Exploring the Beauty of Jeju Island by Bike

One of the many statues carved from volcanic rock

Jeju Island is often called the Hawaii of Korea and is a super popular tourist destination both domestically and internationally thanks to its special visa free status (mainland Korea requires a tourist visa for many countries). Reachable by ferry or by flight, Jeju Island is 60 miles from mainland Korea, has an oval shape and is 73 kilometers east-to-west and 31 kilometers north-to-south. The island was formed by volcanic eruption approximately 2 million years ago, and the center of the island is dominated by Mt. Halla, a now dead volcano, and you guessed it, the must-do hike on Jeju. Due to being formed by volcanic eruptions, Jeju's coastline and the rest of the island boast black volcanic rock while the water surrounding the island is clear and beautiful shades of blue and teal.

My first trip to Jeju was during my first Chuseok in Korea, when I was trying to decide what to do I came across a trip being put on by Seoul Hiking and Nature group, I had done some day hiking trips with them before and my trips with this group is where I met most of my close friends in Korea. What attracted me to this trip was that it was a bike trip, I had never biked long distances before, so naturally biking 250 kilometers over four days sounded like a great idea to me. The trip was a little over a week long, with four days biking and camping around the island, followed by three days at a pension in Jeju City to enjoy other activities.

Day 1

Day one actually started the night before, with a late-night pick-up and a bus ride to the city

Day 1 sunset

of Mokpo to catch the ferry to Jeju. The ferry ride was about three hours and pretty comfortable. Equipped with a snack bar, movies, and more leg room than the economy section on airlines, the ride was also not nearly as bumpy as the ferry ride to Ulleungo-do (no motion sickness meds required!). Once we arrived on Jeju, we headed to the bike shop to scoop up our bikes and started biking to the first campground. Biking around Jeju is a popular activity, there is a blue line that you can follow around the island, with a variety of places to stop along the way. The path for the most part follows the coastline which means the views aren't too bad either. By going on a trip with a tour group, our bikes were rentals and weren't the best quality. Day one was marked the start of my bike saga, I went through three bikes over a four-day period, luckily the rental shop would bring replacement bikes. If you decide to bike Jeju on your own, I highly recommend paying a bit more for a better-quality bike to avoid all the breakdowns I had. As our large group broke down into smaller groups of similar paces, we pedaled off following the blue line and enjoying our first views of Jeju City and the coastline as we headed towards our first campsite, about a 3–4-hour bike ride.

Fruitlessly trying to re-attach my peddle

Towards sunset my first bike misfortune struck when a pedal came right off my bike. My biking companions and I attempted to put it back on. We were assisted by the friendly owner of a fishing supply store that my bike broke down in front of. Once we surmised that there was no reattaching the pedal, we contacted the trip coordinator, who in turn contacted the bike shop to being me a new bike. The shop owner and his wife were kind enough to invite us all in for coffee while we waited for my new chariot. By the time the fellow from the bike shop arrived it was already dark out, so he insisted on driving us to the campsite as he felt it wasn't safe to bike in the dark. Because of this lift we arrived well before the other cyclists, got our tents set up and helped cook dinner, I received a text from a good friend of mine announcing her engagement. This particular trip had a bus tour running in tandem with the bike trip and if you didn't want to camp there was the option of staying in a pension. Our first campsite was at Geumneung Beach which is one of the longest beaches on Jeju. It has beautiful crystal-clear water and is popular for the seashells that can be found there.

Day 2

After a windy night, day two dawned bright and sunny, I got up early to take a walk on the

Sunrise at Geumneung Beach

beach and take some pictures. After breakfast we took off for our day of biking. Our first stop of the day was at the offshore wind park. This "park" is comprised of several offshore windmills as a source of renewable energy for the island, there is also a walkway that allows you to walk out over the water to a number of them, in addition there is an actual park on the hillside above with giant shell sculptures and a great view of the ocean and windmills. Lunch was a bit of a drive by affair; the bus tour group had stopped near a picnic area so the cycling group could stop and make sandwiches and grab snacks and drinks from the convenience store before continuing on toward the campsite. For some reason when I decided to undertake this bike trip I had it in my head that Jeju is mostly flat so it would be a relatively easy bike ride, well that is definitely false as in the afternoon of day two we started to get into some of the hills of Jeju.

This is also when my second bike started to have issues with only one brake working, exactly what you want for hills! Right before reaching our campsite for the night was a peddle up Sanbanggulsa Mountain (at least part of it), at the top of the was Sanbanggulsa Cave Temple, and since my legs were a bit like jell-o from pedaling up the hill I stopped briefly to visit the temple. The temple sits on the southwest side of Sanbanggulsa Mountain, which according to stories was created when Baekrokho Lake (the crater lake on Mt. Halla) was once taken away and turned into Sanbanggulsa Mountain, and that is why it has no crater (a unique feature of Sanbanggulsa compared to other mountains on Jeju).

The site of the temple contains a 5-meter-tall cave, where it is said Buddhist monks lived and worshipped as far back as the Goryeo Dynasty (964 -1053). After leaving the temple I was faced with a pretty steep downhill, after all, what goes up must come down. Despite Henry encouraging me to "just go for it" I opted to walk my bike down as I had only one working brake and I'm not brave like that. Our campsite for the second night again offered options for pension or tent camping, the end of day two was also when I realized how sore long-distance cycling can make you, so if you do decide to cycle the island, I highly recommend purchasing a pair of cheap cycling shorts. To help combat this soreness, the obvious solution was drinking mandarin makgoli, which is very hard to find on the mainland (Jeju is famous for its production of mandarins and mandarin products).

Day 3

With yet another new bike, we started the day with a brisk uphill pedal out of our campsite

into what would become a day of ups and downs, literally, so many hills! One of the benefits of biking the island is being able to stop at various tourist attractions around the island as you will hit many of the big ones that are along the coast. If you're cycling the island sans a tour you could also opt to stop and spend a few days Seogwipo to see the attractions on that side of the island.

The first stop of the day was Cheonjeyeon Waterfalls. Called "The Pond of God" this site is a series of three waterfalls. The first waterfall falls into a pond with a depth of 21 meters and from there it falls into two more waterfalls, with the final waterfall falling into the ocean. Cheonjeyeon Waterfalls is also known for Seonimgyo Bridge, which is a picturesque bridge with nymphs carved on the side.

A few (many) hills later we reached the second stop of the day, which was also our lunch break, Jeongbang Waterfall. As this is a popular tourist destination there were a variety of restaurants along with street food stalls to go along with the lunch that was included on the bike trip. Jeongbang Waterfall is the only waterfall in Asia that falls directly into the ocean which arguably makes this the most famous waterfall on Jeju and maybe in Korea. A sort jaunt down the coast from Jeongbang Waterfall you can find the Haenyeo, a group of women divers who dive without oxygen everyday to collect a variety of seafood such as Abalone and Sea Urchins. Although a now dying tradition (most of the Haenyeo are in their 80s) Jeju's diving tradition dates back to 434 AD and was originally a profession for males only, however this gradually changed and in the 18th century the number of women divers outnumbered the number of male divers, and this continued into modern times. There is a whole museum dedicated to the Haenyeo if you want to learn more about these incredible women and even see them dive.

After an afternoon of conquering hills, the group I was cycling with started bets on every up-hill where the first person to get off their bike and walk had to buy everyone else a beer to help motivate us to stay on our bikes and conquer hills. Sheer determination got me a lot of

Hanging out in the pension

free beers at the end of day three, we were having pizza for dinner, so what a perfect match. As it had been fairly cloudy all day and the forecast was calling for rain that night (we were also hella tired from all the hills), the group of girls I had been cycling with the past few days and I decided to splurge on a room in a pension for the night (if you're not familiar with more traditional Korean pensions, you can get a large room with sleeping mats so you can fit several people in one room, and a private bathroom. This turned out to be a great decision as it POURED the whole night, and while I have done many a rainy night while backpacking in my tent, the tents we used were rented and not of the same quality as my personal tent.

Day 4

Day four dawned highly overcast with the chance of more rain, this proved true about 20 minutes into our ride when it started to downpour. The group I was with stopped at a convenient abandoned shop to don our plastic ponchos, for me overtop of my rain resistant jacket (you can never have too much rain protection) and to snap some photos of ourselves as we watched the bus tour cruise past. Luckily the rain didn't last very long before turning into more of a mist that lasted on and off the rest of the day until we reached Jeju City. Mid-morning we stopped for a coffee (to warm up) and a snack while overlooking the beach. Our lunch destination was Seongsan Ilchulbong Peak. A UNESCO work heritage site and also called Sunrise Peak, it was formed by hydro volcanic eruptions on the shallow seabed to create what is know as a tuff cone. It takes about an hour to walk up to the top and back down from the peak, and at the bottom there are a plethora of restaurants to grab a snack or a meal, I went for ramen as I had been biking in the rain all morning and wanted to warm up some.

After our trip up to the peak and lunch, we started the final stretch of our circumference of the island to our pension in Jeju City. While it stayed cloudy and overcast during the

afternoon, it stopped misting and I actually started to dry off a bit (yay!). Overall day four was a pretty flat ride and stuck to the coastline which made it the most visually enjoyable, our little group of slow peddling girls was joined by our friend John, who biked (and hiked Hallasan) wearing flip-flops and hydrating with soju (a Korean alcohol), what a champ, he also had done this trip before so he knew exactly where our pension was. We rolled into our pension around 4pm and after showering and changing, we headed out to enjoy a celebratory meal of Korean BBQ with Jeju's famous black pork, this was pre my vegetarian days, but I am known to try culturally unique or famous dishes that contain meat. Ya girl is curious. Many of us opted for a fairly early bedtime as we were leaving bright and early the next morning to hike Mt. Halla.

Jeju City

We spent three days at our pension at Hamdeok Beach in Jeju City, the first day was spent hiking Hallasan, the dead volcano sits in the middle of the island. While not a particularly difficult hike, it is a long one, and the park does say that you should hit the peak by noon at the latest. I will be touching more on hiking Hallasan and going into more detail on the routes available in a separate post as I have hiked it more than once and in different seasons.

The hike down Hallasan

On the second day in Jeju City, I opted for a chill day, hanging out at nearby Hamdeok Beach and going for a walk along one of the ocean side walking trails in search of wild horses. During my walk I was invited to join a super friendly Korean family for some pajeon and makgoli, and during the walk back to Hamdeok Beach, the dad hilariously decided I should marry his son so he could have mochachino grand babies, I didn't have the heart to tell him that's not how genetics work.

Day three was really more of a half day as we had to catch the afternoon ferry back to the mainland. I opted to take the train from Mokpo to Daejeon instead of the bus as it was faster and I had to work the next day, so I wanted to get home faster.

Overall, I would say this was a super memorable trip as I met several people who I became quite close with during my time in Korea, well worth the soreness from biking 250 kilometers and I highly recommend this unique way to see the island!