Hi everyone! I’m doing a South Korea-Japan trip in July and I want to take the ferry between Busan and Fukuoka. I’ve been checking the JR Beetle for months and they still do not have any available ferries for July and I’m getting nervous about this. Does anyone if they will work in July? Or is there any other good ferry recommendations?
Thank you!
3 comments
Hi, I’m also planning on taking the JR Beetle but much later this year.
The timetable is only until end of June so I assume that’s why there’s no July availability yet.
Looking at the website in Japanese (https://www.jrbeetle.com/news/)
– 26 Jan 2023 the timetable between 01 April and 30 June was published.
– 06 Dec 2022 the timetable between 10 January and 31 March was published
– 15 Nov 2022: 17 December to 9 January
If these are any indication of the availability of the next timetable, we’d be looking at 1 month before end of June so sometime around end of May.
You can always try calling them as they have English speaking staff according to their website.
I don’t see any reason why they wouldn’t have the ferry this summer. It’s think they release the schedule quarterly, it was only for Jan-March when I purchased for this March. Next quarter would be April-June, so it may be a little while before they release July.
I wouldn’t worry too much about getting seats unless you are particular about where you sit. There were plenty of empty seats on the ferry I took (it was Wednesday though which is one of the least popular travel days).
They do offer the ferry in either the morning or afternoon depending on the day, so that might be troublesome for scheduling. But you should be okay booking your hotel.
Also Camellia Line offers a longer service and was open when I purchased. They are overnight from Busan to Fukuoka only (daytime the other direction).
There are also flights from Busan to Fukuoka as well