DECEMBER 2024
Jeju is THE holiday island of South-Korea! It is a popular destination for Koreans themselves and it is only recently being discovered by foreign tourists. Jeju is known for its stunning nature, aka the Hawaii of Korea, so we added it to our itinerary to set off the heavy urban part of our trip. In this blogpost you will discover what Jeju Island is like, what kind of activities you can do, so you can decide to add it to your itinerary too!
Where we stayed
We stayed at the Grand Sumorum near Seogwipo. The drive from the airport was just over an hour. Seogwipo is a good location, it is close to many attractions at the South Coast and has good opportunities for shopping and dining. The white sand beaches are located at the North of the island, so if you prefer to stay near the beach, I would recommend to stay near Hyeopjae Beach.
The Grand Sumorum features spacious, modern rooms that are equipped with everything one might need. It has a good restaurant on site as well as a gym, onsen and indoor swimming pool. The best features of the hotel are the outdoor swimming pools, which are heated and have a children’s area. We stayed on Jeju at the beginning of October and had temps up until 25 degrees and the water of the swimming pool was lovely. The hotel garden has lots of palm trees, so you know you are on a holiday! The only thing we didn’t like about the hotel was that the breakfast area gets too busy in the morning, causing you to wait for a table. In the area there are no breakfast bars that open up before 9.30AM, so you are dependent on the breakfast of the hotel.
We found the Grand Sumorum to be kid-friendly enough for us. Hugo was entertained with the sandpit and the swimming pool and there were cute dining plates for kids. Jeju also has hotels with waterparks and attractions (the Lotte hotels), but we found them a bit much and wouldn’t want to stay in such a children’s paradise/chaos.
Practical information
Jeju is known as the Hawaii of South-Korea, it is a very popular destination for Koreans themselves. The greenery feels tropical, though it can get really cold during winter. We had lovely temps at the beginning of October, which I think is a nice sweet spot to visit Jeju. Jeju has beautiful nature, hiking trails and a stunning coastline. What I found less picturesque is that it is quite densily populated, Seogwipo and Jeju city are quite big and urban. You are often not allowed to drive faster than 50/70 kms per hour, but there are traffic jams and lights everywhere. Jeju is also decorated with electricity poles and wires… you will see them in the most spectacular locations. You will have to ignore this and then you will really love Jeju. We rented an electrical car from Lotte car rentals, which was affordable and very comfortable. Getting a car is the easiest way to get around Jeju, we had no issues finding parking spots and found the Korean traffic to be very relaxed. I found Jeju a good juxtaposition to all the big cities that we visited on our Korea trip. It made our trip really diverse and it was perfect with kids as there is lots of swimming!
Things to do on Jeju Island
Below you will find all activities that we did, please note that we had limited hiking options as we were traveling with a toddler.
Seogwipo Jeongbang Waterfall: One of the postcard views of Jeju, the Seogwipo Jeongbang Waterfalls are not to be missed! What is special about these falls is that they go directly into the sea. They are a very low effort activity, it only costs a few euros to enter, you take the stairs and you will see the falls. I loved that you could climb the rocks and get really close to the waterfall. We visited just after opening and found it relatively relaxed, there were some crowds but it was fine. By the time we left it got much busier, which would ruin the view, so visit as early as possible.
Jusangjeollidae: This is the other famous sight of Jeju; basalt colums at sea. I have seen these kind of formations before in Ireland and in Iceland and love them, so I had to check out the Korean ones as well. Again, totally stunning! The only downside is that you cannot have interaction with these ones, you are not allowed to climb them and can only see them from the viewing platform. Still highly worth a visit! It costs about a euro to enter and we spent about 30 minutes here.
Yeomiji Botanical Garden: This was an unexpected gem. Jeju has quite a lot of botanic style gardens, so it is hard to pick one. We visited this one as it was close to Seogwipo. It was about € 8 to enter and plenty of plants to see. We particularly loved the futuristic greenhouse, the Korean garden, the Japanese garden and the French garden. We spent about 2 hours exploring.
Yongmeori Coast: We weren’t able to walk the rock formations of Yongmeori Coast but I am still including it in this activity guide, because you might have better luck. When there is a tiny bit of wind the Yongmeori Coast immediately gets closed for the day. You can check out whether that is the case on their Instagram.
Songaksan Viewpoint: This one really took us by surprise. Jeju has quite a lot of pretty viewpoints, but we were looking for a small hike and decided upon the hike to Songaksan Viewpoint. I think we spent about 1,5 hours exploring this area and enjoying the beautiful coastline. I did not expect to find another Ireland style view on Jeju, but it totally reminded me of our Ireland roadtrip.
Hyeopjae Beach: Jeju is known for its stunning white sand beaches. Hyeopjae Beach is the most famous one, as it’s located in a cove and really easy for swimming. It also is one of the only beaches where you can rent an umbrella, beach accessories and buy a beer. So if you are looking for the ultimate holiday vibe, Hyeopjae is the place to be. The water was at a lovely temperature at the end of October and provided great blue views.
Gaetkkak Columnar Jointing: We accidentally ended up here because our navigation thought this was Jusangjeollidae. It was a great visit as you could get really close to the basalt columns in this area. Make sure you wear comfortable shoes while visiting.
Gwakji Beach: We visited Gwakji beach on a day which wasn’t perfect for swimming, but still liked this visit. Gwakji is the less commercial version of Hyeopjae beach. It has a really cute “bathhouse” that uses sea water, which Hugo really loved. Make sure to drive the 1132 road from Jeju City, because this is one of the most scenic roads on the island.
Jeju Waterworld: We were not prepared for this visit, Jeju Waterworld is a digital attraction which is located in an old swimming pool. You don’t go swimming, but you will walk through water. The water socks you need to wear are included in your ticket. It was a very strange activity, which we also found a lot of fun. Our toddler really loved it, so we were happy that we visited. It was quite expensive to visit, I think we paid about € 20 which was stellar.
