A weekend trip to Busan: How to plan and what sights to see

Scheduling weekend trips while studying abroad can be overwhelming when you are doing classes and there is already so much to do in Seoul. However, my favorite memories of my experience so far is branching out to explore other areas. In particular, I really enjoyed my weeked trip to Busan. 

In my opinion, Busan has a very different atmosphere than Seoul. While it is a big city, Busan is less crowded, more relaxed, and it is known for its beaches. This is a great trip to make to let go of the stress from school and relax by the beach or take a bus around to see the sights. 

Planning the Trip:

Train or Plane?

Both have their pros and cons. However, the decision was pretty easy to me. Planes take less time and they are significantly cheaper. The pros of the train are the amazing views from your window and an overall relaxing journey. It is important to note that these train tickets are usually $100 more than a plane ticket. For flight recommendations I would suggest Gimpo Domestic Airport because it is smaller and very quick to get through security. Additionally, Jeju Air is a quick and easy airline to book through with cheap prices and employees who speak English.

Where do I Stay? 

A very popular place to stay is a guest house. I would say it is between a hostel and a hotel. You usually have your own private room and bathroom with common spaces. This is an easy way to get to know other travlers and some even have free breakfast. Additionally, the prices are reasonable. You can find these through a guest house's website or I personally found mine on Air bnb. 

Important tips/ precautions 

1. Pack light!

You are definitely going to want to bring things back. There are a lot of cool stores and a fashion market I'm going to talk about later. Also you don't want to have to pay extra for luggage. 

2. Go with a friend

It is in general always safer to go on trips with someone but it is also a good way to get to know people in your program. Share memories, bond with friends and take tons of pictures.:)

3. Staring 

As you might have heard about before, people tend to stare at foreigners in South Korea and many other homogenous countries. However, Busan is a little more intense than Seoul. People might film or take picture of you, talk to you, or intensly stare at you. However, people rarely mean any harm behind it and it is usually out of curiousity. There is a bigger elderly population in Busan that contributes to this. Just ignore it and have fun exploring.

Things to see:

Busan Tower

Busan Tower has a nice nature trail around it that many people exercise on. It is also next to a temple and the Gwanbokoro Market that I discuss below. The hill to get there can be tiring but it is completely worth it to see the entire skyline of Busan. It is amazing to see how tall the tower truly is. With the Busan mountains in the background of the skyline, it will be hard to leave this spot. I recommend going at night when the lights projecting on the tower change colors. Specifically, I reccomend going around 9 pm in the summer because there is an animation show on the tower. It is so amazing to see an artists work animated onto the tower. There are also some comedic animations like making the tower look like a tall glass of ice water. It was a nice surprise at the end of our trip and I highly reccomend going. 

Gwangbokoro Market 

This market is right next to the Busan tower so you can make a trip to both. This market is alleyway after allyway of clothing and accesory booths. This is a great place to find the current style trends in Korea. Everything from dresses, to kpop albums, to streetfood and phone cases are at this market. It took us quite a while to get through the entire market. One amazing thing about this market is that you can find some "big size" stores. As a plus size person, I just accepeted that I was not going to find any clothes my size. However, I ended up finding a beautiful dress that fits the current trends in Korea. If you are a plus size person, you can still find some cute and trendy clothes by going to this market. 

Gamcheon Cultural Village

This was by far my favorite part of the trip. This village truly is a gem of history and culture. While some may see it as a cool photo op, that does not even begin to scratch the surface. We spent our entire first day exploring this village. From the cute artsy shops, to the extremely creative art cafes the whole atmosphere makes me feel like I stepped into a studio ghibli movie. Every nook and cranny has some different type of art sculptures, or a beautiful veiw of the colorful village. Make sure to stop by their tiny museum (it's free) to learn about the amazing initiative to revamp the low income housing into a piece of living art. Make sure to go into the village and not just take a picture with it. Who knows maybe you will find the book staircase or the art cafe that has a different theme in each room. This site is a must visit. 

Gwangalli Beach 

Lastly, this is a very popular spot in Busan. This beach has an amazing view of the famous white Gwangan Bridge.  You can get some amazing photos at this spot including with the adorable penguin statue. Not to mention you can relax on the beach and look at the unique seashells. Don't forget to look around the near by area for cool shops and good eats. 

My final peice of advice is to get a little bit lost and wander around to see what you can find yourself. The most memorable moments of the trip have been when I've been wandering around. Obviously make sure to bring your phone loaded with kakao or naver map!