How to Use Public Transport When Travelling Overseas

Public transport is how we get around most of the cities we visit. We’ve ridden the Tube in London, the Métro in Paris, the MTR in Hong Kong and the subways of Tokyo, Seoul, Stockholm and New York. We’ve caught local buses in Peru and Las Vegas, high-speed trains in Italy, Japan and South Korea, and ferries from Naples to Capri and across New Zealand’s Cook Strait.

If you’ve never used public transport overseas, it can look daunting from home. It doesn’t have to be. This guide covers how to use public transport when you travel: checking a city’s network before you go, choosing how to pay without paying extra, reading a metro map and getting on the right train, and knowing when public transport isn’t the answer. And when a cancelled flight leaves you stranded, it can even be your way home.

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Check the network before you go

Before a trip, one of the first things we look at is the local public transport. Is there a metro or underground? Are there trains? What are the buses like? The answer tells us whether public transport will be the easiest way to get around, or whether we’ll need something else.

In big cities like Seoul, Tokyo, London and New York, it’s easy. In smaller cities we look at what’s available, and if there’s no train system, at what the local buses are like. If the buses don’t suit where we’re going, we use Uber or taxis instead.

The city’s own transport authority is the best place to start. Its website or app will usually have a network map, fares and timetables. Look for:

• which types of transport there are: metro, buses, trams, suburban or regional trains, ferries
• how you pay, and whether you can tap on with a bank card or phone
• whether there’s a day pass or tourist pass
• what time services stop running at night

If you’re flying in, check how the airport connects to the city too.

How to pay for public transport overseas

Paying is often the part that feels hardest, and it’s usually simple once you know which system the city uses. Most of the time we either buy a ticket for each trip or get a card we can put money on. More and more cities also let you tap on with a bank card or phone.

Tapping on with a card or phone

In London you can tap on with a contactless bank card or phone instead of buying a ticket, and the fares are capped each day. New York’s subway has gone the same way: MetroCards stopped being sold at the end of 2025, and you now tap a contactless card or phone at the turnstile, or buy a reloadable OMNY card.

Wherever you can tap, a few rules usually apply:

• Everyone needs their own card or phone. One card can’t pay for two people going through the gates.
• Tap in and out with the same card or phone, so the system can work out your fare and any daily cap. In London, for example, you touch in and out on trains but only touch in on buses.

Good to Know

Your bank may charge a fee every time you tap. Transport for London says most non-UK bank cards charge 1-3% on every journey, set by your bank, on top of the fare. Check your card’s foreign transaction fees before you rely on it for transport.

Lisa’s Tip

We tap on and off with our travel cards rather than our everyday credit card. We use a Qantas Pay card and a Wise card, and we carry the physical cards as well as having them in our phones.

Local transport cards

Many cities have their own transport card that you load with money and tap at the gates. In South Korea we bought one at a local convenience store, one of the 7-Eleven-style shops, put money on it, and then simply tapped on and off at the gates to the platforms. It was really easy.

Ours was a T-money card, the one most visitors use in Seoul. You can buy it at convenience stores such as GS25, CU and 7-Eleven, and it gives you transfer discounts when you change between buses and the subway.

Single tickets, and validating them

Buying a ticket for each trip is still common, especially for regional trains and buses. Check whether your ticket needs to be validated before you travel.

Good to Know

In Italy, single paper tickets for regional trains must be validated before the train departs. Without a valid ticket you can be charged the full fare plus a fine. Trenitalia’s digital regional tickets are validated automatically.

Are tourist passes worth it?

Many cities sell day passes or tourist passes. Whether one is worth it comes down to how many trips you’ll actually take. Count your likely journeys each day and compare the pass with single fares, or with the daily cap if the city caps tap-on fares. That’s what we did in Japan before buying a Japan Rail Pass. A pass that bundles in attractions you won’t visit isn’t a saving.

Apps that make it easier

We usually use Google Maps to plan public transport trips. It shows which line to take, where to change and roughly how long the trip will take, which makes a big difference in a city you don’t know. It also shows each of the stops you’ll go through before you get to yours, so you know when you’re getting close.

It doesn’t work equally well everywhere, though. In South Korea, Google Maps worked, but it wasn’t as detailed as we’re used to, so we used Naver Map, one of the Korean map apps locals rely on. A local guide told us it was because of the country’s security concerns about North Korea. The guide was right: for years South Korea refused to let Google take its detailed map data out of the country, partly because of the risk that North Korea could use sensitive information. The government approved Google’s request in February 2026, with conditions, but full features such as turn-by-turn directions still hadn’t arrived by late August 2026. If you’re heading there, our guide to getting your bearings in a new city has more on using Naver Map.

Maps apps need mobile data, so sort that out before you land. We’ve used Holafly eSIMs for data overseas.

Lisa’s Tip

Before you go, check that your usual maps app works properly in your destination. If it doesn’t, download the app the locals use before you arrive.

How to read a metro map and find the right platform

Metro maps look complicated at first, but most work the same way. Each line has its own colour, and usually a number or letter. Stations where you can change lines are marked as interchanges. And every line runs between two end stations.

Those end stations are the key to getting on the right train. Platform signs don’t tell you whether you’re heading north or south; they show the name of the last station on the line, and often the next few stops along the way. Before you head down to the platform, find your stop on the map, follow the line to the end, and look for that station’s name on the signs.

We’ve learnt this the hard way. We’ve got on trains going in the wrong direction a few times because we hadn’t read the signs properly. Each time we realised a station or two later, jumped off, crossed to the other side of the platform and caught the train back the other way. It’s easily fixed, but even easier to avoid.

Allow time to get to the platform, too. Some stations are large and deep: at Stockholm City station, used by the city’s commuter trains, long escalators run down to the platforms. Big cities often have more than one rail system (metro, commuter trains, trams), sometimes sharing or connecting stations, so check which one your journey uses.

Beyond the metro: buses, trains and ferries

Buses

Local buses go where trains don’t. In Peru, we caught a local bus from Arequipa to Chivay in the Colca Canyon. On the way it climbed to the Mirador de los Andes lookout, where a sign puts the altitude at 4,910 metres, with snow-capped volcanoes on the horizon, before dropping down into Chivay.

We’ve also used local buses in Vietnam, Osaka, Las Vegas and London. Buses can be harder to follow than trains when you’re new to a city, so a maps app that shows your progress along the route helps you know when to get off.

Regional and high-speed trains

For longer distances, trains are often the easiest option. We caught high-speed trains between cities in Italy, Japan and South Korea, and in Japan local buses took us to places like the snow monkeys and Koyasan. In Japan we bought a Japan Rail Pass, because we worked out it would be cheaper than paying for each of our intercity train trips separately. In northern Sweden, we took the train from Abisko to Boden, then a transfer to Harads.

At small regional stations, check how and where to buy your ticket before you get there.

Ferries

Ferries are public transport too, and sometimes the only way across. We’ve taken the Staten Island Ferry in New York (it’s free), the inter-island ferry in Samoa from Upolu across to Savai’i, and the Interislander across Cook Strait between New Zealand’s North and South Islands.

They aren’t always smooth sailing. On the ferry from Naples to Capri, diesel fumes were coming into the cabin and I got really seasick. I wasn’t the only one: a number of us ended up out the back of the ferry trying to get some fresh air.

Lisa’s Tip

If you’re prone to seasickness, find a seat near the open deck or outside, where you can get fresh air.

Staying safe and comfortable

In some cities we’ve chosen not to use public transport late at night. In others, like Seoul and Tokyo, we felt safe using it at any hour. How safe you’ll feel varies by city, by line and by time of night, so check the advice for your destination on sites like Australia’s Smartraveller, and if you’re not comfortable, take a taxi or rideshare instead.

On crowded trains, keep your phone and wallet where you can feel them. In some cities the general rule is to wear your backpack on your front, so it takes up less room and you don’t hit people with it. Avoid peak hour with luggage if you can, and check when the last services run so you’re not left stranded. There’s more in our Travel Security 101 guide.

Darren’s Tip

Keep your cards in an RFID-blocking wallet to protect against skimming in busy places like crowded trains, and use a VPN on your phone.

When public transport isn’t the answer

Public transport doesn’t suit every trip. Iceland has no passenger trains at all, so we hired a car. We hired a car in Canada too. In Sri Lanka we had a private driver (although we did catch a tuk-tuk in Colombo), and in Bangkok we mainly used Grab, the local ride-hailing app.

If you do need a car, Discover Cars is the car hire site we use, and our guide to hiring a car overseas covers what to know before you book.

Public transport as your backup plan

We happened to be in Ireland when an Icelandic volcano erupted and flights across Europe were grounded. Our flight from Ireland back to the UK was cancelled, and we had to work out how to get from Dublin to London. There were four of us: we’d been in the UK for a family wedding, and my mother-in-law Maureen and my sister-in-law Kelly were travelling with us. And everyone else whose flight had been grounded was trying to do the same thing.

We booked it all online: a ferry from Dublin to Holyhead, then an overnight train from Holyhead to London. Darren and I were flying home to Australia a day before Maureen and Kelly, so we agreed that if we couldn’t all get seats together, we’d take the first ones we could. Because we’ve travelled more, we also booked everything for Maureen and Kelly so they had it all ready to go. In the end we didn’t need to split up: we managed to get tickets for all four of us. We’ve written more about planning trips with family in how we plan trips with friends or family.

We all made it back to London. And in the end, airspace reopened the evening before our flight home, so we flew back to Australia as planned.

What we’d tell anyone in the same situation is to act fast. A volcanic eruption isn’t a storm passing over: when flights are grounded until further notice, it could go on for days. Book your way out first and sort out the cancelled flight afterwards. And if you’re travelling as a group, agree early on who goes first if you can’t all travel together.

Good to Know

Between London and Dublin you can buy a single SailRail ticket that covers the train to Holyhead and the ferry to Dublin. It’s also worth checking what your travel insurance covers for delays and cancellations.

The first trip on an unfamiliar system is the hardest. Start with a short journey on your first day, get a feel for how it works, and build from there.

Last updated: 14 October 2026. Card fees, ticket rules and Google Maps in South Korea checked October 2026.

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