Free guide · Routes checked 2026

Getting Around Pohang

For visiting researchers, students and travellers. Written by someone who takes these buses — and who has watched a lot of visitors get stuck at Pohang Station with no idea what to do next.

New tool

Need a specific bus, right now?

I turned Pohang City’s official open bus data into a search box. Type where you are and where you want to go — it checks every city route and tells you which numbers get you there, with every stop listed in English.

🚌 Open the Pohang Bus Route FinderFree · English · 1,071 stops · 300 route variants

First: stop using Google Maps

This is the single thing nobody tells you. Google Maps does not give public-transport directions in South Korea. It is not broken and you are not doing it wrong — the map data simply is not available to Google here. Visitors spend days assuming Korea has no bus information. It has excellent bus information. It is just somewhere else.

Install one of these before you arrive. Both are free and both show live bus arrivals down to the minute — something Google simply cannot do here.

Naver MapStart here. Best English support. KakaoMapWhat locals use. English exists but data stays Korean-heavy.

Honest warning: neither app is fully English. Big places like “POSTECH” or “Pohang Station” will come up in English. Everything else — a market alley, a small restaurant, a bus stop — you will need the Korean name. That is what the next box is for.

The trick nobody tells you

Copy the Korean name, paste it in the app

You cannot type Korean on your phone, and English search only gets you so far. So here are the places you will actually want, ready to copy. Tap one, then paste it into Naver Map or KakaoMap — it will find it every time.

Screenshot this box before you leave your hotel wifi. And if you get truly stuck, show a Korean person your phone — pointing at the Korean text works better than any app.
Arriving

Pohang Station → POSTECH / the labs

There is no direct bus. Not one. If you have just come off the KTX from Seoul with a suitcase, do not stand at the bus stop waiting for a solution — there isn’t one. Take a taxi.
TAXIPohang Station → POSTECH
About 20 minutes. Allow 25 — the road to the campus backs up behind trucks going into the steelworks.
Taxis queue outside the station exit. Say “포스텍” (Pos-tek) or show the driver this page. Meters are standard; you do not negotiate and you do not tip.
Coming from Incheon Airport? Most visitors take the airport bus or train to Seoul Station, then the KTX to Pohang (about 2.5 hours). Pohang also has a small airport (Pohang-Gyeongju Airport) with domestic flights.
Your one bus

Route 207 — learn this number

If you are staying near POSTECH, route 207 is the bus that connects you to the rest of Pohang. It runs every 12–14 minutes on weekdays. Get on at the POSTECH stop.

207POSTECH → Jukdo Market
14 stops. Allow about 30 minutes. This is the big traditional market — seafood, gomtang soup alley, everything cheap.
Open in KakaoMap →
207POSTECH → Yeongildae Beach
20 stops. City beach with a lit-up sea walkway at night. Where people go after work.
Open in KakaoMap →
207POSTECH → Intercity Bus Terminal
7 stops — the closest thing to a quick ride. This is where buses to Gyeongju, Busan and elsewhere leave from.
Open in KakaoMap →
207Jukdo Market → POSTECH (coming back)
15 stops. Same number, other direction. Check the destination sign on the front of the bus.
Route 306 also stops at POSTECH and reaches the Intercity Bus Terminal in 16 stops, but it only runs every 22–26 minutes. 207 is almost always the better bet.
Going further

Out of the city

900Jukdo Market → Homigot area
Homigot is the easternmost point of the Korean peninsula, with the famous giant bronze hand rising out of the sea — the first place in Korea to see the sunrise. Getting there is a half-day trip and it is not one bus. Route 900 runs out that way as far as the Homigot Hot Spring Land stop (41 stops from Jukdo Market) and on to Guryongpo; the square itself is served by the small local routes Donghae 1 and Donghae 2 (동해1, 동해2), which run infrequently. Plan this one in advance — check the exact connection in my bus route finder and confirm times in Naver Map.
Open in KakaoMap →
900Jukdo Market → Pohang-Gyeongju Airport
29 stops. Route 9000 also serves the airport. For a flight, take a taxi unless you have hours to spare.
207 · 209 · 216 · 900Jukdo Market → Yeongildae Beach
6 stops on any of them. One of the easiest hops in the city.
Practical

How to actually ride a bus here

  • Get a transit card. Buy a T-money or Cashbee card at any convenience store (CU, GS25, 7-Eleven) for a few thousand won and load cash onto it. Cards work nationwide — same card in Seoul, Busan, everywhere.
  • Tap on when you board, tap off when you get off. Tapping off matters: it is how transfers stay free.
  • A ride is roughly ₩1,500 with a card. Cash works but costs more and you need exact change.
  • Press the red stop button before your stop. Drivers do not stop unless someone asks.
  • Enter at the front, exit at the middle door.
  • Check the sign on the front of the bus. The same route number runs in both directions — the destination on the front tells you which way it is going.
  • Buses do not run late. Most city routes finish around 22:00–23:00. After that it is taxis only.
While you are here 💵 What things actually cost in Pohang and KoreaReal 2026 prices — meals, coffee, taxis, hotels — Seoul vs regional Korea 🧮 Korea Travel Budget CalculatorPlanning a trip after your experiment? Work out the total first 🍲 Pohang food guideWhere locals actually eat — market alleys, old shops, honest reviews

Bus route data: Pohang City open data, updated 2026-05-12. Frequencies and taxi times checked on the ground by the author, who lives here and rides these buses. Routes change — always confirm live times in KakaoMap. Found something wrong? Tell me and I will fix it.