Traditional Side dish dinner
Coming to Korea, I knew I had to make time for a trip to Jeju, the infamous honeymoon destination island south of Seoul. My friends and I had bought our flight tickets back in April for only 100 Cad from Jeju Air (make sure to browse different flight companies and dates to get the best deals, earlier you buy, the cheaper the ticket will be), and I can’t believe that trip came and went already. Last weekend we left on a Thursday afternoon and came back Monday morning; 4 nights and 3 full days.


Manjanggul Cave
For our first full day, we decided to rent a taxi which is common for tourists to do since public transportation isn’t that efficient on the island. We were recommended a driver who has an outgoing personality and knew sufficient English. He charged us 110000Won ($110) from 9-6pm, but since we had five people he added 20000W on top of that initial fee to accommodate the five of us (also, you always buy your driver’s lunch). We could’ve got a combo taxi and have more room (which accommodates six people and is ~$150), but our friend highly recommended this adjussi so we went with it. I definitely recommend renting a taxi and splitting the cost between friends rather than bussing from place to place; most sightseeing locations and natural attractions are secluded and it takes about an hour to go to most places if you stay near the airport/downtown area Jeju-si where we stayed. Renting a taxi also saves time and is more flexible as it caters to your own personal itinerary.

Coast/Beach towards East Jeju

Popular Abalone Congee

Our adjussi driver not only acted as our chauffeur, but also as a tour guide and photographer as well. He was very fun to be with and on top of all the joy we had with him, he was a Christian and even prayed for our lunch in Korean when we asked him to.



We spent our first day exploring attractions towards the East side of the island and downtown Jeju. Here is an itinerary of where we went that day. Most of these places charged only a 1000won entrance free, or else it was free

-Manjanggul Cave, the world's largest natural lava tube
-Beach near East coast
-Sunrise peak/Seongsanllchulbong Peak, an extinct volcano you can hike up, popular women divers are here too (65-85 yr old adjummas who still go diving for seafood, crazy!)
-Yongduam Rock, a natural dragon head shape rock (doesn't really look like one, more like a "bunny")
-Folk Village, traditional houses back in the day
-All In house, where the famous "All In" Korean drama was filmed, really pretty here^^

All In House

Sunrise Peak
our taxi driver giving us a tour of a folk village
 Our hostel, Shinee Guesthouse was also very accommodating as the owner would recommend local restaurants that offer popular dishes for us. The day
we arrived, he brought us to a traditional Korean side dish meal with other hostel guests, and that day we went for heuk dweji (black pig), a popular bbq meal among Jeju civilians.

Cheonjiyeon Waterfalls
On our second full day, we took an hour bus ride from Jeju bus terminal (pretty much across the Street from Shinee Guesthouse), to Seogwipo, the second largest city in Jeju, south of the island. One way was only 3000won (~$3) and we were able to meet up with two of our fellow exchange mates staying on that side of the island.

From the bus terminal in Seowipo, we walked to Cheonjiyeon Waterfalls, which was a very tranquil and soothing place to spend at. Here, we found the popular Jeju ice cream sandwich, basically a spongecake sandwiching orange ice cream. Its definitely worth seeking out for and was very refreshing too.

Other places we hit up:
Jeongbang Waterfalls
Jusangjeolli Rocks

-Jeongbang Waterfalls, where the water leads into the ocean, this place was more adrenaline-rushing than Cheongjiyeon
-Junsangjeolli Rocks, rock formations formed from molten lava, pretty neat place
-Jungmun Beach, a touristy resort place with a nice beach and view, I don't recommend this place though, its not that interesting, and there was barely any food options so we just snacked on oranges and pineapples on a stick

Our main transportation today was taxi as well, taking it when we needed to. The cost was fairly cheap when you split it between 4-5 people (about $1-2 each time). The other option was by public bus, but you would have to figure out which bus to take and wait a while. We ate 오겹살 ohgyebsal (literally "five layer fat" pork aka pork loin) bbq for dinner and called it a day.

View from top of Sarabong Mt.
Third and last full day, we went to church that morning, had a quick side dish lunch near the bus terminal and was ready to hike up Hallasan Mountain and check out the surrounding national park. However, we went to take the bus shortly after 2pm and we didn't know this before hand, but because it takes 8hrs to hike up this place, after 2pm, they don't allow anyone to hike it for safety reasons. We didn't plan to hike up all the way anyways, but they assume everyone goes to hike it, so you can't even go just to take a shorter trail or just for picture taking sake. Fortunately, the nice workers there recommended a short and more tame walk at Sarabong, which is right behind Jeju's national museum.

1/14 dishes @ our seafood dinner
So we ended our last day hiking, enjoying the view, taking jumping photos, and being crazy, all the while soaking in our last day of Jeju. The national museum of Jeju was free, so we decided to check it out as well. There wasn't anything interesting in particular, but we received a quick taste of Jeju's history.

The night ended with seriously a fourteen course seafood/sushi/Japanese dinner (near airport) Mr. Shinee (guesthouse owner's nickname) brought us to. It was only 20000won, so cheap and so worth it. Food coma resulted indeed.

Much memories were made this weekend and I definitely recommend Jeju as a destination to hit up when your planning a trip to Korea.