OFF MAP KOREA-Outdoor Activity Information in Korea

The Island That Made 'Slow' Official 🚐 Want to walk this trail with a private driver? Off Map Korea drives small groups (2-6) to Korea's hidden paths. From ₩280,000/day · See packages → Cheongsando is a small island off the southern tip of Wando County in South Jeolla Province, and it holds a designation that almost no other place in Korea can claim: it was the first Asian site to be certified as a 'Slow City' by the international Cittaslow network. That title isn't marketing spin. When you step off the ferry and see ox-drawn ploughs still working the terraced barley fields in spring, you feel it immediately. The island also has its own dedicated walking route — the Cheongsando Slow Trail (청산도 슬로길) — which loops around and across the island in eleven sections totalling roughly 42 kilometres. Most visitors only do a section or two in a day trip, but if you base yourself overnight on the island you can cover the highlights properly. That's exactly what...

Why Yokji-do Stopped Me in My Tracks 🚐 Want to walk this trail with a private driver? Off Map Korea drives small groups (2-6) to Korea's hidden paths. From ₩280,000/day · See packages → I've dropped clients at a lot of South Sea ferry terminals over the years — Wando, Nokdong, Samcheonpo — and most of the time the conversation on the drive down is about what to expect. The first time I drove a pair of Irish walkers to Tongyeong for Yokji-do, I honestly undersold it. I told them it was 'a quiet island with decent ridge views.' They came back to the car that evening shaking their heads. 'That cliff path,' one of them said, 'is the best thing we've done in Korea.' I've since taken many more groups there, and the reaction is almost always the same. Yokji-do (욕지도) is not famous on the international hiking circuit. That's exactly why it belongs on this blog. Getting to Yokji-do: The Tongyeong Ferry Yokji-do sits roughly 32 kilometres so...