Why Is Jeju Island, South Korea So Popular?

Jeju Island (or Jeju-do) is an oval shaped volcanic Island in the Korea Strait, 80 km from the southern tip of the Korean Peninsula. It’s an unusual place with a gorgeous natural environment, unique local culture, great food and some of the best cheesy tourist attractions you’ll find anywhere in the world.

Jeju is A Unique Destination

Jeju Island is a fascinating and unusual place that very few western travellers will ever see. It markets itself almost entirely to Asian visitors and there is very little here catering to western tourists. Most of Jeju's millions of visitors stick to the popular tourist sites; the famous beaches and waterfalls, and a handful of locations from popular Korean soap operas - if you put in some effort you’ll find a beautiful volcanic island and for the most part you can have it all to yourself.

Jejudo’s Amazing, Varied Landscapes & Forests

What many people don't realise, is that Jeju is not just about beaches. The heart of Jeju Island is South Korea’s tallest mountain, Hallasan – a volcano with a crystal clear lake at the top. The coastline is sculpted out of twisted black volcanic rock punctuated with smooth sandy beaches. Most of the island is windswept grassy hills, farmland divided divided by handmade stone-walls and patches of tangled rain-forest. You can also explore UNESCO world heritage listed lava tubes; visit rugged faming villages with squat stone houses and scramble through spectacular river valleys filled with rounded, car-sized boulders.

Examples of what you might find, above is a 900 year old nutmeg tree in Bijarim Forest - a tiny little fragment of old growth "gotjawal" stone forest. It's dense, dark, damp and green, green, green. The floor of the forest is a honeycomb of volcanic rock - piled, twisted, corrugated and pitted (in places it looked like frozen waves on the ocean) and every crevice is crammed with plant or insect life. An amazing place.

Jeju Island's Marine Environment

It’s located where warm currents from the tropical south meet cool currents from the north, resulting in a unique and prolific underwater ecosystem. Clear water makes it perfect for scuba diving but if you don’t know how, you can always take a ride in a submarine for about $50. That’s right you heard me – a submarine!

“Haenyeo” - Free-Diving Grannies

There is an exclusive society of middle-aged and elderly women who carry on the centuries old tradition of free-diving in the ocean for seafood. They don’t use snorkels or oxygen tanks – they simply put on their old fashioned rubber wet-suits and masks and hold their breath. It’s a tradition that goes back several hundred years and they have a strong sub-culture of their own including folk music, and ranking system. For most of the year, on many parts of Jeju’s coastline you can watch them at work from the shore. You can see Jarrod’s beautiful illustration of a haenyeo on various products here.

Korean Pop-culture Touristy Cheesiness – so bad it’s good

Uncountable numbers of Korean dramas have been filmed on the island and most of the locations used are now major tourist attractions - if that's your thing. There are also over 100 museums. Some of them are interesting and educational such as The Haenyeo Museum or the African Art Museum; others like The Trick Art Museum or The Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Museum are just lame; while some take crappiness to a whole new level and come right out the other side into awesome! (World Teddy Bear Museum, I’m looking at you.)

It’s on a Perfect Scale for Bicycles

Jeju Island is roughly 220km in circumference, a perfectly manageable size for cycling holidays like our bicycle adventure around Jeju-do. A keen sporting cyclist following the main roads can comfortably complete a circuit of the island in a weekend, while a family with kids who are savoring the experience and exploring the winding back roads might spend up to two weeks. We always take our time, as we like to swim a lot, eat a lot and explore the quiet country lanes. On Jeju you’re never far from a small village with homestay accommodation, so there’s no pressure to cover vast distances to reach a hotel before dark.

Great Accommodation

There’s a style and price range for everyone. You can live like the locals at a minbak homestay for as little as $25 a night; find a basic but clean motel for $40-50; join the holidaying families from suburban Seoul at a resort for $400 a night … or go the whole hog and rent out the most luxurious room in the swankiest resort on the island for a couple of thousand dollars – the choice is yours. You can spend the night in a replica UFO, a Buddhist temple or a capsule hotel by the sea where your room is made from a jazzed up piece of cement drainpipe.

Local & Delicious Food

Although it’s a part of South Korea it feels distinctly more relaxed and the locals speak a slightly different version of the Korean language. It’s famed for the quality of its juicy tangerines, pork made from local black-pig, barbecued horse meat and fresh seafood (which you can have raw or cooked). Because of the booming tourist trade and the influx of urban refugees from Seoul, you’ll also find modern cafes and wood-fired pizza restaurants in the most unexpected places – and nearly all of them serve excellent coffee.

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