us the most.
Related: 9 Items You Don’t Want To Forget In Japan
South Korea Tips
First of all here are some key tips for traveling to South Korea. If you are looking at some travel tips to Japan check out my post How To Enjoy Japan With Young Kids
- You definitely need cash!
- You can only digitally refill a t-money card with a Korean credit card or you need a physical card and refill it with cash.
- Get a t-money card from cu or another convenience store.
- Older people will likely give your kids food and candy or touch them and give them lots of attention.
- Look up to the second floor to find some great restaurants. Some of the best food we had was on the second level of a building.
- Use Naver Maps or Kakao Map instead of Google maps to get around.
- Papago app is better than Google translate for Korean.
Japan Vs Korea
Japan- no bags
Korea- lots of bags
Japan- clean everywhere
Korea-trash everywhere
Japan- designated smoking areas/ limited smoking
Korea- smoking everywhere all the time especially where there are no smoking signs and cigarette butts everywhere
Japan- easy to pay for anything. Apple Pay works everywhere
Korea- hard to pay for everything. Apple Pay isn’t popular and some places you have to have a Korean credit card to pay
Japan- have deep bath tubs and waterproof rooms
Korea- have showers over the toilet and sink in a mostly waterproof room
Japan- smooth sidewalk
Korea- bumpy uneven hard to use a stroller on paths
Japan-train system is most popular for transportation
Korea- the bus system is the most popular for transportation
Japan- 7/11 is fantastic
Korea- convenience stores are subpar especially 7/11. Cu and gs25 are better
Japan- can add money to digital sucia card through your phone, any credit card, or purchase individual tickets
Korea-must have a physical transportation card or a Korean credit card to add money to a digital t- money card
Japan- vending machines everywhere
Korea- hardly any vending machines
Japan- clear directions in English and Japanese
Korea- hardly any directions in any language
Japan- no exercise equipment for adults
Korea- exercise equipment for adults at every park
Japan- just pay for your things
Korea- everything asks you if you want to finance it
Japan- bumpier skinnier trains
Korea- smoother wider trains
Things Our Kids Were Given In Korea
It was crazy how people wanted to give our kids things all the time. They wanted to share a favorite snack or something they thought the kids would love. They were so thoughtful and kind to our family.
- Rice cakes
- Milk candy
- Oranges (and picture taken)
- Huge handfuls of lollipops
- Persimmons
- Candy
- Milk candy bars
- Candy boxes and a meat stick
- Rings
- Stickers
- A bag of Rice puffs
- Bananas
- Sticker pages
- Mini mushroom cookies
- Pizza slices, Korean chicken, Bananas, oranges, water, bears, Pokémon lunchbox full of Pokémon things, reusable bag, ball, pocky (this was a crazy situation where we were at a park and there was a birthday party happening and the mom kept bringing more things over for us)
- Pocky, fish keychains
- More candy
- Oranges, coconut candy, mango gummy
- Walnut treats
- Watermelon candy
