I’ve been meaning to make a post about these bike stations forever because it’s the best thing to happen to Seoul in a long time. Anyway, these rentable bike stations have popped up all over Seoul recently and it’s AMAZING. All you need to do is download the app called 따룽이 and register and you can use the app to rent the bikes wherever you are. As far as I know, the app is only in Korean but registering is pretty simple and if anything you can find a Korean person to help you out of you don’t speak Korean well. I also had to enter my phone number and ARC to make an account so I’m not sure if you can make an account if you don’t have a Korean phone number and/or ARC but there might be a way around it~.
Once you make an account you create a 4 letter passcode used to unlock the bike lock and then you can rent the bike for either one hour or two hours and it’s 1,000 won an hour. The app gives you the option of paying with your credit card or just adding the money onto your phone bill (which I always choose to do because it’s very easy). Each bike stand has a QR code on it so in order to rent the bike you can just scan the QR code and rent the bike that way. You can also just search the bike station you’re at and the bike number if you don’t want to scan the QR code.
The bikes are really well maintained and are very sturdy, good bikes that always have full tires. The coolest thing about it is you can rent a bike and drop it off at any 대여소 (the name of the actual bike stations) around Seoul which is super convienent because you don’t have to go all the way back to the place you rented the bike. And there are stations EVERYWHERE. They are next to almost every single subway station and scattered around a lot of other areas as well. You can even search 대여소 on a map app like kakaomaps and the nearest bike station will pop up.
I just think it’s a super fun, cheap, and healthy way to get around and something that anyone living here or anyone here for a short time as an exchange student or something similar should try out. Its been one of my favorite things to do these days and on Friday 사탕 and I even went on a two hour/15km bike ride along the Han river from my work to my apartment and it was super fun and felt great afterwards. Signing up can be a bit complicated but once that step is done, eveything else is very easy and convenient. Try it out!!!
