A Collection of Memorable and Photo-Worthy Travel Spots in Korea
I thought I'd traveled quite a bit, but without documenting it like on a blog, I can't accurately remember where I've been. It's a shame that I don't clearly remember places I enjoyed and have good memories of from before I started blogging, but that's why I started meticulously writing everything down on my blog.
This post is a collection of places I particularly enjoyed among those I've visited. I've selected and organized places with beautiful scenery or fun memories.
The Garden of Morning Calm in Gapyeong was perfect for a stroll. As its name suggests, the arboretum boasts a wide variety of plants and flowers. Everywhere you turn is so pretty, making each spot a photo zone. There's even a stream where you can dip your feet, making it a great place to visit in the summer.
There's also a lake, giving you the feeling of being in a single, large garden.
Next is Musum Village, known for its very long single-log bridge. It was here that I realized I'm afraid of heights when there are no safety barriers. Even if it wasn't that high, just enough to get hurt if I fell, my heart raced. If you can overcome that, it's a great place to walk around and see scenery you won't easily find elsewhere.
Inside the island, there's a restaurant called Musum Restaurant, and there was an incredibly friendly cat. It must have been fed a lot by people, because it wouldn't leave people's sides and would stay still no matter how much you petted it. Thanks to that, I got to pet the cat a lot before the food came out.
I accidentally visited the Park Kyung-ri Literary Museum, dedicated to the author of 《Toji》, while trying to go to Choi Champan's House. The view from the front of the museum was spectacular.
The building itself was beautiful, built in the traditional Korean Hanok style. To be honest, I haven't read 《Toji》, so I just skimmed through the contents of the museum, but my parents, who waited for the book to be published and read it, found it fascinating.
Choi Champan's House didn't have much to see. It was mostly just Hanok buildings and plants inside. However, I went during the season when Sweet Osmanthus flowers were in full bloom, so there were many very large Sweet Osmanthus trees, making it incredibly fragrant. I like Silver Osmanthus flowers that bloom around my house, so I also liked the similar Sweet Osmanthus flowers.
I heard somewhere that Sweet Osmanthus and Silver Osmanthus flowers only bloom in the south, but you can see plenty of Sweet Osmanthus flowers here, so I recommend going during the blooming season.
The path you take to go up after buying a ticket is the same one you take to go back down, and there's a place where a lot of cats gather. This is another viewpoint.
Jikjisa Temple, which I visited after changing my destination from Daegu to Gimcheon because Daegu was too crowded, became my mom's favorite temple. I went right after Buddha's Birthday, so there were tons of lanterns hanging.
There were many places inside the temple where you could drink water. My mom said she liked the taste of the water, but I can't tell the difference in water tastes at all.
There was a stone bridge on the way to the Forest of Thought (or whatever it was called), and it was a great spot for taking pictures. My dad was the one who first said it looked like a good place to take pictures. He used to not be interested in taking pictures, but since I like taking pictures, he started taking some, and now he's reached the point where he takes them for me first.
The Gyeongsangnam-do Arboretum was a place we suddenly decided to go to the day before returning home after going to the Jinju Lantern Festival with Yooni and Yuni. I visited without knowing what was there, but I was surprised by its enormous size. I didn't know where to go, so I just went wherever my feet took me, and a wide open plaza unfolded before me. Many people were resting, and some people were playing with bubbles. There was a store nearby selling bubbles, so we bought one and played with it too. It felt like returning to childhood after a long time.
Originally, this place was called the Gyeongsangbuk-do Forest Environment Research Institute, but at some point, it was renamed the Gyeongbuk Millennium Forest Garden. When I visited when the grass was green and took pictures on the single-log bridge, there were only two or three other groups of people besides us...
After it was renamed and I revisited in the fall when the leaves had turned colors, there were so many people. There were especially a lot of Chinese tour groups, making it noisy, and they didn't follow the photo lines properly. I wanted to take another picture on the single-log bridge above, but there were so many people waiting and so many people watching me take pictures that I gave up.
I went inside and took pictures on a road lined with what I think were Metasequoia trees. If you go further inside, there's a lake, flowers, trees, and lots of things to see. I recommend visiting if you're tired of the typical tourist spots in Gyeongju.
Bulguksa Temple, the most common tourist destination in Gyeongju, was also one of my favorite travel spots. After the cherry blossoms fall, double cherry blossoms bloom, and Bulguksa Temple is a famous spot in Gyeongju for them.
It was also great to go in the fall. The autumn foliage and the temple scenery blended well together.
The sky feels higher, and the pagoda looks even more majestic. A landscape where T turns into F...
I went to the Gyeongju Expo Park, which was said to have a Secret Garden where you can take pretty pictures, and ended up enjoying it for hours.
In the Expo Memorial Hall, you can color a pre-drawn picture with colored pencils and scan it into a machine, which then displays the scanned image on a wall screen. It's surprisingly absorbing.
When you go up the Gyeongju Tower by elevator, a video plays at a set time, and when the video ends, the screen rises to reveal the scenery outside. The building scenery isn't that great, but the side with the resort has lots of trees and a pretty garden, making it fun to look at.
This is the Secret Garden that was originally our goal. The bridge is fine, but there was a wasp nest near the spot where people were taking good pictures, so we took pictures very quickly. We told the staff who were tending to the garden about the wasp nest and left.
The Solgeo Art Museum is a small museum that's quite a steep climb to get to, but the works inside are worth seeing. There's a large window inside that's a photo zone. The pictures come out very well, and I recommend wearing bright colors.
When I went to visit Koala and Chick's place, we went to the Sea Life Aquarium in Busan together. I and Koala bought tickets online in advance because it was cheaper, and Chick bought a ticket on-site because they had to get a discount.
There are various things to see, such as feeding sessions and mermaid performances at set times, and the scale is larger than I expected, so there was a great variety of marine life.
Because I was with my friends, I did poses and expressions that I normally wouldn't do. LOL
Two of my favorite pictures taken here are one in front of my favorite jellyfish and one where I was captured with a shark at just the right moment.
When I went to Daejeon with Chick, we went to the Modern History Exhibition Hall because it was said to be a good place to take pictures. Because it deals with modern history, the exhibits were good, and I learned many new things, making it informative.
The photo spot I saw on social media was almost empty, so it was nice to take pictures without worrying about other people's eyes.
Personally, I think the pictures from the window side came out the best. The sky was a bit cloudy that day, but the light came in subtly, creating a atmospheric effect.
This is near the entrance, and I took a picture because the arches formed by the pillars were pretty. They filmed the movie <The Attorney> here, but it's been a while since I saw it, and I never paid close attention to the background, so I couldn't tell where they filmed what even after coming here.
I had some time left, so I went to Temi Orae, even though I wasn't planning to.
There are several buildings, each with a different theme, so there's a lot to see everywhere you go.
They've set up places where you can take pictures, so if you find the right spot and angle, the pictures come out really pretty.
After organizing this, I realized that it's more of a collection of travel spots where you can take good pictures than travel spots that were particularly great. LOL. Still, since most people these days like to take pictures and upload them to social media, I think it will suit their tastes.
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