Before Korea is a practical guide site for people preparing to visit Korea, buy Korean products, eat Korean food, or use Korean apps and services.
The site is built around one simple question: what should a foreign visitor check before the moment becomes stressful?
What Before Korea covers
- Before You Visit: arrival, transport, eSIM, maps, money, transit, etiquette, and first-day preparation.
- Before You Buy: K-beauty, Olive Young, tax refund, shopping, clothing sizes, and purchase decisions.
- Before You Eat: Korean BBQ, ordering, spice levels, convenience-store food, street food, and restaurant flow.
- Before You Use: Naver Map, KakaoTalk, translation apps, payment, transit cards, and foreigner service limits.
How the guides are written
Before Korea is not written like a company brochure or a personal travel diary. The guides focus on what to check, what can fail, which source to verify, and what backup is sensible. Articles avoid pretending to have personally tested a product, visited a location, or used a service unless that is actually true.
Why this site exists
Many Korea guides answer what to do or where to go. Before Korea focuses on the step before that: whether the app will work, whether the card will be accepted, whether a refund is worth the airport time, whether a product claim needs checking, and what a foreign visitor should prepare before the moment becomes stressful.
Useful pages
Last updated: May 23, 2026.