Three days in Sokcho: Korea's best mountain, and a town of people who never got home
Two nights on the northernmost stretch of the east coast, one full day in the Seoraksan valleys, and squid sausage for dinner.
- Length
- 3 days, 2 nights
- Where you stay
- Sokcho
- Places
- 8 across 3 days
Sokcho is the last town of any size before the border. It sits on a lagoon-and-harbour coastline in the far north east, further north than Kaesong on the other side of the border, and the mountains start about ten minutes inland.
Those mountains are the reason to come. Seoraksan is the third highest in South Korea, and unlike the other two it is granite rather than volcano: spires, slabs, whitewater valleys and pine trees growing out of rock faces. In the third week of October it is the most crowded place in the country, because the foliage here is the best there is.
The town has its own story. Refugees from the northern provinces settled here during the Korean War expecting to go home within months, and their village of low houses on the far side of the water is still called Abai, an old northern word for father. Two nights covers the town, the mountain and a temple on the cliffs, and that is the trip.
Highlights
- A cable barge you haul yourself, over to a village settled by people who fled the North
- The bronze Buddha at Sinheungsa, cast in hope of reunification
- A cable car to a ridge fortress with the whole range in front of it
- A local sausage made of squid rather than pork, and better than it sounds
- Sunrise over the sea from a temple pavilion at Naksan
Where to stay
Sokcho, two nights
The town runs along a strip between two lagoons and the sea, with the harbour and the fish market at the southern end and the beach to the north. Nothing is far from anything, and the whole place smells of the sea and of frying.
Stay near the harbour or the central market rather than out by the park entrance: buses run out to the mountain all morning, and the evening is much better in town. Rooms are plentiful and cheap except in October.
Day by day
Day 1 in Sokcho
The ferry to Abai, the beach and the tower
Arrive, drop the bags and walk to the water. The hand-pulled ferry across the harbour channel is the first thing to do here: a flat steel barge that crosses on a cable for a couple of hundred won, and passengers are welcome to haul on the chain themselves.
On the other side is Abai, a grid of single-storey houses put up by people who fled south in the war and never got back. It became famous as a drama location, and the reason to walk its lanes now is the food: this is where the squid sundae comes from, and the restaurants doing it have been at it for decades.
Then the coast. Sokcho's beach is two kilometres of white sand backed by pines, busy in August and empty the rest of the year, and there is a tower at the northern end of town with a viewing floor for anyone who wants to see how the lagoons, the harbour and the mountains fit together.
- 15:00
Abai Village
OtherTake the cable ferry across, walk the lanes, and eat. Abai sundae, squid stuffed with rice and steamed, then sliced and fried in egg batter, is the thing to order.
- 17:15
Sokcho Beach
NatureTwo kilometres of sand with pine woods behind it and a Ferris wheel at one end. Walk the length of it in the late afternoon; swimming is a July and August business.
- 18:45
Sokcho Expo Tower
VisitA viewing floor over the harbour, the lagoons and the ridge line behind them. Fifteen minutes, and a useful way to work out where everything is on your first evening.
- 20:00
Dinner at the central market
EatSweet fried chicken by the box, fish grilled while you wait, and stalls doing everything else. Busy until about nine and quiet after it.
With more time: The harbour at the south end of town has the raw fish market, where you choose from a tank and take it upstairs to be sliced. It is the better option if you would rather eat sitting down.
Day 2 in Sokcho
Seoraksan: the temple, the cable car and the waterfall
Get an early bus to the park gate. The whole day happens in one valley, which sounds limiting and is not: the temple, the cable car and the falls all run off the same path, and the mountain does the rest.
Sinheungsa was founded in 652 and has a nine-storey pagoda said to hold ashes of the Buddha, but what stops people at the gate is the seated bronze Buddha in front of it, fourteen and a half metres tall, cast over eleven years and dedicated to the hope of reunification. Given where you are standing, that is not an abstract idea.
The cable car climbs to a ridge below Gwongeumseong, where two Goryeo generals are supposed to have thrown up a wall in a single day against the Mongols in 1253. The last stretch to the rocks is a scramble on bare granite and the view over the range is the best in the park. Afterwards take the valley path to Biryong Falls: an hour each way on a good track, past pools and a suspension bridge, to a fall that freezes solid in winter.
- 09:00
Sinheungsa Temple
ReligiousFive minutes inside the park gate. The great bronze Buddha first, then the temple courtyard behind it, and the sixteen carved figures at the base of the statue.
- 10:30
Gwongeumseong Fortress
VisitA fourteen-minute round trip in the car, then twenty minutes of rock scrambling to the top. Queues build from mid morning in autumn, so buy the timed ticket as soon as you arrive.
- 13:00
Lunch at the park entrance
EatSanchae bibimbap and pajeon at the restaurants by the ticket gate, plus a bottle of the local rice wine if the walking is done.
- 14:00
Biryong Falls
NatureAbout an hour each way from the temple, on a stone and boardwalk path along the stream. Steps at the end, and spray on the last hundred metres.
With more time: Fitter walkers swap the falls for Ulsanbawi, the six-peak granite wall that is the symbol of the park: about four hours there and back from the temple, with a punishing staircase at the top. The rocking stone on the way up is the one everybody pushes.
Day 3 in Sokcho
The temple on the cliffs at Naksan, and the bus
A last morning down the coast. Naksansa stands on a headland above the sea, founded in 676 by the monk Uisang after he came back from Tang China, and it is one of the few Korean temples built to look at water rather than mountains.
Almost all of it burned in the forest fire that swept this coast in 2005, and what you walk through now is a careful rebuild around the pieces that survived. The stone Goddess of Mercy on the point, sixteen metres of her, came through it untouched.
The pavilion on the cliff below the main halls is the other reason to come. It was built where Uisang used to sit, it hangs over the rocks, and the sunrise from it is the one people on this coast talk about.
- 09:00
Naksansa Temple
ReligiousHalf an hour south by bus. Enter from the top gate, work down through the halls to the sea, and allow time for the white statue on the headland.
- 11:15
Uisangdae Pavilion
VisitA six-sided wooden pavilion perched over the rocks, five minutes down from the main hall. Sit for a while: this is what the whole site is arranged around.
- 12:30
Bus back and on
TravelThirty minutes back to the Sokcho terminals for a coach to Seoul, or carry on south from Naksan towards Gangneung and the coast road.
With more time: If you would rather not backtrack, spend the morning in the lagoon park in town instead: flat paths, a boardwalk over the water and the mountains behind it, ten minutes from the bus terminal.
Before you go
Getting in
By bus, and only by bus: there is no railway to Sokcho, though one is being built. Express coaches leave Seoul about every half hour from the Express Bus Terminal and from Dong Seoul, take two and a half to three hours through the mountain tunnels, and cost around fifteen thousand won. You rarely need to book.
Buses also run down the coast to Gangneung and inland to Chuncheon in about two hours. Yangyang airport, south of town, has very few flights and is not worth planning around.
Getting around
City buses run from both terminals out to the park entrance and are the standard way to do it: cheap, frequent enough, and they drop you at the ticket gate. The Naver map app has the routes; the timetables are hit and miss.
The town itself is spread out along the water and flat, so a bicycle or a short taxi covers most of it. If you have a car, parking at the park fills up early on autumn weekends.
When to go
October is the reason people come, and the middle two weeks of it are extraordinary and rammed. Book a room a month out or come midweek, and start at the gate by eight.
May and June are almost as good and much quieter, with water still in the falls. Winter is cold, clear and beautiful, with the waterfall frozen solid and the upper trails often closed, and summer is when Koreans come for the beach rather than the peaks.
What to eat
Abai sundae, the local sausage, which is squid stuffed with rice, vegetables and seasoning rather than the usual pork and blood, sliced and served with a squid-and-egg batter. Eat it in the village it is named after.
Otherwise: raw fish at the harbour, sweet-and-sticky fried chicken from the central market, and grilled mackerel. This is a fishing town and the seafood is priced as one.
Sokcho is a working fishing town with a national park behind it, and it does not pretend to be anything else. That is exactly why it is worth two nights rather than the day trip most people give it.
Be at the park gate early and in the village for dinner, and let the middle of the day take care of itself.
Make it your trip
Every stop, day and place here lands in your account as an editable trip. Move the days around, swap a city, add your own bookings and costs, and share it with whoever is coming.
Common questions
- Is one day enough for Seoraksan?
- For the main valley, yes: the temple, the cable car and one waterfall walk fill a day and cover what most visitors come for. Two days lets you add the long climb to Ulsanbawi or the hot spring valley on the southern side, and serious walkers give it three.
- How hard is the walking?
- Most of it is easy. The valley paths to the falls are stone and boardwalk with steps at the end, and the cable car does the climbing for you apart from a short scramble on bare rock at the top. Anything beyond that, especially the ridge routes, is proper mountain walking with a fixed turnaround time.
- When does the autumn colour peak?
- Usually the third week of October at this latitude, a week or two earlier on the high ridges. It is the busiest fortnight of the Korean year: expect coaches from four in the morning, and go on a weekday if you have any choice.
- Can I get here without a car?
- Easily. Coaches from Seoul run every half hour, and city buses cover the park, the beach and the coast road south. There is no train yet, and the airport near Yangyang serves almost nothing.
- Does this fit into a longer Korean trip?
- It works as a two-night detour from Seoul, which is the usual way. Copy these three days into JourneyComposer and hang them off a Seoul stay, or continue down the east coast afterwards instead of doubling back.