KORAIL PassKTXFoodHistory3 Days
Seoul to Busan with the KORAIL Pass: route, stops & what it costs
Korea's spine at 300 km/h — palaces, fried buns and fish markets from capital to coast.
Plan this trip interactively ↗
Pass vs. single tickets
🎫 KORAIL Pass 3-day
₩121,000
Unlimited KTX·ITX·Mugunghwa (not metro/SRT) · 2h 35m rail
🚄 Single KTX tickets
₩121,700
Seoul–Busan with 3 stops, return included
Route timeline
- 1
Seoul
Stay 2 daysHighlights- Gyeongbokgung Palace — Joseon's grandest palace, with an hourly changing-of-the-guard. Book tour / ticket ↗
- N Seoul Tower — Namsan's cable-car peak and the city's glittering night view. Book tour / ticket ↗
- Changdeokgung Palace & Secret Garden — A UNESCO Joseon palace whose rear Secret Garden hides pavilions around a lotus pond. Book tour / ticket ↗
- Myeongdong Shopping Street — Seoul’s neon retail warren, crammed with cosmetics shops and evening street-food carts. Free to visit
- Dongdaemun Design Plaza — Zaha Hadid’s silver spaceship of curves, glowing over a nightly flea market. Free to visit
- Gwangjang Market — A century-old covered market famous for mung-bean pancakes and live-octopus stalls. Free to visit
- National Museum of Korea — Korea’s vast flagship museum, from gold Silla crowns to a soaring stone pagoda. Free to visit
- K-Culture Station — A 40-year-sealed Line 2 subway tunnel reborn in 2026 as a permanent immersive K-pop and media-art venue. Free to visit
- 🚆 KTX · 1h2
Daejeon
Stay half dayHighlights- Seongsimdang Bakery — The fried-bun institution travellers ride the KTX just to queue for. Free to visit
- Daejeon Skyroad — A downtown arcade roofed by Korea’s longest LED sky screen. Free to visit
- Hanbat Arboretum — One of Korea’s largest city arboretums, a green mile strung between the art museums. Free to visit
- Daejeon O-World — A combined zoo, safari and flower park with a night-lit amusement zone. Book tour / ticket ↗
- 🚆 KTX · 45m3
Daegu
Stay 1 dayHighlights- Seomun Market — Daegu's grandest bazaar — 350 years of textiles and night-market snacks. Free to visit
- Kim Kwang-seok Mural Street — A beloved folk songwriter remembered along a painted alley wall. Free to visit
- Apsan Park Cable Car — A ropeway up Apsan to an observation deck sweeping over the whole Daegu basin. Book tour / ticket ↗
- Daegu Modern History Street — A walking trail past a red-brick cathedral and missionary houses from the 1900s. Free to visit
- 🚆 KTX · 50m4
Busan
Stay 2 daysHighlights- Gamcheon Culture Village — Pastel houses stacked up a hillside like a Korean Positano. Book tour / ticket ↗
- Jagalchi Fish Market — Korea's largest seafood market, hosed down and shouting by dawn. Free to visit
- Haeundae Beach — Busan’s widest arc of sand, backed by a wall of glass towers and summer parasols. Free to visit
- Haedong Yonggungsa Temple — A rare seaside temple where the waves break against its rocky shrine terraces. Free to visit
- Gwangalli Beach — A café-lined strand facing the Diamond Bridge, which lights up in colour after dark. Free to visit
- BIFF Square — The film-festival plaza paved with stars’ handprints and lined with sizzling hotteok griddles. Free to visit
- Songdo Beach Cable Car — Glass-floored gondolas that skim over the sea from Songdo Beach to Amnam headland. Book tour / ticket ↗
- Taejongdae Park — A forested cliff park where a loop trail overlooks the surf and a white lighthouse. Free to visit
- Haeundae Blue Line Park — A retired coastal railway reborn as a park, with a hop-on Beach Train and elevated Sky Capsule pods gliding along the shore from Mipo. Free to visit
Frequently asked questions
- Is the KORAIL Pass worth it from Seoul to Busan?
- 🎫 KORAIL Pass 3-day costs ₩121,000, versus 🚄 Single KTX tickets at ₩121,700. You save about ₩700 with the pass.
- How many stops are on the Seoul–Busan route?
- 4 stops: Seoul, Daejeon, Daegu, Busan.