Fall is coming and if you are in Seoul and want to get out an see a different side of Korea, I would recommend visiting Gyeonggi Province, which is literally translated as “area surrounding the capital (seoul)”. The top three attractions here are (1) Nami Island, (2) Petite France and (3) Garden of the Morning Calm. Also if you want to stay in a Banana Milk or Soju themed room, you can find it here. I visited last fall with my family, and we went when the fall foliage was at its peak, and it was just gorgeous.
Nami Island (남이섬)
Nami Island or Namiseom was our first stop. This is a man made island that was formed as a result of construction of the Cheongpyeong Dam in 1944. It was named after General Nami, who was falsely accused of treason and executed. A tour company later developed the island into a theme park. You can either take a ferry or a zipline to the island. We chose the ferry for obvious reasons.
If you are a K drama fan, you will probably recognize this island from Winter Sonata, one of the most popular K dramas ever.
It’s a nice place to escape city life in Seoul and be with nature (and tons of people depending on the time of year you go). If you want to take some of these typed of photos, I would recommend getting here as early as possible. We took the 8 am ferry and left by 10 or so, and on the way back the ferry was packed to the brim compared to when we left earlier. You can rent bikes on the island or just explore it on foot. I don’t think we covered the entire island but we spent about 2 hours there.
Ferry Schedule
The earliest ferry leaves at 7:30 and it departs every half hour until 9am, after which it departs every 10-20 minutes. The last ferry leaves at 9:40 pm.
Time | Interval | Note |
07:30~09:00 | Every 30 minutes after first ferry at 07:30 | (departure – Gapyeong Wharf) |
09:00~18:00 | Every 10- 20 minutes | |
18:00~21:40 | Every 30 minutes until last ferry at 21:40 | (departure – Nami Wharf) |
The price is 13,000 won per adult and 7,000 won for kids for the ferry, and 44,000 won for the biplane.
Nami Island website: https://namisum.com
Address: 1024, Bukhangangbyeon-ro, Gapyeong-eup, Gapyeong-gun, Gyeonggi-do, Korea
Petite France (쁘띠프랑스)
Petite France is a theme park that pays tribute to the Little Prince. It doesn’t have any rides… It’s mostly just a place where you can wander around and see fake colorful European style buildings and take photographs. This is a really strange place. I mean, it had a model of a french woman’s room a french man’s room? SO weird. It kind of reminded me of like an old colonial town where they show you what a typical persons home would look like back in the old days, except this is just a random French person’s room with no real time frame. Kind of weird. There’s also a replica of the Eiffel tower. This place feels like a combination of Solvang in California / Vegas / a run down amusement park. There were fairy tales mixed in with the Little prince references. Just kind of confusing and weird. There was a nice nature walk though.
The cost is 8000 won for adults and 5000 won for kids, You can probably spend about an hour here and see everything.
Address: 1063, Hoban-ro, Cheongpyeong-myeon, Gapyeong-gun, Gyeonggi-do
경기도 가평군 청평면 호반로 1063
Garden of the Morning Calm (아침고요수목원)
This botanical garden was conceptualized by Professor Han Sang-kyung while he was an exchange professor in America. He wanted to construct a world famous garden that would spread the concept of Korean beauty throughout the world. The name originated from an Indian poet who called korea the land of the morning calm… and this is indeed true. Even in Seoul you won’t find a ton of people leaving their houses until afternoon.
There were a lot of people there when we went but in my opinion its gorgeous and definitely worth a visit. We went in the fall and we got to enjoy the fall foliage. My kids really enjoyed this little rock garden where you stack up rocks into little towers. There was also this area with little houses that my kids really enjoyed. I’d like to go back during the spring to see all the spring flowers, and winter to see the light festival.
The cost is 9,500 won for adults and 6,000 won for kids.
Website: http://morningcalm.co.kr
Address: 432, Sumogwon-ro, Sang-myeon, Gapyeong-gun, Gyeonggi-do
경기도 가평군 상면 수목원로 432
Getting to Nami Island, Petite France & Garden of the Morning Calm
As far as getting to Gyeonggi province you have a few options. If you know someone with a car or if you can drive, I think this by far the most convenient and easiest option, and thats what we did. You can also take a tour bus from Myeongdong or Hongdae or Dongdaemun. There are a lot of different tour companies, with different combination packages. I think it will run you about $50-100 per person.
If you want to go on your own but don’t have a car, you can also take the ITX from from Yongsan Station to Gapyeong Station. that costs about $5, or if you have a Korail pass its included.
Reserve your tickets on the Korail website. Bring your passport and a print out of your ticket confirmation with you to Yongsan Station.
Korail website: click on “Rail Tickets” on the top menu.
Once you get there you can take the bus. I believe there’s a regular inter city bus and also a Gapyeong city bus which will take you between all the different sites. A day pass for the Gapyeong City Tour Bus will cost 6000 won.
*Images via Gapyeong City Tour Bus Website
Finally, you can take a shuttle bus from Insadong, Namdaemun, or Myeongdong to Nami Island. For more information, check out the official website here. To reserve a spot, email bus@naminara.com.
Overall, I really enjoyed visiting these places. I would definitely go back to Nami Island and Garden of the Morning Calm, to see what it’s like during the other season and I do plan on going back. For me, Petite France is a one and done thing though. If you are a fan of the little prince then I definitely recommend that visiting, but other than that, it’s kind of a tourist trap.