Nature Day Trips from Seoul — Which Work in a Day, Which Are Worth a Night

Running a mulhoe restaurant in Sokcho, I hear this a lot.

“We were going to go somewhere closer to Seoul, and then we just came all the way out here.”

That “somewhere closer” is usually Gapyeong or Chuncheon. So we laid the three of them out against the same yardstick. Sokcho is not always the answer.

The short version: with only half a day, go to Gapyeong or Chuncheon. With a whole day cleared, Sokcho gives you Seoraksan and the sea together. With a night to spare, Sokcho adds the sunrise.

The three places by the same measure

Nami Island is inside Gapyeong, so they share a column.

Train times are from Cheongnyangni Station, driving times from central Seoul. For Nami Island, add the leg from Gapyeong Station to the ferry pier. Sokcho is reached by express bus or car, and from Gangnam Express Bus Terminal it is 2 hours 10 minutes to 2 hours 30 minutes. A Chuncheon–Sokcho railway is under construction but not yet open.

We have left fares out. Admission and transport prices change often, so check each official site before you set off.

Gapyeong — the closest nature to Seoul

Gapyeong is the shortest trip out of Seoul to see something green. The ITX-Cheongchun on the Gyeongchun Line reaches Gapyeong Station from Cheongnyangni in just over 40 minutes. By car it is a little over an hour from central Seoul.

Nami Island, the Garden of Morning Calm and Petite France all sit inside Gapyeong, which makes it easy to pair two of them in one day.

You take a boat across to Nami Island and get around it on foot. The avenue of metasequoia trees is the picture most people have already seen.

Leave in the morning and you are back in the evening without strain, with no need to think about where to sleep.

Chuncheon — a city with a lake around it

Chuncheon gives you city comforts and lakeside scenery together. The ITX-Cheongchun from Cheongnyangni takes about an hour. The Soyang River and Lake Uiam wrap around the town, so the water comes right into the city.

People go for dakgalbi and makguksu as much as for the lake, and the day turns into eating and walking. The train runs into the town centre, which makes it easy without a car.

Sokcho — when the sea and the mountains are in one city

Sokcho puts a beach and a national park twenty minutes apart by car. A morning on Seoraksan and an afternoon on Sokcho Beach fit into one day.

From Gangnam it is a little over two hours by express bus. Step off at the terminal and the sea is walking distance. Seorakdong, the main entrance to Seoraksan National Park, is a little over twenty minutes by car. Without a car, city buses 7 and 7-1 from near Sokcho Beach take about 40 minutes. They do not run often, so leave yourself time. There is more on getting to Seorakdong in the Seoraksan foliage guide.

A lot of people really do see Seoraksan and the sea in a single day. They take the first bus from Seoul, spend the morning on the mountain, have lunch, walk by the water in the afternoon and catch an evening bus back. Plenty of them stop to eat with us on the way.

There is one condition. You have to clear the whole day. It means leaving early and getting home late, so it does not fit a day when you only have a few hours.

What changes if you stay the night?

Three things.

You stop watching the clock. Come for the day and the time of the last bus home sits in the back of your mind from morning onward. Stay over and there is time to come down off Seoraksan and sit still for a while.

You can see the sunrise, too. On the East Sea the sun comes up out of the water, and a day trip on the first bus from Seoul will not get you here in time for it. Whether you watch from Sokcho Beach or from your window, you need to have arrived the day before.

And you can be on Seoraksan early. That is when the air is clearest and you can see furthest, and if you reach the cable car as it opens there is almost no queue. If climbing is too much, allow two and a half to three hours return for the cable car up to Gwongeumseong, longer on autumn weekends when the queues build.

We have written out a one-night, two-day plan separately.

Gapyeong and Chuncheon do not gain much from an overnight. They are built to be done in a day, and that suits a half-day off.

So where should you go for a day trip from Seoul?

What decides it is how much time you have that day.

• Only half a day free → Gapyeong
• Eating is the point and you want a city → Chuncheon
• A whole day free → Sokcho. Start early and you get both Seoraksan and the sea
• A night to spare → Sokcho. No rushing, and the sunrise as well

All three are good choices. We run a restaurant in Sokcho, so the Sokcho section is simply the longest one. There is more on the town in two hours from Seoul by bus: Sokcho.

If you do come to Sokcho

We are a three-minute walk from Sokcho Express Bus Terminal, directly in front of Sokcho Beach. You can walk over from the bus with your luggage.

Mulhoe is said to have started on this coast as something fishermen ate on their boats, and later became restaurant food. There is more in the history of mulhoe. If you have come this far, it is worth a bowl.

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