3.1/5
1,312 reviews
Photo by Yohan Cho via Unsplash

Cost of Living in Seoul

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english

great

restaurants

food

life

cafes

speak

fast

service

hard

areas

clean

beautiful

wifi

generally

koreans

cool

Seoul is a modern and incredibly clean city with strong infrastructure, making it an efficient and convenient place to live or visit. Public transportation is cheap, extensive, and runs on time, while high-speed internet is available nearly everywhere, often for free. Daily life is driven by convenience—shops and services operate around the clock in many areas. Safety is another major strength, with locals comfortable leaving laptops unattended in cafes. Costs for things like food, transportation, and data plans are generally fairly low by urban standards.

Dining options are varied and the food is consistently praised, especially Korean barbecue and its customs around service and free side dishes. However, eating alone can feel awkward in group-oriented restaurants. Making local friends can be a challenge due to language barriers; while many residents are kind, they may be shy or hesitant to speak English. Apps designed for Korea are necessary for navigation and daily tasks. The city can feel overwhelming at times due to its crowded nature and relentless pace, which may make it less appealing to some digital nomads seeking a more relaxed environment. Still, Seoul’s blend of safety, convenience, and culture makes it a city worth experiencing at least once.

AI-generated summary of reviews
5 months ago

I was born and raised in Seoul. It’s an incredibly clean, ridiculously safe, and vibrant city brimming with activities. It’s a great place to live long-term and a wonderful destination for a leisurely week trip, yet I’m not entirely convinced that I’d recommend it for a nomadic lifestyle—mainly because the city feels too international.

Sure, Seoul boasts a wealth of activities, flawless IT infrastructure, and an array of delicious international cuisines crafted by talented chefs. However, if you have reasons to leave your hometown for a nomadic life, wouldn’t Seoul just seem like the familiar metropolis you left behind? Or perhaps it’s simply that, as a local, I’ve become so accustomed to Seoul that I no longer notice its unique charm. idk.

10 months ago

Absolutely beautiful country. Everything functions well. Cost is low. Endless beautiful cafes and sights.
Cons: The locals are not very friendly. Need an app for everything because English is not common.

1 year ago

Definitely worth visiting but not particularly attractive as a remote work destination. I can't think of anything Seoul does better than other Asian cities outside of just being cool because it's South Korean (and I don't mean that sarcastically at all, South Korea is a very cool place). But again, do visit.

2 years ago

I only stayed for 3 weeks cause the life is kind of boring compared to Tokyo or Osaka. It helps a lot if you speak some korean since not many people speak english and most restaurants don't have english menu. The internet is fast but the public transportation is always crowded.

2 years ago

Seoul has many good things in every perspective. Safety! IT infra! Food! many shops until night, Super fast Delivery, Kind and fast service, Hip places opens in every minute, Kind & Educated people(Education in Seoul is crazy, almost social issue), and even nature everywhere(huge river, mountains are in the city, you can easily find mountains to climb)

3 years ago

I've been living for a year in Itaewon-dong, Seoul back in 2015 when i was 22 years old. It was one of the best year of my life, i made lifelong friends overthere. Great culture, great food, great people.

The cons : no beach, ultra-capitalist environment, big city life downside (transportation, prices etc...)

4 years ago

I am Korean and have been living in Seoul for almost a decade. (Originally from Busan)
And here are some pros and cons about this city:

Pros.
- Super safe!
- Fast & free wifi almost everywhere
- Great transportation system: You can go literally everywhere in the city via bus & subway
- Many coworking spaces (Most IT startups are located near Gangnam, Yeoksam, and Seolleung station.)

Cons.
- Lots of restaurants serve in groups, so you might feel awkward eating alone at the first time (It's even hard for me too tbh haha)
- Quite many people fear speaking English (It's not you, it's the language they are afraid of)

Below are few tips to survive in the city:
* If you learn how to read Hangeul, the Korean alphabet. It will make your life in Seoul much pleasant and easy.
* Use KakaoMap || NaverMap (They provide much more accurate information than Google Map, and ofc they support English)
* Samsung pay is available everywhere!
* When you are working in a cafe, it is okay to leave your laptop and go to the restroom. (Don't worry. No one will steal your stuff.)
* When you are in a cafe, check out for wifi passwords before throwing away the receipts.

4 years ago

Seoul is an amazing experience. Even though it's a massive city, it's thoroughly Korean rather than cosmopolitan and overflowing with authentic local culture. It's extremely clean, modern and futuristic with neon lights and flashing screens everywhere. The modern architecture in this city is impressive and beautiful. It wouldn't take much to convince yourself that you've travelled 100 years into the future.

The food is amazing and you have to try Korean barbecue at least once if you visit this city. It's also very cheap, you get lots of bottomless free side dishes, service is quick and you don't have to tip. There's lots of interesting things to do like Karaoke (very different from the western type that's done in a bar), virtual baseball or golf, interesting museums or going to a jimjilbang (spa).

Perhaps the most amazing thing about this city is the extreme level of convenience. Transport is very cheap, efficient and so clean that as a European, you will not believe your eyes. Everything is open and accessible 24/7 in many areas. This includes restaurants, shops, cinemas, laundromats, jimjilbang, libraries, you name it. Even at 3am you can live it up like it's early evening. You can also walk in to one of the many cheap hotels at any hour and find a clean room. Wi-Fi is everywhere, very fast and often free.

5 years ago

Really enjoying Seoul so far. It is very hard to make friends at first as not many people will speak English or are too afraid to. Maybe easier in Itaewon. For phone service, I was able to get month to month service on KT with unlimited data for only 35,000 won a month. Check out the desk with a sign in Thai on the electronics floor at IPark Mall connected to Yonsan station for this deal. They speak great English as well.

5 years ago

Spend a few hours and learn the Korean alphabet (not that hard) and Google some names of Korean dishes + it's spelling in Korean. It will help a lot as most restaurants only have Korean menu's and often without pictures.

As mentioned previously on the reviews, it's a little hard to eat alone, but Gimbab Chonguk (김밥천국) is everywhere and 24/7 - no one will bat an eye. Also look for places that "specialises" in dumplings, They are usually "alone-eating" friendly. And so are ramen places as well as Korean "chinese" restaurants - Jajangmyeon (자장면) is very good and super addictive. Bibimbab restaurant places are fine too. Actually, it's not that hard to eat alone in Korea. The "group" meals are generally quite obvious and will be things like BBQ. You'll figure it out.
Do Get used to kimchi and spicy food otherwise you'll end up eating the same thing all the time. Be adventurous. Challenge yourself and eat an octopus alive (산낙지). If you're really brave try 보신탕 before authorities close them all - I haven't but a lot of Weagukins (foreigners) secret do.

Cafe's generally have really good wifi, as you would expect from one of the most connected countries in the world. Expect to pay $4-6 for a latte and maybe even more at Starbucks.
Best cafe's are usually around Hipster areas and Universities. Indie owned cafe's are awesome.

Nightlife is great, probably amongst the best in Asia. Can get very expensive especially at night clubs in Gangnam where it would could be like $10 for a beer - in that case you can still get drunk for $2 with soju just outside at 7Eleven.

Winters are stupidly cold and summers can be brutally hot & humid. Go between April and June or September to October. They have cherry blossoms in spring which is beautiful and so are the autumn leaves.

Lived here for many years. It's a cool place and vastly underrated.

Seoul is continuously becoming more expensive and cost of living will soon be comparable with places like Tokyo.

7 years ago

Seoul is lovely but still has some challenges for nomads. Korean food is great, but most restaurants are used to serving groups, or at least couples. Many times you'll simply be refused service entering a restaurant alone. Unlike Japan, eating alone is stil frowned upon in Korea and mostly impossible. Exceptions are of course expat areas like Itaewon which are more used to it. Also outside signage and menus are mostly still in Korean, without any English translations generally. Even if you learn the Korean characters, you won't know the words, so this makes it impossible to order. This is slowly changing though, especially in hipster areas. You might ask "why does this reviewer care stuff is in English or not, they're in Korea, what does he expect?". Well, it's 2018 and Korea presents itself as an international country, English should be the default sub text. There's more challenges, it's very difficult to meet Koreans, you'll always be seen as the "token" foreigner in social groups. This is understandable and to be fair it's much worse in Japan than Korea. Unless you're in expat areas, you'll feel fairly isolated because Koreans will generally avoid you for fear of having to speak English. This makes it a potentially very lonely experience for any nomads. This is kinda vicious because Koreans look down on people that are alone. Hence the group-eating thing. Solutions to that? Come here with a group of friends. You'll have a MUCH easier time.

7 years ago

Koreans have the image that 'foreigners' like ie, Europeans, can't handle spicy food. Don't be a wuss. You're making us look bad.

7 years ago

The best area in Seoul now is called Seongsu, it's like the Shoreditch/Williamsburg of Seoul. Lots of old warehouses used as cafes etc. Fashion desginers. Boutique art exhibitions. Go live around there, it's great!

7 years ago

You can get unlimited 4G data sim cards from KT at a handful of places. Incheon airport has them, and the KT office near Hongik Univ. station (behind big Samsung building). There's a storefront on the ground floor (street-level), but they will tell you to go inside the building and to the fourth floor. It's kinda tricky to find, so just go to the store and they will explain. I think I paid about 30k KRW for 1 week of unlimited data.

7 years ago

✅ Very safe

✅ Fast internet

✅ Very clean

✅ Great food

✅ Efficient public transportation

✅ Affordable

✅ Lots of fun stuff to do

✅ Perfect humidity now

✅ Good air quality on average

✅ Nomads.com members liked going here a lot

✅ Many Nomads.com members here all year round

✅ Very easy to do business

✅ High quality of education

✅ Great hospitals

✅ Roads are pretty safe

✅ Freedom of speech

✅ Democratic

✅ Very safe for women

✅ Family friendly

✅ LGBTQ+ friendly

❌ Limited English spoken

❌ Hard to make friends

❌ Busy and crowded

❌ Cold now

❌ Gets very cold in the winter

❌ Feels crowded

❌ Very difficult to make friends

❌ People don't speak English well

❌ People smoking tobacco a lot

❌ High alcohol consumption

❌ Marijuana is illegal

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Feels (median)

-2°C / 28°F freezing

-0°C / 32°F freezing

11°C / 52°F cool

17°C / 63°F cool

19°C / 66°F mild

25°C / 77°F warm

37°C / 99°F hot

31°C / 88°F hot

25°C / 77°F warm

17°C / 63°F cool

11°C / 52°F cool

0°C / 0°F freezing

Real (median)

-2°C / 28°F
freezing

1°C / 33°F
very cold

11°C / 51°F
cool

16°C / 61°F
cool

18°C / 64°F
cool

25°C / 77°F
warm

30°C / 86°F
very warm

28°C / 82°F
very warm

25°C / 77°F
warm

17°C / 63°F
cool

11°C / 52°F
cool

0°C / 32°F
freezing

Humidity

nice
50%

nice
53%

nice
60%

nice
49%

nice
67%

nice
75%

sweaty
78%

sweaty
77%

nice
70%

nice
66%

nice
62%

nice
55%

Most common

☀️ Clear

☔️ Rain

☀️ Clear

Rain

dry
20mm

dry
9mm

dry
39mm

rainy
79mm

rainy
98mm

rainy
66mm

rainy
111mm

rainy
165mm

rainy
130mm

rainy
52mm

rainy
55mm

dry
12mm

Cloud

pockets
20%

pockets
24%

pockets
30%

pockets
36%

pockets
38%

pockets
46%

pockets
41%

cloudy
52%

pockets
38%

pockets
34%

pockets
27%

pockets
17%

Air quality

okay
90 US AQI

bad
100 US AQI

bad
115 US AQI

okay
87 US AQI

okay
93 US AQI

okay
86 US AQI

okay
65 US AQI

okay
56 US AQI

clean
44 US AQI

okay
59 US AQI

okay
82 US AQI

okay
90 US AQI

Sun

safe
2 UVI

seek shade
3 UVI

seek shade
4 UVI

seek shade
5 UVI

avoid sun
6 UVI

avoid sun
7 UVI

seek shade
5 UVI

avoid sun
6 UVI

seek shade
4 UVI

safe
2 UVI

Remote workers

1,484 people

1,494 people

2,363 people

2,400 people

2,248 people

2,563 people

1,445 people

2,282 people

2,827 people

2,495 people

1,988 people

1,671 people

Green is good. Red is bad. Values shown are the medians of all daily highs in a month based on past few years, not necessarily current numbers. Remote worker count is estimated based on the total amount of trips logged by Nomads.com members.

If you'd like to filter destinations based on their climate, try Nomads.com's Climate Finder

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$3,318 / mo

27 Mbps

⭐️ OverallAll

💵 Cost 😙 Affordable

📡 InternetWiFi 🏎 Fast

👍 Liked mediocre

👮 Safety mediocre

Tap to open

🌧 Feels 30° 86° 26° 79° 🥵

✈️6h

$1,570 / mo

🌇 Also went here492 people

Singapore

⭐️ OverallAll

💵 Cost 🧐 Very expensive

📡 InternetWiFi 🏎 Fast

👍 Liked mediocre

👮 Safety great

Tap to open

🌦 Feels 30° 86° 27° 80°

✈️6h

$4,510 / mo

🌇 Also went here558 people

Istanbul

Turkey

⭐️ OverallAll

💵 Cost 😳 Extremely expensive

📡 InternetWiFi 🏎 Fast

👍 Liked bad

👮 Safety mediocre

Tap to open

🌦 Feels 5° 41° 7° 45° AQI 51 😷

✈️12h

$5,544 / mo

🌇 Also went here500 people

Barcelona

Spain

Members who will be here soon

Members who have been here

Values shown are estimated visits by traveling remote workers based on the total amount of trips logged by Nomads.com members. Visits to a place are only counted once per year per user, even if they visit more in that year. Visits are also normalized by overall trips added per month on the site, so if site usage goes up or down it does not affect trends. Not all digital nomads are on Nomads.com, and not all Nomads.com members log their trips. So the data is only indicative.

The chart below shows visitors by nationality normalized for population size. This means we take all trips logged on Nomads.com, check which country of origin the user is from, then divide that total visit count by the country of origin's population. If we didn't, it'd just show the big countries like US, Brazil and India always on top. Instead, this shows which nationalities worldwide proportionally visit more or less, which is more useful.

⭐️ Total score	3.1/5 (Rank #9) 1312 reviews
❤️ Liked by members	👍22 liked it 👎2 disliked it
👍 Quality of life score	Good
👶 Family score	Okay
🎒 Community score	Good
💵 Cost	😙 Affordable: $2,433 / mo
📡 Internet	🙂 Good: 34 Mbps (avg)
😝 Fun	Good
⛅️ Temperature (now)	🥶 Freezing : -1°C30°F (feels -1°C30°F)
💦 Humidity (now)	😊 Comfy: 47%
❄️ % of buildings with AC	😍 Very high: 86%
💨 Air quality (now)	🌱 Good: 30 US AQI
💨 Air quality (annual)	🌱 Good: 75 US AQI
👌 Safety	Great
👩 Safe for women	Great
🌈 Safe for LGBTQ+	Okay
🤮 Food safety*	Good
👮‍♀️ Lack of crime*	Great
🤝 Lack of racism*	Bad
🎓 Education level*	High
⚡️ Power grid	Great
🌊 Vulnerability to climate change	Good
💰 Income level*	High: $2,315 / mo
🙊 English speaking*	Bad
😤 People density	😤 Dense: 17k ppl/km² (1 per 8x8m)
🚶 Walkability	Bad
🚦 Traffic safety*	Okay
✈️ Airline scores*	Good
🧳 Lost luggage*	Great
🏥 Hospitals	Great
😄 Happiness*	Okay
🍸 Nightlife	Great
📶 Free WiFi in city	Great
🖥 Places to work from	Great
❄️ A/C or heating	Great
😁 Friendly to foreigners	Good
🗯 Freedom of speech*	Good
🎅 Startup Score	Okay

🌍 Continent	Asia
🚩 Country	South Korea
🗓️ Average trip length	13 days
📡 Internet speed (avg)	34 Mbps
⛅️ Weather (now)	🌤 -1°C 30°F + 😊 Comfy (47%) = feels -1°C 30°F
💨 Air quality (now)	👍 30 US AQI 🍃 OK
💨 Air quality (annual avg)	👎😷 75 US AQI = 🚬 / day
🔌 Power	230V 60Hz
🧔 Best neighborhood to stay	Sindang-dong
🚀 Upcoming neighborhood	Sillim-dong
🚕 Best taxi app*	Kakao T
🚑 Travel medical insurance	Safetywing
💸 10,000 KRW in USD	USD 6.79
🏧 Suggested ATM take out:	KRW 100,000 = USD 68
💸 Tipping	No
💳 Cashless	💳 Yes, cards OK almost everywhere
💻 Best coworking space	Campus Seoul
💻 Best alt. coworking space	Hive Arena
☕️ Best coffee place	CowNDog
☕️ Best alt. coffee place	Coffee Bean
🏪 Best 24/7 coffee place	Tom N Toms @ Konkuk
🚰 Tap water	👌 Yes, safe to drink
♻️ Return rate	👍14% of visitors return
📸 Visitors per year	7,659,100 visitors
📸 Tourists now	146,786 tourists
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Population	9,800,000 people
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 GDP per capita*	$27,785 / year
😤 Population density	😤 crowded: 8x8m (64m²) per person
👫 Gender ratio (population)	👨 47% 👱‍♀️ 53%
👫 Gender ratio (young adults)	👨 56% 👱‍♀️ 44%
👫 Gender ratio (nomads)	👨 81% 👱‍♀️ 19%
🏞 Foreign land ownership allowed	Yes
⛪️ Religious government	Non-religious
💻 Online electronics shop	Gmarket
🏠 Apartment listings	Craigslist Seoul
✈️ Best short-haul air carrier	Jeju Air
✈️ Best int'l air carrier	Korean Air
🏥 Best hospital	Seoul National University Hospital

💵 Cost of living for nomad	$2,433 / month
💵 Cost of living for expat	$1,478 / month
💵 Cost of living for family	$3,493 / month
💵 Cost of living for local	$998 / month
🏨 Hotel (median price)	$1,922 / month
🏡 Airbnb (median price)	$1,788 / month
🏠 1br studio rent in center	$725 / month
🏠 Median home price	$543,947
🏨 Hotel (median price)	$90 / night
🏠 Airbnb (median price)	$59 / night
🏢 Coworking hot desk	$188 / month
🍛 Dinner	$6
🥤 Coca-Cola (0.3L)	$1
🍺 Beer in cafe (0.5L)	$3
☕️ Coffee in cafe	$4
👩‍🏫 International school	$16,357 / year
📱 Mobile data (~10GB)	$14 / month
🚕 Taxi price (avg trip ~3km/2mi)	$2 / trip