With its natural beauty, Jeju Korea never lets you forget how it earned its nickname “the Hawaii of Korea.” The beaches in Jeju are famed across South Korea and into Asia, often immortalized in popular Korean film and TV shows. However, due to their popularity, Jeju Island beaches can often get quite busy. If you’re looking for the best beach in Jeju for a more secluded experience, we stumbled upon a secret beach in Jeju Korea that will give you precisely what you’re looking for. This guide will tell you how to find this Hidden Jeju Island Beach so you can experience it for yourself!
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Jeju Island, South Korea
In the summer, a ravishing, tropical landmass that floats at the foot of South Korea, Jeju Island forms one of two points that connect to form the most traveled commercial air route in the world.
And it’s certainly easy to see why.
Imported palm trees line the tiled city centers spangled every shade of Korean beauty, lingerie, or athletic store. We’ve told you about the easy-to-reach Iho Beach of Jeju City, and the best sites in Jeju City to find the Korean cherry blossom trees in the spring. We’ve detailed our experience teaching English abroad and our brush with the Jeju Island winter in the city. But outside the cities is where you hit the heart of Jeju Korea.
Outside Jeju City
Serpentine roads ride along jagged coastal cliffs, the black volcanic rock contrasting majestically with sapphiric jewel sea hues. Every square meter of land in Jeju Korea outside the cities springs forth lush summer greenery, a verdant dream that further compounds the drama of black volcanic rock and sea foam blue-green water. Outside Jeju City is where you’ll find the vibrant green tea fields of O’Sulloc, the massive volcanic mountain and highest point of South Korea known as Hallasan Mountain, the imposing crater of Sunrise Peak (as well as Jeju’s best beach fish and chips restaurant).
It’s also where you’ll find one of the best hidden beaches in Jeju Korea.
Watch our video below to see exclusive drone shots of this hidden Jeju beach!
A Jeju Island Escape
With its mild weather (relative to mainland Korea), and languorous turquoise waves, Jeju Korea attracts millions of tourists every year. Korean and Chinese tourists stripe Jeju Island beaches every summer, and it seems near impossible to enjoy the stunning ocean scenery Jeju has to offer and escape the crowds.
The Hidden Coves by Hwasun Beach
The black sand shores of Hwasun Beach itself don’t bring that much in the way of achieving that classic island escape feeling. It’s a perfectly nice beach, to be sure—a wide sprawl of dark brown/black lined with the red and white stripes of perky beach umbrellas sees its fair share of visitors on a sunny day. Boats, kayaks, and jolly water bikes are easily available for rent, and a miniature water park is built right on the sand, with kid-friendly water slides. Pack a picnic, load up on sunscreen, and you have everything you need for a family-friendly day in the sun at Hwasun Beach.
But this Jeju Beach you won’t get that private beach feel.
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Best Private Jeju
On a particularly beautiful and sunny Jeju Korea day, we walked through Hwasun Beach, but only so we could reach a restricted area lined by caution tape. Walking over the tape, we met a pile of rubble leftover from a seemingly abandoned construction site on the edge of Hwasun Beach. Climbing the rubble, walking past the eye-sore of the construction site, we emerged into a stunning cove. And the best part? There was no one else there.
This is the hidden Jeju Island Beach we’ve been looking for.
Secret Coves of Jeju Island
Climbing down to the coves, we dove head first into the clear water to cool off, enjoying the best Jeju Korea swim we’d had the entire summer. Rich emerald in some parts and breathy turquoise in others, the water hues bounced off the glimmering caramel-colored sand.
Off the water, jet-black volcanic boulders provided some much-needed shade from the powerful afternoon sun. A bottle of sparkling wine (public drinking is perfectly legal in South Korea!) completed the magnificent scene of what is truly one of the best Jeju Island beaches we ever visited during our time living on the island.
The perfect day to spend a romantic summer afternoon on Jeju Island, our rendezvous at this hidden cove off of Hwasun Beach is a wonderful way to capture that island escape feeling. It does require a bit of hiking to get to it, but the pay-off is more than worth it, as this is Jeju’s best beach (in our opinion)!
| You’ll also like: Climbing Sunrise Peak (Seongsan Ilchulbong): An Icon of Jeju Island |
Our recommendation? Pack a picnic and enjoy the beach for the day, then walk to the nearby Sanbangsan (mountain temple) for a spectacular sunset!
| You’ll also like: Iho Beach on Jeju Island, South Korea |
How to Get to the Hidden Jeju Island Beach
The closest bus stop to Hwasun Beach is Hwasun-ri (Hwasun Village).
- From Jeju-si Intercity Bus Terminal: Take the 750-1 or 702 bus to the Hwasun-ri stop.
- From Seogwipo Intercity Bus Terminal: Take the 702 bus to the Hwasun-ri stop.
Once you get off the bus in Hwasun-ri, head downhill towards the ocean. Keep Mount Sanbangsan on your right as you walk downhill. The main part of Hwasun Beach is about a 5-10 minute walk from the Hwasun-ri stop. Once you reach the big Hwasun Beach, keep walking along the beach until you reach the end, past the water slides. At the end of the beach there are cliffs and rocks that you need to walk past as well. This far portion of the beach may be blocked with caution tape due to renovations of the beach—it’s up to you if you want to let it stop you or not.
- If you cross the caution tape, keep walking over the loose rocks at the base of the cliffs for a few minutes, and then you’ll reach the first cove. This cove had some construction materials around it, so we kept walking to the next cove.
- If you choose not to cross the caution tape, you can also take the Olle Trail 10. The second cove we settled into is about a 5-minute walk on Olle Trail 10 in the hills at the far end of the cove. To the right of the caution tape, you’ll see a set of steep stairs leading up to several trees. Climb these steps, and follow the path through the trees until you soon come upon this second cove. If this cove isn’t to your liking, you can walk as long as you like along Olle trail 10 until you find the perfect cove!
Olle Trails are a network of 26 trails that lead around the entire perimeter of Jeju Island. Hwasun Beach is the end of Olle trail 9 and the start of Olle trail 10.
| You’ll also like: O’Sulloc Tea Museum & Green Tea Fields on Jeju Island, South Korea |
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What are your favorite beaches in Jeju?
Have a Jeju Island beach experience you’d like to share? Post it in a comment below!