On weekdays I take the bus and subway to work. On weekends I usually drive. My family likes to head out of Seoul for lunch somewhere in the countryside, and for that kind of trip a car beats a bus every time. So when friends from abroad ask whether they should drive here, my answer is "yes, but maybe not in Seoul."
I also remember what it's like on the other side of the rental counter. On my first business trip to the US, I rented a car and drove, and I worried about almost everything. Would the rental desk accept my papers? Could I really turn right on a red light? Who goes first at a four-way stop? What do I do if a police car pulls up behind me? It all worked out in the end. Most of the worry came from small things nobody had told me beforehand, so this post tries to cover those.
Driving here is easier than most people expect. The roads are good, most signs have English on them, and the navigation apps are a little bossy, in a helpful way. Visitors usually get into trouble in two places: the paperwork before the trip, and a few local rules they've never seen back home.
Quick facts
- Visitors need an International Driving Permit (1949 Geneva or 1968 Vienna) plus their home license
- An IDP works for 1 year from your entry date, and you have to get it before you fly
- Rental cars: usually 21 or older, with passport, IDP, home license and a credit card
- Blood alcohol limit: 0.03%
- Google Maps can't do turn-by-turn driving here yet (use Naver Map or Kakao Map)
Get the permit before you fly
Your license from home isn't enough on its own. What you actually need is an International Driving Permit, issued under the 1949 Geneva Convention or the 1968 Vienna one. Carry your original license along with it. Korea signed the Geneva one, and it has accepted Vienna permits since January 1, 2002.
The permit covers you for one year from the day you entered Korea, and only while the permit itself is still valid. It also has to come from the country that issued your license. You can't pick one up after you land. In the US that means AAA, in the UK it's the Post Office, and most countries have one official office like that.
Two mistakes come up a lot. First, those "International Driver's License" cards sold online by private companies are not the real thing, and Korea doesn't accept them. Second, mainland China isn't a party to either convention, so a Chinese license won't get you on the road here. Permits from Hong Kong and Macau do work. Taiwan and Vietnam have separate agreements with Korea.
The penalty is heavier than most people guess. Driving without a valid license or permit can mean up to a year in prison or a fine of up to 3 million won.
If you're staying longer than a year, the IDP won't cover you. Foreign residents swap their home license for a Korean one at a driver's license test center. Depending on your country, that's either a simple exchange or a 40-question written test (offered in English).
Renting a car
The big rental companies (Lotte Rent-a-Car, SK Rent-a-Car and the rest) make this pretty painless. Bring your passport, the IDP, your original license and a credit card that works internationally. The usual minimum age is 21, and some bigger cars need you to be 26. Lotte wants the rental to fall within one year of your entry date, which matches the IDP rule.
You also won't get much say on insurance. Lotte makes the zero-deductible damage waiver mandatory for foreign customers, and on Jeju the full zero-excess plan is the only option. I wouldn't try to skip it anyway. Parking lots here are tight, and scraped bumpers are common.
Traffic fines go to the rental company, and the rental company charges your card later, often with an admin fee on top. So a camera ticket can catch up with you weeks after you're home.
Before you drive off, ask two things at the counter. Does the car have a Hi-Pass unit for tolls? (Lotte's guide says its cars don't, so plan on paying at the booth.) And what fuel does it take? Most cars are gasoline (íœ˜ë°œìœ ), but diesel (ê²½ìœ ), LPG and electric rentals are all around, especially on Jeju.
Rules that catch visitors
My daughter is studying for her driver's license test right now, and some evenings I end up quizzing her from her practice questions. More than once I've had to check the answer myself. A lot of these rules I follow out of habit, and I couldn't tell you why.
We drive on the right, distances are in kilometers, and most signs make sense. The rules below are the ones visitors tend to miss.
Right turns. Red light ahead and you want to turn right? Since 2023 you stop completely first. Then you go, once the crosswalk is clear. Somebody on the crosswalk, or about to step onto it? Then you wait. Doesn't matter what color the light is. Where there's a separate right-turn arrow, you only go on green. The fine for a car is 60,000 won, and police ran a fresh crackdown this spring. Plenty of Korean drivers still get this wrong, and some will honk at you for stopping. Stop anyway.
Left turns and U-turns. You usually turn left only on a green arrow. A sign reading '비보호' means an unprotected left is allowed when nothing's coming. U-turns happen only where a U-turn sign says so. Some of those signs have a little plate under them in Korean, like ì¢ŒíšŒì „ì‹œ (only while the left arrow is on). Can't read it? Wait for the left arrow, or just go around the block. Nobody will know.
Right turns, left arrows and the signs that change the rules. Diagram: A Korean's Take
Speed. In town it's mostly 50 km/h, 30 on the smaller streets. Expressways are usually 100, sometimes 110. Near schools you'll see yellow everywhere (signs, crosswalks, the road itself), and that means 30 km/h, with a camera almost certainly watching. Cameras are everywhere, and your navigation app will beep before each one. You'll notice the whole road braking for a camera and speeding up right after it. Please don't learn that habit.
Bus lanes. A road lane with blue lines belongs to buses. In Seoul, the blue lanes down the middle of big roads are bus-only 24 hours a day. The ones by the curb usually run on posted hours. A car in a bus lane on a city road gets a 50,000-won fine, and cameras watch those too.
Alcohol. The limit is 0.03% blood alcohol, low enough that one beer can put you over it. Police do roadside checks, sometimes in the morning for the night before. If you're drinking with dinner, take a taxi or call a designated driver service, which is a very normal thing to do here.
Seat belts and phones. Everyone in the car buckles up, back seat included. And hands off the phone while you drive.
Navigation, tolls and parking
Don't count on Google Maps for driving. The government approved Google's map data request on February 27, 2026, and Google says turn-by-turn navigation is coming, but there's no launch date yet. As I write this, it still won't guide you by car. Install Naver Map before you fly and switch it to English in the settings. It gives English voice guidance. Kakao Map works as a backup. Lots of rental cars also come with a built-in GPS that has an English setting.
Expressways charge tolls. Without Hi-Pass you take a ticket when you get on and pay by card or cash when you get off. The blue lanes at the toll gate are for Hi-Pass only, so stay out of them unless your rental has a working unit.
Expressway rest stops (휴게소, hyugeso) are worth at least one stop. The restrooms are clean, and the snack stands sell things like walnut cakes (hodu-gwaja) and grilled potatoes. They probably deserve a post of their own someday.
Parking is where Seoul gets tiring. Spaces are narrow, almost everyone backs in, and street parking along a yellow curb or next to a bus stop gets ticketed. Restaurants out of town usually have their own lot, though, and many places in the city knock a bit off your parking if you eat or shop there. Just ask.
Two kinds of spaces are off-limits even when they're the only empty ones in the lot. A space with a blue wheelchair symbol is only for a car showing a disabled parking permit, with the permit holder actually in the car, and a rental car won't have one. Parking there costs 100,000 won, and blocking one, say by parking across the front of it, costs 500,000 won. EV charging spots, marked with a green plug symbol, are for electric cars that are charging. Park a regular car there and that's another 100,000 won. Renting an EV on Jeju? Careful there too. Leave it plugged in past about 1 hour at a fast charger (14 hours at a slow one) and you get the same fine.
Curb colors, bus lanes and the two spaces to leave alone. Diagram: A Korean's Take
Road manners, Korean style
Someone lets you in? Blink your hazards two or three times. That's "thanks" on Korean roads, and once you notice it you'll see it everywhere. People here merge like they mean it and don't leave much room. Signal early, then go. Delivery motorbikes will appear on both sides of you. And taxis stop wherever their passenger raises a hand.
Small accident? Breathe. Take pictures, call the rental company, and let them tell you what to do next. Police is 112, ambulance is 119. Both can patch an English interpreter into the call, so just start talking in English and don't hang up.
So, should you drive?
Inside Seoul, I'd skip the car. The subway is faster, parking is expensive, and traffic can turn a 20-minute trip into an hour. Outside Seoul it's a different story. Jeju is where most visitors rent, and for good reason. The Gangwon coast, temples up in the mountains, and the small countryside restaurants near Seoul that buses barely reach are all much easier by car. Those are the drives my family takes on weekends.
Official info
Rules, fines and prices change, so check before you go (details as of 2026-10-11).
- Easy Law (Ministry of Government Legislation): using a foreign driver's license in Korea
- VisitKorea: your guide to driving in Korea
- Lotte Rent-a-Car: rental requirements and driving tips for foreign customers
- Yonhap: the right-turn stop rule and fines
More from this blog:
- How to Ride the Bus and Subway in Seoul: Cards, Transfers, Bus Lanes (for the days you leave the car behind)
- Korea Autumn Foliage 2026: Peak Dates, Easy Spots and Trip Tips (a good excuse for a drive)
Have you ever driven somewhere the rules felt completely backwards? Where was it?
Top photo: driving over a bridge. Photo: A Korean's Take
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