VISITKOREA

VISITKOREA: Your Essential Travel Companion for Exploring South Korea

The VISITKOREA app, developed by the Korea Tourism Organization, is an all-in-one official travel guide designed for international visitors. It provides comprehensive, reliable information on attractions, dining, accommodations, transportation, and events across South Korea. Users download VISITKOREA to access personalized recommendations, detailed offline maps, and essential travel tools, transforming trip planning and on-the-ground navigation into a seamless experience. This official app serves as a digital concierge, ensuring travelers can confidently explore the country's rich culture and modern conveniences.

Personalized Travel Itinerary Builder

Within the VISITKOREA app, users start by entering their travel dates, interests, and preferred regions. The system then generates a day-by-day itinerary featuring culturally significant sites, popular local restaurants, and suitable lodging options. Travelers can manually adjust this proposed schedule by dragging and dropping activities, adding custom notes, or swapping suggested venues for alternatives listed in the app’s extensive database. The final itinerary syncs across devices, providing a structured yet flexible plan that includes estimated travel times and operating hours, ensuring an efficient and personalized travel experience powered by VISITKOREA.

Comprehensive Public Transportation Navigation

The VISITKOREA app integrates real-time public transportation routing for metros, buses, and trains across major cities like Seoul and Busan. Users input their departure point and destination, and the app displays multiple route options with detailed instructions, including transfer points, exit numbers, estimated fares, and journey duration. For subway travel, VISITKOREA provides color-coded line maps and station information. This function calculates the most efficient path, whether a user is traveling across the city or just a few stops, making public transit easily accessible and reducing the potential for navigation errors.

Offline Maps and GPS-Based Location Services

Even without an internet connection, VISITKOREA’s downloadable offline maps remain fully functional. Users pre-download specific city or regional maps before their trip. Once in the area, the app uses the device’s GPS to pinpoint the user’s location directly on the map, displaying nearby points of interest. Travelers can search for saved bookmarks or browse categorized icons for attractions, banks, restrooms, and tourist information centers. This feature is indispensable for exploring areas with poor data connectivity and helps avoid costly international roaming charges while using VISITKOREA.

Official Event and Festival Calendar

This section of VISITKOREA provides a continuously updated schedule of national holidays, cultural festivals, and special events happening throughout the country. Users filter events by date, region, or type—such as music, food, or traditional celebrations—to find activities that align with their travel dates. Each listing includes a description, venue address, official website links, and practical attendance tips. By checking the VISITKOREA event calendar, travelers can seamlessly integrate unique local experiences into their journey, ensuring they don’t miss major happenings during their visit.

Multilingual Phrasebook and Emergency Assistance

VISITKOREA includes a practical phrasebook with essential Korean words and phrases categorized into situations like dining, shopping, and transportation. Each phrase is written in Hangul and features an audio pronunciation guide by native speakers. The app also dedicates a section to critical emergency information, storing quick-dial numbers for police (112), fire (119), and medical services (1339). It provides addresses and contact details for embassies and nearby medical facilities. This tool from VISITKOREA helps users navigate language barriers and access help swiftly if needed.

Curated Local Dining and Shopping Recommendations

VISITKOREA offers verified listings of restaurants and shops, highlighting everything from street food stalls to fine dining and from traditional markets to department stores. Each entry includes photos, user reviews, price ranges, and operational hours. The app often features specialties of each region, guiding users to must-try dishes like Jeonju bibimbap or Busan hoe (raw fish). Users can search for venues near their current location or bookmark places they plan to visit later. This function of VISITKOREA helps travelers discover authentic culinary and retail experiences.