Traveling to South Korea: Cheapest option?

[prateeksha]

Hello! I am supposed to be in Nanjing to attend a summer school in end June-start July this year and after that I wish to travel to South Korea. While I was studying in Beijing, I had heard quite some stories about "cheap" flights between Chinese cities and Seoul. Now is the time for me to find one. 

 

I am posting this question in Qingdao sub-forum since I heard that flights to Seoul are cheapest from this point. Has anyone had experience of buying flight tickets from Qingdao/Nanjing/Hangzhou to Seoul/Busan? I will be on a shoestring budget but plenty of time, so penny-pinching is an absolute must, at the cost of comfort. On some Korea travel blogs I saw suggestions on taking Jeju Air or Air Busan.

 

Could someone please help me out with their experiences and knowledge?

[Silent]

Not sure or Qingdao is the way to go. The transfer is going to cost you too. My strategy usually is searching a couple of main ticket search engines for the main carriers. If a lowcost carrier may be an option a google search usually bring them up quite easily. I think there are also a few ferries that may be of interest.

 

A quick search: Kayak,com returns Shanghai-Seoul tickets for 162 euro's with China southern. At http://www.weidong.com/ they offer ferrytickets from Qingdao to Incheon for 750 CNY. My first impression is that low cost carriers seem a limited interest, but if you're willing to transfer there may be some useful options.

[Tianjin42]

The ferry tickets between Tianjin and South Korea were very cheap when I lived in Tianjin. Well worth a look.

[prateeksha]

Silent, Tianjin42 - Thank you for your answers. The idea behind finding a travel option from Qingdao is that it is close to Nanjing. Traveling to Tianjin to catch a ferry would eliminate whatever price advantage I am seeking here. 

 

Silent: The round trip cost by ferry comes out to be CNY 1500. Do you think this is the cheapest option possible? 

 

Thank you again.

[Silent]

I don't know or it's the cheapest option. I know the Qingdao ferry from previous research, however never used it. I think there should be a ferry from Shanghai too, but I don't see it now though a better search might. I found also a ferry from Lianyungang (www.lygferry.com) but as my korean is not very good I couldn't find a price. You might contact there office at +86-518-8233-8189.

 

To find the best prices you need a bit of creativity and spend some time with google, also travel forums like lonelyplanets thorntree may provide some pointers. A search in local languages (Chinese and Korean in this case) often yields results not found when searching in English

[Silent]

Not sure or it's complete and up to date but http://byferryfrom2japan.com/en/korea-china gives an overview on China-Korea ferries

[Saxondale]

My girlfriend lives in S.Korea, so i've frequently travelled between Qingdao and Seoul.  Most of my Korean friends book through Jeju, but i never saw this option when booking through ctrip or elong, but generally the prices are around 1100-1300rmb return.  Qingdao also has a lot of Korean agents, which are normally a few hundred kuai cheaper, but i had to get my girlfriend to arrange all of that.  I'd say Jeju is your best bet.

[prateeksha]

Silent: Thank you very much for the ferry option. I had seen this already. I can definitely keep this open as an option.

 

thrice12: Yes I saw Jeju air too! It was pretty cheap, coming out to 1000 yuan. It is the perfect option as I can see, the only problem being I cannot book a flight originating in Qingdao. The flight origins are only HK, Japan, and ROK. Is this the case? Did your girlfriend book flight originating in Qingdao? Your help is sincerely appreciated.

[skylee]

Just a thought... Would flying to Jeju be false economy? Do you plan to go to Seoul/Busan afterwards? Wouldn't it cost more to get from Jeju to the other cities on the peninsula?

 

Oops, sorry.  I guess you mean taking Jejuair instead of flying to Jeju.

[prateeksha]

Thank you for taking time, skylee. I understand that you are a frequent traveler and are well traveled. Perhaps if you have some advice or suggestions for me, I would be glad to know them