South Korea has 3358 islands. Among all those 3358, 482 of them have residents. Some of islands are connected with mainland by bridges, some are big and already filled up with people like Jeju. Still, there are quite isolated islands having less than 100 population. Those far from the mainland, isolated, very small population islands have their own hidden beauty. Some of them are famous with sea rock fishing, wild deer or migrate birds habitat. You can do kayaking and reach to big sea rocks or near by island. Some of them have nice sand beach but no people so you can feel like you own the whole beach area.
However I found out it can be bit painful for foreigners to use ferry. People usually buy tickets in advance via on-line but the many sites don't provide English version. There are also other small procedures to take ferries like ID check etc.. In this post, I'll explain how to get ferry tickets via on-line and how to board ferries.
Ⅰ. How to book tickets via On-line
Almost every ferry bookings go on one website.
Site name is 가보고 싶은 섬 meaning 'islands which I want to visit'
Registration is not mandatory on this site. If you register as a member, you can book 9 tickets at once, if you don't register, you can book 3 tickets at once.
To register these sites, you need a identity verification. The process usually requires the cell phone number which is registered under your name and official ID number issued by Korean Office(In foreigners' case, IRC number). This part is bit annoying and has some errors. I don't know why exactly but the system makes error easily on foreigners' name. There for I'll explain how to buy ticket without registration.
Click or save the photo and zoom to see the detailed instructions
Step. 1
Step. 2
Choose non-member purchase
Step. 3
Select destination, time and number of people
Check the available seats number carefully
Step. 4
You don't need to show the confirmed message sent to your phone to get a ticket but it can be useful when you ask questions to Korean employee who can't speak English. Therefore I recommend you to write your valid phone number and get SMS.
If your birthday is 1989 February 17th, write 890217
There is a check place for foreigners but the price are same with Korean and foreigners.
Step. 5 (Only when there are designated seats)
There are roughly 2 types of ferries.
①free seat ferry
: There are open spaces in sedentary style
: Decks are open place in this type of ferries
②designated seat ferry
: Usually these ferries are faster
: No open decks usually
Step. 6
Refund regulation is like below (for individuals)
Cancellation due to customer side's reason
1. Full refund: before 1 day of departure
2. 80% refund: on the departure day
3. 50% refund: after departing time (not exceed more than 2 days)
Cancellation due to weather
1. Cancellation at the starting point due to climate: All refund
2. Cancellation at the transferring point: refund for the cancelled route when the customer requests
※Ferry companies will cancel your ticket and send you the result via SMS and refund the fee. If you cancel the ticket in advance by yourself, you can't get refund.
Cancellation due to companies' fault (like malfunction)
1. Before departure: Refund 110% of original fee (10% is a companies' penalty for customers)
2. After departure: if you return to the starting point, you will get 120% of original fee as refund
Delay due to companies' fault
: If the ferry is delayed more than 50% of its original time, 10% of original fee will be refunded
: If the ferry is delayed more than 100% of its original time, 20% of original fee will be refunded
Step. 7
Use credit card or debit card and pay
Ⅱ. What to do in Ferry terminals
You need a paper tickets to board and can get it at ticket box in ferry terminals. Seoul provides English almost everywhere but in other area, it's a whole different story. I barely saw English instructions or signs in ferry terminals. It can be bit confusing when you first try to change Internet ticket reservation into paper tickets.
1. Find the company where you bought the tickets
Some ferry terminals, they have different ticket booth based on companies. You can find out your ticket booth based on 'destination' 'ferry name' or 'company name'.
If you can match Korean alphabets, then you can find out where to go easily. Otherwise, just ask any employees where to go. Showing your confirmation SMS to them will be enough to know which ticket box you need to go.
If there is only one ticket booth, you don't need to get bothered. Just go there.
2. Bring ID and the credit/debit card you bought tickets
If you don't have ID proof, you can't get tickets. Ticket booth also checks the card which you used to buy tickets. I don't know why but they do. If you used different cards to buy different tickets, you need to show all cards.
Name and birthday on ID proof should be same with the ones you wrote on on-line reservation site.
3. You might get confused...
If you take a round trip, you will usually get every tickets you bought(including coming back one) at once.
When you need to transfer to other ferry in the middle, you might not get the later tickets in office. In that case, employees will check the name one by one before boarding on the port. Of course it takes more time and more confusing but they still have your name.
If you don't know which information you need to provide in any circumstances related with ferry tickets, just provide these things : Name of person who bought tickets (This might be important when one person buys several tickets for many people), the individual's name who will board on ferry, the card which you used to buy tickets.
Ferry companies' employees tell you which information they need but if you can't speak Korean and they can't speak English, you may provide above information and let the employee to find the one which he/she needs.
4. Boarding
Boarding is closed before 10 minutes of departure. Employees check your ID proof and match them with the tickets information right before boarding.
5. When to get off
Some ferries stop by several islands. Captains make live announcement in ferries but I've never heard they speak in English. Check the map gps or catch the island name in announcement or ask any other people.
If you find any errors, have updated information or want to add some comments, feel free to let me know (Last update: 2019. 5. 13.)
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