In May 2017, I traveled to South Korea and decided to make a stop at Korea's Hawaii destination, Jeju Island for 4D3N. Jeju Island is a HUGE island. Although from the top it looks just like Singapore, it's actually approximately 2.5 times bigger than Singapore. Travelling from one place to another can take up to 2 to 3 hours by public transport as their public transport system is not exactly the most efficient. If you miss the bus, you'll have to wait at least 30-40 minutes for the next one! Therefore, in order to make the most out of our time in Jeju, we decided to rent a car.
Car rental in Jeju is extremely common, and I'm sure you've landed on this page because you are considering of renting a car at Jeju too! So today, I will be sharing with you my experience and hopefully it will help you out in the car renting process as well as know more about self-driving in a foreign country.
The first step to renting a car is to get a
driving license. Of course, you will need to know how to drive. All car rental companies will require you to have at least 1 year driving experience, BUT surprise surprise,
I don't have 1 year of driving experience. In May 2017, I only had 6 months of driving experience as I got my license in December 2016. So if you're worrying about not being able to rent a car due to the lack of driving experience....... Just know that I got to rent a car without the 1 year driving experience. n_n
*Despite that, I do want to point out that you should at least be confident of your driving skills as safety always comes first and if you're not that confident of your driving skills, I highly suggest you rent a taxi instead!
Some car rental companies also requires the driver to be at least 25 years old. I was 24 years old in May 2017 and did not require to pay any additional fees.
The next step is to obtain an
International Driving Permit (IDP). This step is pretty simple, you can either go down to the branches or apply online (
click here). I applied online and it was quite tedious as you will need to scan both sides of your local driving license, I/C, as well as a passport photo. All images need to be within a certain size too so I had to resize everything before submitting. If you were to apply online, they will mail you your IDP in about 1 week via registered mail. For me, I did not receive it even after 2 weeks, so I called them and turns out it was mailed to me but no one was home to receive it. Therefore, I would suggest going down to the branches as you will save the hassle of scanning the documents to them and you will also receive your IDP on the spot. Also, do note that an IDP will cost you S$20 and it is valid for 1 year.
Now that you've gotten all the necessary documents, it's time to rent a car! I did a quick search via Expedia.com and landed on
Hertz.com as they seem to offer the cheapest deal. In Jeju, Hertz is also run by
Lotte Rent-A-Car so you can rent a car from either website and you'll end up in the same company. I did my booking via Hertz and coincidentally, they were having a 25% sale! Woohoo!
Tip #1: As mentioned, I was in Jeju for a total of 4D3N, but since I arrived in Jeju at 4.30PM (which was quite late, so we didn't plan to go anywhere far on Day 1) and our flight back to Seoul was at 8 in the morning, I booked the car from
9.30PM on Day 1, and returned in at 9PM on Day 3. By renting the car at 9.30PM on Day 1 instead of 4.30PM, I managed to save about S$20 - S$30. And by returning the car at 9PM instead of 9.30PM, I also managed to save another S$10 - S$20! So make sure you play around with the timing to get the best deal.
Tip #2: When deciding which car is most suitable for you, be sure to include luggage spaces. Since we will be checking in to our Airbnb before we collect our car, there was no need for us to include luggage spaces. Therefore, we opted for the Kia Morning (or similar) which is the smallest car option available. If you have a huge luggage, the Kia Morning (or similar) might not be able to fit at all.
Tip #3: Note that they are not opened 24 hours, so if your flight back is early in the morning, make sure to return it the night before.
In total, I spent
43,066 won (S$55.04) on the car rental, excluding petrol, for a Kia Morning (or similar). Booking the car online just means reserving the car, so you don't have to pay until you are there.
When we arrived at Jeju International Airport, the Lotte Rent-A-Car/Hertz Counter can be easily located at
Arrival Gate 2. All you need to do is to flash your reservation e-mail, along with your passport and IDP, and the staff will hand you this instruction slip.
Follow the steps on the instruction slip and hop onto the Lotte Rent-A-Car shuttle bus. It takes about 5 - 10 minutes to arrive at the Lotte Rent-A-Car building.
Since we arrived at about 9PM, there was no one there so we didn't even have to get a queue number. Once again, flash your reservation e-mail, along with your passport and IDP. The staff will ask for your contact number (if you don't have a Korea number, it's fine, she will leave it blank), as well as your accommodation address in Jeju. Next, sign a couple of agreements, make your payment via any debit or credit card (cash is not available) and you're ready to meet your car!
*This is why you don't have to have 1 year of driving experience - They don't check your local driving license at all!
Instead of a Kia Morning, we received the Chevrolet Spark. The staff very briefly taught us how to operate the GPS (he literally just taught us how to search a location) and that was pretty much it.
We did not request for an English GPS, but he helped us set the GPS to speak in English (while the words are still in Korean). The GPS was pretty easy to use and self-explanatory. For options we did not understand, we just tried selecting them and see what happens. If you don't know by now, all you have to do is to key in the last 7 digits of the location's phone number into the GPS to locate the place.
Driving in Jeju at Night
Honestly, I was so nervous because I had to drive back to our Airbnb, on the left hand side, for the very first time, AT NIGHT. All the pictures were actually taken when we returned the car because I was too nervous when we were collecting the car haha! We fumbled a little to set the location of our Airbnb because there is no telephone number, so we just keyed in the street name in Korean. If you don't know Korean, simply ask the staff there to help you.
If you'd like, you can also practice driving around the car park before heading out. In comparison to the roads in Singapore, Jeju roads are narrower and definitely not as well-lit. If you end up in a rural area or alley, there won't be any lights at all so make sure to flash your high beam to warn others. If you are a new driver like I am, I don't recommend driving during the dark eg. at 3AM to go to Seongsan Ilchulbong, as the roads out of the city area has even lesser lights.
Drive slowly at night as pedestrians crossing do not have any lights and you might not be able to see them clearly. If you're driving on the left hand side for the first time, make sure to constantly check the space on your right hand side as you might be driving too closely on the right. There are a lot of cars parked at the side of the roads so keep a look out of them as you might have to drive into the other lane to get pass the bigger cars.
The roads in Jeju are also not as well paved and maintained, so be sure to take note of any bumps and uneven road surfaces.
Traffic lights are generally the same (red means stop, green means go), but they do have some special exceptions you have to take note.
1.
Blinking amber light. In Singapore, this means that the traffic lights are faulty. In Jeju, it just means "Look out for pedestrians". Along with the flashing amber lights, you will see a zebra-crossing. Most of the time, no one will be crossing, so cars don't even bother slowing down. But just keep a lookout on the sides to see if anyone is intending to cross.
2.
Okay to turn right on red. Thankfully for us, we took a taxi to our Airbnb when we first arrived at Jeju and that made me notice that our driver kept turning right even though it was a red light. Similar to our slip roads, you can turn right at anytime in Jeju, unless there are pedestrians crossing. So with that said, do not stay on the right lane if you are not intending to turn right, otherwise you might get horned.
3.
Keeping to the speed limits. The speed limit in Jeju is generally 50 to 60 km/h. At school areas and roundabouts, the speed is decreased to 30 to 40 km/h, and at highways, the speed limit is 70 to 80 km/h. Speed cameras (as well as red light cameras) can be found very often and every time we are about to approach one, our GPS will start beeping to warn us if we are over the speed limit. With speed cameras scattered all around the island, you may think that everyone will drive within the speed limit. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Driving within the speed limit made me feel like I was hogging the road as countless of cars started overtaking me. When there are no cameras around, no one follows the speed limit, so that is something to take note of. If you don't want to feel like you are hogging the road, just try to match the speed of the surrounding cars and slow down when your GPS warns you of a speed camera. If you're like me and speeding is not really your thing, just be careful and note that even huge lorries and trucks go over the speed limits and they will try and attempt to overtake you.
Upon collecting the car, the staff will let you know the GPS number back to the car rental place. So simply key in the 7 digits provided and make your way back to where you collected your car. Most car rental companies will require you to return the car with a full tank. For 2 days of driving, we used up approximately half a tank. For Lotte Rent-a-car, you can opt to refill the petrol yourself, or let them charge you base on the current market rate. As we were too lazy to find a petrol kiosk, we just let them charge us for the used petrol and it costs us 20,000won (S$25).
It took us only about 5-10 minutes to return the car as he only checked the petrol gauge. After we paid for the petrol (by cash), we took the same shuttle bus back to the airport.
Overall experience
Overall, I can only remember myself feeling scared and nervous about driving in Jeju. As the places of attractions are all far from each other, one trip can last up to 1 hour and 30 minutes and that really requires a lot of concentration for a new driver like myself. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed driving outside the city area where there are lesser cars and the scenery are much nicer. By the 3rd day, I have started to get the hang of driving in Jeju and it became a lot more comfortable and enjoyable. Shout out to my boyfriend who guided me along the way and giving me advance signals as well so I know when to keep to the correct lane. Oh, and of course he fed me along the way to keep me awake teehee.
Driving in a foreign country, this is definitely a huge milestone for me and even though I felt really stressed about it, I'm really glad and proud to say that I did it without making any mistakes or getting horned at! Looking back, I definitely recommend self-driving as it is so much more affordable and fun. Having our own car in Jeju, my boyfriend and I can have our breakfast in the car, and we even changed in the car when we went to Woljeongri Beach.
So if you're thinking of renting a car in Jeju, I'd say go for it!
Labels: korean, lifestyle, review, seoul, tips, travel
E-Mail 
Youtube 
