Visiting Seoul and have a few days to spare? Here are some places you may want to consider visiting~ All places can be visited within a day, making it perfect for a day trip!

1. Gapyeong (Nami Island)

Gapyeong is where Nami Island, Petite France and the Garden of Morning Calm are located. This one is definitely one of the more well-known day trips from Seoul, especially Nami Island. Nami is really beautiful in Autumn when the leaves are all yellow and also during Winter, because of Winter Sonata.

Read more about how to get to Nami Island, Petite France and the Garden of Morning Calm in my previous posts. If you want a hassle free day, consider joining this day trip program that includes round-trip transportation, all entrance fees and activities fee.

2. Incheon

Incheon is where most people will enter South Korea from. Sadly, most people only know Incheon for its airport although there are many places to visit in Incheon, including Chinatown, Fairytale Mural Village, Incheon Grand Park and Songdo Central Park – made famous by Daehan, Minguk, Manse in Korea’s reality show, The Return of Superman.

Incheon is accessible by line 1 of Seoul Metro from Seoul city center hence it is really easy and cheap to go there for a day trip. Read more about Incheon here.

3. Suwon

Suwon is a city near the outskirt of Seoul and is also accessible by subway line 1 from Seoul. Suwon is well- known for it’s fried chicken and city wall that is still intact, thus you will be able to walk one round around Suwon on the wall.

Read more about Suwon here.

4. Jeonju

This destination is further from Seoul than the first three destinations. However, it has been a popular day trip destination because of the Hanok Village and (their amazingly delicious) Bibimbap.

Jeonju is around 3.5 hours by bus away from Seoul and if you are a foreigner, you can make use of the 10 USD 2-way bus from Gwanghwamun to get there without needing to understanding how the inter-city bus in Korea works. Read more about how to use the bus here.

5. Gyeongju

Gyeongju is another major city in Korea and used to be the capital of Korea during the Silla Dynasty long, long ago. It’s located near to Busan and can be reached by KTX in 2 hours. If you are planning to go, consider using the Happy Rail Pass or Korail Pass (Korea’s equivalent for Japan’s JR Pass) to save money on the KTX price.

Although it’s quite far from Seoul, Gyeongju can be visited within a day because of the availability of the city tour bus service. There also isn’t much to see if you stay there for more than day unless you want to go to Gyeongju’s amusement park, Gyeongju World. I would recommend going to Gyeongju if you are interested in Korea’s history.

6. Daejeon

Daejeon is another major city in Korea, located 1 hour away from Seoul by KTX and 2 hours by the slow train (Mugunghwa).

Daejeon is know for its bakery, Sung Sim Dang which was recommended by Michelin Korea. Other places you can go are Hanbat Arboretum, Jungang Market and the oldest Kalguksu house in Daejeon. Read more about what to do in Daejeon here.

7. Sokcho

Sokcho is a city well known for its beach, seafood and mountain (Seoraksan). Seoraksan is especially beautiful in Autumn so consider visiting Sokcho during this season. Read more about my trip to Sokcho here.

If you want to explore Sokcho and Seoraksan, consider joining this day-tour complete with a hotel pick-up at Seoul.

8. Cheongyang

Cheongyang is a rural town in Korea and I only got a chance to go there because of KTO’s Explore Rural Korea day-trip shuttle bus service, a free bus service for foreigners to explore rural areas in Korea. I also visited Cheongyang in Autumn and it was really beautiful.

Read more about Cheongyang and the free bus service here.

9. Asan

Asan is also one of the three rural towns in Korea that I visited on a day-trip from Seoul.

This day trip is suitable for children as there are fun activities like decorating a traditional fan and making traditional Korean taffy. If you use the free shuttle service, you will only need to pay for the activities. Read more about my experience in Asan here.

10. Pyeongchang 

The last of the three places I visited on the Explore Rural Korea day trip buses is Pyeongchang. Due to bad traffic on our way to Pyeongchang, we only managed to do the cave exploration activity there but this activity was so unique that I would definitely recommend people to go for it.

Ofcourse in winter, there are many other things to do in Pyeongchang like go to the Trout Ice-Fishing Festival and go skiing. I also climbed a mountain in Pyeongchang (Odaesan) last winter, read more about it here.

11. Yangpyeong

Yangpyeong is another town located to Seoul. The two really famous places to go in Yangpyeong are Semiwon and Dumulmeori. Both places are located next to each other and can be accessed from Seoul Metro Line 1 so it’s really easy to go to Yangpyeong.

I also went to Yangpyeong on a separate day trip to go strawberry picking. Strawberry picking can only be done between December to April when it is in season though. If you want to try it out, check out this post.

12. Yangju

Yangju is a satellite city near Seoul that is accessible by Seoul Metro Line 1. This place is last in the list because there is only one thing worth doing there – take photos at the beautiful flower field that only blooms at certain times of the year. Since it is near from Seoul, you can even visit Yangju in half-a-day like what I did.

Read more about how to go to Yangju’s flower field from Seoul here.

Which do you want to go most? Let me know if you’ve been to any of these places too 😀