Tips for cycling Seoul to Busan for first time bike-packers

 

I'd never done bike-packing before. In fact I had never really done any long distance cycling, having only used a bicycle to cycle to work and back. So when a cousin floated the idea of riding across an entire country I was a bit apprehensive. However, on research, it soon became clear that if I was going to attempt a trip like this South Korea's 4 Rivers Bike Trail would be the best beginner's choice.

Within here you'll find a bunch of tips and advice on how to cycle from Seoul to Busan from 2 amateur cyclists who had never attempted such a thing before, yet survived.

Jump to

• Paths and bikeways
• Renting bikes
• Pacing yourself
• How to navigate
• Where to stay
• Safety
• What to bring
• Other tips and information

Paths and bikeways

The 4 Rivers Bike Trail is not one bike path but a combination of many bike paths and a few country roads that mostly, as the name suggests, follow alongside rivers. In some places there are parallel bike paths either side of the river, however these often converge at some point so it usually doesn't matter which one you take. The total distance between Seoul and Busan is 633km or 393 miles.

The bike paths themselves are mostly either asphalt or concrete, with a few raised wood-slat boardwalks. They are largely smooth but there are some places where the concrete is washed out, pitted, or just plain old and bumpy. This may only be a concern for road bike users who's bikes don't have suspension or soft tyres.

There are some parts of the trail that go onto normal roads shared with cars, but these are often country roads with minimal traffic and wasn't really a concern for us.

The vast majority of the paths are flat and elevated on levies with the river on one side and farms on the other. If there is no headwind you can build up a good speed. Occasionally there are short but sharp detours going uphill where the end of a mountain range meets the river and the path must meander onto a road to summit these small peaks. In the middle of the route there is a mountain range consisting of 2 large peaks. This range is between the towns for Suanbo-myeon and Mungyeong-eup, a distance of 28km/17 miles. Factor in extra time on the day you approach them to tackle these mountains.

• The Seoul start/end point is at Ara Han River Lock, though some people start at Incheon City or even Incheon Airport
• The Busan start/end point is in a small park on Eulsukdo Island.

Renting bikes

We hired our bicycles in Seoul from BikeNara, which operates out of a Giant dealership in the Seoul suburb of Mapo. Their service was exceptional and I highly recommend them.

BikeNara offers drop-bar and flat-bar road bikes, as well as hybrid/commuter bikes. All bikes are fitted with racks to hold panniers and all come equipped with lights, bike pump, lock, 2 water bottle holders, and a small tool kit with a spare tube (but no bell! More on that later). Helmets are free, but panniers are an additional cost.

They also offer a bike pickup service in Busan at another bike shop not far from the finish line. We opted for this as we were taking the train back to Seoul. It was a quick and smooth process to drop them off.

BikeNara even kindly let us store our suitcases at their shop for us to pick up once we returned to Seoul.

Pacing yourself

As this was our first ever multi-day cycling trip we honestly didn't know how far we could travel each day. That, combined with unexpected weather (rain, cold) and the rare large hill, made it hard to predict when and where we would stop for the night.

It soon became clear, however, that with our particular level of fitness and payload of gear we had a range of between 80 and 100km (50 and 62 miles) a day. And so we came up with a system: we would select 2 potential target towns which we could stay the night at - one at about the 60km mark and one around the 90km mark. We would ride until around lunch time and when we stopped to eat we would decide on where to stay. If the weather was bad or we were making less progress than we thought we'd book a hotel in the closer town, or if things were going well we'd book for the further town (just a note though: we cycled in the shoulder season - late March - so we can't vouch for avaiability all year round).

See the Where to stay section for more info on hotels.

How to navigate

The bike paths are very well signed, though almost all signs are written in Korean Hangul so a translator app can be useful. Signs specifically for the 4 Rivers Bike Trail have a symbol depicting 4 figures in different colours arranged in a clover leaf pattern.

Despite the good signage, it is advisable to use an app for navigating. Korea seems to shun Google Maps in favour of the local Naver Maps, however for finding cycling paths and routes Kakao Maps is a better choice. We found it easiest to drop a pin on our destination, select the cycle option, and let Kakao figure out the route.

 

On Kakao Maps pink parts of the route indicated bike paths whilst blue indicated roads.

In terms of finding attractions, places to eat, or hotels, this was a sometimes bit of a pain. Naver had the most options, however it has no English translation option. Google Maps had some places listed but was often unable to navigate a route for us. Kakao was only really good for finding the best cycle route to a known destination, but the search function was hard for non-Korean speakers to use. We ended up using a combination of all 3 apps at once, for example: finding a restaurant on Google Maps, checking the opening hours on Naver, and plotting a route to it with Kakao.

Where to stay

There were many places to stay on route and there seemed to be several types of accommodation available:

• Pensions: Large, well appointed hotels with rooms that feature a kitchenette.
• Business hotels: Small rooms, but comfortable and tidy.
• Guest houses: Small basic, cheap rooms, usually with a shared bathroom area. Like backpacker hostels.
• 'Love hotels': Good sized, clean rooms at a decent price but with subtle hints as to what their intended purpose is.
• Camping: Though we did not camp ourselves, we saw many campsites scattered along the river. Most had power and toilet facilities. Glamping sites were also common.

Honestly, by far the best value places to stay were the 'love hotels'. They obviously catered to a specific clientele that were not bikepackers, but they were always clean, modern, had good sized rooms with ensuites, and had large TVs usually with Netflix (just don't press the red buttons on the remote). The only difficulty we had with these places was there was sometimes limited service at reception. This is on purpose - most lobbies had a touch screen where you could rent a room on the spot without any human contact. As we booked ahead online finding someone to actually give us our room keys was sometimes an issue, but we always ended up finding a staff member and figuring it out. These were usually between 22,600 to 50,000 KRW a night ($25-$55AUD, $16-$35USD, €16-33Euro, £13-28GBP, $22-50CAD). 

At each place we stayed we were able to arrange to store our bikes either in the garage area or a storage area near the lobby.

For booking rooms online we found Agoda had more listings and options in South Korea than Expedia or Booking.com.

Safety

Ultimately, there is little to be worried about. Korean people are friendly and accommodating and it is a very safe country. We were never once concerned about our bikes or gear being stolen. As for the cycling itself, 90% of the time you're riding on dedicated bike ways with little interaction with other traffic. But, for additional peace of mind it's good to remember too that if things go completely wrong you're never too far from a town with shops, amenities, and a train station.

Cars and intersections
When there are no traffic lights, stop signs, or yield/give-way signs it appears everyone approaching an intersection slows right down and, as one person I asked later put it, "play a cautious game of chicken". Basically, you all kind of "merge" through the intersection, though busses and trucks seem to have a priority for right of way.

Pedestrians
Our biggest concern was pedestrians walking onto the bikeway without checking for traffic. This only really occurred when the bike way passed large towns and cities, but happened enough to give us a couple of good scares. Definitely slow down in these areas. We really wished our rental bikes came equipped with bells (I would even go so far as to receommend bringing your own).

Punctures
We had 2 punctures on our trip and, though our rental bikes came with basic tools and a spare tube, it was an asset that we had prior experience changing tubes. I'd recommend learning to do this before embarking.

Roadwork
Not so much a hazard but a mild annoyance. A few times we came across sections of the bikeway that were closed off or being worked on. The problem was there was never any obviously warning signs or obviously marked detour signs. We had to use our combination of map apps to figure out ways around, sometimes doubling back the way we came. At one point, an entire work crew graciously halted their work and let us pass through, under the arm of their excavator.

What to bring

• Phone with a local SIM card. We found purchasing an eSIM online to be the easiest as it didn't require a form of local ID. A phone is not only useful for navigating, but also translating and booking accommodation.
• Phone mount. Our rental bikes came with a lot of gear but not phone mounts.
• Battery pack. Using GPS for hours on end can drain your battery.
• Rainproof riding gear. And something like a rain poncho to keep your backpack dry if you don't have waterproof paniers.
• Spare tyre tubes, a pump, and tyre removal tools. We had 2 punctures on our trip but were able to fix them on the spot.
• Allen key set for tightening loose bike parts.
• Basic first aid kit with heat rub cream for sore joints and muscles.
• A bell. Many Korean cyclists don't seem to use bells and our rental bikes didn't come with them, but they would've been very useful in cities with crowded bikeways.

Other tips and info

• There are many rest stops on the route, usually consisting of a few undercover public benches, however not many have water fountains to refill your bottles. Tap water is safe to drink.
• At some rest stops you'll find a public bicycle pumps within silver, knee-high metal boxes. These are in varying condition so be wary.
• At some places on route there are compressed air machines meant for clearing the dirt and grit from your gears - not inflating tyres.
• There are plenty of convenience stores: 7-Eleven, CU, Emart, and GS25. As well as being able to purchase usual corner-store items, each of these also sold a variety of instant noodles/ramen along with hot water facilities for preparing them on the spot.
• Rubbish bins can be few and far between so you'll often need to take your rubbish with you. Look for pink sacks tied to railings at rest spots.
• Location names succeeded by "-myeon" indicate a village or small town, "-eup" indicates a larger town or broader administrative division, and "-si"  a city.
• You don't have to carry cash. Almost everywhere accepts cards.