Can you see Jeju Island without a car? This was my thought after spontaneously booking a flight from Busan to Jeju before ending my 10 Day South Korea trip in Seoul.
The reason I thought this is as I typed into Google after booking the flights ‘how to spend 2 days on Jeju Island?‘ lots of Jeju Island road trip itineraries and car hire blog posts appeared, but as I was travelling to Jeju Island solo, hiring a car was not an option!
As it happens Jeju Island is perfectly accessible to visit and see without hiring a car, in fact it’s even safer this way and I’ll explain why later on! Here’s how to get around Jeju Island by bus and some amazing Jeju Island tours you can take to see all of the things to do in Jeju island!
Jeju Island Without a Car
Jeju Bus
Jeju Island has a public bus system and a pretty good and regular bus system in Jeju City especially. From Jeju Airport I caught the bus 20 minutes to my hostel – Rainbow In Guesthouse (which I really recommend by the way, it’s a super clean and friendly hostel with good dorm rooms).
I had a T Money card after being in Busan, this works on the transport systam all around South Korea and you will need one to use the buses in Jeju so keep that in mind. You can buy a T Money card in Supermarkets like 7/11, metro stations and online in advance here if you like to be organised. I’m not sure if you can buy one in Jeju Airport though, I doubt it so try and get it before arriving on the island.
The public bus on Jeju Island connects many areas of the Island so it is possible to spend the day catching the bus from place to place. I read this post which is really helpful, it explains the City Buses that run around Jeju, the Tourist Shuttle Bus and any other buses that are available.
Jeju Bus Map
However, unless you’re planning on visiting just one or two places I feel like you could waste a lot of time waiting for the bus, even the website linked above notes that, and trying to visit four or five popular places to visit in Jeju Island in one day by bus could be hard work and take a long time. If you have one week on Jeju Island or a similar time frame and don’t need to rush, the bus will work well for you.
Jeju Island Tours
Jeju Island offers plenty of day tours! In fact, I spent my 2 days in Jeju Island out on Jeju Island day tours, I saw so much of the island going to the best places to visit on Jeju Island and most importantly I learned so much about the island from my guides.
There are 3 main tours of Jeju Island which are perfect for visitors who do not want to hire a car.
There’s a West Tour, East Tour and South Tour. There’s no North tour seen as the North is pretty much Jeju City.
There are many tour operators on Jeju Island and they have set weekly schedules of when these tours run, for example, Yeha Tours which are a company I went out with, run their West Tour on Monday, Wednesday & Friday, East Tour on Tuesday, Thursday & Saturday and South Tour only on a Sunday.
Each company’s daily schedule will vary but this seems to be the way it is set up.
All of the East, West and South Day Tours of Jeju Island that I saw include hotel or nearby hotel pick up’s and drop offs’, a local English speaking guide, lunch and entry fee’s meaning you will not need to spend any more money whilst on the tour.
I went out on the West Tour with Yeha Tours and the South Tour with Core Travel. I really liked each one individually and combined they gave me a great insight into this Wonder of the World island.
Jeju Island West Tour with Yeha Tours
I got picked up in a nice big coach along with 35 other people, this sounds like a big group but actually, it didn’t feel it at all.
We started the trip by visiting Hyeopjae Beach- a beach with crystal clear water and one of the top rated beaches on Jeju Island, followed by Halllim Park- a nature park full of different types of gardens and some caves, it was really beautiful and peaceful here.
Our next stop was Osulloc Tea Museum, this was very touristy and more like a shop than a museum but it has some green tea fields outside and also an Innisfree shop on site which is a beauty brand with natural products made from Jeju Island. I’m not that into beauty products but it is a hit with those that are!
Lunch was a simple buffet followed by an hour boat cruise to see Mt Sanbang and see the island from another perspective, the boat was busy but I actually really enjoyed being out on the water.
After this we met the Women Divers of Jeju Island, back before tourism on the island, women had to earn an income somehow so they took to the sea free diving to collect sea cucumbers, octopus etc which they then sold. They used to dive all year round and only recently acquired wet suits. I can only imagine how hard it is to do but it was amazing to see 4 Women very happy, friendly and ready to take photos with us and tell us a bit about what they do via a translator.
SOUTH KOREA SIM CARD
Stay connected in South Korea by ordering a sim card in advance! Order it, choose the airport you’ll be flying into and pick it up when you land! Buy it here! Korea 4G LTE Unlimited Data and Optional Voice Call SIM Card
If you’re phone is locked and not unlocked which I know happens to many people in the USA, you’ll need a portable wifi pocket rental which you can order and pick up at Incheon Airport. Buy it here!
GETTING ROUND SOUTH KOREA
The public transport in South Korean cities is really great, so safe and easy to use. You’ll need a T-Money card that you add credit to and can use on all the buses and metros all over South Korea.
The best thing is to get this SIM CARD AND T-MONEY CARD BUNDLE from Incheon Airport when you land, then you can be connected and be on your way on the metro straight away! Buy it here!
DMZ TOUR
There are so many great tours to do in South Korea, but a DMZ tour when in Seoul is a must do! You can’t go to South Korea and not get a glimpse into North Korea!
This is the exact tour I did which I really enjoyed and it’s the highest rated on Get Your Guide. Here’s my full DMZ tour review if you want to read this first!
The last stop of the day was either the Teddy Bear Museum or Cheonjeyeon Waterfalls, obviously, I opted for the waterfall, it wasn’t that impressive but it was a nice end to the day in nature.
I really enjoyed going out with Yeha Tours because of the big comfy bus we had and the time we had in each place- we were given 30-60 minutes in each place and given a meeting point so we didn’t walk around in a big group the whole time and could explore on our own.
Our guide was nice and gave us all the information on the bus as we drove around. There were no strenuous activities included in the West Tour of Jeju Island and it made for a really enjoyable and easy day out.
The only negative of the tour and this is of the West tour rather than Yeha Tours is that everywhere we went was very touristy, but we were tourists on a day tour so I guess there’s not much getting round that, but it did feel like we didn’t see that much real natural beauty.
Visit Yeha Tour’s website here. They also offer both the West Tour and East Tour on Get Your Guide which is a tour booking system I really love:
Jeju Island South Tour with Core Travel
I got picked up by a lovely guide and was surprised when he took me to his minivan and said that there would only be 3 of us on today’s tour.
We started off driving towards Jeju Islands Mysterious Road– the road that is an optical illusion as it looks like it’s going uphill but actually if you stop the engine as we did, the car rolls downhill.. spooky!
Mount Hallasan is Jeju’s highest mountain and the Mother of Jeju. A roundtrip to the top takes about 11 hours but we got out and hiked for 30 minutes up Eoseungsaenak Mountain which is next to Mount Hallasan. The walk was fairly hard with lots of steps but it’s a well-trodden path and the view at the top was really impressive and totally worth it.
On the way to lunch we stopped by 1100m Altitude Wetland Trail, the trail only took 10 minutes or so but it was a beautiful walk. It’s a trail surrounded an area of wetland which is very unusual given the high altitude of where it’s located. I loved it here because it was so quiet, we didn’t see any other tourist.
Lunch was in a local seafood restaurant but being a vegetarian I had a delicious Bibimbap instead.
Next, we went to the coast to see Jusangjeoli Cliff, this was the most touristy part of the day really with lots of people there but the coastline is really impressive and a must-see place on Jeju Island.
The biggest Buddhist Temple of the island Yakcheonsa Temple was next which is very impressive and very beautiful. This temple is pretty unique as it was only built around 30 years ago and we had the time to walk inside the temple and our guide gave us lots of information about Buddhism in Korea.
After a quick visit to Cheonjiyeon Waterfall and some Green Tea Fields which were much more picturesque than the green tea museum I visited the day before, the tour was done and we were heading back to Jeju City.
I really liked my day out with Core Jeju. I was a bit dubious at first that there was only 3 of us but actually it was so perfect and much more personal, it meant I could ask the guide lots of questions and he really did share is 8 years of knowledge from living on Jeju with us, I found out so much valuable information I wouldn’t have known unless he told me. We were in no way rushed at each stop and I felt this South tour with Core Jeju showed me the more natural side of Jeju that I had been wanting to see.
If you want a smaller group tour around Jeju Island, have a look at Core Travel’s website here.
It’s worth noting that each company seem to visit slightly different places on each tour. For example, the South Tour itinerary that Yeha Tours offer is different to what I did with Core Jeju so be sure to have a good look on the site’s to see where the itinerary takes you and which ones takes your fancy the most.
Personally, I really recommend Yeha Tours for the West Tour and Core Jeju for the South Tour. Both offered a different experience in terms of places visited and the tour type which overall gave me a great insight into the island, so if you have 2 days to spend on Jeju Island, doing both of these is a great idea!
Where to Stay in Jeju Island without a Car
One thing to note is that the best place to stay on Jeju Island without a car is Jeju City. I know you may not be going to Jeju- an island known for its natural beauty to stay in a City but in terms of using the public bus and being picked up and dropped off by organised tours, Jeju City is the best place to be.
Jeju City is pretty big and split into 2 parts – Old and New which are either side of the Airport.
I stayed in Rainbow In Guesthouse so if you’re looking for a hostel in Jeju City I really recommend staying here, it has dorm rooms and private rooms.
Other well-rated Hotels and Guesthouses in Jeju City are: Yeha Guesthouse, Bed Radio Dongmoon, Harbor Hotel, Jeju Kal Hotel.
Alternatively, have a look at all hostels and hotels in Jeju City on Booking.com here. I use Booking.com to make all of my bookings as I love its great deals and flexible booking options.
Information on Car Hire in Jeju Island
On both of my tours, the guides said that Jeju Island is notorious for car accidents so if you do hire a car, even for just a day please be careful. It’s well known that some tourists come to the island and drive far too fast and often after a beer with lunch and cause accidents so even if you are careful and are a sensible driver you do need to be extra careful of those driving around you!
If you want to get an idea of how much it will cost to hire a car on Jeju, have a look at Rental Cars here which search through all of the best rental companies.
I hope this helps you plan your trip to Jeju Island without a car!
- For more of my posts from South Korea see:
- Free and Budget Things To Do in Seoul!
- Eye Opening Tour to the DMZ from Seoul
- How to Visit Gamcheon Culture Village in Busan
- 10 Day Itinerary for South Korea!
- All South Korea Posts
I received a complimentary tour with Yeha Tours and Core Travel in return for content but I genuinely had a good experience with both and recommend both to you.