There’s plenty to do in South Korea‘s southern hub of Busan, particularly near the Nampodong and downtown area. Yeongdo Island is a small island off the southern tip of Busan that’s perfect for a day out in Busan. From scenic coastal views and zipline adventures to immersive video art and cute cafes, here’s my recommended list of things to do in Yeongdo Island in Busan.
Make sure to spend a day up in East Busan checking out the sights of Haeundae Beach and more, and read my Busan planning post for more about things to do in Busan.
Where is Yeongdo Island?
Yeongdo Island or more accurately Yeong Island is located in south of Busan. It’s linked by bridges to the main land – Namhang Bridge leads to Songdo in the west of the island, Yeongdo Bridge to Nampodong in the north and the Busan Harbour Bridge on the east of the island.
Huinnyeoul Culture Village 흰여울문화마을
Dubbed Busan’s Santorini, Huinnyeoul Culture Village is a pretty chillax little area along the west coast of Yeongdo overlooking the sea. There are lots of cool little cafes to hang out in and enjoy the view (on a really clear day, apparently you can see Japan’s Tsushima Island from here), or take a stroll along the Jeoryeong Coastal Walkway by the water, one of Yeongdo’s 8 scenic sights.
This area was a settlement where refugees from the Korean war came to live and was kinda derelict and half-empty until they revamped the area in 2011 by turning it into a creative space and adding lots of murals on the walls of the houses here. I didn’t really check out the murals because I was too lazy to climb back up the stairs again once I was on the coastal walkway.
I walked along the coastal path and eventually climbed back up the slope. I ended up at a spot called 75 Square, named because it was built in 1975. There is a nice octagonal resting pavilion where you can sit and relax here. I took a bus to my next stop Taejongdae from here.
Huinnyeoul Coastal Walk 흰여울 문화마을 huin-yeoul munhwama-eul [Naver Maps]
Details: More details at the Yeongdo-gu website. Read a little about the Jeoryeong Coastal Walk and 75 Square.
How to get there: Take Bus 7, 70, 71 or 508 from Busan Station and stop at Huin Yeoul Culture Village stop. There is another bus stop nearby where 6, 9, 82 and 85 also stop at. From the bus stop, head towards the coast line to find the Jeoryeong Coastal Walk.
Taejongdae 태종대
Taejongdae Resort Park is a popular scenic spot to soak in Busan’s natural forests and admire the coastline with some spectacular cliff views, especially during sunset.
When I entered Taejongdae park, there were some pretty long queues for the Danubi tourist train, so I decided to save money and walked the entire route instead. It is a scenic walk and while I say it is doable for the average person (aka me), you need some fitness to do it as it gets quite steep at certain points.
Hot tip: If you plan to walk, make sure you take the clockwise route from the entrance (Go up the slope towards Taejongsa/Taejong Temple). You might be tempted to take what looks like the easier route (that goes down towards Taewon Pebble Beach), but trust me, you will regret it as there are longer uphill steep sections further along the route.
Yeongdo Lighthouse is one of the highlights to see in Taejongdae. There is the famous Sinseon Rock under the lighthouse that you can climb down to, but I was pretty wiped out from barely sleeping on the flight over so I skipped the climb. It does look pretty though.
Taejongdae 태종대 [Naver Maps]
Details: Open 4am/5am – midnight. Free Entrance. The Train only runs from 9am – 530pm and costs 3,000 KRW. More at the Taejongdae Resort Park website (Korean)
How to get there: I took Bus 1006 from 75 Square to the terminal/garage. From there it’s a 5-10 minute walk to the entrance of Taejongdae Resort Park. Other buses that go here include 8, 13, 30 – if you’re coming from Busan Station take 88 or 101.
Gamji Beach Clam Shacks
Before I even entered the park, I took a small detour at the main entrance to Taejongdae and headed to Gamji Beach, a crescent-shaped cove with a grey pebble beach. If you love seafood, make sure to hit the long stretch of tents also known as the Taejongdae Jagalmadang 태종대 자갈마당 where you can get super-fresh seafood.
I was tempted to have lunch here, but alas the woes of dining as a solo traveller – there wasn’t a lot of English spoken here – I’m a bit leery of eating weird seafood and it wasn’t that cheap, especially for just 1 person so I passed on it this time around back in 2019.
Taejongdae Ocean Flying Theme Park
Something new I did upon my return to Busan in 2024 is check out the Taejongdae Ocean Flying Theme Park near the entrance to Taejongdae. Here is where you’ll get the chance to ride a 653m over the Gamji Beach bay area!
It was a ridiculously scenic day when we got all geared up and went up the hill to the starting point along the hillside. There’s a really lovely view of Gamji Beach below from here, as well as a cafe if you’d rather just enjoy the view and not the thrills.
The zipline is dependent on weather conditions – we had to go down facing backwards because that’s apparently a bit more stable as it was a tad windy that day. I thought it was a lovely ride that takes you right across Gamji Beach and before you know it, you’re back at the starting point where you’ll get unharnessed and sent on your way.
MOEI
The end point of the zipline is a small building and its upper level is home to the MOEI, or the Media art Of Environment Issue. Why it’s called that is beyond me, but this is basically a mini version of the video art rooms that TeamLab made very popular – Yeongdo has its own version called Arte Museum which I’ll talk more about further down in this article.
MOEI is a not a very big area, but in case any of your group is too small or scared to zipline, this is one place you can entertain them while waiting.
Taejongdae Ocean Flying Theme Park 태종대 오션플라잉 테마파크 [Naver Maps]
Details: Open 9am – 6pm. More at the Ocean Flying Theme Park website (Korean)
Cost: The Zipline ride costs 30,000 KRW per person. Add an Americano coffee and pay 31,500 KRW or include the MOEI Media art along with that for 40,000 KRW. The MOEI ticket on its own is 10,000 KRW.
You can buy your tickets to Ocean Flying Theme Park online via Klook [affiliate link] or on site. The flyer needs to be between 30kg – 100kg to ride the zipline.
Arte Museum Busan 아르떼뮤지엄 부산
I first visited Arte Museum when I was in Jeju’s Aewol district and spent an afternoon wandering around this immersive video art museum with its colourful rooms and projection light artworks, but it turns out that the Busan branch is the largest one in all of Korea and located along the eastern coast of Yeongdo.
There are 16 rooms that you can explore here, and some of the rooms were ones that were quite similar to the artworks that I had seen in Jeju, though the immersive effects still are quite spectacular, like the waves on the beach and the waterfall for example – I don’t know if they rotate the works among the branches or if they just create similar works with slight differences, but if you have visited an Arte Museum before, you already know what to expect to some extent.
Some of the works that were new to me – Tornado is a room with a visible mini smoke tornado right in the middle of it that dissipates when you walk underneath it. Waterfall is always pretty, and the Starry Beach always mesmerising.
The temporary exhibition was a collaboration with the Musee d’Orsay in Paris showcasing various art masterpieces. Standing in the middle of a Van Gogh painting was quite something.
There is a cafe in the museum and a cute gift shop at the end, though I breezed through this museum fairly quickly as I’d already seen it before in Jeju, but if it’s your first time here, it’s a fun way to while away a hot or rainy afternoon indoors.
Arte Museum Busan 아르떼뮤지엄 부산 [Naver Maps]
Details: Open 10am – 9pm. More at the Arte Museum website
Cost: Tickets cost 22,000 KRW on weekdays and 25,000 KRW on weekends for adults.
Arte Museum has other branches in Jeju, Yeosu, Gangneung and even overseas in Dubai, Las Vegas and Chengdu.
How to get there: Bus 17 or 186 stop right in front of the Arte Museum for Arte Museum – Michang Oil 아르떼뮤지엄-미창석유. You can take these buses from the closest MRT Station – Orange Line 1 Nampo Station.
P.Ark Cafe & Bakery 피아크
Right next door to the Arte Museum is perhaps the largest cafe and bakery I’ve visited not just in Korea but anywhere in the world. P.Ark has six entire storeys, and its cafe and bakery cover the top 3 levels of this building. The views from up here are absolutely spectacular with floor to ceiling glass panels all around and plenty of rooftop space you can wander around and check out.
I popped by the cafe for a break after the Arte Museum and indulged in a little ice cream treat with a Sangha Farm choco soft serve ice cream (5,500 KRW) and enjoyed the coastal view all around.
P.Ark Cafe & Bakery 피아크 [Naver Maps]
Details: Open 10am – 11pm. More at the P.Ark website
Oryukdo Skywalk
Oryukdo Skywalk isn’t quite on Yeongdo but it’s close by in Namgu and you can see the eastern coast of Yeongdo from the Oryukdo viewpoint so I decided to include it in this guide.
Oryukdo translates loosely into ‘Five or Six Islands’, which is a reference to the little islets that are lined up in a row just off the coast here. There are several little islets that used to be one long peninsula eroded over millenia by the sea, but depending on the direction you look or the tide level, it can look like five or six islands, hence the unusual name.
You can’t visit the islets directly, but you can enjoy the view from this cliff where a glass-bottomed platform extends out over the sea. It’s free to enter, but you need to wear shoe covers (provided at the entrance) to protect the glass floor.
Some glass bridges are quiet scary, and you can see the waves pounding the cliff face below here, but because the platform isn’t too long, I don’t think it was that scary. Lovely views though! This is part of Haeparang Trail Course 01 which is great for sunrise views.
There is a path that leads down to the coast though I didn’t walk down this time
Oryukdo Sky Walk 오륙도 스카이워크 [Naver Maps]
Details: Open 9am – 6pm. More at the Namgu website
How to get there: Take Bus 24, 27 or 131 to the Oryukdo Skywalk Bus stop. You can take these buses from the closest MRT line – Green Line 2 Kyungsung University – Pukyong University Station 경성대.부경대역.
Looking for more to do in Busan? Check out my Busan trip planning post or my guide to East Busan where Haeundae Beach is located. Or check out all my South Korea articles.