Our Seoul Itinerary Day 2 (Part I) is for Nami Island and Petite France. This is by far, the most challenging and ambitious day of our trip because we had to swing from the Korean suburbs to the main city on this day’s itinerary. We also aimed to complete five of the most famous spots in South Korea in one day! See our detailed itinerary below:
Call time was at 4:00 am and we were very thoughtful about our train and bus transfers to ensure that we were on time.
NAMI ISLAND
Travel Plan
From Seoul to Nami Island, we prepared two options for this trip: One was by using ITX (Intercity Train Express), and the other was using a regular subway train. If your option is to use ITX, please book online in advance. ITX is a high-speed train that travels 180km/hr and by far, the fastest train in Korea next to KTX.
For our trip, we chose option 1 because transits are lesser (trust me their subway stairs are no joke), we can avoid any possible traffic congestion, and it offers speedy travel! By the way, do not forget to take a photo with the train attendant on board – it is pretty cool! Here is the detailed travel plan and route that we used including the trip to Nami Island and Petite France.
Option 1: ITX – lesser transits and fast
Option 2: Subway Train – train cost is lesser than ITX but more transits
YellowTravelingBoots recommends that you use train over shuttle if you are working on a limited time and budget – it is the best option trust me! Depending on your target locations for the day, you have to be mindful of all the relevant transportation schedules in the island: train, ferry, and bus (photos of the schedules do not belong to YTB) to avoid any delays and idle time.
Train Schedule
Ferry Schedule
Gapyeong Tour Bus Schedule
Direction to Nami Island:
For the record, we were able to beat the time we initially put on our itinerary! Yes, we did it and we really enjoyed the discipline and the challenge: it was neither stiff nor impossible, it was just plainly well planned.
Our first destination was Nami Island. This place became known after it was featured in the Korean drama series: “Winter Sonata”.
Gapyeong Train Station at 06:55 am – still very dark.
Outside the train station, the entire place was still covered with fog
We reached Gapyeong station at 6:55 am but it looked like it was still 5:00 am though. We took a cab at 3200KRW (divided by four people) to the Nami Ferry Terminal. Getting a cab is the best option if you are traveling in a group like us. It only took us five minutes from Gapyeong Train Station to the Nami Ferry Terminal.
Arrived in Nami Ferry terminal at 7:00 am. Oh, look at this, we were the only people here during this time! Whew!
Bought tickets for the ferry and the entrance at the island at 8000 KRW/person. This was a discounted price since we secured coupons on-line.
Nami Island at 07:45 AM
This was the exact scene that we saw when we arrived! The entire island was covered with fog and the cool morning breeze was playfully kissing our skin. Again, we were the only visitors in the island at this time so we had it for two hours all by ourselves without any photo bombers.
Nami was already in festive mode welcoming Christmas and the New Year.
A fireplace near the entrance
Some scenic spots, figures, and architectural works in the island
Breathtaking tree lines (photo credit to my best friend Weng)
…of course, the trip won’t be complete without the usual photo op in the island:
The world is a golden oyster of scenery and adventures. For fashion inspirations, we would highly recommend that you visit this blog
After a leisurely walk around the island, we decided to have our brunch here since we anticipated Petite France’s food to be expensive.
Not very far from the entrance, you can see a stretch of restaurants where you can eat. They open at 9:00 am.
For our brunch, we had a set of grilled beef meat, Korean soup, and lettuce. This had cost us 52,000 KRW or roughly 2,000 PHP! Therefore, we had to adjust our meal budget for the rest of the day.
TIPs from YellowTravelingBoots
We left Nami Island at 10:00am aboard the Ferry to catch the trip to Petite France at 10:15am. We will be riding the hop-on-hop-off Gapyeong tour bus to our next destination! Again, it is important that you study the Gapyeong tour bus schedule shown above to ensure that no time is wasted in waiting.
PETITE FRANCE
Direction to Petite France:
Petite France is a french cultural village situated in the countryside. It was built to showcase French culture in general. This place is famously known because of the top rated Korean drama series: Secret Garden and My Love from Another Star among others.
Operating hours is from 09:00-18:00 (Last admission: 1 hour before closing.) Inside this tiny village, there are exhibition hall, performance hall, and other facilities that you can enjoy. Among these are: Saint-Exupery Memorial Hall, Orgel House, France Traditional Exhibition Hall, Antique Exhibition Hall, Europe Puppet House, French traditional games, gallery, and many more!
Me and these awesome ladies at Petite France
View of Petite France from afar
Front view of Petite France
All building structures are replica of a village in France
Memorabilia
Memorabilia
Memorabilia
Memorabilia at the gallery
Ms. TravelingBoots inside the Gallery
The outdoor scene was indeed picturesque!
The view in Petite France is very well suited for those scouting for a pre-nup photo location, or for those who want to experience the feel of a French village! Now, we are off to our next destination – the city tour: Unhyeongung Royal Residence, Bukchon Hanok Village, Namsan Tower.
Direction from Petite France to the Train Station:
Here is the expense breakdown of our Nami and Petite France trip (exclusive of the ITX fare):
Coming next would be the Seoul Itinerary Day 2 at Unhyeongung Royal Residence, Bukchon Hanok Village, and Namsan Tower.
5 Comments
Hi, how did you get to Cheongnyangni Station from Myeongdong? Did you use the bus? How long will it take you to transfer from subway train to ITX? We plan to catch the first train from Myeongdong to Cheongnyangni and will leave us only 23mins. (as per train schedule) to transfer from subway to ITX given we made reservation the night before.
Thanks for this post. It really made our travel plan a lot easier.
Hi David –
I am really happy to hear that our blog has helped you plan your trip!
Please see below answers to your questions:
1. How did we get to Cheongnyangni Station from Myeongdong? – Train, because we didn’t have much control over possible obstructions had we chosen bus (ie. traffic, road situation, etc). Since we had a very rigid schedule on that day, the best option for us was the train.
2. How long will it take you to transfer from subway train to ITX? – please allot at least 20 minutes for the line transfer. You won’t have to go out of the station, but since the Subway is really huge, you need to give yourselves this much time. Hence, your 23 minutes remaining time would be more than enough.
Enjoy and have a wonderful trip ahead!
Hi!
Can we buy a Gapyeong tour bus ticket to Petit France at Nami ferry terminal? Since you took a cab at Gapyeong station to the Nami Ferry Terminal.
Hi Mastura – unfortunately no, you have to purchase it from the driver once you hop on the Gapyeong bus