9 Days South Korea Itinerary in Spring

If you happen to visit South Korean in Spring season and look for itinerary references, you can use mine for starting your trip planning. So here's my 10 days itinerary of South Korea trip in spring :

• Day 1 : Incheon & Dongdaemun Area

My flight arrived at Incheon airport in the morning. I started my journey to the nearest city from the airport which is Incheon City and the first destination I visited is Songwol-dong Fairy Tale Village (송월동 동화마을). I took a train from the airport to the Incheon station and I left my luggage in the luggage locker in the station before strolling around the area.

Building in Songwol-dong Fairy Tale Village

Coming to this area will take you into a fairy tale story that you read as a child. The street was built like a cartoon world and it will make you feel like living in a fairy tale story. You will find a cute character in every corner of the road, colorful stairs and walls all around the area. It's a good spot to take a lot of good Instagramable photos especially if you were traveling with kids.

One of the best Jjajangmyeon i ever had!

Songwol-dong Fairy Tale Village is actually in the middle of the old Chinatown area. Near the area, you can also find Jjajangmyeon (짜장면) Museum and (of course) a lot of Jjajangmyeon restaurant. I tried one of them based on the references to the Train station crew and it was so delicious (but a little bit pricey). You can read the details of the restaurant on this blog post.

Super artistic DDP area

After finishing exploring the area, I went to my hotel in the Dongdaemun area. On my first day, I stayed at Seoul Dalbit in Jongno-gu area. You can read my review on this hostel on this blog post.

Korean Strawberry

We previously planned to go to the Gyeongbokgung Palace (경복궁), but since the Palace is closed at 6 PM, we decided to change our plan and moved it to another day. So in the afternoon, we went to DDP (Dongdaemun Design Park). Near this area, you can find a lot of street stall selling foods and spring fruits like strawberry or tea.

• Day 2 : Myeongdong & Jeju Island

Our flight to Jeju was scheduled at 4 PM, so we have plenty of time before going to the airport. So knowing that we went to Myeongdong area and visited our Airbnb host where we stay after coming back from Jeju & Busan and decided to leave some of our luggage there. Our host David is so nice and very helpful, you can see my review on his listing on this blog post.

After putting our luggage we decided to stroll around Myeongdong area before going to the airport. We tried a restaurant named Myeongdong Kyoja (명동교자) and tried their Kalguksu noodle & dumplings. You can see the details of my visit on this following blog post.

Feeling full from eating the dumplings we looked for some place to chill out before going to the airport. We found an Osulloc Tea House 오설록 and tried their famous Jeju tangerine menu to warm our body. Ah, I forgot to mention that the temperature is pretty chilly for me that used to live as a tropical human. It was below 8 Celsius and raining at that time.

After a while, we went to the Airport for our flight to Jeju Island and arrived in no time in Jeju. The flight only took 45-50 minutes before we finally landed in Jeju Island.

In Jeju, we stayed on Airbnb near the airport area. It is super close to the airport that it will only take you 10-25 minutes to go there. You can see my review on this hosting on my following blog post.

For dinner, we decided to try the famous Jeju Black Pork near the hostel. We finally confirmed that Jeju Black Pork apparently still has pink meat but black hair. We found a local restaurant based on the reference of the hostel owner. Even though they can't speak English at all, they tried their best to serve us and even gave us extra food for free! (Thanks ahjumma!). You can read my full story on this blog post.

• Day 3 : Full day Trip Jeju Island (Eastern Area)

As Jeju is quite a peaceful city and people usually come here for a holiday. It's very common for Korean to rent a car in Jeju and drive along the island in a car. But apparently, as Indonesian Driving License was not verified in the Geneva Convention, Indonesian can't drive a car in Jeju even though we already have our International driving License (you can read the details about this information on this link).

So knowing that we decided to rent a taxi with the helping of our Airbnb host. The taxi itself cost us KRW 150,000 for 8 hours rent. It's quite expensive but you can share it up to 4 people per car. It's still a better choice than using a taxi from one place to another place as in Jeju the public transportation system is not as convenient as Seoul. You can't easily reach tourism destination by using the bus only.

Chilly Breeze of Woljeongri Beach

As recommended by our driver, we decided to explore the east coast area of Jeju Island. So in 8 hours, we visited Woljeongri Beach (월정리 해수욕장), Seongsan Ilchulbong (성산 일출봉), Seopjikoji Cliff (섭지코지) with its Candy House & canola flower field, Folk Village, and our ultimate destination Noksan-ro (녹산로) where the canola flower meets the cherry blossom on the spring.

• Day 4 : Busan day trip

We took the morning flight to the Busan and arrived in our AirBnB just before lunchtime. This Airbnb is one of the cutest places i ever stayed in Airbnb. It was a loft studio! You can see my review on this following post.

So after putting our luggage on the hostel, we went to the Busan Seaside temple called Haedong Yonggungsa. The entrance road to the temple was also filled with cherry blossom. It makes everything looks more beautiful.

After exploring Haedong Yonggungsa, we went to the Busan famous beach Haeundae Beach. In this beach, we played with the seagulls' birds by giving some snack. You can buy the prawn chips on the nearest 7-11 and feed them. They will definitely follow you everywhere until they finished your snack.

• Day 5 : Jinhae Cherry Blossom Festival

Jinhae Cherry Blossom Festival was the highlight of my 9 Days South Korea trip this time. It took 2 hours journey from Busan to Jinhae using a bus. But once you arrived in this city, it surely shows us the magical cherry blossom city as you can see the whole city covered in pink Sakura petals.

Each year, the city has a spring festival called Jinhae Gunhangje Festival (진해군항제). It usually held at the beginning of April just in time when the cherry blossom was blossoming at its finest. You need to spend at least half a day at this festival to properly enjoy the scenery & cherry blossom. There are 2 iconic places that you need to visit which are Gwanghyun station and The Love Bridge. Read on how to get there from Busan and my full details on the experience on this blog.

Back from Jinhae, we are back to Busan and try the famous Ssangdungi Dwaeji Gukbap (쌍둥이돼지국밥). It was so good and the price is cheap as well (super worth it compared to other food we in Korea). Read the details on how to find the place on this following post.

• Day 6 : Ewha Woman University & Old city area

Our morning flight to Seoul was scheduled at 7 AM in the morning. If you wonder why do we take a flight instead of taking a train? Wasn't it more expensive? Well, it turns out that using a plane can be cheaper than using KTX. I found the flight by using Skyscanner for only 400 thousand IDR while KTX will cost us more than 600 thousand IDR, you can try to compare the fare of KTX on their official website.

Once we arrived in Gimpo Airport, we took Metro to see Ewha Woman University area. The building is so pretty that it almost looked like you were back in the European decade. We also try a dumpling restaurant called Seowang Mandu near the area. It was delicious and super cheap as it is near the campus area. You can find out how to get there on this blog post.

After putting our luggage on our Airbnb place, we went to Gyeongbokgung Palace (경복궁) and tried a tea ceremony along with some Korean sweets inside the palace area. You can read my full experience in the palace on this blog post.

After that, we moved along to Bukchon Hanok Village (북촌한옥마을) and tried the famous Samgyetang (Ginseng Chicken Soup) in Tosokchon (토속촌) Samgyetang. It was one of the most famous places in Korea. You can read my review on this blog post.

• Day 7 : Gangnam, Myeongdong & Namsan Area

Day 7 itinerary is basically a Seoul Tour. We started from Myeongdong Cathedral as we found it on our way to go to Gangnam area. We also tried the famous Myeongdong Croquette (명동 고로케) just in front of Myeongdong Cathedral area. We tried 3 flavors: cheese, red bean, and vegetables. You can read my review on this blog post.

We previously planned to have brunch at Hanchu Chicken (한추). But we didn't aware that they are actually open at 4 PM. As we came in the morning, they were not opened yet. So we ended up trying a Korean BBQ restaurant just across the street of Hanchu Gangnam called 차돌소풍마을. Read my full review of this restaurant on this blog post.

After finishing our brunch, we continue our journey to SMTOWN. It's so easy to go here as they have their own MRT station for SM Coex area. We spend 1 hour on this building. It's a heaven for Kpop lovers (especially if their bias is SM Artists) obviously.

Continuing our journey, we went to the Namsan tower to spend the sunset from the observation deck. You can either buy the ticket to go to the observation deck, or you can just simply also enjoy the scenery from the park which also beautiful and free for anyone.

And for our dinner, we didn't forget to try the famous Korean Fried Chicken in BHC (Better & Healthier Chicken) 모바일. Check out my review on this blog post.

• Day 8 : Everland

Early in the morning we took a bus to Gyeonggi-do and spend the rest of the day in Everland Korea. You can read my tips for Everland on this following post.

• Day 9 : Myeongdong Shopping

You can't say that you already came to Korea without buying their Cosmetic products :). We spend the day by strolling around the Myeongdong area and buys some gifts for friends and our self too.

An important tip for those who want to buy cosmetic in Myeongdong: Please be aware that each cosmetic store has different promo (even though they are selling the same brand). So, just grab any discounted cosmetic you find, as you may not find it again in another store.