Lost in the Countryside: 5 apps for rural areas in South Korea

The bind about living in a rural area in South Korea is that your phone will be full of apps. But what are the best South Korean apps to download?

When living in Korea, you’ll need two apps each for the train, the bus, and for sharing locations. That’s six downloads for just getting around! But once you’ve installed these apps, they will make living in a rural location that much easier, saving you so much hassle. It’s common to envy city life with its ease and simplicity, but rural life can be just as great (if not more so without the hustle and bustle of cramped transport). Travelling and communicating shouldn’t bring you out in cold sweats. So, after you’ve installed some basic apps, like Korail and KakaoTalk, which every expat in Korea should consider downloading, consider these five helpful apps: 

1. Gosok Bus Tmoney (고속버스티머니) and TmoneyGO (티머니GO)
2. EmergencyReadyAPP 
3. NAVER maps (네이버 지도) and Kakao maps (카카오 지도)
4. Transit Card Balance Checker
5. Papago (파파고)

Haven’t downloaded these apps yet?! Read ahead to see how these little applications could change your rural life. 

1. Goseok Bus Tmoney and TmoneyGO

It took me far too long to learn about these two apps. However, once I had them installed on my phone they saved me a lot of frustration. These two apps take my top spot for the most important software for rural placements. More often than not, I found that trains were fully booked or they would cost me a small fortune. This doesn’t go to mention how uncomfortable the train can be. You’re constantly moving to let someone shuffle past your knees to their seat. Then I found out how nice intercity buses are in Korea. These buses that can get you from your small town to major cities across the country. If you nab a ticket on one of the deluxe buses you can even sit alone. You’ll have a TV screen, phone charging station, and curtain for privacy!

A disadvantage of both of these apps is that they are only available in Korean. Yet with a basic foundation in Hangul (e.g., knowing how to spell some city names) these apps are easy to use. If you need more help using these apps, you can try using Papago (have a look below) to help translate. Gosok Bus Tmoney and TmoneyGO help you check bus times, seat availability, and journey times. These are all invaluable details that you need to plan a weekend away. All in all these apps save you from journeying down to the ticket machine and discovering there aren’t any seats left. I recommend downloading both applications. Depending on the bus terminal you go from, you might need to change between apps.

2. EmergencyReadyAPP

For peace of mind, this is an app that you should install before you jet off to Korea. It is an important app for everyone across the country. Yet, this software is even more important for rural areas where nationwide emergencies might leave you cut off and clueless. The Korean government is diligent in sending out warnings for a range of emergencies from wild weather to health scares. The aggravating thing about these alerts (aside from occasionally waking you up at ridiculous hours in the morning) is that they are usually written in Korean. This is where the EmergencyReadyAPP can be a lifesaver – literally. This app can translate disaster alerts, with the ability to refine these alerts for specific cities. The app also lets users search for emergency medical centres or embassy information. 

The EmergencyReadyAPP is invaluable. In July 2023, Korea witnessed heavy flooding and mudslides in certain areas of the country. One of these areas was my rural city. Messages from my friends in bigger cities didn’t express the seriousness of the situation for me. However, with the EmergencyReadyAPP, the inundation of government messages could be translated. This helped me to promptly cancel my planned trip for the weekend and stay indoors. Having this app in a more isolated area of Korea, where you might be the only expat, isn’t just a good idea – it’s a necessity. 

3. NAVER Maps and KakaoMap

Unfortunately, NAVER Map and KakaoMap are like Apple or Android, or coffee or tea. Everyone has a preference and there’s no clear winner. That means you’re going to have to download both. Personally, I like NAVER Map as I find the interface more simple to use. This is especially true when trying to look at journey times. My best friend is a KakaoMap lover because it’s more accurate with bus times. Regardless of which one you prefer, if you live in a rural area of Korea, you’ll want both. They are essential when trying to get around the country. Plus they can tell you what bus or train ticket is best to buy. They even let you know an estimated taxi price, which is super important if you happen to get stranded somewhere and your only option is to call a cab. 

After bidding farewell to Google Maps, which doesn’t work as well in Korea, I quickly came to love these apps, especially in my rural city. With NAVER Map, I could find out the type of amenities around me. This helped me to explore my small city without a wealth of tourist information online. Exploring the maps, I could pin cute cafes or find hidden landmarks nearby. A perfect tool for showing my big-city friends around when they finally made the journey to visit me in the countryside. 

4. Transit Card Balance

If you live in a rural area of Korea, it’s likely that you’ll become very acquainted with the local bus routes. For bus travel, you’ll need a Tmoney card. This is especially true if you’re not lucky enough to have your travel card and your bank card linked. Unfortunetly, this is often the case for expats with housing near rural banks. As well as on buses, the Tmoney card can also be used on the subway systems around South Korea. Therefore, you’ll quickly find your funds running low if you’re always whizzing around the country.

I use my Tmoney card constantly, particularly when travelling to work, tapping on and tapping off mindlessly. Usually, in the early hours of the morning when my bus arrives, I forget to look at the card reader on the bus to see what my remaining balance is. Luckily, downloading a Transit Card Balance reader can save you from running low on funds. You never have to worry about being thrown off public transport. It takes a matter of moments to scan your card and keep on top of your spending. This application also keeps a log of past scans which helps you to see how quickly your money runs out. For numerous forms of transport – bus, subway and taxi – this app is super helpful. 

Not only is this app a must-have in Korea, but it also helped me out on my trip to Japan when I wanted to scan a similar transit card, known as the Icoca. The multi-functionality of this app makes it a really useful tool to have tucked away on your phone.  

5. Papago

This app is helpful for everyone living in Korea! There is no guarantee that people in bigger cities will immediately speak English. Nonetheless, Papago becomes even more important in a rural location where there might be a smaller international community. Papago is a Korean translation app from NAVER Corporation with lots of great features. For example, it has the ability to take pictures or scan photos from your camera roll. This feature is really helpful when trying to read signs or menus, or for working through a challenging Korean app. You might be thinking, “Why can’t I just use Google Translate?” Well, the Korean translations provided by Papago are often more reliable. Although you shouldn’t trust the app wholly, it can help you in a bind. Plus, Papago can translate other languages too, like Thai or Spanish. This can be really helpful if you plan other trips outside of Korea. 

Just the other day, this app got me out of a sticky situation in my rural placement. While trying to take a boat tour in the small town of Buyeo, my friends and I were able to successfully buy tickets with our limited Korean. We stood back to wait for the boat. And we stood clueless for some time. Finally, the ticket officer used the app to tell us about the running times of the boat. Thankfully, we weren’t left standing in the rain for half an hour. Papago has also been a gem at work where I’ve been better able to communicate with my colleagues and read information bulletins. And communicating with your colleagues can ultimately help you to fit in at work. Without Papago I would have felt stranded in my small city, being able to say little more than “Hello” and “Thank you”. 

So, have you downloaded yet…?

Give these five apps a try and make your life a little simpler. Living in a rural city shouldn’t put you off moving to Korea. When I was placed in my city, I knew little about the area. However, I very quickly adapted to the pace of life there and learnt some cunning tricks that my city-dwelling friends still have no idea about. These five apps made exploring Korea so much easier and gave me the peace of mind I needed in an unfamiliar country. Living rurally allowed me to see some hidden beauties and experience a side of Korea that most people never see. I’d happily pay the price of more phone storage and download these apps again, rather than miss out on that opportunity. 

Let me know if you have a favourite Korean app, which you couldn’t live without!