Ah Jeju Island, I’m so glad we met.
I knew my first side trip of this journey would be an adventure, and Jeju did not disappoint. A sizable island off the southern coast of Korea, Jeju came highly recommended by my friends in Korea. I booked this trip well in advance with a few other roamers, but the day before we were scheduled to leave, everyone dropped out. Everyone.
At that point, I had nothing planned. No activities, no hotel, no idea what to do. Everything I was reading said that you really needed a car to get around the island because public transportation was lacking. That was no big deal…until I found out that you must have an International Driver’s Permit to rent cars in Korea! I had never heard of an International Driver’s Permit before, and I certainly didn’t have one.
To make matters worse, the forecast was rain every day I was scheduled to be there. Not good. I was ready to pull the plug. Everything was pointing to this trip being a bad idea, especially given the language barrier I knew existed down there. But… I had heard so many great things about Jeju, and the allure of the opportunity to hike the tallest peak in Korea was calling my name. Maybe I could get by without a car after all. Almost on a coin flip, I decided to push my boundaries and head down to Jeju on my first solo trip of the year.
I booked a last minute hotel at Yeoli Pension in Seogwipo on the southern coast of the island, and after some last minute digging was able to find a full-day tour that caught my attention, which spiraled into a second full-day tour.
I arrived Thursday evening so I only had time to check in at my hotel and grab dinner at the local restaurant around the corner. If you get confused — ask! Korean people are exceptionally generous and helpful. Hans, the man at the front desk, actually walked with me up the street to a nearby restaurant and helped me order.
The following 3-days there were an adventure — I saw five waterfalls, visited the largest botanical garden in the world, photographed my way through an optical illusion museum, dipped my toes in the sand, saw incredible art-like lava rock formations, hiked the tallest mountain in Korea, watched a dance performance at a cultural festival, walked in wonder through the massive green tea fields, meditated at one of the largest temples I’ve ever seen and even went out with a local in Jeju City. What a trip, one I’ll never forget. And here’s how I did it without a car.
(if you want to skip the tips and just see the info and videos from what I did while I was there, scroll down to Day 1: The West Tour)
1 Book a Hotel/Hostel/Airbnb in the Southern Part of the Island
I stayed at Pension Yeoli a few kilometers from the Jungmun Tourist Resort Entrance. Jungmun is an area on the southwest coast of the island filled with museums and beautiful sites to see (a bit touristy — but it’s worth going to). Pension wasn’t quite within walking distance of the main attractions — ideally you want to be right in the center of Jungmun so you can walk to different places. But with the help of KakaoMaps, navigating the bus system wasn’t hard, and I was only 500 meters from the beach paying ~$45 USD/night in a decent hotel, so no complaints here.
If you’re traveling light, you can hop around from hotel to hotel fairly easily to see more of the island. I did this on my last night to explore Jeju City and have an easier time getting to the pickup spot for the second tour.
2 Download KakaoMap App
This is one of my favorite hacks — even though the KakaoMap is all in Korean, you can use this to navigate the island (and to direct taxis) with a tiny bit of time and patience. Here’s the trick… you have to type locations in the app in Korean, but this is actually a lot easier to do than you think.
Turn on the Korean keyboard on your phone (for iPhones, Settings → General → Keyboard → Keyboards → Add New). Wherever you’re trying to go, find the name in Korean. If you’re able to copy/paste right into Kakao, great. If not, take a picture of it and use the screenshot to type out the name into Kakao with the Korean keyboard. Then hit go, and Kakao works just like Google Maps, serving two important purposes:
- Gives you clear steps to follow on the bus system. Don’t worry about reading the Korean part of the directions; the bus numbers are all you need to know. You can use the guidance to navigate to whatever part of the island you need. You can even tap “English” to change the language on the information screens at the bus stops.
- You can hit go and hand the step-by-step directions to cab drivers. I figured this one out after the first two cab drivers couldn’t understand where I wanted to go (with the sun was setting and me still 6km from my hotel). Be patient — some drivers will not understand and won’t take you, but with this hack most will understand you want them to use your phone to navigate to your destination (don’t worry about letting them hold your phone, the cabs are very safe). Pro Tip: Get into the cab FIRST and then explain directions/hand them your phone. Once you’re already in the cab, it’s harder for them to say no.
3 Get a T-Money Card
T-Money (transportation money) cards can be used to pay for cabs and buses. Cabs all take credit cards; buses sort of do but they require a specific type of card and jumping through a few extra hoops. (Exception- the first bus you’ll take from the airport to the south of the island (typically the 600) will take credit card or cash.)
You can purchase a T-Money card at any CU or GS25 convenience store. Say T-Money and they’ll understand. You can’t use credit to add money onto the card, so come prepared with cash. Buses cost 1200–1300 KRW one way (around $1 USD) so load up accordingly. The bus from the South of the Island to the Airport are a bit more (around 4500 KRW).
4 Book a Yeha Bus Tour
I couldn’t be more glad I found Yeha Bus Tours. The company offers three distinct tours of Jeju Island — The West, East, and South. One tour is offered each day, with the West and East alternating days Monday-Saturday and the South tour running on Sundays. The tours can be booked through TripAdvisor for ~$70 USD, but you’ll get ~$10 off if you’re staying at the Yeha Guest House in Jeju City (which I did my final night in Jeju).
I loved the West Tour I did my first day so much that I booked the South tour for two days later. Details and video recaps in the itinerary below.
Day 1: The West Course Tour
The hotel manager was kind enough to drive me to the Lotto Hotel when the bus picked me up for the West Tour. What a first day in Jeju — the excitement from the tour carried through the rest of the weekend. Highly highly recommended. Over the course of the 8 hour day, we went to six different stunning places while working our way down the western coastline.
1 — Hyupjae Beach → beautiful beach with rocks, Jeju-men, and an orange juice stand with some amazing homemade sparkling nectar of the gods. I got a brief flight in but the wind was gusting too much for the Mavic to handle.
2 — Hanlim Park → Jeju’s largest theme park with various botanical gardens, tons of different birds and flowers, beautiful century-old bonsai trees, and my favorite — a gorgeous waterfall. Almost missed the bus coming back from the waterfall…don’t be late!
3 — Suweolbong → designated as a Global GEO Park by UNESCO, this walking path meanders along the coastline amidst stunning rock formations and beautiful views of the nearby islands. The grandeur of the place was surprisingly relaxing and added to the wonder I felt being on the island.
4 — O’Sulloc Green Tea Fields → the largest green tea fields in Jeju (and I think among the largest anywhere) fill the air with a pleasant aroma, and visitors are free to roam around within them and sample the tastiness inside the museum across the street.
5 — Mount Sanbang → a very cool dome-shaped lava mountain with a beautiful temple carved into the side about half way up. The 20-minute hike to the temple is well worth it, offering stunning views of the landscape below.
6 — Chenjeyon Falls → three waterfalls…need I say more? The first is a bit underwhelming because the water actually falls “behind” the rocks so you can’t really see anything (hard to explain, you have to see it to understand) but the second waterfall was truly magnificent. Among the most beautiful I’ve ever seen.
Below is the recap video of the day. You can find more of these on my instagram, www.instagram.com/andysroaming. I had so much fun that I ended up booking a second tour with Yeha for Day 3.
Day 2: Mount Halla
Sitting at 1908m above sea level, Mount Halla is the highest peak in all of Korea. With almost 10km ahead of me each way, I wanted to get an early start and set my alarm for 6am. I went to sleep on the early side, but the noise emanating from the courtyard nearby was loud, so I threw in some ear plugs. When I rolled over the next morning to check the time— it was already 8:20! I had slept through my alarm!! Not good — especially given that the weather forecast was calling for a cold front bringing rain that afternoon.
I scrambled out of bed, scarfed down two hard-boiled eggs and some mixed nuts (courtesy of a quick GS25 stop the night before), threw on my backpack, and was on the road by 8:35.
The start of the Seongpanak Trail, on the eastern side of the mountain, takes about 70 minutes to reach from the Jungmun Tourist Entrance in Seogwipo. By the time I reached the beginning of the trail, it was just after 10:00am. As I was walking up, a nice lady who worked there asked me if I was planning on hiking today. When I told her I was going to the summit, she responded in broken english, “Oooh, noo, it’s too late to go to the summit today.”
Me — “What? Why is it too late?”
Her — “You have to reach the shelter checkpoint by 12:30pm. Hikers aren’t allowed to go past there to the summit after then.”
Me — “Okay…how far is that from here?”
Her — “7.4km…It takes 3 hours to get there.
Me — -“Uhh….”
Her — -“You may be able to make it because you are young and fit.”
Me — (blushing) “Well then…I better get started.”
And with that, I set off in full power-walking mode. I didn’t come this far to miss the opportunity to reach the top of the tallest peak in Korea.
Those extra hours of sleep did have one advantage, giving me a bit of a boost of extra energy. Periodic signs along the path marking the distance remaining helped turn speed-walking up the mountain into a bit of a time challenge. I was sweating bullets but moving fast — covering 5.1km in the first hour alone.
While the trail’s difficulty increased substantially after the first 5km, I reached the shelter less than 40 minutes later at 11:37, a little over an hour and a half into the hike! Given my competitive nature, since I had already pressed that quickly up the mountain, I hardly wanted to stop for a break and quickly got moving again after a few bites of trail mix and some much needed water.
20 minutes later, I was finally above the tree line…and the views were breathtaking. There were clouds, but I could still see all the way to the water. Even more impressive was the view of the other mountains on the island looming in the distance below me.
The last leg of the climb is up a large, long set of staircases, built to preserve the trail and make the last part of the hike easier on the less experienced hikers. This was probably a good thing, as there were at least 50 people hiking the last 500m alongside me, and another 100 already picnicking at the top.
Standing on the edge of the top of a volcanic crater, looking down onto a beautiful field and lake, surrounded by dozens of cheery Korean hikers picnicking and enjoying the views, I couldn’t help but smile from ear to ear. I was on a famous, beautiful island, by myself, on top of the tallest mountain in the country.
And of course, here’s the video recap. Sadly it started raining just as I was about to launch the drone (which made the walk down especially cold and wet), but the video gives a nice glimpse of the hike.
Day 3: The South Course Tour
Unfortunately pick-up wasn’t available in the South part of the island for the South Course tour (yes, ironic) so I switched hotels and booked a room at the Yeha Guesthouse (same company) in Jeju City near the airport. This switch ended up working out better anyway because I had a flight the next morning and hadn’t yet had a chance to explore the city (and I got a discount on the tour for staying at their hotel).
The South Tour was broken up a bit by intermittent rain showers, but we still had a great day. I’ll let the video below speak for itself, but here are the brief highlights:
Jeongbang Falls → stunning waterfall, the only one in Asia where the water falls directly into the ocean. Sporting a 75-foot drop, this beauty is a sight to see. If it weren’t for some connection issues, I would have gotten a lot more drone footage.
Yakcheon Temple → Korea’s largest temple, fully surrounded by Jeju tangerine trees. If you are Buddhist or appreciate/practice meditation, visiting this temple is a special experience.
Jusangjeolli Cliff → lava explosions thousands of years ago created beautiful art-like sculptures that are so intricate that they don’t look real. Very cool.
Alive Museum → bring your camera; you’re about to enter the world’s largest optical art/illusion museum. One of the coolest places I’ve been in awhile, this museum really is fascinating. Filled with interactive exhibits where you can literally be a part of the picture, the photo opportunities are never ending.
And here’s the video of my day on the South Course tour, enjoy!
All-in-all, my first solo trip on my We-Roam adventure was everything I could have hoped for and more. I couldn’t be happier to have been able to visit such an interesting place, and not being able to rent a car turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I was certainly a little anxious when I was struggling with the cabs at first, but the experience was a great reminder that being uncomfortable can help you think outside the box and find creative solutions to seemingly large problems that, well, really aren’t that bad. I’m now much more confident in my ability to roam solo.
So if you’re thinking about visiting Jeju Island, do it! And ditch the rental car :-)