The Nonsan Strawberry Festival: A Guide

Need some strawberries in your belly? Find a strawberry farm in Korea. There are plenty. If that sounds daunting though, head to a strawberry festival because they have free transportation out to nearby farms so you can pick to your belly’s content. Nonsan Strawberry Festival (논산딸기축제) is one of the best strawberry festivals in Korea especially considering it’s the largest producers of strawberries in Korea.

What to know about Nonsan Strawberry Festival:

• How To Get There
• What To Know
• What To Do At The Festival
  • Strawberry Picking
  • Other Events To Look Out For

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How To Get There

Address: 319 Daegyo-dong, Nonsan-si, Chungcheongnam-do (충청남도 논산시 대교동 319)

By Train: From Yongsan Station in Seoul, you can take the ITX Saemaeul train to Nonsan Train Station. From Nonsan Station, you need to make your way to the riverside. You could walk, or take a shuttle bus which is usually available during the festival period.

The trains had booked up fast so we ended up on a bus that somehow was to take pretty much the same time as the train would have taken. The estimated time didn’t take into account a major accident occurrence that left us on the bus 2 hours longer than we should have been. Yes, a trip that should have taken 2 hours and 10 minutes or so ended up being 4 hours. Luckily, the group of us had high spirits and for the first two hours jovially, but quietly, so as not to interrupt the Koreans on the bus conversed and played any and all ‘on the road’ games we could think of.

At the two hour mark when we realized we hadn’t even made it half way and it was still bumper to bumper, with no known reason at that point, pretty much everyone zonked out for an hour nap. Upon waking I saw a two bus pile up that had caused the bumper to bumper scene and our bus driver was pulling into a rest stop because we’d passed 3 hours with no bathroom breaks yet. Hopefully your trip will be much faster. I’d recommend taking the train.

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What To Know

When: The festival is usually in March. Make sure you to check their website for up to date information.

Website: https://www.nonsan.go.kr/nsfestival/

Admission: The festival itself is FREE however various parts and events may require a fee.

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What To Do At The Festival

Four hours later we made it to a small, yet welcome little city, with white tents galore set up for the strawberry festival. We followed the strawberry flags from the bus station to the fair grounds and had a gander at all that was offered.

From face painting, to wooden bug building, jam buying and plenty of strawberries to go around there was lots to see and plenty of people partaking in the festivities. There was an odd museum showing pictures of strawberries, strawberry shortcake, strawberry shaped clocks and anything else that looked like a strawberry and plenty of food tents with strawberries and without.

Strawberry Picking

The highlight of the festival was definitely the actual strawberry picking. The strawberry fields are set apart from the fair grounds. We paid W10,000 which provided us with a 10 minute shuttle bus to the strawberry fields, and the privilege to pick and eat as many strawberries as we could in our allotted time, and then a ride back on the bus.

Nonsan has fertile soil, clean water, and abundant sunlight. Their strawberries are recognized for their excellent flavor, fragrance, and sweetness. They are indeed delicious.

At first there was some gripes about not being able to bring any of the strawberries back with us, but upon entering the strawberry tents and devouring as many as we could see we didn’t really need any to take home. Actually, if you do want to take some home, you can buy plenty back at the fairgrounds and you can even have them shipped directly to your house so you don’t have to haul them back yourself.

As for the strawberry picking, there were plenty to go around and that was even late in the day since we didn’t get out there until about 4PM. One leader on the bus explained how to pick the strawberries appropriately and which ones to avoid. Very Informative. Pay attention.

Other Events To Look Out For

Get there at the beginning to enjoy the opening ceremony. There are performances throughout the festival and even a fireworks show in the evening. There are a lot of promotional events during the festival as well so expect to see great prices for everything strawberry and buy them up.

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It was a fine outing and I’d go again just for those delicious strawberries! The trip back took only two hours and it ended up being a great outing for a day. If there were anything else to see in Nonsan I’d probably go back just because it is a good day trip from Seoul and sometimes you just need to get out of Seoul for a day. Loved it.

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