How to Use Korean Addresses in Taxis and Map Apps

You do not need to read Korean to use a Korean address. Save the destination as three Korean lines—the place name, road-name address and the place's own phone number—then paste or show the same card wherever you need it.

For example, a useful destination card looks like this:

국립중앙박물관
서울특별시 용산구 서빙고로 137
02-2077-9000

That is the National Museum of Korea, its road-name address and its main phone number. You do not have to pronounce any of it; you only need all three lines together.

The three lines do different jobs

The Korean place name is the fastest search term. It also lets a driver recognize the destination without decoding an English transliteration. Keep the branch name attached: 스타벅스 강남R점 is far more useful than simply Starbucks.

The road-name address is the navigation fallback. Look for 도로명 or 도로명주소 on the place card. Korea's official address system builds it from the road name, building number and, when needed, a unit such as a floor or room.

The destination phone number is not your Korean mobile number and it is not a requirement for taking a taxi. It is a tie-breaker: it can distinguish two branches with similar names, and it gives the driver or hotel desk a number to call if an entrance is unclear. Copy only a number published by the venue or shown on its current place listing.

Copy the card from the place listing, not from a translation

Open the exact venue in Naver Map or Kakao Map. Before copying anything, check the neighborhood, category and photos so that you do not save a branch in the wrong district. Then copy the Korean display name, the road-name address and the listed business phone number into one note.

Do not translate an English address word by word. Travelers repeatedly run into this on map searches because a romanized name may be spelled several ways, while the real Korean address uses Korean ordering and administrative names. If you were sent only an English road address, the official Road Name Address search can return both its road-name and land-lot forms; use its Korean option to retrieve the Hangul version. Searching the numeric road address can work when an English venue name does not.

Prefer the road-name line when both versions appear. A land-lot address may be labelled 지번, and it remains useful as a backup for an older listing, but the road-name form is designed around a road plus a building number. Do not delete an apartment building, floor or room number if that is part of the destination.

You do not need to calculate anything from the blue signs. The useful bit is simply that the Korean text is the road name and the number identifies the building or point along it. The official system places odd and even building numbers on opposite sides of a road, which is why a complete road name and number is much more precise than a neighborhood name alone.

In a map app, search in this order

Start with the Korean place name. If several results appear, paste the full Korean road-name address instead. Compare the district and final building number, then use the published phone number as a last cross-check rather than assuming the first result is right.

A shared pin is useful, but do not keep a pin as your only record. Pins can mark the middle of a large property, a parking entrance or the wrong branch. A screenshot is also fragile if nobody can copy its text. Keep the three-line card as selectable text and save a screenshot of the current place card for offline use.

For a hospital campus, hotel, mall or terminal, add one more line naming the entrance or lobby. The street address identifies the property; it may not identify the door where you actually want to get out. Copy that entrance note from the venue's current directions rather than guessing.

In a taxi, the booking method changes what you need to do

A taxi ordered through an app already receives the destination entered in the booking. As rechecked on August 12, 2026, Seoul's official taxi guide says there is no need to tell the driver the destination again after assignment; check that the arriving license plate matches the app. Keep your destination card ready in case the driver asks about a branch or entrance. App eligibility, payment options and interface language can change, so confirm those in the app you will actually use.

For a taxi hailed on the street or taken from a rank, open the note at full brightness and show the Korean name and road address together. The one sentence worth saving is:

이 주소로 가 주세요.
Please go to this address.

Do not hand over a long English itinerary and expect the driver to find the useful line. A full-screen Korean card is quicker to scan, and you can point to the road address if the driver begins typing it into navigation.

Save it before you lose signal

Make the card while you still have Wi-Fi. Keep it in a pinned note, save or screenshot the current place listing, and retain the venue's Korean name even if your map app displays an English label. For the return trip, prepare your hotel or home card the same way.

The practical rule is simple: Korean name first, Korean road address second, destination phone number third. You may never need all three, but having them in one place turns an unreadable address into something a map app, taxi driver or front desk can use.