Driving in Korea: What You Need to Know

As a pedestrian walking around Seoul or a passenger in the back of a taxi, driving in Korea seems like a chaotic mess. Honking horns, ambiguous lane lines, intersections without any stop signs, lights or apparent right-of-way clues. Pedestrians don’t have the right-a-way. And drivers don’t even flinch for an ambulance with flashing lights for crying out loud, they just keep on driving!

Needless to say, when I decided to take a road trip through Korea, I was bracing myself for a tense, stressful journey. But I was pleasantly surprised. While the cities are a bit crazy, driving around the country is efficient, rational, fair and the best way to see the beauty that is the Korean peninsula.

So, get legal, make a plan, get a car, and fucking go.

First Things First: Get Authorized to Drive in Korea

My California drivers license isn’t enough to make me a legal driver in Korea, so I had to do a little extra work. There are 2 ways a foreigner can drive in Korea, depending on if you have an Alien Registration Card (ARC) or are just traveling through.

If you’re just traveling through…

Get your international driver’s license (IDL). You can do this either before you come to Korea (recommended) or once you get here. The easiest way to do it is through AAA; you don’t even need to be a member. Fill out this form, get 2 passport sized photos, make a copy of your valid American driver’s license and pay $20.

If you’re in the states, you can mail it all in or go into any AAA office and walk out with your brand new International DL. If you’re already abroad, you can mail it all in with a self-addressed stamped envelope and AAA can mail your IDL back to you.

If you have an ARC…

You should get a Korean license, which is a pretty complicated process. Up until last year, driving in Korea as a foreigner was a lot simpler: you could just go into the Korean equivalent of the DMV and exchange your American driver’s license for a Korean one. Unfortunately, now it requires a bunch of paperwork that needs to be apostilled (think notarized but on an international level, a thing only the state department can do for you), taking drivers ed classes, and passing a written and physical driving test.

It’s actually not that different from the American process, apart from the apostille requirement and that it’s all in Korean. This process can take months to complete. Check out Korea’s Road Traffic Authority’s page for more info on driving in Korea.

What I did…

You noticed I wrote you should get a Korean license if you have an ARC, but that’s not exactly what I did… I was already living here with my ARC when I decided I wanted to drive. So technically, I should have gotten my Korean driver’s license, but I was in a time crunch (my road trip was already planned!) and I didn’t want to jump through all those hoops (just lazy).

So, I mailed all the documents for an IDL to my wonderful parents, they went into AAA, gave them the paperwork and $20, and walked out in twenty minutes with my International Driver’s License. They sent it to me and two weeks later my hair was blowing in the wind as I cruised in my shiny Hyundai Sonata, driving in Korea!

I don’t imagine a situation where this will cause a problem, but what do I know? I figure if I get pulled over, I’ll show them my IDL and passport, not my ARC. Maybe they can figure it out, but I’m not too concerned.

Get Your Wheels

Once you have your IDL, you’re ready to get rolling, you just need to find a rental car company. I was a little worried it would be a hassle to find one that would rent to me other than at the airport. But it wasn’t hard at all.

I searched Kayak and lastminute.com for car rental locations and general prices. I found AJ Rent-a-car, which is affiliated with Avis, about 5 subway stops away and visited them to make my reservation.

They didn’t even bat an eye at my IDL and they set me up. All I needed was my IDL, valid American driver’s license, passport, and credit card.

I’m sure I was charged a little more than a Korean driver, but I’ll be sure to barter a little more next time. I made sure to get the full insurance. The rental guy was nice, the car was clean, and it came with navigation (an absolute necessity in Korea).

How much does it cost to rent a car?

About ₩22,000/day (insurance)  +  ₩55,000/day (car rental)  = ₩77,000/day TOTAL

Hitting the Road: What its Like Driving in Korea

When you get down to it, driving is pretty similar anywhere you go: there are road signs, speed limits (suggested or stated), bad drivers, right turns, left turns, stop signs and stop lights. But there are a few things that stand out when driving in Korea.

Here are a few of my observations:

Police Monitoring Zones

I haven’t seen one cop patrolling or stopped on the side of the road waiting to catch speeders. (I saw a dummy car, and one car on the road that said Expressway Patrol and had flashing lights, but all the other cars just kept on speeding by it, so I did too).

This was the biggest difference driving in Korea: absence of the anxiety about getting pulled over; about seeing a hiding cop car and thinking, “oh shit!” as you look down at your speedometer to see how fast you’re going.

Maybe it’s just me… I am known to regularly drive over the speed limit (I’m an efficient driver!) and I have been pulled over a few times (but I’m a safe driver, I just like to go fast!). I drive on the freeway with a constant fear that I’m going to get caught. That the big bad police are going to catch me committing this sin of speeding.

It’s such a paternalistic approach to have patrollers watching over us making sure we are abiding by the rules, and it’s pretty freeing to be able to drive, worry free, feeling like I’m being trusted to act safely and responsible, like an adult member of society.

It wasn’t just a free for all though, it isn’t the Autobahn. In Korea, they have Police Monitoring Zones, a spot or portion of the freeway that has speed guns and cameras. If you’re speeding, I assume they snap a picture of your car and send you a nice little present in the mail.

But these zones don’t just sneak up on you, drivers have plenty of warning, usually at least a 2 km warning sign with flashing lights, as well as a friendly reminder from your navigation system.

One minute the speed of traffic is going 140 km/hour, then after the warning sign, everyone slows to 80 or 100, whatever the limit is. Sometimes it’s just a single camera, other times it’s an average speed zone, where for a stretch of anywhere from 2-10 km, you have to maintain a certain average speed. Don’t ask me how they monitor that, but again, everyone slows down.

It’s a smart way to actually affect behavior. The motivation is to actually have people slow down to a safe speed, not to pull people over, get them in trouble, and get money from the traffic fines. What a concept!

Keep scrolling if your curious about traffic accident stats (hint: the different policing techniques doesn’t seem to make a difference).

Needless to say, I was a fan.

Toll Roads

Toll roads are the norm, and impossible to avoid. Being from California, I never dealt with this, other than the few bridges where there is a fee to cross. And literally, only maybe two or three. In Korea, when you get on any main freeway, you grab a ticket. Then when you exit, you pay depending on how long you traveled on the road. Tolls can range from about $1 to $20.

When you drive up to the toll booth, make sure not to enter the blue Hi-Pass lanes. You'll have a problem when you try to exit and you don't have your ticket, or don't pay your toll... Just watch out.

I love this method. You gotta pay if you’re the one using the roads. If you’re not using the road, you don’t. It sucks on road trips, but it is the fairest way to do it.

Rest Areas

Korean rest areas put American ones to SHAME! These freeway oases can be found about every 50 km on major freeways throughout the country.

They have everything a traveler would need all in one place: delicious Korean style food courts, name brand coffee shops and cafes, a convenient store, clean, stocked and not shady bathrooms, and a gas station.

Gas

Unsurprisingly, gas is expensive here; the average is $5.38 per gallon. Gas stations are pretty plentiful and most of the time they are full service. The attendant comes to your car window, you tell them how much, give them your money, and they do all the work. One of the places even gave me a free water when I filled up!

Navigation

As a foreigner driving in Korea, it isn't easy navigating the roads. While all the directional signs are in English, unless you have exceptional geographic senses, it's hard to know which way is which.

Most rental cars have navigation, but if your doesn't get an app. Google maps doesn't work in Korea (they haven't allowed them to map their roads), so use Apple maps, Kakao Map (all in Korean), Mapquest, or Waze.

Whichever one you choose, it's bound to have some mistakes, especially if you aren't in a city. But that's the joys of road trips, getting lost, and finding new places!

Sirens

Driving in Korea, you don’t have to pull over when you hear sirens. Repeat, remain calm and keep on keeping on. They’re just letting you know they’re there and they’re on duty.

In fact, there are a few vehicles on the road that use sirens. I saw some sirens in my rearview mirror and got a little nervous, but as it approached, it was just a tow truck. Not even towing a car, just strolling alone. Also, there are Expressway Patrol cars that also keep their sirens on when they’re on duty, just letting you know they’re there. But none of them are cause for panic.

So Many Tunnels

Korea is an extremely mountainous country, and it’s not very big, so there’s not really enough space to go around. And instead of going over them, the powers that be decided to just go through them. I swear I went through at least 50 tunnels driving in Korea on my 4 day road trip.

When you go through the tunnels, don’t be alarmed if you see flashing police lights and hear sirens. That’s just the police just making sure you’re pay attention because you’re in a fucking tunnel, in case you didn’t know.

Stats About Driving in Korea, Cause I’m a Data Nerd

Even with one of the most advanced and efficient public transportation systems in the world, 20 million cars are on the streets in Korea, and that number is rapidly growing. That comes out to 459 cars per 1,000 Koreans. But that is still faaaaar less than in America, where there are 910 cars per 1,000 car-loving Americans.

Korea and America are ranked similarly, though, when looking at traffic fatalities. Korea is fourth in the world with 10.1 road traffic fatalities per 100,000 people, with Argentina, Chile and the USA in the top three spots. So, the seemingly lack of policing effort in Korea compared to that of America, doesn’t seem to make the roads any less or more safe.

But being behind the wheel isn’t the biggest risk, it’s living among the cars that pose the biggest threat. Pedestrians watch out! Korea had the highest pedestrian death rate among developed countries in 2013, with 1,910 deaths. This probably doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone who has tried to walk in Seoul, or any other major city in Korea. The drivers be crazy!

Sources: Kojects and Korea’s Road Traffic Safety Authority

Final Thoughts

Do it!

Get legal, find a car, take a weekend and get out into the rural areas of Korea.

While I love public transportation and appreciate the efficacy of the subway, buses and trains, driving in Korea allows you to see so much more of the country, stop and go when you want, and sing in your car like no ones watching!

Stay tuned for a road trip itinerary to scope out the hard to reach, off the beaten track spots in Korea.

Happy Driving!

Driving in Korea