How to book bus tickets online in korea

In Korea, there are two types of buses for intercity travel: express buses and intercity buses.
Intercity buses and express buses are widely used means of public transportation for domestic travel in South Korea. There is a slight difference between express buses and intercity buses, but what we need to know is where to board and how to make reservations.
We recommend prioritizing KTX or SRT🚅 if available in the city you’re traveling to!
⬇️⬇️⬇️
Korean railway system overview for traveler

Booking a Express bus or Intercity bus online in Korea

Finding the specific bus terminal or City name

When you want to travel to another city in Korea using a bus, you need to first check the name of the bus terminal in that city and see if there are connecting routes available. In major cities, there could be multiple terminals within one city.

While Naver Maps and Kakao Maps are excellent options, they do not support English translations. Therefore, I recommend using Google Maps. (Kakao Maps does have some English translations partially available, so it’s good to reference alongside.)

Express bus? Intercity bus?

You may have found the name of the bus terminal in the area you want to go, but you still may not know whether the bus is an express bus or an intercity bus. In this case, the best way is to directly search through express bus and intercity bus reservation websites.

🖥️ Integrated express bus🚌 ticket booking website LINK
🖥️ Integrated intercity bus🚎 ticket booking website LINK

to book a bus ticket online

Set the language preference first on the booking website and then click on the departure point. At this point, ignore the class. Since the time slot is more important than the class, select “All” as the priority option.

After selecting Seoul as the departure point, You can see that three terminals—Central City, Dongseoul, and Seoul Gyeongbu—have been displayed. Now, let’s check one by one to see which one connects to my desired destination; Jeonju, located in Jeollabuk-do.

When I selected Seoul Central as the departure point, I found the destination option for Jeonju Express Bus Terminal (under the Jeollabuk category) in just one try.

When traveling from a large city to a small city, a simpler search method is to first search for the small city as the departure point to confirm the terminal. Buses always operate round trips between the departure and destination points. See below.

Look at this: When I first selected Jeonju Express bus terminal as the departure point and Seoul as the destination, I could immediately see which terminal in Seoul connects to Jeonju. This way, I found out that not only from Seoul Central but also from Dongseoul Terminal, I can go to Jeonju.

When you enter the departure point, destination, and date, and click on search, you can see the buses operating on that date. Buses from Dongseoul Terminal(Seoul) to Jeonju Express Bus Terminal Jeonju) run approximately every hour from 6 a.m., and the journey takes about 2 hours and 50 minutes for a distance of 227.9km. You can also check the prices according to the class.

The next step is selecting the number of travelers and choosing seats accordingly for each traveler.

If you are a member of this website, you can enter your ID and password. If not, you can proceed with the reservation as a non-membership.

The phone number and password required for the payment information do not necessarily need to be contactable numbers. Instead, they can be considered as substitutes for an ID and password for non-members. If you don’t have a contactable number in Korea but need to make a reservation as a non-member, you can enter any arbitrary number in the format 010-XXXX-XXXX.

After entering the payment information and completing the payment, you will be directed to a page like this. It is advisable to take a screenshot of this screen and make a note of the ticket reservation number. Please be aware that this page and the reservation number cannot be used as a substitute for the ticket. You will need to present the information provided during ticket reservation, along with your credit card, at the terminal to obtain the ticket.

If there is a city that is not listed here, you can try searching again on the intercity bus terminal booking website.
🖥️ Integrated intercity bus🚎 ticket booking website LINK

Express bus CLASS in Korea

Economy Class

Typically, when referring to buses with a 2+2 seating arrangement.

Excellent Class

Typically, when referring to buses with a 2+1 seating arrangement.

Premium Class

The wider seats come with displays for watching movies and other entertainment.

Here, we’ve explored how to book express and intercity buses in Korea for travelers. In fact, express and intercity buses in Korea are not always highly popular unless it’s a special occasion like a weekend or holiday, so making reservations far in advance may not always be necessary. However, it’s recommended to prepare in advance for places accessible only by bus.

If you have any other questions, please let me know in the comments.