Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Gardens & parks
서울특별시
Right next to Saetgang Station in Yeouido, this small park was created to mark the sister-city partnership between Seoul and Ankara, the capital of Türkiye. Ankara House, modelled on a traditional Turkish vineyard farmhouse, displays more…
Museums
양구군
Trace the clay used for the Joseon court's white porcelain back to its source and you end up in Bangsan-myeon, Yanggu. The Yanggu Porcelain Museum tells the story of 600 years of porcelain making in this corner of Gangwon and of Yanggu whi…
Museums
양구군
In Yanggu-eup, Gangwon, the Yanggu Prehistory and Modern History Museum brings three exhibition halls together. The Yanggu Prehistory Museum, which opened in 1997 as Korea's first museum dedicated to prehistory, stands beside the Yanggu Mo…
Old towns & squares
광주
On Yangnimsan hill, across the Gwangjucheon stream, red-brick Western houses stand side by side with tiled hanok. When American Southern Presbyterian missionaries settled here in 1904, Yangnim-dong became known as "the Western village" and…
Churches & monasteries
양산시
Tongdosa sits on the southern slopes of Yeongchuksan in Yangsan, South Gyeongsang, and is known as the "Buddha Jewel Temple" because it enshrines relics of the historical Buddha. That is why its main hall has no Buddha statue: worshippers…
Churches & monasteries
양산시
In a valley of Cheonseongsan in Yangsan, a temple hall clings to the cliff right beside a waterfall. Hongnyongsa takes its very name from Hongnyong Falls next door, and its Gwaneumjeon hall stands close enough to feel the spray. It is not…
Churches & monasteries
양양군
Naksansa was founded in 671 by the Silla monk Uisang on Obongsan, right on the East Sea coast, and it is one of Korea's most important sites of devotion to Gwaneum, the bodhisattva of compassion. The cliff-top hermitage of Hongnyeonam, wit…
Coast & islands
양양군
From the mouth of the Namdaecheon, which flows down from Seoraksan, to the foot of the hill where Naksansa Temple stands, a strip of sand runs for 1,810 m. Since it opened in 1963, Naksan Beach has drawn more than a million visitors every…
Historic sites & memorials
양양군
Deep in the Micheongol valley in Seo-myeon, Yangyang, a forest path climbs to a temple site where a pagoda, a stone lantern and a stele stand scattered against the hillside. The Seollimwon Temple Site belonged to a 9th-century monastery of…
Other
양양군
Where the Seoraksan and Odaesan mountains meet, in the middle of Yangyang-eup in Gangwon Province, Yangyang Traditional Market comes fully alive on dates ending in 4 and 9, when one of the biggest five-day markets on the northern east coas…
Gardens & parks
양주시
Every autumn the wide fields of Gwangsa-dong in Yangju are carpeted in magenta, pink and white. Nari Farm is known as the largest colony of globe amaranth in Korea, and between late September and mid-October each year it hosts a globe amar…
Churches & monasteries
양주시
On the southwestern slope of Cheonbosan in Yangju, a broad site of stone terraces stepping up the hillside is all that remains of Hoeamsa. From the late Goryeo period into early Joseon it was the largest temple in the country, a royal temp…
Other
울산
Eonyang Alps Market is a traditional market in Eonyang-eup, Ulju-gun, Ulsan, first held in 1915 and still going more than a century later. It is open every day, but on market days – dates ending in 2 and 7 – extra stalls fill the arcade an…
Theme parks
용인시
Everland in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, is South Korea's largest theme park. It is much more than rides: a zoo with pandas and big cats, gardens with seasonal flower festivals and the Caribbean Bay water park all belong to the same resort.…
Theme parks
제주시
Ecoland is a theme park on the east side of Jeju where a small train modelled on an old steam locomotive loops through the Gyorae gotjawal forest. Stations sit along a circular line of about 4.5 km, so you hop off at each one to walk a lak…
Coast & islands
여수시
Three small islands stand around a stretch of sea like a folding screen. The water inside is deep and calm enough for large ships, and that natural harbour drew the attention of the great powers in the 19th century. The Royal Navy called i…
Historic sites & memorials
여수시
In Sijeon-dong, Yeosu, between apartment blocks, a stone-walled basin still fills with seawater. This was a shipyard from the Goryeo period onwards and is known as the place where Admiral Yi Sun-sin and General Na Dae-yong built turtle shi…
Coast & islands
여수시
A small island off Yeosu turns red from winter into spring. Covered with some 3,000 native camellia trees, Odongdo is known as "Camellia Island" and is the city's best-known sight. A 768 m breakwater links it to the mainland, so you can wa…
Historic sites & memorials
여수시
On a hill in Yeosu's old town, Jinnamgwan is Korea's largest single-storey wooden government building, a hall held up by a forest of pillars. It stands on the site of the Jeolla Left Naval Command, Admiral Yi Sun-sin's headquarters during…
Viewpoints
여수시
This cable car swings across Yeosu's harbour, linking the mainland with Dolsando island. The Yeosu Maritime Cable Car connects Jasan Park, by the entrance to Odongdo, with Dolsan Park, and it was the first cable car in Korea to cross the s…
Churches & monasteries
여수시
Heungguksa sits in a wooded valley halfway up Yeongchwisan in Yeosu. Its name expresses the idea that "when the nation prospers the temple prospers, and when the temple prospers so does the nation", and during the Imjin War it housed and t…
Gardens & parks
서울특별시
In the middle of Yeouido, surrounded by the National Assembly, broadcasters and bank towers, a long strip of woodland crosses the island. Yeouido Park was created on land that had been an airfield and then a vast asphalt plaza, so a walk h…
Gardens & parks
서울특별시
A few steps down from the high-rises of Yeouido you reach a channel thick with willows and reeds. Yeouido Saetgang Ecological Park follows the Saetgang, a side channel that branches off the Han River and wraps around the south of Yeouido,…
Historic sites & memorials
여주시
Godalsa Temple Site is a vast former temple ground at the foot of Hyemoksan in Bungnae-myeon, Yeoju. Founded in 764, Godalsa grew into a major temple under the protection of the Goryeo kings, yet nobody knows exactly when or why it closed.…