What to do on Jeju Island? South Korea

Some video highlights from our trip to Jeju Island!

Travel to Jeju-do

To get to Jeju Island we took the shuttle bus to Gimpo Airport which is a smaller airport just west of Seoul. We flew with Jeju Air who had the cheapest flights to Jeju Island at the time of our booking. The flight cost 120,000Won return which is about $120 Australian Dollars. The flight left on time and it took just under one hour to reach Jeju Island from Seoul.

Jeju Air Gimpo Airport

The day after we left Jeju Island a typhoon came through Jeju and travelled up to Seoul, which is not uncommon during the wet season but it meant our time in Jeju was filled with pretty crazy and wild weather, so we crammed in as much as we could into our one sunny day there.

The typhoon Over South Korea while we were there

Accommodation in Jeju

It will depend on what you want to see as to which sides of Jeju-do you would like stay. We wanted to stay on the Seogwi-Dong side in the South of Jeju where as the airport is in the North. We caught the bus from the airport down to Seogwi-Dong, from memory it was just under a 2 hour trip. The bus also stopped just 50m from our hotel.

We stayed at Tae Gon Gak Hotel, the hospitality we were given was amazing. The owners were so friendly and they told us all the local secrets, great places to eat and the attractions that were worth the time and effort to visit. For that we were completely grateful! We left some small gifts and a drawing which you will see pinned up on the wall along with all the others from around the world.

Tae Gong Gak Hotel From the Road

Tae Gong Gak Hotel Jeju Island – View from roof and orchard

To assist, anyone wanting to give instructions to a taxi driver or to the shuttle bus, my Korean friend wrote these instructions down for us which were such a great help! It basically asks for the driver to take you to the below address 🙂

“기사님. 제 친구를 아래 주소의 게스트하우스로 데려다주시길 부탁드립니다. 아래 나온 번호로 연락하시면 길을 안내해 드릴겁니다. 감사합니다.

태공각 호텔 (Taegonggak Hotel)

주소: 제주 서귀포시 서귀동(구 정방동)
823-1 (Address: 823-1, Seogwi-dong (or formal Jeongbang-dong, Seogwipo-si, Jeju)

전화번호: 064-762-2623, 064-762-2625
(Telephone: 064-762-2623, 064-762-2625) “

Jeju Island Attractions

Well Jeju Island does not lack in things to do. Out of all the tour guide books that I had for South Korea, the Jeju Island tourism book was the biggest! Our friendly hosts at Tae Gong Gak were very helpful in narrowing it down to the best attractions.

The first two day we were there it poured down with rain with only momentary relief. It wasn’t until the third day that we had sunshine and we took full advantage of hiring our own maxi taxi for the whole day. There is only a couple of these vans on the whole island and with the suggestion of our hosts we booked in advance. From memory it was only about $180 which we split. The taxi driver became our guide and took us everywhere we wanted to go.

Day 1

The same bus from the airport to our accommodation can also takes you back to where three museums are all within walking distance from each other, these are the Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum, Teddy Bear Museum and the Alive Museum.

Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum

Full of great achievements and unbelievable moments from around the world the Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum was very entertaining and slightly scary!

Ripley’s Believe it or Not Museum

Ripley’s Believe it or Not Museum – Tallest Man

Teddy Bear Museum

Just across the road is the Teddy Bear Museum in Jeju. This is full of teddy bears recreating famous scenes from history.

Teddy Bear Museum Jeju

Teddy bears recreating art

Teddy Bear Beatles

The Alive Museum

This was the most interactive museum I went to on Jeju Island. This was so much fun to watch people engage with the artwork.

Ballerina Emjae!

King Kong’s Dinner

Here..kitty, kitty kitty?

Hippo’s Lunch

Day 3 (Day 2 comes later)

This was our one sunny and beautiful day where we hired the taxi and visited a few locations.

With our Taxi Driver

First we saw the Jeongbang Fall which stand at 23m high and 10m wide. After such heavy rain the few days prior this waterfall was the strongest it had been in a while, roaring over the cliff and into the ocean.

Jeongbang Fall Jeju

Our taxi driver suggested seeing the Hyodoncheon Stream which was along the way. It was gorgeous and if we had more time we would have taken the beautiful board walk upstream.

Hyodoncheon Stream Jeju

One of my favourite sites was certainly Seongsan Ilchulbong. It is an archetypal tuff cone formed by hydrovolcanic eruptions upon a shallow sea bed. The tuff  stands at 182 meters high and has a preserved bowl-like crater that is roughly 600 meters in diameter. It is a very big climb and on a hot day it was a struggle! We all got very burnt and dehydrated walking up this mammoth crater. In my flip-flops and with a flu/virus I wasn’t thinking very practically!

Seongsan Illchulbong Jeju Island

The view from Seongsan Illchulbong

With a few other random stops along the way this was a really amazing day.

Food in Jeju

One thing to note the Korean food in Jeju is known for its seafood and black pork! Word of warning, their english translations printed on the menus can be very wrong. We ordered what said “roast beef” and ended up being beef intestines so just be prepared for this haha.

Beef intestines

Local recommendation from our hotel was a restaurant around the corner

Traditional Korean Meal

Day 2 (I hadn’t forgotten)

One of the reasons why we travelled to Jeju Island was to celebrate the 9th year of Arirang Radio and the 20th year of Korea-China diplomatic relations. It was a big celebration with many artist performing, the MC’s were Kim Isak and Alexander. The performances were from Son Dam Bi, Jun In, Mighty Mouth, Hello Venus, V.I.X, M.I.B and 2BiC. We were very lucky to be given front row seats and the opportunity to meet some of the artists afterwards.

Isak and Alexander

Arirang Concert

Hello Venus

Thank you for reading my blog. Please feel free to tell me about your experiences on Jeju Island or if you have any questions I would be happy to answer them :).