Seonnyeo Rock Beach: A Weekend Getaway From Seoul
Just around the bend from the more famous Eurwangli Beach and Wangsan Beach in Incheon, Korea, sits the pleasantly quiet Seonnyeo Rock Beach (선녀바위해수욕장). Saying it is rocky is no joke. There is a small, but nicely sandy area in the center flanked on either side with rocks, rocks and more rocks. If you’re looking for a quieter beach near Seoul, this might be the one for you. Can you take a trip to the beach from Seoul? Yes, you sure can.
Get ready for a trip to Seonnyeo Rock Beach in Incheon:
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How To Get There
Address: 678-188 Eulwang-dong, Jung-gu, Incheon (인천 중구 을왕동 678-188)
By Public Transportation: Head out to Incheon International Airport. No, you won’t be flying anywhere, but from the airport you can catch a ton of buses. Once at the airport, head out to the bus platform to take bus 306. It takes just 25 minutes and drops you right at this beach. The bus stop has the same name as the beach.
Where To Stay
JN Park Hotel
This is a three-star hotel that was built in recent years making the area even more appealing. It’s family-friendly and modern and very comfortable for a stay.
Book a room at this hotel on Booking.com or on Agoda.com.
Yeon Hwa Moon Hotel
A chic stay with all of the water fun you could want. Visit the beach, the pool on site, and soak in your own spa bath tub. Drink some champagne upon arrival. Clean, beautiful, and the upgraded stay for a weekend away.
Book a room at this hotel on Booking.com.
What To See At The Beach
When the tide goes out during the day, one can go skipping and frolicking all around these rocks, or like the locals, grab a bag and a stick and go hunt around the rocks for crabs, shell fish and other sea goodies to eat later. Make sure to wear some good shoes as the rocks can be pretty sharp with all of the shells and sea things growing on them. Some rocks are big enough and flat enough to camp out on as well making for some great photo opportunities.
The beach gets its name from the most prominent rock that is shaped like a fairy. The story goes that when naval forces manned a defense station at Yeongjongjin, the commander had a beautiful mistress. Eventually the commander’s love for the mistress started waning and he started keeping his distance from her, which made her very upset. With nothing left to live for, she jumped into the ocean from a rock called Taepyeongam and drowned. No one was there to collect her body, so her body floated on the tide to Yongyudo Island. When the commander heard of the tragedy, he found her body and prepared her for burial.
Later, locals started referring to the Taepyeongam Rock as the Seonnyeo, or fairy, rock and the hill nearby as Hogunje, or the commander’s hill. The rock is not labeled though, as apparently locals don’t want it to become a huge tourist draw so it may take a bit to find.
Found or not, the beach is a great place to spend a weekend. It’s not super busy which is the kind of getaway from Seoul that we are usually looking for. There are a few restaurants in the area mainly serving cooked fish, raw fish, shellfish and one sort of random duck restaurant. Or it seemed all of the pensions and hotels in the area had their own cookout areas to cook the sea goodies found during the day at the beach.
There are pensions and hotels scattered around as well so finding a place to stay for the night is pretty easy. For a chic stay in the area complete with design and intrigue, check out Nest Hotel. It was a GREAT spot for a weekend away staycation of sorts.
At night people camp out in tents on the beach, but be careful, the tide is very high and all of the rocks that can be seen during the day disappear into the water at night not to be seen again until the next day around noon. Sparklers are seen lighting up the night sky and fireworks are heard in the night. Everyone wraps up their parties at a reasonable time to get a good night’s sleep before the next day at the beach.
For another side of Incheon, check out China Town, the Fairytale Village, the Incheon Art Platform and more on the Songdo Island of Incheon. There is a ton to see out there. Incheon totally deserves more than one weekend getaway. Check out these other great beaches in Korea for more getaways.
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