Jeju Hotels

Jeju is a patent study in contrasts. On the one hand, to quote the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the island is rife with “outstanding aesthetic beauty”. The Geomunoreum Lava Tube System, to cite the most obvious example, is without peer or proximate equal within the Pacific Ring of Fire. The contrast, however, comes courtesy the obvious consequences of mainstream mass tourism, from casinos and amusement parks, to commercial developments and traffic.

In recent years too, work has been put in to reach beyond Korea, China and Japan to preach about Jeju to a global audience. You can witness the fruits of such efforts in the streets of Jeju City today, as more and more hotels and restaurants pop up and expand the breadth of the island capital. Where Jeju will forever stand apart, however, is in remarkable photogenic scenery, from Hallasan National Park to Sunrise Peak, Manjanggul lava cave to Cheonjiyeon Waterfall.

Jeju’s Top 10

Jeju Local

Jeju Special Autonomous Province - the very official-ly name for Jeju proper - came to be in 1946. Prior to that the island was part of South Jeolla province on the peninsula mainland. As a small volcanic island, one topographical landmark dominates Jeju: Hallasan (Mount Halla or Halla Mountain). The volcano is 1,950 metres high and the de facto rooftop of South Korea. No other summit on the mainland tops it. Jeju Island is rather diminutive in total area and roughly corresponds to Warwickshire or Worcestershire. All told then, Jeju barely eclipses Greater London.

Until recently, Jeju Special Autonomous Province, a.k.a. Jeju Island, was in a bit of a municipal and administrative quagmire and erratically split between Jeju City and Seogwipo and North Jeju county and South Jeju county. To further complicate matters, the twin, contiguous areas were subsequently split into thirty-one neighbourhoods and various districts, towns and villages. Complex stuff for an island of barely over 1,800 km² and with less than 600,000 people.

After a 2005 referendum, however, the county designations were no more. For visitors and locals alike then, and for the purposes of tourism, Jeju Island pretty much consists of the capital Jeju City - home to 2 out of every 3 residents - and the small city of Seogwipo. For travellers on holiday, the principal areas of interest on the island clearly range from coastal resorts, the downtown and Sinjeju precincts of Jeju City and Hallasan National Park.

Jeju Eat & Drink

The Korean culinary landscape has a specific and singular expression in Jeju. Cuisine on the island, cut off as it is from the rest of the Korean peninsula, places explicit emphasis on cereal crops, fish, seafood, seaweed and native fruits. A rise in tourism, both domestic and international, has led to a parallel increase in the number of Japanese, Chinese, continental European and American-style restaurants.

Jeju Events

Jeju is a major festival locale with a lively annual events calendar.

Daeboreum, or Great Full Moon festival, celebrates the first full moon of the lunar new year across Korea with special foods, rituals and traditions.

Jeju Fire Festival is part of Daeboreum and features massive bonfires that draw massive crowds in turn. The spectacle is truly primeval.

Jeju Leisure Sports Festival takes place throughout most of the month of June at Tapdong Square and Jeju Sports Complex.

Midnight Beach Festival, held from July to August, features a diverse lineup of traditional music and dance, with concerts all over the island.

Reed Flower Festival is a staple in autumn and the month of October. The foremost folk festival celebrates the bloom of the endemic reed flower at the base of Mount Halla.

Dodoo Oremul Seafood Festival celebrates the profuse bounty of the sea and the bedrock basis of traditional life on Jeju.

Tamra Cultural Festival is a kaleidoscope of traditional folklore, with myriad performances, parades, events and fireworks displays in and around Jeju City throughout the month of October.

Seongsan Ilchul Festival rings in every new year in Jeju at sunrise and is one of the most venerable and joyous annual events in South Korea.

When To Go

Jeju has a humid subtropical climate and is warmer than the rest of Korea. The island still has four distinct seasons, however, with cool winters and hot, humid summers. In terms of tourism, the main months are June, July, August and September, when temperatures run between 66°F (19°C) and 86°F (30°C).

The island receives ample rain throughout the year, with at least seven days of drizzle and 50 mm a month. Despite the mass popularity of Jeju in summer, the peak period for precipitation is from June to September. All in all, more rain falls on the island than anywhere else in Korea and the volcanic topography soaks up any accumulation like a massive sponge.

Conditions, naturally, change drastically as you ascend the slopes of Mount Halla, which has a distinct microclimate. Jeju, as a whole, experiences wild fluctuations in weather throughout a typical day, no matter what the season. The effect is much worse at the height of winter, however, when temperatures waver between 39°F (3°C) and 52°F (11°C).

What To Miss

Jeju is both a natural wonder full of singular biodiversity and a purpose-built pleasure resort with an amusement park-like ethos. While not quite Disneyland or Sentosa Island in Singapore, some aspects of the island do reek with the stench of telltale tourist traps. Many points of interest, in turn, quite patently have a crass modus operandi to simply lure holiday hordes from the mainland with the promise of tacky souvenirs and saccharine entertainment. As with many inherently splendorous areas of the world, Jeju, it seems, is not immune from rampant commercial development hoisted on the shoulders of manifest natural treasures.

Jeju has a costly side as well, most notably in the restaurant department. So notorious is the price of a basic fish dinner at Jeju City area restaurants, in fact, that many domestic tourists actually pack food from home. The practice is a borderline cliché and easy fodder for endless jokes with regular visitors.

The bottom line when it comes to Jeju is to know the score beforehand and understand, first and foremost, that the ultimate charms of the island reside in natural points of interest, not in resorts and casinos.

Getting Around

Jeju International Airport is no slouch in South Korea and ranks third in the country behind only Seoul-Gimpo and Incheon International. Although the vast majority of domestic and international visitors fly through the national capital, the only airport on the island serves a few destinations outside of South Korea, such as Shanghai-Pudong, Beijing-Capital, Tokyo-Narita, Osaka-Kansai, Dalian, Harbin, Nagoya, Fukuoka and Kaohsiung.

If you prefer boats to planes, Jeju is accessible via ferry from four points on the mainland: Incheon (13 hours), Busan (11 hours), Mokpo (5.5 hours), Wando (3 hours) and Nolyeogdo (2 hours). About 6% of travellers choose a ferry ride over a flight to get to the island.

On Jeju itself, both Jeju City and Seogwipo offer decent bus service to various points on the island. Taxis are relatively affordable for shorter trips in the city and in clement weather, bicycle hire is a popular tourist option for scenic tours of the coast. For those with the budget, a car and English guide/driver can be made available rather easily through your hotel. In order to get a sense of the island as a whole, many simply rent a car themselves and explore at their leisure. Safety, however, is a persistent problem, though drivers on Jeju are not quite as reckless and daredevil-ish as in Seoul or Busan.

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