Busan has its own airport, an international passenger port and is connected to the national express train network.

When travelling from other continents, in the vast majority of cases the route via Seoul works best.

By air to Busan

In the western suburbs you will find a fairly busy international airport Busan Gimhae PUS.

The busiest routes from here run around South Korea, especially to Seoul Gimpo Airport (about 2-3 times per hour) and Jeju Island (up to 12 times per day).

International flights from Busan mainly go to East and Southeast Asia, mostly to Thailand, Japan, China or Taiwan and the Philippines. Most international flights are operated by Korean low-cost airlines Air Busan, Jeju Air, Jin Air or T'way Air.

Search for flights to Busan

If you're heading to Busan from Europe or America, one-stop flights usually at Incheon Airport or Japan will be very expensive. It's almost always worth buying a ticket to Seoul-Incheon Airport only and then taking a train or domestic flight from Gimpo Airport to Busan.

Domestic tickets from Busan around South Korea are mainly purchased on the Seoul (Gimpo Airport) and Jeju Island routes. Flights to Seoul in particular are often cheaper than train or bus tickets if you are travelling without checked luggage. A one-way flight averages between 33 000 krw and 70 000 krw.

The airline with the most connections to Seoul is Air Busan.

By train to Busan

Rail is the most convenient and fastest means of getting from Busan around South Korea. The country's most important high-speed line ends here , connecting Busan with Seoul and the cities of Daegu and Daejon.

Busan is served by two main train carriers:

• Korail (timetables and ticket booking: letskorail.com) - The state-owned carrier with the highest network density, all services to Seoul go to Seoul Central Station.
• SRT (timetables and ticket booking: ets.srail.kr) - private carrier operating only high-speed trains, on the way to Seoul all services terminate/start at Suseo Station(map) in southern Seoul and even in web searches you need to enter "Suseo" as destination or departure point, not "Seoul"

Both train carriers operate from Busan Station (location on map) , which is served by the orange subway line 1 and dozens of bus services,

Examples of train ticket prices and travel times:

• Seoul - 3-6 times per hour, journey time approx. 2 hours and 40 minutes and cost 59 800 krw (for slower services from 28 000 krw)
• Daegu - 3-6 times per hour, travel time is approx. 1 hour and 20 minutes and costs from 7 700 krw

Bus to Busan

Long-distance buses run very frequently from Busan to all parts of Korea. Of course, they are especially worthwhile where you can't take the train, but even on routes where the train runs, bus tickets tend to be a third cheaper.

Meanwhile, Korean buses are very comfortable and all long-distance routes have a 2-aisle-1 seating arrangement.

From Busan (as well as all over Korea) you can use two types of buses:

• Expressbus (integrated reservation system on kobus.co.kr) - runs on order of the Ministry of Transportation on longer routes between major cities.
• InterCity Bus (integrated reservation system on intercitybuse.tmoney.co.kr) - runs on a city-by-city basis on shorter routes than Expressbus and often to smaller cities

There are several intercity bus stations in Busan:

• Central Bus Terminal Nopo-dong (location on the map), sometimes also called Busan Dongrae or Dongbu - the main station in the north of the city at the terminus of the Nopo orange subway line 1
  • Express buses throughout Korea
• Sasang Seobu (location on map), sometimes also called West Busan - terminal of the crossing of the green metro line 2 and the Gimhae automatic metro
  • Direction Mokpo, Daegu, Gwangju, Seoul, Gunsan, Yeosu
• Yangsan InterCity Terminal (location on map), sometimes also called East Busan - a smaller terminal at the terminus of the Green Line 2 subway line
  • Direction Gyeongju, Pohang, Seoul, Wonju

Buses are slower but also cheaper than the train.

For example, it takes 4 to 5 hours to get to Seoul, but only costs 37 000 krw.

International ferry to Japan

Busan passenger port boasts a modern building next to the main train station (location on map) and several international routes to Japan. Cruises to Japan operate on the following routes:

• Busan - Fukuoka: JR Beetle, Mirejet, Camellia Line, the cruise takes about 3.5 hours and costs around 150 000 krw

Most other routes were cancelled during the Covid-19 pandemic and have still not been reinstated.