Day 3 – Seoul Itinerary: Nami Island, Petite France and Garden of the Morning Calm

This is day 3 of my 4-day Seoul Itinerary (If you have not read them yet, Day 1 can be found here and Day 2 here). In this part of the itinerary, we will making a day trip out of Seoul and will be visiting Nami Island and Petite France (if you want to, you can also include in Garden of the Morning Calm). Be sure to start early if you wish to visit all three locations.

Getting to Nami Island

As Nami Island is located some distance away from Seoul, getting there involves a couple of transfers. If staying near the city centre, take the metro down to Yongsan Station. From there, you can purchase ITX tickets to Gapyeong Station (Approximately 5,900 won).

As to whether you need to reserve your tickets to Gapyeong, the short answer is normally no. There are a few reasons why reserving is not necessary. First, there are quite a number of trains heading that direction everyday so you will definitely get on one. Just make sure you check the timings first so as to avoid waiting unnecessarily. You can do so here.

Second, even if the seats are fully taken, there is actually a few standing compartments in the trains. You don’t have to worry about the trains being fully booked. On the plus side, these standing compartments also have those foldable seats along the side. If you are lucky (especially when heading out to Gapyeong), you can still get a seat for the journey which will take slightly less than an hour.

Third, if you intend to reserve seats, you will either face the problem of having tight schedules so as to catch your train or the problem of having to wait for your train if you gave yourself too much time. So, just book on the spot!

The above link is also used to reserve tickets as well (if you really want to).

Upon getting off at Gapyeong, be careful of the “helpful” directions pasted around the station. I was nearly confused by them. The signs will point you to cross the road to take the public bus. While this is a viable alternative, it is only good if you intend to visit Nami Island only. If you intend to visit Petite France and/or Garden of the Morning Calm, you may be better off taking the tourist bus instead. The pick up point is on the same side of the train station beside the tourist centre. The ticket will cost you 6,000 won (or 4,000 won if you are eligible for discounted tickets) and entitles you to hop on and hop off the bus at the various attractions. Just make sure you do the attractions in order as the driver will collect back the ticket when you board the bus on the return leg.

Nami Island

The bus driver or his assistant will inform you when you are at stop for Nami Island. Or just get off when everyone does. You won’t go wrong with that. Just remember where you got off at. When going to your next attraction, that bus stop will be the right one (i.e. the right direction).

Follow the crowd and walk towards the wharf area. It is after the huge carpark with all the tourists buses. The ticket booth is “disguised” as an Immigration Point. The tickets cost 13,000 won before any discounts. Buy your tickets and wait for the next ferry to bring you across.

Nami Island apparently became famous or hot on the tourist trail after a Korean drama. I’m not a Korean drama fan but still the island is rather pretty to walk around and to take in the sights. If you go during the warmer months, you can see people cycling about. However, as I was there during Winter, you get to see a different side of the Island:

You have a choice of eating on the Island or on the mainland. We had our lunch on the mainland near the bus stop at a chicken grill stir fry place. Pretty decent food similar to a kind of korean BBQ.

We then headed back on to the bus. Just make sure to check the bus timings so as to avoid staying out too long in the cold (or heat if you are visiting during Summer).

Petite France

As its name suggest, this attraction was built to look like a mini French village. There are several performances scheduled across the day at various locations. However, as I was with my mum, it was a bit difficult rushing around flights of stairs to catch these performances. Instead, we took the chance to roam around and just enjoy the sights and scenery.

The magic happens close towards sunset when the sky darkens and the lights are turned on:

There are also exhibition rooms:

Garden of the Morning Calm

This can be done either together with the above two locations or as an alternative to Petite France.

The Garden is transformed during winter as part of a light festival. This, I think, is to make up for what would have been a rather disappointing visit from the lack of any greenery/flowers. I think it is rather pretty based on the pictures taken from their official website:

Taken from: http://english.visitkorea.or.kr

The opening hours are extended to as late as 11pm on a Saturday and 9pm from Sunday to Friday. If visiting outside the festive months, the opening hours are shorter (closes at 7pm).

As it is a light display, it only kicks in after nightfall so be prepared to stay out late. This option was not for me as it would be too taxing on my mum and too cold for both my mum and my niece to stay out for so long.

Personally, while the lights look great, I think it would still be better visiting when the flowers are blooming. Way more cheerful! While I have some photos taken from an earlier summer visit, I can’t seem to locate them. The following photos were taken from Visitkorea’s website: