Out & About in Jeju Island
There are so many things to see and do while visiting Jeju Island that it couldn’t possibly all fit into one post! That’s why some other things have been separated out into their own (i.e. Hello Kitty Island, Bunker de Lumiere, Love Land, and the Tea Museum). “So what is left?” you may ask….well lots!
Let’s start with the Figure Museum. It’s is a two story building with tons of figures ranging from life size to pocket sized, and from super heroes to robots. It was only about $10 to enter and bonus…it’s just down the street from Hello Kitty Island, so it only makes sense to go to both!
Another great thing that Jeju has to offer are some beautiful waterfalls. The Jeongbang waterfall is 23 meters high and is special because it is the only waterfall in Asia that falls directly into the ocean. I also visited the Cheonjiyeon waterfall which is said to be 22 meters high, but compared to Jeongbang, it seems much smaller. You have to walk a little ways along a path to get to Cheonjiyeon falls and although it is beautiful, it wasn’t as impressive as I had hoped. This waterfall is also very popular at night because it is illuminated. I didn’t stay late enough to see it because the mosquitos were quite ravenous!
From that waterfall, I walked down to the Saeyeongyo Bridge which was about to light up since it was dusk. This bridge is a pedestrian bridge that goes to Saeseom Island where it is popular to hike and birdwatch (neither of which I did). It was also a nice location to watch the sunset. In addition to the waterfalls and bridge, another great place to visit in the Seogwipo area of Jeju is the Yakcheonsa Temple. The very large prayer hall and temple are located on the manicured grounds that feature palm trees and light up dol hareubang statues.
One of the final places I visited was Manjanggul Caves. This ended up being the perfect activity for a day that ended up having monsoon rainstorms all day long. These lava tubes are a Unesco World Natural Heritage site. This cave is one of the largest lava tubes in the world at 9km long, up to 23 meters wide, and 30 meters high. Since Jeju is a volcanic island, there are some other caves here as well, but since the Manjanggul are some of the biggest, they’re also some of the most popular. It was funny that I went to these caves to escape the rain, but found people inside the caves using umbrellas to protect themselves from the drips—it was a little dramatic if you asked me ;)
