Written by Thomas Dembie Tuesday, 23 August 2011 16:20
Making the Most of a 7 Hour Layover at Incheon Airport in South Korea
I recently survived a 38 hour trip halfway around the world that included a 7-hour layover at the Incheon airport in South Korea. As someone who has never visited Korea, I wondered if this would be enough time to head into Seoul for a quick visit. After doing some research, I decided to give it a go, despite the fact that the Incheon airport has plenty to keep any traveler occupied.
The Incheon airport is the nicest airport I have ever visited. It is clean, modern, and filled with a number of amenities to keep one busy for hours. They really put a lot of thought into catering to the masses with their mix of modern and western conveniences with traditional Korean amenities.
Incheon Airport Facilities & Observations
If you’re looking to get a taste of Korean culture, you can visit the Museum of Korean Culture, the Traditional Culture Experience or the Traditional Craft Gallery. In addition, there are a number of great restaurants serving local fare. During our first layover we ate at a food court called Food Capital, which serves meals prepared with organically grown ingredients. The duty free and packaged goods shops also sell a great variety of Korean treats catered to tourists such as kimchi, rice wine, and seaweed chocolate, spicy dried squid, and seaweed snacks. I enjoyed wandering around the shops, staffed with friendly, yet incredibly aggressive ladies.
Cleanliness with Accountability!
When you enter a washroom at the airport, you’ll often find an image and the name of the person responsible for cleaning it. Talk about accountability! I even saw one of the cleaning staff side by side with his portrait.
En Route to Seoul
The process of leaving the airport and making my way into Seoul was quite easy. Customs only took a short time to clear, my friends and I found a place to store some carry-on luggage and the information desk provided us with a map and directions to a suitable ‘touristy’ area of Seoul given the amount of time we had.
Note that transit tours, geared towards travelers with long layovers, can easily be arranged from the airport. The main drawback to them is that your schedule must coincide with a tour’s departure time.
Due to some time restraints we decided to do it on our own. Though the train is the quickest form of transportation into Seoul, it requires a number of transfers to get to where we wanted to go, which would end up taking more time. 
Because of this, we opted to take the bus (10,000 wong each way), which took us to the Anguk Station, on the edge of the Insa-Dong area. Though we repeatedly asked if the tickets we were purchasing were return tickets, and were repeatedly assured that they were, they were, in fact, not. 10,000 wong only takes you one way so make sure that you have some extra cash to pay for your journey back to the airport. Unfortunately, we found out when we were already on the bus and could not get to the currency exchange kiosk in the airport so we had to find an ATM to take out cash for the return. Every other aspect of this trip was paid for using credit cards.
The Insa-Dong area is a great place to visit if you have limited time since you can shop, eat and also see some nearby historic sites, such as the Kyung-Bok-Gung Palace. The ride takes about an hour and once you exit the bus you only have to walk for about 2 minutes to get to the center. Though our bus driver spoke no English whatsoever, the bus did have recorded messages in both English and Korean to ensure passengers exit at the right stop.
Great Korean Food!
After a long trip from Bali, we were starving so our priority was to find a place to eat. We stopped in at a tiny little restaurant looking for some tasty, spicy, and of course, authentic Korean food. The ceilings and doorways were extremely low, but the crowd was made up entirely of locals and they didn’t seem to mind. We were required to remove our shoes before stepping onto the dining area platform because there were no chairs, only cushions on the floor. The waiter spoke limited English, but more made up for it with his hand and body gestures. It was especially entertaining when he tried to explain the effects that soju would have on us if we drank too much. He made us feel very welcomed and helped us navigate the menu. There are plenty of good Korean restaurants back home, but we were all in agreement that this place was a step above. The kimchi pancake was a favorite of ours. The spicy kimchi stew, tofu stew, bibimbap and soju also went down smoothly.
Heading Back to the Airport
After a little shopping we headed back to the airport, picked up our luggage, and cleared security without any delays. This surprisingly quick process left us with some time to look for additional treats at the airport as well as relax and send a few emails before boarding. Though the trip to town took quite a bit of effort, it was definitely worthwhile, and I would highly recommend it.
