OFF MAP KOREA-Outdoor Activity Information in Korea

Is Course 1 of the Haeparang Trail actually worth starting your east coast walk here? Yes — and it is not even close. Course 1 of the Haeparang Trail is one of the most dramatic opening chapters of any long-distance walk in Korea. You are tracing a coastline that most Koreans associate with industrial port towns, yet within the first hour of walking you are perched on raw basalt cliffs above open Pacific water with almost nobody else in sight. That contrast — gritty city at your back, wild sea at your feet — is exactly why I keep sending clients here as a stand-alone day walk even when they have no intention of finishing all 770 kilometres. The Haeparang Trail (해파랑길) runs from Busan all the way north to Goseong in Gangwon Province, tracing the entire East Sea coastline. Course 1 is the southernmost section, roughly 18 kilometres from the Haeparang Trail starting-point arch near Busan's Dongbaek Island (동백섬) area through to Ilgwang Beach (일광해수욕장) in what is now Gijang County, wh...

You Don't Have to Walk All 770km 🚐 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 → The Haeparang Trail runs the full length of Korea's east coast — from Oryukdo Skywalk in Busan all the way up to Goseong's Unification Observatory, just a few kilometres from the DMZ. It covers 50 stages, roughly 770 kilometres in total, and it would take most walkers around 35 days to complete end to end. Most people, including most Koreans, never attempt the full thing. What they do instead — and what I've been helping foreign visitors do for several years now — is cherry-pick the stages that deliver the most dramatic coastal scenery, the quietest village paths, and the most satisfying day on foot. The problem is always transport. Many of the best trailheads sit far outside any town with a bus stop, and even the ones that do have buses run on schedules that make a day hike genu...