ICN Taxi options - cash or card

[Lynda2475]

Sorry for the O/T question but we have an evening arrival into ICN, our plan was to take a taxi, do Korean taxis take card? I really dont want to have to get any cash. If taxis need cash then I will pre-book a transfer online.

 

[Chicken]

We have an evening arrival into ICN, our plan was to take a taxi, do Korean taxis take card? I really dont want to have to get any cash. If taxis need cash then I will pre-book a transfer online.

There are really only 2 major taxi networks: Kakao (as in Kakao maps), and Uber. Kakao would require you to install the Kakao taxi app. You can see if it takes foreign cards.

There is also another one called International Taxi network, they specifically are able to speak English and Japanese, so you may want to try that.

However, I wouldn't take taxi before 8PM. Airport Railroad takes 90 minutes into city. If you take road transport during peak, expect your 90 minutes to turn into 2.5 hours.

I took a tour to DMZ, in a Kia Carnival (not the one which most tourists do), and the trip back into Seoul turned from 90 minutes to 2 hours, to around 2.5 hours to the edge of Seoul (not even inside, it took another 30 mins by metro to get back into Eujiro)

I have also seen a bunch of YouTubers who believed their hire car driver that it would take 90 mins to go to the airport earlier this year. They left their hotel in the city at 5:30 PM, peak hour traffic. Lucky the airline staff escorted them all the way to the gate, they nearly missed their flight.

I would only take road transport after 8 PM, as their peak hour start to subside from 7PM.

absolutely crazy in this day and age from a country that I thought I would have no problem arriving into without cash (and where I had no need for cash other than to buy/top-up the T-money card).

South Korea is a closed loop country (a bit like China, and maybe Japan). It shows how just because a country is a first world country doesn't mean that it's an open international country (London or Singapore or Hong Kong or Australia)

 

[Lynda2475]

Thanks @Chicken.

We land at 20:25 (assuming no delays) so I figure by the time we get through immigration and customs (we have checked luggage) it will be after 9pm hence the thinking Taxi/Uber would be the way to go.

Departing wont be an issue as we have a lunch time flight our of GMP and will likely book an airport hotel for the night before anyway.

We only really have 1.5 days to find our own way around as have a private tour for the rest of the stay so our guide will gets us everywhere we need to be.

 

[Chicken]

Thanks @Chicken.

We land at 20:25 (assuming no delays) so I figure by the time we get through immigration and customs (we have checked luggage) it will be after 9pm hence the thinking Taxi/Uber would be the way to go.

Departing wont be an issue as we have a lunch time flight our of GMP and will likely book an airport hotel for the night before anyway.

Are you arriving into ICN, sleep overnight, then fly out via Gimpo next day?

That's what I did only 3 / 4 weeks ago. I got Ibis Ambassador ICN to price match and price beat Agoda, ended up paying AUD 80 for the night, then took Airport Railroad direct from ICN to GMP the next morning to catch Air Busan.

 

[Lynda2475]

Are you arriving into ICN, sleep overnight, then fly out via Gimpo next day?

O/T

No we arrive ICN at night, have the next free day in Seoul before our tour starts from our Seoul hotel at 6pm. Our tour ends 10 days later with a mid morning domestic flight from Jeju Island to GMP giving us the arvo and night to do our own thing before flying GMP to HND the next day at lunch time.

I have yet to book a hotel for our last night in Seoul as I am tossing up between staying down town or just staying at a GMP airport hotel and hanging out at the giant mall there. Hotel must not have a SHUB.

 

[DejaBrew]

There are really only 2 major taxi networks: Kakao (as in Kakao maps), and Uber. Kakao would require you to install the Kakao taxi app. You can see if it takes foreign cards.

I used both when I was there last December. Uber was fine, but not as reliable and with fewer cars available. Kakao Taxi was far and away the better option (and was the one recommended to me by all of my Seoul-based friends/colleagues). In terms of foreign cards, I used Revolut without issue. For my own security, I used the Revolut app to create a throwaway digital Visa card to use exclusively with the Kakao Taxi app so that I could lock it when not in use. Worked perfectly!