OFF MAP KOREA-Outdoor Activity Information in Korea

Is Eoryongdo the most overlooked island hike in all of Wando County? I think it might be. Wando County gets occasional attention for its purple-themed Banwol-Bidan islands or the salt flats of Jeungdo, but Eoryongdo sits further out in the archipelago, past the point where most travellers — Korean or foreign — bother to continue. The island has a permanent population of well under a hundred people, no guesthouses marketed to outsiders in any language other than Korean, and a coastline that folds into dolerite sea cliffs dramatic enough to make you question why you spent three nights in Seoraksan instead. I drove a pair of clients there last autumn — a retired couple from the Netherlands who had already done Jirisan Dulle-gil and Wolchulsan with us — and the look on their faces when the second ferry rounded the headland and Eoryongdo came into view was worth every minute of the four-hour drive from Seoul. Where exactly is Eoryongdo, and why is it so hard to reach? Eoryongdo is a...

                      Why the Mireuksan Ridge Keeps Stopping Me in My Tracks I have driven clients to a lot of coastal viewpoints across Korea — Hallyeohaesang, the Namparang trail cliffs, the ferry deck approaching Gageodo. But the first time I stood on the Mireuksan ridge above Tongyeong and counted the islands scattered across the South Sea below, I genuinely lost count somewhere past thirty. That view does something to people. I have watched first-time visitors go completely quiet for a full minute, which almost never happens. What makes this particular mountain so accessible is the cable car. Mireuksan sits at 461 m — modest by Korean standards — but the Tongyeong Cable Car hauls you from near sea level up to a summit station at roughly 461 m in about ten minutes. From there, a ridge trail of around 3 km links the upper cable car station to Mireuksan's true summit and back, or you can continue south along the spine for long...