Learn Essential Words, Phrases, and Insider Tips to Explore Korea Like a Local (ํ๊ตญ ์ฌํ์ง ์ดํ)
From bustling cities to serene islands, Korea is full of beautiful, culturally rich places to explore. Whether youโre planning a weekend trip to Busan or a temple stay in the mountains, knowing Korean travel vocabulary (์ฌํ ์ดํ) will enhance your experience and communication.
๐ Popular Travel Destinations in Korea (ํ๊ตญ์ ์ธ๊ธฐ ์ฌํ์ง)
| Korean | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| ์์ธ | seo-ul | Seoul |
| ๋ถ์ฐ | bu-san | Busan |
| ์ ์ฃผ๋ | je-ju-do | Jeju Island |
| ๊ฒฝ์ฃผ | gyeong-ju | Gyeongju |
| ์ธ์ฒ | in-cheon | Incheon |
| ๊ฐ๋ฆ | gang-neung | Gangneung |
| ์์ด | sok-cho | Sokcho |
| ์ ์ฃผ | jeon-ju | Jeonju |
| ์์ | su-won | Suwon |
| ํ์ฐฝ | pyeong-chang | Pyeongchang |
| ๋จ์ด์ฌ | nam-i-seom | Nami Island |
| ์ค์ ์ฐ | seol-ak-san | Seoraksan Mountain |
| ์ง๋ฆฌ์ฐ | ji-ri-san | Jirisan Mountain |
๐งณ These are just a few of Koreaโs top travel spots for food, history, hiking, and relaxation.
๐งญ Essential Travel Vocabulary in Korean
| Korean | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| ์ฌํ | yeo-haeng | Travel |
| ์ฌํ์ง | yeo-haeng-ji | Travel destination |
| ๊ด๊ด์ง | gwan-gwang-ji | Tourist attraction |
| ์ผ์ | il-jeong | Schedule / Itinerary |
| ์ฌํ ๊ณํ | yeo-haeng gye-hoek | Travel plan |
| ์์ | suk-so | Accommodation |
| ๊ฒ์คํธํ์ฐ์ค | ge-seu-teu-ha-u-seu | Guesthouse |
| ํธํ | ho-tel | Hotel |
| ๋ฏผ๋ฐ | min-bak | Homestay |
| ๋ ํฐ์นด | ren-teo-ka | Rental car |
| ๊ธฐ์ฐจ | gi-cha | Train |
| ๊ณ ์๋ฒ์ค | go-sok-beo-seu | Express bus |
| ์ ์ฅ๋ฃ | ip-jang-ryo | Admission fee |
| ์์ฝ | ye-yak | Reservation |
๐ฃ๏ธ Useful Korean Expressions for Traveling
| Korean | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| ์ด ๊ทผ์ฒ์ ๊ด๊ด์ง๊ฐ ์์ด์? | i geun-cheo-e gwan-gwang-ji-ga iss-eo-yo? | Is there a tourist attraction nearby? |
| ์ฌ๊ธฐ์ ์ด๋ป๊ฒ ๊ฐ์? | yeo-gi-e eo-tteo-ke ga-yo? | How do I get here? |
| ์ฌ์ง ์ข ์ฐ์ด ์ฃผ์ธ์. | sa-jin jom jjig-eo ju-se-yo | Please take a photo of me. |
| ํ ๋ ์ฅ ์ฃผ์ธ์. | pyo du jang ju-se-yo | Two tickets, please. |
| ์ด ์ง์ญ์ ์ ๋ช ํ ์์์ ๋ญ์์? | i ji-yeok-ui yu-myeong-han eum-sik-eun mwo-ye-yo? | Whatโs the famous food in this area? |
| ์์ ์์ฝํ์ด์. | suk-so ye-yak-haess-eo-yo | I made a reservation for the accommodation. |
| ์ค๋ ๊ด๊ดํ ๊ฑฐ์์. | o-neul gwan-gwang-hal geo-ye-yo | Iโm going sightseeing today. |
๐๏ธ Regional Highlights & Cultural Travel Tips
๐๏ธ Seoul (์์ธ)
- Capital city packed with palaces, shopping, nightlife, and Han River parks.
- Must-see: ๊ฒฝ๋ณต๊ถ (Gyeongbokgung Palace), ๋จ์ฐํ์ (Namsan Tower), ๋ถ์ด ํ์ฅ๋ง์ (Bukchon Hanok Village).
๐ Busan (๋ถ์ฐ)
- Coastal city known for beaches, seafood, and night views.
- Donโt miss ํด์ด๋ (Haeundae Beach), ๊ฐ์ฒ๋ฌธํ๋ง์ (Gamcheon Culture Village), and ์๊ฐ์น์์ฅ (Jagalchi Fish Market).
๐๏ธ Jeju Island (์ ์ฃผ๋)
- Volcanic island with hiking trails, waterfalls, and unique culture.
- Try ์ ์ฃผ ํ๋ผ์ง (Jeju black pork), visit ํ๋ผ์ฐ (Hallasan), and enjoy the stone statues called ๋ํ๋ฅด๋ฐฉ.
๐ฏ Gyeongju (๊ฒฝ์ฃผ)
- The โmuseum without wallsโ โ rich in Silla Dynasty history.
- Visit ๋ถ๊ตญ์ฌ (Bulguksa Temple) and ์ฒจ์ฑ๋ (Cheomseongdae Observatory).
๐จ Things to Consider When Traveling in Korea
๐ 1. Reservations Are Essential
During holidays like ์ค๋ (Lunar New Year) or ์ถ์ (Chuseok), trains and hotels sell out early. Use ์ฝ๋ ์ผ (KORAIL) or ๊ณ ์๋ฒ์ค ํฐ๋ฏธ๋ (Express Bus Terminal) websites for ์์ฝ (reservations).
๐๏ธ 2. Accommodation Options
You can choose from ํธํ (hotel), ๊ฒ์คํธํ์ฐ์ค (guesthouse), ๋ชจํ (motel), or ์ ํต ๋ฏผ๋ฐ (traditional homestay). Always check if the ์์ offers ์์ค (bathroom) and ์์ดํ์ด (Wi-Fi).
๐ฑ 3. Apps That Help
Download apps like Naver Map, KakaoMap, and Papago for navigation and translation. They support ์์ด (English)!
๐งผ 4. Cleanliness and Public Etiquette
Korean tourist spots are typically very clean. Always use designated ์ฐ๋ ๊ธฐํต (trash bins) and respect ์กฐ์ฉํ (quiet zones) in temples or rural areas.
โ๏ธ Bonus Vocabulary: Travel Types & Experiences
| Korean | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| ๊ตญ๋ด ์ฌํ | guk-nae yeo-haeng | Domestic travel |
| ๋น์ผ์น๊ธฐ | dang-il-chi-gi | One-day trip |
| ํด๊ฐ | hyu-ga | Vacation |
| ๊ด๊ด ๋ช ์ | gwan-gwang myeong-so | Tourist hotspot |
| ๋ฌธํ ์ฒดํ | mun-hwa che-hyeom | Cultural experience |
| ๋ง์ง | mat-jip | Famous restaurant |
| ์์ฐ ๊ฒฝ๊ด | ja-yeon gyeong-gwan | Natural scenery |
| ์ ํต ๋ง์ | jeon-tong ma-eul | Traditional village |
| ์ฌ์ฐฐ | sa-chal | Buddhist temple |
๐ Vocabulary Quiz
- Whatโs the Korean word for โguesthouseโ?
- How do you ask โHow do I get there?โ in Korean?
- Translate: โI made a reservation for two nights.โ
๐ฌ Comment your answers and share your favorite travel destination in Korea!
๐ Want to Learn More?
โ๏ธ Talking about family
โ๏ธ Having a baby & Pregnancy
Do you need personalized Korean lessons from a certified Korean tutor? ๐ Click here to book a session! ๐
Check my Youtube Channel : @JustStudyKorean
๐ Support My Work
If you found this post helpful, consider supporting me!
Your donation helps me create more Korean learning content and improve this website.
๐ Thank you for your support!