Soooo today I’m going to slightly deviate from my usual postings of things to do and eat in Daegu with a travel recommendation. Last week I spent three days on Geoje-do and was blasting pictures all over Facebook and Instagram (of course!) and soooo many people reached out to ask for advice on visiting. So I thought I might as well make a blog post about everything as there might be more people out there looking to visit! I had such an amazing time so I wnat to share all my tips and advice for visiting Geoje. I’ll do this across 3 posts (one for each day I visited) and will include info on getting round, booking tickets, and of course places to eat. I hope you’ll find this post useful if you decide to visit Geoje!
So the first step is actually getting there, and from Daegu this wasn’t too bad. A bus runs almost hourly from Dongdaegu Bus Station to Gohyeon Bus Terminal on Geoje Island. The bus takes a little over 2 hours (maybe 2 hours and 20) and costs 20,300 each way. Pretty decent! You can book tickets either at the bus station, or online via the Bustago app or website. Word of warning, the app and website never work for me in English so I have to use Korean. It’s pretty easy to navigate though, and the stations are 동대구 and 거제(고현). We booked a ticket for 9.40 and arrived around 12. The ride was pretty smooth but we were hungry when we got there so….
My first food recommendation! We were trying to find a spot near the terminal to grab a quick lunch. Gohyeon is a town with a lot of different restaurants and cafes so we weren’t struggling for choice, but bf came across a dalkgalbi place while looking for spots on Naver. We walked over (around 8 mins) and even though the place had just opened it was PACKED. Once we tried the food we could see why though. The portions were big and it was some of the best tasting dalkgalbi I’ve had in Korea. Click here for Naver Maps. Click here for Kakao Maps.
Now one of the things people kept asking me about my trip was how was the public transport. Geoje has a kinda bad reputation for unrelaible and infrequent buses, and I won’t lie it wasn’t the best. We tried both Naver and Kakao maps to check bus times and both would only sporadically work. This did mean a bit of waiting around, but it was never more than 30 mins before a bus came so wasn’t the worrrrrst, just also not the best. Saying that, we often saw Korean people arriving at the bus stops minutes before their buses arrived, so there must be a more accurate way of finding out bus times but we couldn’t figure it out.
Anyway, our first plan for sightseeing was the Geoje Jungle Dome (거제식물원). This is a big indoor botanical garden set under a giant dome in the country side. We were staying in Okpo on the east side of the island (more on that later), however the Jungle Dome was in the west. As Gohyeon is in the middle we decided to go to the Jungle Dome first to save on travel time another day. Both Naver and Kakao were fine at telling us where to get the bus, just not when it was coming. So we waited at the stop and about 20 mins later our bus arrived. The bus took a lovely scenic route to the Dome, and took about 25 mins in total. When we got off we had about a 15 minute walk to the Dome itself.
Outside the Dome were some lovely gardens, including a little Hobbit themed area! I love LOTR so was super happy to see the little Hobbit Holes. You can purchase tickets from the booth outside, and it was only 5,000 entry for adults. Unfortunately, there isn’t a bag storage so we were stuck with our luggage walking round. Also fair warning, we went in July and being inside a glass dome was very very hot. Bring plenty of water and an electric fan. There is a store right outside that sells water too.
Inside the dome was like a tropical jungle, just as described! They had a load of walkways at higher and lower levels so you could enjoy views of the gardens. Also, this being Korea, there were loaaads of fun photo zones to take pictures. Here’s some of mine!
We also just enjoyed wandering around and looking at all the various plants, trees, and flowers they had. There’s also a nice waterfall, and a cave with fairy lights. All in all it took us around an hour to explore the whole dome. We both really enjoyed it and it was a great little stop off to start our trip. There’s also a shop nearby selling local produce, and a cute cafe. We stopped by for an ice americano then luckily Naver Maps showed a bus incoming so we headed back to the bus stop.
To get to Okpo would take about an hour, so we decided instead of going directly to have a little stop off at a beach we spotted on the map on the way there. The beach name was Sagok and you can find the Naver link here, Kakao here. Our bus didn’t stop right by the beach, but we got off at the nearest stop and walked about 20 mins down to the shore. The beach was pretty nice, and had little crabs burrowing everywhere! I love crabs so enjoyed this a bit too much. You could swim in the sea, and there was also a speed boat ride which we debated but didn’t end up doing. The shower rooms also had a little mart hidden in the side, so we got some ice cream and just chilled.
After about an hour we left and started making our way to Okpo to check in to our motel. There was no direct bus so we had to change in Gohyeon, fortunately we got lucky with the buses and were there within an hour. We had booked a hotel in Okpo because it was kind of central to all the things we wanted to do, plus a busy little town with great local amenities, bars, and restaurants. We booked the Evergreen Motel through booking.com and got it for 45k a night, not bad! It was a typical Korean motel but all we needed for two nights.
After we got settled in my bf’s lovely friend came to pick us up for a night out. Of course we wanted seafood as we were by the sea! So she took us out to a restaurant she knew. I’d had a couple of beers at the motel so forgot to get pics of the restaurant (whoops) but it was in a great location right on the seafront. The restaurant name is Last Shelter and you can find their Insta here. You could probably Kakao Taxi there for pretty cheap too. The restaurant had inside and outside seating, so we decided to sit outside to enjoy the fairy lights and the ocean which was just a stone’s throw away. We ordered a platter of shellfish and shrimp, and a bucket of beers and soju. The food was suuuuuper yummy, grilled shellfish is one of my faves. Also there were loads of kitties hanging around for scraps! I always carry a container of dry cat food with me so could satisfy the cats without giving them my fancy food lol. I am a cat mum of two so can’t resist feeding the strays.
After we finished up at the restaurant we headed back in to Okpo. There are streets with strips of bars all over, we saw loooooads of foreigners about so looked like a freindly and accepting neighbourhood. We hit a bar and had a few cocktails and got chatting to a couple of American girls and a guy from the UK and his Korean wife. A very warm and welcoming atmosphere! The drinks were a little on the pricey end though so after we headed to a convenience store and sat and had some street wine. Classy! A bit too late we went home and headed off to bed for a good night’s sleep. Check back tomorrow for my Geoje Day 2 Itinerary!
Dig In Daegu 