I’ve lived in Korea for a solid 3 years now and I realize I’ve never really written a “things to do” in Korea post. I forget that I live in a foreign country sometimes.. running around not understanding what the signs say or what passersby are conversating about.. I’ve gotten used to ignoring sounds or things I can’t read. I totally recognize that I’m doing myself a disservice by not at least trying to learn the alphabet (sorry Chris!) but you can seriously get around Korea knowing little to no Korean.. I will caveat this by saying that @instahusband21 (aka the husband, Chris) speaks perfectly fluent Korean that if I get in a serious pinch and he’s not around, I just call him and have him translate for me. Sorry Google Translate, but you aren’t always accurate.
With that, if you are EVER thinking of visiting Korea and because the written language is a bunch of crazy looking characters, have no fear, with enough pointing, pictures, and short easy english words, you’ll be fine!
We traveled down south about 2 hours from Seoul and found ourselves in a little village called Jeonju. We drove but you can take a train straight to the town from Seoul. When you live in the city of Seoul or its surrounding suburbs, you rarely have a reason to venture anywhere else. Everything you need or want is at your fingertips. Think NYC but bigger.. We’ve been trying to make more of a point to vacation around the country and to be honest I had never heard of Jeonju until my family brought it up. It’s the perfect weekend getaway!
{Reasons to visit Jeonju, South Korea}
I got to work to figure out what the highlights were of the city and found that it’s famous for the birthplace of bibimbap (personal fav Korean dish), choco pies, and makgeolli (read: Korean rice wine.. also read: delicious). If you’re a foodie at heart, Jeonju is THE city you need to visit while in Korea. You come here to eat. eat more. drink makgeolli served in a tea kettle (to keep it as cold as possible) and drink from little bowls. eat again. Below are the ones we tried. All very good and I suggest trying them all to decide which best fits your taste buds.
If you needed some specific facts to bring here you:
- Michelin Guide’s Beautiful Places to Visit in Korea
- UNESCO City of Gastronomy
- Dressing up in traditional hanboks or 1920’s outfits straight from a K-Drama
Also a highlight is the integrity the town has been kept to look like you are back in the 1600s. The houses called hanoks are now guest houses that you can stay overnight in. Watch out because that means you’ll sleep on the floor on “yo’s”. Basically a sleeping bag. The hanok village feels like you’ve transformed back to the Joseon era when dressed up in authentic hanboks.
You’ll see people who cross-dress where the boys dress like girls and girls dress up in the boys Korean outfits (not sure what they’re called). I personally think it’s how they really feel on the inside but can’t express it (that’s a whole other blog post in itself) but maybe it’s to be funny.. It’s cute.
{The lowdown on the food..}
A long weekend is all you’ll need here to gorge on all the food. Our first meal consisted of all the “side” Korean dishes.. but a lot of it where your entire table is covered. It was quite the spread and you get to try a little of everything. The place we went to was good, but not the best (see pic for reference of the exterior). It was very pricey because we were on the inside of the hanok village. Recommend for the experience.
Other locations we ate at consisted of mom and pop restaurants that served “jeon” (pronounced jun). OMFG. Get the effing jeon. It’s a dish made by seasoning whole, sliced, or minced fish, meat, vegetables, etc., and coating them with wheat flour and egg wash before frying them in oil..
Since this is also the birthplace of bibimbap, you MUST get it. We ate at a location that was voted the BEST in Jeonju. I can’t even begin to tell you the name but I snapped a pic of the outside of the place. It was featured on an MBC television show and in Korea, that’s a big deal. They always post screenshots of the show around the restaurant if they were featured. I usually like the warm “dol sot” version in the stone pot, but opted for the original since that’s what they were known for. Didn’t disappoint and the owners were super nice!
After a night of a lot of makgeolli, we ate at a place that is famous for soybean soup. It’s apparently Korea’s version of a hangover soup. It was delicious.. I wasn’t hungover.. but some of the others were.. I think it helped. I sadly can’t remember the name, but I’m sure it’s easy to look for soybean soup when using google in Jeonju.
If you have a sweet tooth, head over to Sul Bing for some bingsu. It’s a iced shaved milk dessert and can be topped with anything your heart desires! We got the chocolate and a strawberry macaron one. Because macarons. duh. Perfect for when the weather gets warmer and you need a moment to cool down in the shade.
Another are the choco pies. These aren’t normal choco pies.. these are not filled with disgusting marshmallow and airy chocolate wrapped in aluminum foil of sorts.. They’re little pies made from the heavens.. They’re thicker, almost cookie/cake like.. I had two different versions. The first one was a blueberry white chocolate flavor (see pic below and the sign on the outside.. sorry written all in Korean but follow the sign!).
The second location was from PNB Bakery. This place is smack dab in the middle of the village and it’s in this really gorgeous building. Got the original chocolate one. Lip smacking delicious!
{How to rent a hanbok..}
Lastly, was the handbook experience. There are plenty of locations to rent the traditional hanboks which are fancy dresses with huge hoop skirts and beautifully delicate cropped tops that are belted in the middle. The accessories are the cake toppers which consist of a bag (because you can’t wander around in your Gucci wearing a hanbok..) and pearls, crystals, braids in your hair. There are no shortages of places to rent the beautiful dresses. I would suggest going to a handful of places to gauge the prices and designs. Some places had amazing prices but the styles were very generic and I don’t do generic. We settled on a location that had a ton to choose from with pretty average prices. For 2 hours, we paid about 20,000 won (about $17 USD). You can find places to rent for more time for a little extra or all day for a flat rate. We rented them on a busy Sunday so there was no negotiating that was going to happen.
With your hanbok, all accessories are included and they’ll style your hair how you want with the prettiest little details! Your time doesn’t start until you pay and walk out the door. After we were dressed, my little sister and I headed to roam the streets feeling like princesses. We wandered over to the Gyeonggijeon Shrine which was 3,000 won (about $2.50 USD) for admission to snap some pics.. The grounds are just beautiful. So many pretty locations to snap photos or hangout and take a breather for a bit. We hung here for most of the time then went back into the village to snap some last minute photos before our time ran out.
We headed to this one specific area I scouted the day before (because I’m always thinking about the ‘gram). This perfect green corner with the traditional hanok houses in view. This in my opinion, was the most instagrammable location, other than the view from the top of the stairs behind the greenery (you can find the stairs when you first enter the village from the main road by car).
We happened to go on a weekend that was very art filled and I love that $hit. At night the village was lit up, vendors lined the streets with their artsy goods (jewelry, candles, desserts) and buskers were singing and performing magic tricks. I felt so far away from the city of Seoul and it was perfect.
{more reasons to go… still off the radar}
Jeonju is such a beautiful town and is completely untapped by foreign tourists. Koreans know all about it for the reasons I provided here, but foreigners (anyone who is not Korean) still haven’t fully discovered this place and that’s what makes it still have magic.
It’s only a matter of time before more bloggers and travelers start making it a normal part of social media pics. I highly recommend going and enjoying a weekend away from the city. You could even make it one long day trip if you’re up for it!
For more pictures of my Korea travels, stalk instagram and use hashtag #BrigittexKorea
I have a trip planned to Korea and was looking to fill a couple days.. this would be perfect! Thanks for the tips!