As we planned our nearly six-week honeymoon to Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea, we knew that we wanted to try out some of Asia’s high-speed trains. First, we took the Japanese Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto; a few weeks later, we took Korea Rail between Seoul and Busan.
However, it was a little tricky trying to figure out how to actually book Korea Rail tickets online — far more difficult than it had been to book the Shinkansen. So, here’s what I learned about how to book Korea Rail tickets online, to hopefully help you have an easier time than we did!
How To Book Korea Rail Tickets Online
The first thing to know, though this blog post only applies to Korea Rail specifically, is that there are actually two high-speed train companies in South Korea: Korea Rail (KTX) and Super Rapid Train (SRT). I guess everyone has their own idea about which one is better, but we decided to go with KTX because it was more convenient to depart Seoul from Seoul Station (rather than Suseo Station, where SRT departs from).
Anyway, when I was trying to book our tickets, I was having the hardest time trying to figure out what website to use.
After trying a few sites that were broken, and reading about a few sites that were denounced as “scams” by fellow travelers online, I finally came to a solution: The best site for booking Korea Rail tickets online is definitely KoRail.com.
(One other option I saw floated around a lot was letskorail.com but this was one of the aforementioned broken sites.)
When you go to the KoRail.com website, all you have to do is enter your departure city, destination, date, and desired time. For example, if I select Seoul to Busan for next week, these are just a handful of the about 70 trains per day!
You might be tempted to click the big blue “Reservation” button in the bottom right corner after selecting your train, but if you want to choose your seats, click on “Seat Selection” instead.
It will then open a little pop-up window, where you can view the train map and select your seat. It’s nice because it tells you which seats will be facing forward and which will be backwards, as well as where the power outlets are!
And the most interesting part… there’s even a way to explore the train using VR! Just click the “Train Interior Preview(VR)” button at the top, and you’ll then be able to check it all out. I’d never seen anything like this while booking train tickets before, so I thought this was pretty cool.
When you’re happy with your seat and ready to check out, it will bring you to a screen that makes it look like you need to make an account.
This isn’t exactly true — you don’t need to make an account. But you do need to type in your email and make up a number-based password in order to move forward with your purchase. It is good to try to remember your “password” though, because if you need to make any changes to your trip, you can access your booking with your email and password.
From there, you can pay for the purchase with your credit card. (Hopefully it has no foreign transaction fees!) Our tickets ended up costing us about $85 USD per person. Which honestly, might have been more expensive than just flying. But we wanted the Korean Rail train experience.
When To Book Your Korea Rail KTX Tickets
Korea Rail tickets can only be booked up to 30 days in advance. I personally had a calendar alert set up for 30 days in advance of our travel day so I could make sure we got the ticket we wanted, but that was absolutely not necessary, lol. Especially once I saw exactly how many trains were available every day between Seoul and Busan.
Looking at prices now (in December) compared to when we traveled in September, things are a lot cheaper. It’s between about $28 USD and $40 USD per ticket, not $85 like we paid! I’m also noticing that the tickets for tomorrow are on the more expensive end of that range, while the tickets for later in the month are on the cheaper end.
So I think the price likely also depends on how far in advance you book and what time of year it is.
Other Ways To Book Korea Rail Tickets
When I had been initially looking at booking our train tickets in Japan, I started with Klook. If you aren’t familiar with Klook, it’s a third-party booking app, similar to Viator or GetYourGuide. However, from my understanding, it offers a lot more in Asia compared to the other two.
As I was going through the booking process for the Shinkansen, I realized that Klook’s prices were a lot more expensive than booking directly with Japanese Rail. And so when it was time to book my Korea Rail tickets, I didn’t even really consider Klook — I went straight to the KoRail website.
But the Klook website does seem to make things a lot simpler than the KoRail website, so if you’re a Klook fan and like booking with them, I say go for it!
Book your KoRail trip between Seoul & Busan with Klook.
Alright, there you have it! That’s all you need to know about booking your Korea Rail tickets online, whether you choose the KoRail website or Klook.
What questions do you have about booking your Korea Rail tickets? Do you have any other tips or tricks? (I am far from an expert traveler when it comes to South Korea, so I’d love to hear any advice you have!) Let me know in the comments.
-Cathy
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