Daffodils In Korea: Yoogibanggaok In Chungcheongnam-do
Seosan, just a couple hours south of Seoul down in Chungcheongnam-do, is one of the best places to visit in Korea in the spring. There are numerous gorgeous flower spots in the area and one of them is the daffodil covered mountain in Yoogibanggaok (์ ๊ธฐ๋ฐฉ๊ฐ์ฅ). The daffodils, in their sheer number in this one spot, are an absolute must see. In my many years of living in Korea, I haven’t seen this many daffodils anywhere else.
There are of course other yellow flowers that bloom each spring like the Japanese dogwood, sansuyu, in Icheon and the rape seed flower fields that are practically everywhere including the hidden island of Ulleung-do, but this… this is just something else. I remember growing up and seeing daffodils burst forth each spring in Ohio and it was then that spring really seemed to begin. If flower covered mountainsides are the things you dream of, then you need to go to Seosan this spring in Korea.
Plan a trip to Yoogibanggaok:
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How To Get There
Address: 72-10 Imunan-gil, Unsan-myeon, Seosan-si, Chungcheongnam-do, Korea (์ถฉ๋จ ์์ฐ์ ์ด์ฐ๋ฉด ์ด๋ฌธ์๊ธธ 72-10)
Drive: The easiest and quickest way to get to the area is via car and with numerous little flower spots in the area, it’d be a great idea to hit the road for this one. If you don’t have a car, look into renting one for the weekend.
It’s not as difficult as you might think and if you have an International Driver’s License if you’re a short term visitor or have a Korean license if you’re a longer term resident, it’s pretty easy peasy and then you can stop into nearby Ami Art Museum on the way or stop here on your way out to Taean-gun where Farm Kamille is.
By Public Transportation:ย Make sure you’ve got your TMoney card topped off and head down to Seoul’s Nambu Bus Terminal. From the Seoul Nambu Bus Terminal, take a bus to Unsan Intercity Bus Stop. The bus takes about 1.5 hours and costs around W10,000. From the bus terminal, you’ll want to go outside to the main street to find bus stop #13605 and take bus 45-2. You’ll get off at the next stop just five minutes up the road and from there you’ll need to walk to Yoogibanggaok.
From the bus stop, you’ll walk back just a few steps the way the bus was coming and cross the street to follow it all the way to Yoogibanggaok. It’s a straight shot on that street. It’s not incredibly difficult to find, but at this point you should make sure you can follow your GPS app because you’ll need to walk about 15 minutes.
Basic Information
Hours: Every day: 9:00am ~ 6:00pm
Blooming Period: Flowers bloom between March and May.
Admission: W5,000
Amenities: There’s are bathrooms and a small “cafe” area to get drinks.
Parking: There is a small and a large lot for parking nearby.
Pets are not allowed to enter.
Where To Stay In Seosan
Make a weekend of it and spend the night in Seosan. It’s a beautiful area with quite a few naturally beautiful areas to check out. Here are a couple spots that will get you that natural feeling even while you’re inside!
Zero Place
This pension is absolutely beautiful. Previously a restaurant, the entire place was remodeled. Each room has huge windows that look out over the forest and lake nearby and everything from the bath to the bed is set up so that the view is where your eye is drawn. It’s a unique stay that focuses on rest and relaxation. Perfect for a trip to Seosan!
Book your stay at Zero Place on Airbnb.
Byeoldam
Another really unique place to stay, Byeoldam was designed by a woodworker that reworked an apartment in a natural gem. Rather than the standard stay with white walls and a view, this entire place is wood from top to bottom in a beautiful relaxing manner. It’s just intriguing and beautiful and the natural scent of wood is immediately calming.
Check out this very unique stay on Airbnb.
What To Expect
The House of Yu Gi-Bang was built during the Japanese colonial period and surrounding the 100 year old home is a gloriously yellow hill covered in the most springy of flowers, daffodils. The Japanese colonial period home is a valuable historical and architectural spot that was designated as No.23 of Chungcheongnam-do Folklore Materials in 2005. The house is on the southern side of a mountain that is covered in a pine tree forest. The wind blows in and on the day I went, it was really blowing.
You can tell from looking at the trees that have grown bent because of the wind that it is often windy here. Don’t be surprised and make sure you are prepared for those sudden gusts of wind. All I can say is good thing I was wearing leggings under my dress. Oh my!
The house is a traditional u-shape with the male quarters on the eastern side and the female quarters on the western side. Some visitors will recognize the house as it was a filming location in the hit Korean drama “Mr. Sunshine”.
To be honest, we didn’t spend too much time in the house as the daffodils were what was really calling us to the area. You can walk through the traditional home and take pictures if you like, or, if you’re like us, you’ll probably bypass the house to head straight to the paths that go up and behind the home.
There are a ton of flower spots in and around Seoul to enjoy but I haven’t seen any with this many daffodils so I had to make the trip outside of the city. On one side is a little pond where some local dogs were barking at some ducks swimming around. There were random old school chairs and benches placed sporadically in the gardens for those perfect photo-ops and the daffodils just seem to go on and on. The daffodils are both before the forest begins and up on the hill beneath the pine trees too.
Take the time to enjoy every path since you’ve made the trip out. It’s a beautifully calming area and we were lucky there only seemed to be about 10 people there when we arrived. The location is big enough that we only cross paths but a few times as we criss-crossed the forested mountain behind the Hanok house. Yoogibanggaok is just off the beaten path and out of the way enough that I wonder if it’s ever crowded. That’s perfect for me that it isn’t though.
Spring in Korea can be rather glorious and this is definitely one of those places that makes it so. There are spring festivals around the country that celebrate the coming of flowers from the cherry blossom festivals to the tulip festivals and other awesome spring newcomers. Don’t miss all of the fun next spring!
Other than the flowers, there wasn’t much else here so we went back up the road to a restaurant that was just at the end of the street to eat lunch. If you’re looking for food like we were, don’t go too far. Just keep your eyes peeled and you’ll find the only restaurant/closest restaurant on the road that leads in. It was great… but I forget the name. It was a local spot we find with our eye-apps. Sometimes disconnecting and just using our eyes and noses is the best bet, ya know?
Then we headed on our way to Ami Art Museum which is a beautiful museum that is in what used to be an old school house. Now the grounds are lovingly taken care of, flowers grow and vines even grow into the old school building that has a few exhibition and installation spaces. For us, it was a perfect day outside of Seoul.
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