Plan the perfect summer in Busan with budget-friendly lodging and fun activities in Korea’s famous coastal city.
I’m in my Busan era.
It’s probably because it has all the excitement and amenities of a city—but with the beachy boardwalk vibes that makes it feel more intimate, festive, and slower than Seoul.
Most people I know visiting Korea for long-term tend to base themselves in Seoul/Gyeonggi, but if you’re looking for a different city experience, and especially if you have kids that love the beach, Busan is your city.
Busan is actually one of the cities in Korea that we have considered moving to. With that in mind, we started planning to spend the month of August in the city to get better acquainted with it. Despite having done all the research, we’re actually not sure if we can pull the trigger on this due to our school’s late summer vacation and visitors we’re expecting over the summer. But I’m glad I did the legwork now, because this is a trip we want to plan in the next year or two, especially as our kids get older and have more solidified interests they want to pursue outside of school. Based on my research, a family of four will need approximately 6 million KRW to spend the month of August in Busan, with kids enrolled in two to three local classes. This budget includes 3 million KRW for a 2-3 bedroom apartment, 1 million KRW per child for academy fees, and 1 million KRW for food and entertainment.
Why we chose Haeundae in Busan
When booking lodging for our family this summer, we knew we wanted to be in Haeundae, which most Busan locals probably wouldn’t recommend for being too busy and hectic. But we’re not locals, and we just wanted a place within a five minutes’ walk of the beach with bars, restaurants, and an overall festive vibe that we don’t normally get from country living. We also wanted to be within close driving proximity to a cluster of hagwon (private academy)—but not walking distance, which I’ll explain below. You can find hagwon hubs (학원가, or an area where hagwons are) in every neighborhood, especially those surrounding schools and apartment complexes.
Residential accommodations (생활형숙박시설)
Busan, particularly along the vibrant and tourist-friendly Haeundae shore, is where you’ll find all the short-term rentals. These properties, known as residences or 생활형숙박시설 (or 생숙 for short), are designed and zoned as residential accommodations and are scattered along the coastline. Their widespread availability and relatively lower cost compared to apartments contribute to making Busan more affordable for long-term stays. When looking for budget-friendly lodging, be sure to look up “residences” rather than “serviced residences.”
My go-to (read: cheap) residence in Busan is Prugio City in Haeundae. It offers compact one- to two-bedroom apartments conveniently located just a stone’s throw from Haeundae Beach. Most beachside lodging is pricey, but the beauty of Prugio City lies in its obstructed ocean view, literally overshadowed by higher-end residences and hotels like Pale de CZ and Signiel, which helps keep rates low. You can’t actually go an official website to search for Prugio City units—it’s listed across all booking platforms by individual owners or management. Some owners will put the name of the building in the listing title, while others won’t. You can also tell on websites like Agoda which show the exact location on a map. I’ve booked units in Prugio City on both Airbnb and Agoda. (These days, I favor Agoda for their more flexible cancellation policies, competitive rates, and coupons.)
When I book in Korea, I usually use the official website or Naver Reservations, but I always check booking sites like Agoda, which often publish lower rates. To get a sense of a property from a local perspective, take a look at the Naver Map listing for Prugio City to see personal blog reviews for different units.
Platforms for booking long-term lodging in Korea
I know that Airbnb is the go-to platform for most overseas travelers, but in my search for month-long accommodations in Busan and South Korea, I found that Agoda Homes or newcomer 리브애니웨어 (Live Anywhere) had the best rates. Live Anywhere is Korea’s answer to Airbnb, but geared toward longer stays with most requiring a minimum 7-day stay.
- Pros: Foreigner-friendly and accepts all credit credits; volume and diversity of reviews are useful for setting expectations.
- Cons: Tends to be more expensive than local platforms; limited offerings outside of main tourist drag; doesn’t reveal exact location until after booking.
Live Anywhere (이브애니웨어)
- Pros: Diverse offerings generally cheaper than Airbnb; you can check the actual location and street name on the map before you book, which is not possible with Airbnb
- Cons: Korean language only; only accepts Korean credit cards; owner often takes a deposit (charged and returned through the platform); diverse offerings throughout Korea and abroad
Agoda, booking.com, etc.
- Pros: Large database of both hotels and homes, some overlapping with Airbnb and Live Anywhere; shows exact location on a map; more flexible cancellation policies compared to Airbnb and Live Anywhere; accepts all credit cards and payment options;
- Cons: I’ve always felt that Agoda ratings and review systems aren’t as transparent as other platforms
How to find the right classes for your kids
As I wrote in an old post about bringing kids to Korea, summer camps aren’t a thing here. For the locals, school vacation is not for playing, it’s for vacation intensives, or bang-hak teuk-gang (방학 특강). These intensives aren’t full or even half-day summer camps; they’re an additional hour or two of classes scattered throughout the day to fill up the AM hours that kids would have spent at school. This works out for us nicely because we love enroll ingkids in some kind of class or activity when we travel for more than a few weeks.
As with all things in Korea, Naver is your friend when searching for classes. Open up the Naver map to the neighborhood you want to be in and search for the key words you want. I looked up and found dozens of classes and activities suitable for kids, and enquired at a few that would interest my kids. Here are some of the key words to keep in mind when searching online:
- 어린이 or 초등 as a descriptor tend to indicate classes that skew younger, from kindergarten to lower elementary. 유아 is toddler or preschool. 유치부 is specifically kinder-age. 어린이 technically means child, but in the context of academies, it usually caters to kinder and lower elementary. 어린이미술학원 is all fun and crafts, whereas 입시미술학원 is a preparatory school specializing in helping middle schoolers put together a portfolio to enter arts high schools (or high schoolers entering college).
- 내신 (academic record, grades that students achieve throughout schooling), 입시 (preparatory processes and exams for university admissions) are words that indicate higher levels, rigor, advanced, or otherwise intense stream at an academy. These are suitable for kids as young as fourth grade all the way up to the last year of high school. In my personal experience with ballet academies, even academies that serve all age levels tend to be a bit more rigorous and strict if it also caters to middle schoolers and older.
- Knowing if a particular academy operates their own vehicles (차량운행) is another big deciding factor locals take into consideration. Unless your child is old and independent enough to navigate a city on their own, you’ll most likely want to send them to a hagwon with its own bus services. Because the bus fee is often built into the tuition (as is the case for most swimming academies), or very cheap (for academic and other sports academies), it’s something to consider when booking accommodations: you don’t necessarily have to live within walking distance of academies, just within their bus routes.
A sampling of classes in Haeundae for grade-school kids
The following classes are just a few summer intensives (여름특강) that I looked into that are available in Haeundae, Busan. These classes are offered in the morning for about four to five weeks during summer vacation.
Youth musical acting and dancing @ 춤그리다무용학원
Our kids take ballet (for fun), and we wanted them to do something artistic and physical activity activity during summer vacation. Of all the academies I spoke to, this one was most responsive and accommodating. Established as a dance academy, the school is expanding into acting and musical classes. Tuition for 2-hour summer musical classes (covering dance, acting, and songs) are available 3 days a week for four weeks for around 500,000 KRW (actual price TBA). Pick-up and drop-off bus service available.
Youth sports @ Little Big Hero (리틀빅히어로)
Most cities have a youth sports (유아스포츠) academy that offers a multitude of classes for kindergarteners and grade school kids. The nice thing about these complexes are that they’re indoors and they have multiple levels or rooms for classes (you really can’t overlook the advantages of an indoor facility aspect in hot, muggy, monsoon-y Korean summers. In Busan, I found this popular indoor sports complex that offers summer intensives in the morning. Class type changes by season, but tuition remains the same. Tuition for one hour of soccer, rollerblading (aka “in-line”), or jumprope classes, 5 days week for four weeks is 210,000 tuition + 30,000 won per head to use their pick-up and drop-off bus services.
Youth swimming options
I called several children’s swimming academies in the vicinity and they’re pretty much the same in terms of class size and tuition, some being perhaps 10,000 won more or less than their competitor. Tuition for four weeks start at 270,000 KRW for 2 times/week, 360,000 KRW for 3 times/week and 490,000~500,000 KRW for 5 times/week (based on a four-week calendar). Expect a five-week summer intensive to be pricier, since tuition is calculated based on the no. of total classes. All operate with a 5:1 child to teacher ratio (and usually 4:1 for kindergarteners or younger).
The exception to the typical children swimming classes are the district sports center (체육센터) subsidized by the government. These facilities are much bigger in scale and offer gym, aerobics, and swimming classes. Haeundae Sports Center (해운대생활체육센터) is a fraction of the price of children’s swimming academies, but that may not be completely suitable for a complete beginner due to their 15+:1 student-teacher ratio. These sports complexes tend to be busier, fuller, and difficult to get into classes if you don’t register early or in-person. They also don’t offer bus services, so classes at this sports complex would be most suitable for older, experienced swimmers who are staying within walking distance to the center.
Fun and Activities Busan has pretty much everything you can do in Seoul and then some, especially when it comes to water and recreational sports. These are some of the activities that I have planned for our trip.
- Club The Oasis (클럽디오아시스 스파&워터파크)
- There’s something for everyone at this urban multi-level sauna/spa/waterpark, but it’s pricey. The cost of a full-day ticket that grants access to all facilities is on par with amusement parks. Check regularly for seasonal deals, and keep in mind that you’ll get a pretty nice discount (up to 35% off on weekdays) if you use the KTX trains to visit Busan.
- Lotte World Adventure Busan (롯데월드어드벤처)
- Similar vibes, but more compact than the Lotte World in Seoul.
- Lotte Water Park (롯데워터파크)
- Not actually within Busan but in Gimhae, an adjacent city where the Busan airport (PUS) is located. It features an indoor and outdoor waterpark, wave pool, and water slides (the indoor section open year-round).
Show and performances
- Musical Moon Sherbet (뮤지컬 달샬베트): Our kids are big fans of Baek Hee-na books, many of which have been made into popular children’s musicals. There’s always a Baek Hee-na musical playing or touring in Korea, and playing in Busan this summer is Moon Sherbert (달 샬베트). Other popular musicals include The Bath Fairy (장수탕 선녀님) and Magic Candies (알사탕), which I mentioned in a post about what to do in Korea with kids.
Museums and sights worth checking out (for free!)
- 국립일제강제동원역사관 (National Memorial Museum of Forced Mobilization under Japanese Occupation)
- 부산박물관 (Busan Museum)
- 부산해양자연사박물관 (Busan Marine Natural History Museum)
- 부산수학문화관 (Busan Mathematics Culture Museum – website is Korean only; weekend programming and classes at a fee)
Shopping for localized treats at import retailers
While Korea isn’t the home of IKEA or Costco, it IS the home of IKEA kimchi bokkeumbap and Costco tteokbokki and Kirkland seaweed laver and other delicacies specifically geared toward the Korean market. It’s worth a visit, especially if you crave something from the US, or need to stock up on household items and groceries during your stay.
That’s all I have for now, but if you have any specific recommendations for things to do and see in Haeundae in addition to children’s classes, I’d love to hear about them in the comments below 🙂