The mistake to avoid is treating “how much money for Korea” as a number someone has published. Two official survey series publish a per-day figure, and they disagree, so the honest answer is a range plus a way to price your own trip. Public prices for the basics of a Seoul day, added up below, land far under either survey figure. Your room and your shopping are the likely difference, but no source here says how much each contributes.
What visitors report spending
Korea’s Foreign Visitor Survey (외래관광객조사) is run by the Korea Culture & Tourism Institute for the tourism ministry. It is the only public per-day spend figure on record, and it comes in two versions.
| Source | Year | Per day | At ₩1,358.4 per US dollar (our arithmetic) | Definition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| KCTI summary of the survey | 2024 | USD 236.4 | ₩321,126 | Read as excluding international transport |
| Data Lab dashboard | 2025 | USD 321.9 | ₩437,269 | Total consumption spend on the trip, definition otherwise not stated |
The KCTI figure is for 2024 and comes with an average stay of 6.7 days. The institute’s own 2023 infographic says its per-visitor figure excludes international transport costs, but the 2024 post does not repeat that line, so treat the exclusion as a reading, not a confirmation. The Data Lab, run by the Korea Tourism Organization, defines spend as total consumption spending made by or for the visitor across the whole trip. Its definition panel does not say whether international transport is inside it.
The two series also disagree about the same year. For 2024 the KCTI summary gives USD 236.4 and the Data Lab dashboard gives USD 326.4. No source read here explains the gap, so do not average them and do not pick the one you like. Data Lab’s 2025 figure is the newest annual one read for this guide, with an average stay of 6.5 days, and the survey notes that its spend method changed from 2023, so do not set either against pre-2023 numbers you may see quoted elsewhere. The Data Lab says the confirmed figures for 2026 are due at the end of May 2027.
The dollar-to-won conversion uses the Bank of Korea’s ECOS closing rate of ₩1,358.4 per US dollar on 1 October 2026. Applying that rate to 2024 and 2025 survey years is our choice, not the survey’s. The rate moves daily, so redo the sum with the current rate before you rely on it.
A Seoul day built from public prices
Every total in this section is the DLY Korea Desk’s arithmetic. No source states a daily total. Each line below carries a price from an operator or public body, and the totals only add them up. Figures are per person, except the room (per room) and the samgyeopsal line (per 200 g, not a per-person meal).
| Line | Budget day | Mid day | Higher day |
|---|---|---|---|
| Getting around | 3 base-fare rides (up to 10 km each) at ₩1,550 = ₩4,650 | 1-day Climate Card ₩5,000 plus one taxi base fare ₩4,800 = ₩9,800 | Same card plus two taxi base fares = ₩14,600 |
| Breakfast | Gimbap, one roll, ₩3,923 | Bibimbap ₩11,923 | Naengmyeon ₩12,692 |
| Lunch | Jajangmyeon ₩7,731 | Kalguksu ₩10,038 | Samgyetang ₩18,269 |
| Dinner | Kimchi-jjigae set meal ₩8,769 | Samgyetang ₩18,269 | Samgyeopsal, converted to 200 g, ₩21,321 |
| A night | Inn (여관) single room with bath, Seoul average ₩52,615 | No official price read | No official price read |
| A sight | Gyeongbokgung ₩3,000 | Integrated palace pass ₩6,000 | Palace pass plus Secret Garden ₩5,000 = ₩11,000 |
| Data | LG U+ 5-day LTE eSIM ₩27,500 ÷ 5 = ₩5,500 | ₩5,500 | ₩5,500 |
| Day total | ₩86,188 (about USD 63.4) | ₩61,530 plus a room | ₩83,382 plus a room |
The mid and higher days exclude the room because no official source read for this guide prices a hotel night you could book, so they are not directly comparable with the budget day, which includes an inn. Move the room line across if you want a like-for-like sum.
What each line is, and where it stops being reliable:
- Meals are August 2026 Seoul averages across the restaurants surveyed, from the Korea Consumer Agency’s 참가격 portal using Ministry of the Interior and Safety data. The portal calls them provisional, and they change monthly, and it does not say where the restaurants are. The samgyeopsal figure is a conversion to 200 g; as served, a portion is ₩18,154 and covers about 100 to 250 g, so neither is a per-person meal.
- Taxi lines are floors. The Seoul base fare of ₩4,800 covers the first 1.6 km only. The meter then adds ₩100 per 131 m, and per 30 seconds in slow traffic, with a late-night surcharge on top. See Korea taxi fares, surcharges and apps for what a real ride adds.
- Subway rides against the pass. Three rides cost ₩4,650, under the ₩5,000 one-day pass, and four rides cost ₩6,200, over it, so the pass pays from the fourth ride on base-fare rides of up to 10 km each. Longer rides cost more, since the page adds ₩100 for each further 5 km between 10 and 50 km, so the pass pays at that ride or sooner. For a subway-bus transfer the same page describes one integrated distance-based fare, with the base fare covering the first 10 km and the transfer free. The Climate Card also needs a ₩3,000 physical card once per trip, which the daily line leaves out. T-money or Climate Card settles which card fits your route.
- The room is the one public-body price, the average for a 여관, an inn or motel-class room defined as one night in a single room (독방, a room for one person) with a bath. It is not a hotel. The survey prices a room for one; it does not say what two people sharing would pay. The Desk chose the ₩52,615 reading because it is the later month. Another government page, the Fair Trade Commission’s 소비자24 consumer portal, carries the same ministry data and shows ₩53,000 with July 2026 selected, one month earlier.
- Sights. The palace pass states that it excludes the Secret Garden, which is why the garden fee is added to it. Seoul’s palaces in a day plans the visit itself.
- Data is one carrier’s tourist eSIM, priced per day here by dividing the five-day price. It is not a market range. Korea SIM, eSIM or roaming compares the operators.
Set the sum beside the survey
The budget day comes to about 27% of the lower survey figure (₩86,188 against ₩321,126) and about 20% of the higher (₩86,188 against ₩437,269). Those percentages are the Desk’s arithmetic too. Public prices for the basics do not land near what visitors report spending.
The survey counts total consumption spend, and the parts above leave out several things it includes. Shopping is inside the survey figure, and its share is not published in anything read here. The room is another: the survey reflects whatever visitors actually paid, and no official hotel rate you could book was read for this guide. Possibly international transport is a third, on the Data Lab’s series, though nothing read here establishes it. And everything the day leaves out, such as cafés, tours, a second sight, nightlife and gifts, has no source here either.
So the basics are cheap relative to what visitors report spending, and shopping and the room you choose are the likely difference. How much each accounts for is not something these sources say. If shopping is your plan, read what to buy in Korea and the tax refund routes before fixing a shopping line.
Costs that happen once
The first two belong in no daily line.
- Airport to city. AREX all-stop to Seoul Station is ₩4,750 from Terminal 1 and ₩5,350 from Terminal 2 on a transport card. The express is ₩13,000. Incheon Airport to Seoul helps you pick by where you sleep.
- K-ETA, where your nationality needs one, is ₩10,000 per person, and the portal adds an online-payment fee it puts at generally about 3%. Do you need K-ETA? covers who is exempt.
- Card fees depend on your card and how you pay, and no line here includes them. Paying in Korea covers cards, cash and WOWPASS.
The two questions the sources do not answer
What does a hotel night cost? No official source read for this guide states a typical hotel, guesthouse or hostel rate you could book. An official hotel statistic exists, average revenue per room sold, but it is an annual industry average and was not read. The nearest public-body figure is the inn average above. Operators publish rates for their own properties only. As one example, the capsule hotel Darakhyu at Incheon Airport Terminal 1 lists an overnight single at ₩69,000 on a weekday, VAT included, but that is an airport capsule, not a proxy for a city hotel. To price a real night, take the all-in total with tax for your dates from the property itself or its booking page. Korea lodging types explains what each kind of place is, and where to stay in Seoul narrows the district.
Is Korea expensive? No primary source read here compares Korea’s prices with another country’s, so this guide does not answer it. The way to check is to price the same lines at home: a transit day, three ordinary restaurant meals, one admission, a phone plan and a room. Then compare them with the table above.
What a two-week trip adds up to
This is a multiplication, not a survey result. The survey’s average stay is 6.5 days, and nothing shows that a longer stay is spent at the same daily rate.
- Survey range, multiplied by 14. USD 236.4 becomes USD 3,309.6, and USD 321.9 becomes USD 4,506.6. Use the day’s exchange rate to convert.
- Budget day, multiplied by 14. ₩86,188 becomes ₩1,206,632, before shopping, cafés, extra sights, the airport transfer and any travel outside Seoul.
Intercity travel is the part this guide cannot cost. No live KTX or domestic flight fare was read for this guide, so any trip that leaves Seoul needs the operator’s booking result first. KTX or express bus and Gimpo to Jeju or Busan by air show how to compare them.
Before you fix a total
Pick which survey definition you trust, and keep both in view. Price your own line items from the table rather than adopting a headline number. Fill the room and intercity gaps from the operator’s own booking pages, with tax included. Then redo the conversion at the day’s rate. The meal and room averages here are August 2026 figures and will move.