South Korea ~ Gapyeong ~ Day Trip out of Seoul ~ Springtime Nami island (南怡島/남이섬)

The tiny half-moon isle, Nami Island is located 63km from Seoul, in the middle of the Han River. Famous for being the filming location of the Korean drama Winter Sonata (겨울연가 冬季戀歌)! That's the second Korean drama I watched (first being Autumn in my Heart (가을동화 秋日童話)). I think the K-drama craze started then. :D There's no lack of photo-taking sites and shops if you're a fan of the drama!

We made a reservation to take the shuttle bus to the island via the Nami Island Seoul Centre (Email: na230@naminara.com). A round-trip ticket costs KRW23,000 (inclusive of visa / entrance ticket and ferry ticket to the Island). 

If you want to take the public bus or subway, refer to this.

How to Get There? Information received from naminara

The pickup point is quite easy to locate, but be careful not to board the wrong bus, as there's many tour buses waiting at the same area. Prior to the tour, remember to print out your confirmation email to show to the bus driver. You pay upon boarding. Seats are pre-allocated so don't get into the wrong seats! The bus driver wasn't very friendly when we wanted to sit right behind him.

Bus ticket with the pre-allocated seat numbers

The ride was about 1 hour, and once you reach there, it's free and easy until you need to be back to catch the shuttle bus (4pm) back to either Jamsil or Insadong. Again, you need to let them know beforehand on where you want to return to, as the buses are different.

Nami island is a republic on its own, and you'll need a "visa" (basically the entrance ticket) to enter the republic. 

Ticketing booth

Entrance to the ferry

You can either take the comfortable ferry ride (KRW 8,000 for foreigners) or the thrilling ziprider (KRW 38,000) into the island. We went for the former because of someone's fear of heights. I really want to try a zipline one day! 

Ferry to Nami Island

Aladdin

We took the Aladdin ferry above with exits on both ends of the vessel. Very convenient and fast to disembark and board! Clever design!!

The island is easy to walk around. You can also ride a single bike or couple bike around! We took about 2 hours to stroll around the main paths a few times. There's not a very wide variety of activities to do on the Island, which leaves me plenty of time to enjoy the scenery and take lots of photos! 

Map of Nami Island made of recycled materials. Like!

One thing I really like about Nami Island is the feeling of being with nature! Beautifully lined trees, outdoor bookshelves, reading areas even in the toilets, wood sculptures, structures made using recycled materials, flowers everywhere.. It's so pretty!

One of the stone sculptures I saw. 

Artistic wooden structures

Stone piles again! :)

Hut Bridge on the North-Eastern side of the Island

Pretty foliage at the Herb Cafe

Outdoor library

Steel ant sculpture made using parts of a motorcycle!

One of the beautifully lined trees! 

But of course, the famous statues of Bae Yong Jun (배용준 裴勇俊) (Joon Sang) and Choi Ji Woo (최지우 崔志宇) (Yu Jin), which required queuing to take photos with it! It was quite funny looking at the poses people came out with. 

More Winter Sonata sites for the drama fan!

Spring in Seoul is actually quite warm, but thanks to the trees, the heat was bearable! There's ample food choices on the Island. Cafes, restaurants, mart.. Korean, Italian, Chinese, Japanese..  For us, lunch was a simple seafood pancake, which was huge! Luckily we ordered one to share.  Love the colours :)

Till we meet again!