South Korea: Jeju Island 3-day itinerary
This is a continuation of my travel recap of my South Korea trip from October 2023. My fiance and I spent 2 weeks in South Korea, starting off with 5 days in the capital city, Seoul!
After Seoul, we ventured onto Jeju Island, commonly known as the “Hawaii of South Korea” because of its tropical environment and relaxing atmosphere. We intentionally put Jeju Island in the middle of our trip so we can take a break from being in a go-go-city-tourist mode.
In this post, I will share everything from where we stayed, to where we ate and what we did in our 3 days on Jeju Island.
Read more about my South Korea trip
South Korea trip 2023 recap
Seoul – part 1 | Seoul – part 2 | Jeju Island | Busan | Paradise City
Day 6: Arrival to Jeju City
We started off day 6 half in Seoul/Hongdae and half in Jeju Island/Jeju City.
Brunch: Offer Cafe
We checked out of our hotel at 12pm at Nine Brick Boutique Hotel in Hongdae. We didn’t spend much time in our hotel room, but enjoyed the spacious room and bathroom (although we did hate how slippery and wet the bathroom floors get because the shower is not enclosed). We left our luggage in the lobby after check-out so we can go grab a bite to eat and also do some last shopping in Hongdae before we leave.
There was a bakery and cafe right across from our hotel that I’ve wanted to check out because the pastries look amazing. The cafe is called Offer and it had a really cute pink and semi-industrial/modern aesthetic. There were also lots of plants inside.
We picked up a grape tart and a giant quiche, as well as a matcha latte. In total, it costed around $17 CAD. The pastries were both puff pastry and super flaky 😍! I really wish we had more amazing cafes in Vancouver.
Shopping in Hongdae
After staying 5 days in Hongdae, we got pretty familiar with the Hongdae area and the shopping/food streets. Because we had so many things we wanted to do in Seoul, this was our last chance to shop and buy things that caught our eyes the previous days as we went and go from our hotel.
I found the morning shopping (by morning I mean like after 10am. Restaurants don’t really open before 10am) to be more pleasant because it is significantly less crowded than in the afternoon or at night.
Lunch: Noonaholdak Hongdae
After a bit of shopping, we got hungry again and decided to stop by this chicken restaurant because there was a poster of Gordon Ramsey on the window and Gordon Ramsey is our lord and saviour 😂.
The restaurant is called Noonaholdak Hongdae and they market themselves as an oven-baked chicken and beer eatery.
The building itself is kinda cool – looks like some sort of video or toy box. There are several floors but we just ate on the first floor. Inside there’s a lot of seating with plush booth seats and sturdy wooden chairs. It was not that busy since chicken and beer restaurants are more of a late night/drinking spot vs. a lunch place.
We ordered a soy baked chicken set that comes with fries, and also 1 peach cocktail. In total, it costed around $30 CAD.
The peach cocktail tasted gross – too sweet and syrupy but I guess that’s what I get for trying to drink at like 1pm 💀. The oven-baked chicken was crispier than I thought – not too far off from fried and it made me feel healthier. The soy glaze was tasty and not too overpowering and we chose bone-in so the meat was quite juicy. Overall, the set was quite good and I can see myself enjoying it a lot more at night and sharing with friends. Between the 2 of us, we struggled to finish eating it all.
Flight: Seoul to Jeju Island (CJU)
We flew from Seoul to Jeju Island with Jeju Air. There are 2 main airlines that fly to/from Jeju Island and there are many flight times to choose from (almost 1 every hour). Flight fare for 1 person was around $60 CAD round trip.
Our flight was at 3:30pm but it got delayed to 4:30pm. It only takes a little over 1 hour to fly to Jeju Island, so we arrived at the CJU airport in Jeju City roughly around 6pm.
Car rental: Jeju One Car
For our 3 days in Jeju Island, our Korean friends recommended us to rent a car so we can explore the island. Transit is much less convenient on Jeju Island.
We rented a car from Jeju One Car and it costed us around $300 for all 3 days. There was a shuttle direct from the airport that took us to Jeju One Car, and the entire process was pretty seamless 👍.
Once we got our car, we felt really excited 😆! It had been almost a week since we had access to a vehicle and can drive since Seoul has a very sophisticated commute system. It was also really nice to be able to put our luggage and other belongings like a jacket or umbrella in our car and not worry about carrying it or lugging it somewhere for the rest of the day.
Street parking in Jeju City was basically free as long as you can find a spot. We parked near where we plan to eat later that evening and took a little stroll and caught the sunset by this big plaza near the water. Really beautiful and a relaxing breeze!
Dinner: Dombedon on Black Pork Street
Loewe’s rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Jeju City has a district called Black Pork Street and it is lined with different BBQ restaurants that serve the famous Jeju Island black pork meat!
We had a delicious dinner at the popular and controversial Dombedon, a BBQ restaurant situated at the start of Black Pork Street. It is popular with tourists and very easy to order for non-Korean speaking customers, but controversial because there were rumours or misunderstandings that Dombedon is Michelin recommended (it is not).
Regardless of the controversy, we enjoyed our dinner here and had a black pig set BBQ menu for around $70 CAD for 2 people.
Recommended: Read my full review of Dombedon, where we tried Jeju Island black pork for the first time!
Accommodations: Jeju GoldOne Hotel & Suites in Seogwipo
The hotel we are staying in is called Jeju GoldOne Hotel & Suites. It is actually located in the South part of Jeju Island in Seogwipo, so we had to drive from Jeju City (North of the island) to the South. This drive takes around 40 minutes.
The drive was actually quite dark since the sun set while we were eating at Dombedon. The road was also quite curvy so it was like driving in a video game 🤪.
We arrived at GoldOne Hotel around 9pm. There is free parking and the hotel lobby was huge. The outside and inside looked very palace-like with gold pillars, checkered marble floors, etc. Check-in process was very simple and the front desk staff speak excellent English.
We splurged a little on this hotel because Kelvin had some Expedia points and we really wanted to relax during our stay in Jeju Island. In total for 3 nights, it would have been around $723 CAD but we used points so it was free.
Our room was on the 4th floor and it was the Ocean View Super King room. Well, it lives up to its standard because the room is huge 🤩! The bed itself is a super king so it is 220cm wide and the ceilings are also very high. The room comes with 1 single sofa bed and a glass jacuzzi that overlooks the ocean view.
After around 1 hour of staying in our room, however, we noticed the AC wasn’t working (no cold wind was actually blowing out). So we contacted front desk and they moved us to a same room on the 3rd floor. The view was slightly lower but aside from that, there was no difference.
We spent the night relaxing in the jacuzzi (it was kind of finnicky but it still worked) and watching some TV in the giant Super King bed before we fell asleep.
Day 7: Seogwipo + Hallim (South + west Jeju Island)
Good morning! Today is our first full day in Jeju Island! My fiance and I split it up so that I am in charge of planning the activities for the first day, and he is in charge of the second day (you will see the differences in our travel style).
I am a planner and I like to travel with a full itinerary and fill up every time slot available in our day. So today, be prepared for a lot of walking and a lot of touristy sight-seeing.
Brunch + Shopping: Seogwipo Maeil Olle Market
One weird thing about me is that when I am in Vancouver, I can sleep until 2pm if I really wanted to but when I am on vacation, I am up 8 or 9am and starving for breakfast. So I woke up on this morning excited for our first day of Jeju Island and I was really betting that we could have an awesome first meal at the Seogwipo Maeil Olle Market.
Similar to the Gwangjang Market in Seoul, the Seogwipo Maeil Olle Market is a large traditional market with tons of stores and stalls where you can buy street food, souvenirs and other goodies.
Unfortunately, when we arrived at 11am, most of the food stalls were still preparing to open for the day 😟. In the end, we wandered into a random grilled fish restaurant underground inside the market where we had grilled cutlass fish for breakfast.
Loewe’s rating: ⭐️⭐️
I found the Korean name for this restaurant: 남매네왕갈치. They advertised a fish set meal for $15 CAD per person, which is actually considered pricey based on other cutlass fish restaurants that are outside of the market. Of course, $15 is still pretty cheap to me but the reason for the low rating is because they advertise this uni soup where you can see the floating bits of orange in the soup, but when the soup arrived as part of the combo, it looked and tasted just like regular seaweed soup but with some conches inside.
Basically, I felt a little scammed but the fish was tasty with lots of juicy protein. It is a little hard to eat though as there are a lot of tiny fish bones. Not for those who are inexperienced with chopsticks.
Recommended: Read my full review of this grilled cutlass fish restaurant inside the Seogwipo Maeil Olle Market.
After we finished eating at this restaurant, we did a bit of souvenir shopping. Jeju Island is known for citrus so we bought some tangerine snacks – the most popular are the tarts and jellies. We also bought some tangerines at an overpriced value of $5 CAD for 5 tangerines (we found free tangerines or by donation at different tourist stops).
One thing I noticed is that many of the workers in the market can fluently speak Mandarin/Chinese. They were bartering with us in Mandarin! I suppose this is because this is a touristy spot so the additional language helps with sales.
I also bought a $1 twisty donut bread before we left the market.
Oedolgae Rock
First stop on my itinerary is Oedolgae Rock. This is mostly because it appeared high on the list when I googled “What to do in Seogwipo” and it is close to our current location at the Seogwipo market (~ 15 min drive).
We arrived at a parking lot and there was an older Korean man collecting parking fees (~$2-5). Entrance fee to the waterfall also costs around $2 per person.
Don’t ask Kelvin what he thought of this activity because we literally walked a very short trail of 5 mins to see this rock 😂.
The history of the rock itself is kinda cool. It is 20 meters in height and formed 1.5 million years ago. It is supposed to look like the back of a woman, waiting for her man to come home from war.
This spot is also a famous filming location for the top hit kdrama Dae Jang Geum, a historical drama about the first female royal physician of the Joseon Dynasty.
Jeongbang Waterfall
Next stop was Jeongbang Waterfall, which is actually backwards closer to the Seogwipo Market. So I actually recommend you visit Jeongbang Waterfall after the Seogwipo Market as it is closer.
Once you park, again you have to pay an entrance fee of around $2 per person. You must walk down a few flights of stairs so if you are unable to do so, it is not worth the visit (not accessible friendly at all).
Once you are at the bottom, you will pass by a tented area where you can see some older ladies selling freshly caught seafood. These ladies are called female divers and you can actually see them in the distance diving into the ocean and capturing edible things. If you are more adventurous, you can taste a few items here as they provide some small stools for you to sit and eat.
The coolest thing I learned about Jeongbang Waterfall is that it is the only waterfall in Asia that directly connects with the ocean. Because of this, swimming is not recommended. But the view is really cool and there’s a really large rock you can stand on near the falls for a great picture.
It was nice to sit in the shaded rock area and admire the nature and the view!
Cheonjeyeon Falls
Apparently there are a lot of waterfalls to see in Seowgipo because the next item on our itinerary is also a waterfall. Cheonjeyeon Falls is around a 15 min drive from Jeongbang Waterfall. Entrance fee to Cheonjeyeon Falls is around $2.50 per person but you get access to 3 waterfalls.
Cheonjeyeon is also known as “The Pond of God”. Legend says fairies bathed here and they even have a nymph festival held here in May. Visitors used to be allowed to bathe here but it is no longer allowed.
Compared to Jeongbang Waterfall, I found Cheonjeyeon to be prettier. From our lookout spot, we could even see fractures of rainbow/light bending so it was very pretty, whereas Jeongbang Waterfall was huge and had a strong aura.
We continued the trail to see all 3 waterfalls but honestly it wasn’t worth it. The second and third waterfall are not as beautiful or impressive as the first one. Also, the trek to the third waterfall actually took quite a while and lots of steps.
Mid-point there was a really high bridge we stopped at to take a look at the view. That was kinda cool.
Side note: there is a 3rd popular waterfall called Cheonjiyeon Falls in Seogwipo (I know – they sound very similar! Can be confusing).
Jusangjeollidae
I feel like by now I need to disclose that I’m not a rock fanatic, but the next stop on my itinerary is to see yet another formation of rocks 😂. I literally just googled what to do in Jeju Island and they recommended all these waterfalls/rock formation sites.
Jusangjeollidae is a volcanic rock formation by the cliffside. The rock pillars are shaped like cubes or hexagons of various sizes so that was interesting to see.
Entrance fee to see this is also $2 per person. And yes, you just go in and see this rock.
Happy hour: The Cliff
So by now, Kelvin is sick of my itinerary because he doesn’t want to walk and pay $2 to see rocks anymore 💀. So we take a break at The Cliff bar, which was recommended by a random DJ we met when we were clubbing in Itaewon.
The Cliff resembles those beach clubs you see when you travel to Bali. They have a lot of Instagram-worthy indoor and outdoor spaces where you can enjoy drinks and food. During the daytime, you get an amazing cliffside view of western Jeju Island. During night time, there’s a DJ and maybe some partying (no idea because we came here in the middle of the day).
Some rules at The Cliff: you need to order at least 1 drink per person and you cannot bring outdoor food or drinks in. You are allowed to bring children (at least during the day).
Prices were pretty expensive here as 2 pina coladas and a snack tray of fries and other fried goodies costed us almost $50 CAD. But you can stay here as long as you want.
Osulloc Tea Museum + Innisfree Jeju House
As I am writing this blog post, it actually fathoms me on how we made it to so many stops in one day. After resting for a bit and eating a bunch of fries at The Cliff, we drive for around 45 mins to the Osulloc Tea Museum.
We made it in at around 5pm before they closed at at 6pm. We thought we would stay for awhile thinking it was a museum with different exhibits, but it really felt more like a tea store. They have some displays of tea machines and things, but mostly it is a giant line for tea souvenirs and a matcha counter where you can order different drinks and sweets.
We bought a slice of cake and an ice cream for around $13 CAD. Souvenirs here are kind of pricey and we spent around $33.
Aside from that, it is kind of nice to walk around this area as there are several tea fields and all the buildings and landscaping have a very zen atmosphere. Bathrooms are also quite clean despite it being a heavy tourist/traffic stop.
Right next door there is an Innisfree branch, which sell skincare products. At certain times, they have workshops where you can make your own soaps and things like that. However, we didn’t make it in time for anything like that, so it was a quick in and out browsing for us.
Hyeopjae Beach
We drive for another 40 minutes or so all the way to the west side of Jeju Island to catch the sunset at Hyeopjae Beach. It was actually so beautiful 🥰! The sand was very soft and white.
It was also very windy though!
Dinner: 금능길 Seafood ramen
Loewe’s rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
After the sunset, we stopped by a hole-in-the-wall for seafood ramen. It was a simple meal that only cost us $14 since we shared it.
Recommended: Read my full review of this hole-in-the-wall seafood ramen spot by Hyeopjae Beach.
After our dinner, we drove all the way back to the South (Seogwipo) to relax at the outdoor pool in our hotel. It was a 1 hour drive back.
Day 8: Udo Island
Today is Kelvin’s day and he decided we are going to go to another island from Jeju Island… Udo Island!
Udo Island is an island off the Eastern coast of Jeju Island. They are known for peanuts and our friend recommended it as a fun day trip.
Breakfast: Dado
Loewe’s rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Jeju Island is known for its seafood and one of the most popular ingredients getting promoted is abalone! We found a nearby restaurant in Seogwipo that specialize in abalone porridge and bibimbap for $16 a set menu.
This was one of our most comforting meals that really helped settle our stomachs.
Recommended: Read my full review of Dado and our abalone breakfast in Seogwipo.
Ferry to Udo Island
To get to Udo Island, you can take a 15 minute ferry from Seongsan Ferry Terminal. You can walk onto the ferry or drive on. It’s around $9-10 per person for a roundtrip and another $20 if you want to bring your vehicle.
It was very confusing to buy ferry tickets to go to Udo Island 😵. Looking back now, it would have been easier had we did more research/read more blogs about exactly how to buy a ticket. But today is Kelvin’s day so I decided I will not do any research and struggle together. Inside the terminal, there is very little English and the staff also mostly do not speak English.
You are supposed to fill out a little slip form first before you go to the counter. You have to write down your information (name, birthday, phone #) as well as your vehicle information before you can pay for your ticket.
The ferry comes almost every hour with the last ferry at around 5/5:30 pm.
We’ve driven on ferries before in Vancouver to go to Tofino, Sunshine Coast or Gibsons, but this ferry is much smaller. Driving onto the ferry is pretty simple (coming back was a horrifying game of tetris… continue reading to find out more).
Once on the ferry, there is an indoor area where you can sit down and rest (shoes off), or you can stand on the deck and enjoy the view. Many folks were feeding birds shrimp chip snacks and the birds were flocking around them.
Once we arrived at the port, there is an influx of bicycle and scooter rentals for around $20. I thought these were quite cute and fun but since we came with our vehicle, we decided to just drive our vehicle to the different spots around Udo Island.
Hagosudong Beach
The first spot we drove to was Hagosudong Beach. It was literally like a 5 minute drive.
The beach was small but also had really fine and white soft sand like Hyeopjae Beach. It was much less windy.
We brought our swimsuits and towels in case we wanted to swim, but when we took a look around, we noticed we were the only people who walked into the water and got our feet wet. Everyone else was fully clothed with shoes. So I didn’t really feel comfortable frolicking around in a bikini 😅.
Snack: Peanut ice cream
Udo Island is known for peanuts and everywhere you go, shops are trying to sell you peanut-related items. One thing I really wanted to try was peanut ice cream. We originally stopped by a big red shop that had “Peanut ice cream” in English all over the exterior. It costed us around $5 and we ate it on their balcony while enjoying the view of Hagosudong Beach.
However, I should have known these stores with English are targeting tourists. The peanut ice cream was tasty and creamy, but didn’t look like the peanut ice creams I saw online.
So, when we went to our next stop at Geommeolle Beach, we bought another cup of peanut ice cream. This time, from a food-truck looking stand that had a long line. This peanut ice cream was also around $5 and had more of a soft-serve texture and they sprinkled on actual peanuts.
Out of the 2, I prefer the one by Geommeolle Beach more because it had a stronger peanut flavour!
Geommeolle Beach
The next place we visited was Geommeolle Beach. It is a very small beach and is known for having black sand. The walk along the side of this was really cool because you can see this massive cave-like rock in the back.
However, once we ventured down the stairs to the actual beach, it looked kind of weird. First, it smelled really fishy and bad. Second, there was no one else walking down the stairs except us and also the bottom looked like it was filled with garbage/big rocks/broken branches, etc. I feel like maybe the beach was actually closed off.
While we were taking a look, we noticed you can take a boat ride and it looked pretty fun because they were spinning donuts in the water. The boat ride costs around $10 per person and you basically put on a life jacket and get on this speed boat right away. The boat driver is pretty fun and drives really fast 😝!
The ride takes 20 minutes and they take you farther out in the water and go around the big rock formation to show you the cave – pretty cool and fun!
Ferry ride back to East Jeju Island
So the ferry ride back was a gong show. We drove to the nearest port and finally joined the end of the line. At this time it was close to the last ferry times so the line to leave was long. When we got to the front, they made us turn around because the ferry was full.
We didn’t know what to do so we followed where all the other cars were being redirected to and we ended up at another port on the other side. Again, we joined the line and even panicked because we thought we lost our return voucher paper (do not lose it!!!).
It was hard to tetris the cars to fit on the ferry because there were several huge and long trucks that also needed to board. For a long time they tried to fit in this long truck before us but it just wouldn’t fit. So finally they just gave up and let us take the spot instead. Even though our vehicle was small and boxy, the staff were still yelling and waving at Kelvin as he backed up and honestly it stressed us out a little because we have a camera and Kelvin is an experienced driver so everything was fine but they made us think it wasn’t 😰.
We drove back to our hotel and took a little walk around the property, thinking we had some sort of beach access but it was literally just rocks and the ocean.
Dinner: Kou
Loewe’s rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
We are now at the midpoint of our trip and have been eating a lot of Korean food so we were craving some Japanese sushi! We found this Japanese restaurant called Kou, also in Seogwipo near our hotel.
Guys… this was the most amazing sushi spot because the prices were so good! You know girl math and boy math? Well Kelvin’s math tells us we are robbing them by eating here.
Their premium cuts of sushi and quality with super reasonable prices give them 5 stars in my books! I highly recommend if you are a sushi lover and are staying in the Seogwipo area to check them out.
Recommended: Read my full review of Kou, a Japanese sushi restaurant in Seogwipo Jeju Island with amazing quality and prices!
Dessert: Bunker House
After our amazing dinner, we stopped by a nearby cafe called Bunker House to buy some dessert that we can eat back in our hotel room. Bunker House had a really beautiful courtyard but since it was dark out already, you couldn’t really see much. I think it would be much nicer to visit during the daytime.
A lot of the cakes and pastries were sold out, but we did get 4 tarts and a peach cake from here.
We returned back to our hotel to eat the dessert, take a dip in the pool, and watch TV before falling asleep on the giant bed.
Final thoughts
Our 3 days on Jeju Island was a much needed break from our first 5 days in Seoul.
First of all, Jeju Island itself does kind of feel like a Hawaii if you compare it to Seoul. There are a lot less tall buildings and there are a lot of these tropical trees and plants. The beaches are also all beautiful with really soft sand. We did come during Fall so I didn’t see anyone swimming or surfing, but it certainly wasn’t too cold to do so.
In terms of things to do, there are a lot of sight-seeing (like my rocks and waterfalls) but I would say after awhile it gets a little repetitive. I recommend seeing 1 waterfall and maybe 1 more nature/scene point and it would be enough. We didn’t have time to do the big hike to Mount Hallasan since it is almost an all-day activity and we also didn’t pack any hiking gear, but if we had 1 more day I think that would be something fun to do.
Udo Island was certainly cute, but I think even half a day is enough time. We were able to drive around the entire island within 1-2 hours so it’s quite small. I don’t think you really need to spend the night on Udo Island.
I did notice a lot of couples traveling in Jeju Island almost no Caucasian people. There were also quite a few elderly people as well.
We had a relaxing time on Jeju Island and ate a lot of reasonably priced seafood! I’m not sure if we will go to Jeju Island every time we go to Korea, but I am glad we checked it out! I can see it being quite romantic and a healing time for your soul and relationship.
Thrill-wise, I suppose every island is on island time. There aren’t that many things to do (in my opinion) so take your time and just explore and enjoy the island and nature.
One of my favourite parts was actually driving around the island in our rental car and stopping wherever we wanted. It was nice to leave everything in our car and pack snacks and other stuff we might need throughout the day.
Keep on reading for more travel recaps of my trip!
South Korea trip 2023 recap
Seoul – part 1 | Seoul – part 2 | Jeju Island | Busan | Paradise City
Sincerely, Loewe
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