snapshots from jeju, south korea.
airport welcome.
cherry blossoms and hallasan, jeju’s shield volcano.
april 2023
after busan, we hopped on a flight to jeju island. we rented a car for this leg of the trip and drove from the airport, which is on the north end of the island, to the south where we were staying. parnas hotel has a gorgeous pool and beautiful views (not to mention some great food).
parnas hotel.
view from our room.
jeju sunset.
a beautiful beach in seogwipo.
when we weren’t relaxing or enjoying ourselves at the hotel, we took hopped in the car to be able to explore some of the natural wonders of this volcanic island. jeju has some stunning beaches, but it was still quite cold and suuuuper windy while we were there.
roadside citrus crates.
south
first up was cheonjeyeon waterfalls, a multi-tiered waterfall with basalt columns and a very fancy arched bridge.
basalt columns.
one of the cheonjeyeon waterfalls
seonim bridge.
seonim bridge.
the daepo columnar joints are along a beautiful, rocky part of the coast.
more basalt columns.
jeongbang waterfall is very picturesque being right on the coast and we made it to oedolgae column right at sunset.
jeongbang waterfall.
coastal view from jeongbang waterfall.
oedolgae.
east
the eastern end of the island has the most popular/tourist-y sites. one is seongsan ilchulbong, a volcanic crater you can hike to the top of. it’s mostly stairs both up and down (single directional), and a lot of elevation, but is otherwise not a difficult hike.
rock formations on the way up.
part of the crater.
seongsan ilchulbong crater.
hike back down.
from the trailhead, you can also take stairs down to the water to see some of jeju’s famous haenyeo, or female free divers. when they aren’t diving, they are prepping and selling their freshly caught seafood and even do a live song/dance about their livelihoods a couple times a day.
live seafood caught and served by haenyeo.
haenyeo performance.
south of seongsan ilchulbong is seopjikoji, another very busy area. it’s a gorgeous stretch of coast with beautiful walking paths and many different things to see.
seopjikoji.
seopjikoji.
seopjikoji.
stacked rocks.
seongsan ilchulbong in the distance.
you can also visit the gorgeous tadao ando designed building genius loci, which houses the yumin art nouveau collection.
genius loci reflection.
genius loci.
genius loci.
glass house.
photo-friendly swing.
seonnyeobawi, or fairy rock.
center
i wanted to sneak in a hike in hallasan national park, and eoseungsaengak trail is the shortest. it’s and out-and-back trail rather steep (more of those stairs) and rewards you with expansive views at the top. the visitor center also has a small museum about hallasan and the island.
driving through hallasan national park.
pumpkin-like rock in the parking lot.
eoseungsaengak trail.
eoseungsaengak trail.
view of hallasan from the top of eoseungsaengak.
view from eoseungsaengak.
view from eoseungsaengak.
north
back near the airport is iho tewoo beach, which is famous for it’s two horse lighthouses. they are very cute, and even have butt cheeks.
bench mimicking lighthouses in the background.
white horse lighthouse.
red horse lighthouse.
view back toward hallasan from the lighthouses.
there were many more sights to see (we completely missed the west coast) but we really enjoyed our time on beautiful jeju.
