Tag Archives: Jeju

Jeju Island Getaway

This past weekend we got the opportunity to again enjoying a brief getaway on the beautiful volcanic island of Jeju, only this time for a low-key friends meet up/ no real game plan kind of weekend.

Summer is officially over and clearly Fall is knocking on the door. Even on the tropical like island of Jeju the much brisk temperatures are starting to settle it. Saturday was dreary and rained, or misted rather, but we made sure we didn’t let the weather stop our fun. We took full advantage of checking out all the places that our group didn’t get to see the first time each of us visited Jeju in the past.

Get ready for some Korean cheesiness. Ready? Jeju Island Teddy Bear Museum….yes… told you.. we are clearly all about the cheesiness here, O’ Sulloc’s tea Plantation, Manjanggul Cave, Cheonjiyeon waterfalls, Jeju Starlight World Park and Planetarium, and Jinjie Cave.

We sipped green tea, coffee, ate some bingsu, ate green tea frozen yogurt, hiked part of the island coast where we got to check out 15 man-made caves ranging 15metres wide and 20metres long leftover from the period of when Korea was under Japanese rule, had the hubby believing that some of the teddies in the teddy bear museum were recovered and came from the Titanic, visited chocolate land where we later discovered we overpaid and were taken on the price of our boxes of chocolate (live and learn), and of course ate the Jeju speciality Jeju Black Pig (heuk-doe-ji). Overall a good time!

So, What were your plans over the weekend?

Feel free to check out photos and follow along on Instagram too!

Backpackbees

JeJu Island (Day Two)

Day two of the trip we woke up to the most beautiful sunny day! The sun rays were beaming off the ocean waves, the clouds looked like gigantic marshmallows, we just knew the day was going to be amazing.

We woke up at 7:00am, ate breakfast at the hotel restaurant buffet, and took a cab to Mini Mini Land. Mini Mini Land is located in Jeju Special Self-Governing Province Jeju-si Jocheon-eup Gyorae-ri San 56-4.

So what is Mini Mini Land? Mini Mini Land is a large park that features 116 famous miniature replications from around the world. To name a few, we got to see the miniature Bulguksa Temple, the Statue of Liberty, the Great Wall of China, the Forbidden City, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, etc. Each replication is constructed at 1/15 or 1/30 of the actual size.

The Cost per adult person is 7,000 won. The hours to the park were displayed as follows: December to March 08:30 – 17:30, April to June 08:30 – 18:00 , July to August 08:30 – 19:30, September to November 08:30 – 18:00 (* Open hours of the park are subject to change depending on circumstances).

After Mini Mini land we went back to the hotel and back up with our friends and decided to grab lunch together. Waiting for them at the entrance of the hotel we ran into some other friends that gave us the address of an Indian Food Restaurant near by. We were pretty excited about the sweet information they gave us and thought we would stick that in our back pocket in case we were in need of a place to go. It turned out that the couple we met up with for lunch were all about trying out the Indian Restaurant and we all decided to grab lunch there.

The trip to the restaurant was interesting because the cab driver had no idea of where the place was. However unlike the Bee’s past experience of the cab driver trying to give the boot out of the cab because he was frustrated with not knowing the exact address this guy was pretty determined with finding the location for us to enjoy a meal at.

After about 15 minutes or so and a few phone calls later the cab driver took an alley and sure enough there was the Indian Restaurant, Bagdad Café! We laughed and said we didn’t quite understand the cafe name connection to the Indian culture. The cafe’s kitchen is actually ran by a Nepalese chef, and was named after the film not the city, features cool rustic music and an outside terrace.

Wow-We! we cannot express enough how delicious the food was at this place. We all shared each others dish so we had a chance to try everything out. Mr. B ordered a lamb curry, Mrs. B ordered a chicken tangri kabob stuffed with cheeses, cream, and indian spices (cooked over charcoal to perfection), and our friends ordered chicken curry, and chicken tandoori,of course we each had garlic naan.

The café atmosphere was quaint and very comfortable. The waitress spoke English and Korean and was very attentive to our table.

Hours after eating at Bagdad Café we were still talking about how great the food was! The café is located in the City Hall area of Jeju City. The address is Korean to give to your cab driver is: 바그다드 대한민국 제주특별자치도 제주시 이도2동. The address is english is: 1186-16 Ido 2-dong, JeJu City. The phone number is: 1188-16 064-757-8182‎.

After lunch we were on our way to Love Land. We found this place in another bloggers blog so we decided to go there. This theme park is for ADULT’S ONLY (in our eyes and according to our standards). However once were at the park we couldn’t find anywhere that had ANY warning or restriction for minors. We have password protected this post titled JeJu (Day Two) Love Land Adults Only. The password to view this blog post is iam18orolder . By typing in this password You must be at least “18” years old to view. By typing in this password you are certifying that you are at least “18” years of age and Backpackbees is not responsible for any of the photo images you are about to view. Thank you for your understanding : ) The link to the Love Land post is Here.

After a stroll through Love Land we headed to E-Mart to see what was there and made dinner plans with our friends to meet up at 7:30pm. We Bee’s wanted to see what JeJu had to offer on the streets and ended up in a huge underground shopping market (Jung-ang) located only minutes away from the hotel. The market was pretty cool and featured a ton of tiny shops offering all sorts of clothing, food, etc.

At this point our legs were really tired and we still wanted to get cleaned up before going out to dinner so we went back to the hotel and got ready for our dinner date.

We met up with our friends again at the hotel entrance and they picked the White House restaurant to go to for dinner. We were game! Eagerly looking forward to checking this place out after Ms. Kim provided an excellent review of the place. We caught a cab outside the hotel and the cab driver was pretty cool! This guy was originally from Seoul and spoke very good English. His appearance and style was very western and his hairstyle was like Elvis HA-HA! We had some good laughs with this guy! The best part was along the ride to the restaurant he called and made reservations for us and when dropping us off he ran in and asked for them to give us a discount. Talk about service!

We pulled up to the White House Restaurant and were immediately taken back again by the beauty of the ocean. The sun was moments away from setting and the breeze coming off the ocean was just perfect. All we could think and say was, “Do we really have to leave this place tomorrow?” We walked up and down along the ocean and just took it all in before heading into the restaurant.

Okay, back to the White House review. We were all really impressed yet again with this restaurant selection. The White House opened its doors back in November 2004. The intent behind this monstrosity of a place was that they wanted to sell a lot of kids of foods like a buffet, spaghetti, steak, and pizza. At the time there was no wood-fired pizza on the island so they decided why not!?

The first thing you will notice when pulling up to the restaurant is that the place is HUGE! The interior and menus are intense but in a good way. There are different levels each catering to what you are in the mood for that day. An article we read about the place said it best, “There are two spectrums, with everything in between. All budgets and people are welcome. The bourgeois meet the proletariat. An abalone steak meets a paupers dinner roll. Expensive red wine meets a students Coke. Louis Vuitton meets Hello Kitty”…I think you get the point, right?

We ended up on the third flood by accident. However the accident turned out to be a blessing because we found and smelled the 65-item buffet. The average price of the buffet is about 27,000 won. Once again we filled up on delish foods and ate until we were stuffed!

The restaurant address is as follows: Yongduam 3 dong 2572-4. Telephone number is: 064-712-3200. We highly recommend the White House for dinner when you are vacationing on JeJu.

Once we got back to the hotel our heads were ready to hit the pillow yet again after another adventurous day in JeJu.

JeJu Island (Day One)

Day one of the trip started off fairly early. Our flight was scheduled to leave Gimpo airport located in Seoul at 9:55am. This meant to beat traffic we had to get on the road at 7:00am sharp. Surprisingly our group did just that and was on the road on time bound for Jeju!

The best part about Jeju is how close it really is. The total flight time was only about 55 minutes. Very quick! We all laughed and said it was just enough time to get comfortable in your seat and then you were ready to land.

We had a lot of kids on the plane and they were all troopers! We hardly heard a peep from any of them. Honestly looking back they all deserved a huge treat of some sort because during the trip they missed nap times, walked, were exposed to the hot sun, and had to eat Korea food.

When we landed at the airport we were met by our guide Ms. Kim. We cannot praise this women enough! She was an absolute hands down fantastic tour guide! Plus she put up with all of us winy Americans. Ms. Kim is was born and raised in Jeju and speaks English incredibly well. We both agreed that if we find ourselves back in Jeju we will be giving Ms. Kim a call again.

We didn’t go directly to the hotel to check in. We loaded up our luggage on a large tour bus and we sought out for our first destination point. Cameras in hand we were ready!

First stop, Seongsan, also known as “Sunrise Peak”. Sunrise Peak is a plateau-like basin which is the crater of an extinct volcano. Eek! That’s right, we said volcano! Don’t worry it’s not active so we were safe. We didn’t get to see the sunrise here because of the flight times but we did get to see the panoramic views that this crater offered. This was after we hiked up a ton of stairs (just a warning). If you get to visit, take the time and hike it! You will not be sorry.

After hiking the crater it was time for lunch. Our group had reservations at a Korean style bi bim bap restaurant. This place was outstanding! They were fully prepared for our large group and had our hot stone bi bim bap ready to go as soon as our bums hit the seats.

After lunch we had a few moments before having to board the bus so we walked down an alley right outside of the hotel and got to see some scuba divers coming in from a dive trip. Mr. B’s heart skipped a beat and he was in awe watching them unpack with all of their gear. Of course for the next few moments he repeated that he couldn’t wait to get the rest of his PADI certification completed.

It was now time to leave the restaurant and be on our way to the next stop on the itinerary. It was another crater known as the sangumbury Crater. The steps were not nearly as rough at this spot. I am sure you are asking why in the world are we going to see yet another crater? Well, the cool thing about the Sangumbury Crater is that it is the only extinct volcano on JeJu island located at ground level. It really is pretty crazy when you think about it. We were impressed by how green everything is on JeJu. The crater had lush forest growth and animals inhibiting it. We were told by our guide that the crater is being studied for that very reason. Interesting, huh?

After we were done at Sangumbury Crater our next stop was the JeJu Folk Village. The village exhibits a comprehensive collection of traditional folk articles from the island ranging around the year of 1890. We met a couple on the trip that were from Panama and he tearfully said that the JeJu Folk village really reminded him of growing up in Panama. It blew our minds getting to look at the village houses and cultural items. By now the sun was scorching us all so luckily there was a snack stand along the trail that served ice-cream. Most of the group bought ice-cream and the other half bought a cool drink. We were all starting to drag so the cool treat was a definite pick-me-up. Ms. Kim finagled a deal that allowed our group to take the tram the rest of the way through the village and back to the bus. Whew! Not a single soul had an issue with that.

We loaded up the bus and the next stop was to transfer to the hotel and check in. We arrived at the Ocean Suites hotel at about 5:30pm. The staff treated the group very well and had the check-in process set up so that we were all able to get to our rooms quickly. We L-O-V-E-D the hotel room! Everything about the hotel was new and fresh. The decor was very modern and sleek, and the view was of the ocean and an outdoor performing arena. Ahhhhh…we didn’t ever want to leave. Our tour group package included breakfast every day at the hotel restaurant. The restaurant featured a large buffet of both western and korean dishes. We would highly recommend the hotel to anyone planning on taking a trip to JeJu. The hotel location is: #1-1260 Samdo-2Dong, JeJu-City, Telephone: 064-720-6000, and website www.oceansuites.kr .

After a long day of fun filled events we took showers and got ready to find some place to grab dinner at. We ended up linking up with a couple and had a blast! We ate at a Korean style restaurant that served Samgyeopsal. We have mentioned having this sort of a meal in past blog postings. Anyways the thick slices of pork with the sides really hit the spot! We were stuffed when we left and all agreed it was an excellent choice.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel but along the way we heard music and singing coming from the outdoor performing arena that we could see from our room. Of course we had to go check what was going on out. The performance was a song that described a story. The only thing we really could take away from it was that it was about fishermen with large casting nets.

With bellies full and eyelids heavy we all decided we were going to head back to the hotel and get some rest. Day two of the trip is a free day with lunch and dinner on your own. Wow does time fly when you are having fun!