Checking Out the Whimsical Nami Island Near Seoul
If I told you there was an independent republic on a tiny island near Seoul—inland, not on the ocean—would you be surprised?
Nami Island 남이섬 is a micro-nation in Gangwon province, a crescent island surrounded by the Han river and about an hour by train outside of Seoul. Alright, the “immigration and visa” stuff is just for show. It’s owned by a tour company.
But in these corona times, international travel is a no-go, so why not pretend? After all, the island’s whole shtick it’s that it’s a land of imagination and fairies.
For my birthday weekend, we headed to Nami to spend the day riding bikes, relaxing on the grass, and chasing down peacocks.
We left from Seoul early, around 8am and catching our train by 30 seconds or so. An hour later we arrived at Gapyeong Station, and taxied 5 mins to the port.
There you pass through “immigration” and pay 13,000 ($12~) for a roundtrip ferry. There’s also a zipline that’s 40,000 ($35) if you’re so inclined.
The ferries run every 10 mins or so at peak times, we so boarded on and zoomed to the island. That took less than 5 minutes—probably the shortest ferry ride ever. As my friend put it, “they could definitely build a bridge but I guess they wanted the ~aesthetic~”.
Because we arrived at 10am, it was pretty empty.
We trekked down the balloon trail for about 15 mins, passing sculptures and a little market still in the process of setting up. We were far up north, so there were still cherry blossoms clinging to trees.
And the day was so sunny. Not to sound cliché, but I felt like I’d stepped into a Studio Ghibli film; this place has some whimsy.
At the bike rental, my friends and I wanted to get a family bike but apparently those are only built for 2 adults and 2 children. I still think we could’ve made it work :/ but the guy wouldn’t let us.
Instead, we rented individual bikes for 7,000 won for an hour. The guy was extra nice tho and gave us an extra ten minutes.
The island is super small, so a full loop takes at most 20 minutes. There’s unique little sections, with mini-forests of trees, playgrounds, and plenty of pagodas. We passed by honeymoon cabins and couples enjoying high tea.
We even watched the boat police chase down some water-skiers.
Most of the restaurant options are light fare or traditional Chuncheon-style dakgalbi 닭갈비 (stir fried spicy chicken) or buckwheat noodles. There are also a few cafes.
After we returned our the bikes, we ate lunch at the big dakgalbi place. My friends didn’t want dakgalbi though so we ate individual lunchboxes. It was alright.
We spent the rest of the afternoon lounging on the grass, eating ice cream and hotteok. As the day stretched on, more and more families came, so we laid ourselves on the edge of the island, taking cat naps in the sun.
Every couple of hours, some trot singers came on a stage and sang some ballads. The hiking-gear’d-up ahjummas danced, punching the air like they were trained for it.
We also walked through some curvy sculpture galleries and peacock mating rituals (there were SO many peacocks??).
To finish, we paid 3,000 won to take the mini train back to the port and leave. We waved goodbye to Nami, my friends promising to return.
For me, it’ll probably be my last and only time (I leave so soon!). Nami is best known for its beautiful autumn leaves, so I’d recommend any time in Spring or Fall.
My overall impression of Nami is it’s definitely a little touristy, but for a good reason. If your weekdays have you stuck in the steaming streets of Seoul, you probably want your weekends to be spent somewhere peaceful. Clean and quiet. Where you can sit for a moment and breathe clean air. So I recommend.
Thanks for reading!