Busan is South Korea’s second city and is one of the few that wasn’t captured by the North Korean army during the Korean War. It is at the south-eastern end of the Korean peninsular and around 3.5 hours train ride from Seoul and 3.5 hours by ferry from Japan.
I had originally planned to use Busan as a transit point to Japan, as there is a fast reliable ferry service to Fukuoka, which runs several times a day from the International Passenger Terminal (there is also a slower, cheaper overnight ferry that leaves Busan Port in the evening). As often happens with travel, my plans evolved and instead I had a rest day in the city and an early morning flight.
Busan has many attractions to visit, and my challenge was to see how many of them I could tick off in 24 hours, starting at the O’Happy Hotel in the West of the city, which was as close to Gimhae Airport as I could get.
In hotel terms you get what you pay for and the O’Happy was reasonably priced, had a basic breakfast (brown boiled eggs and toast) and no working Wi-Fi, so my travel plans were pretty hit or miss, as I couldn’t look up useful things like bus timetables. In future I will probably hit the tourist information office for a paper map before setting out, as online maps are impractical (not to say expensive) to use without a Korean sim!
First stop of the day was the metro to pick up an all day metro pass for Krw 4000, which is worthwhile if you make 4 or more trips on the metro. Pre-pay travel cards such as T Money, Cashbee or Rail+ are also usable but cost Krw 4000 up front, plus the cost of travel (they give you a Krw 100 discount on bus and metro fares). Busan’s metro is fairly modern but also fairly slow, especially the green line, it stops everywhere!
South of Kyungsung University, is the UN Memorial and Peace Park, which commemorates the UN forces that helped liberate the South during the Korean war. As parks go it is fairly peaceful and full of statues, sculptures, old folks doing calisthenics and young mothers. Farther south is Igidae Park, which has a nice coastal path and the Oryukdo Skywalk, a glass platform that extends out over the cliff edge.
A few stops farther East on the metro are Gwangalli Beach and Diamond Bridge but I skipped these and headed for Haeundae Beach which is popular for its restaurants, aquarium and a coastal path leading to Dongbaek Park and the Busan mermaid statue. From Haeundae, you can catch a local bus to Haedong Yonggungsa Temple, which has an unusual coastal location.
This was as far as I got during the day, I missed out on Gamcheon culture village, Jagalchi fish market and Beomeosa temple, as these were to the West and North of the city respectively, and the metro just took so long to get across town.
To see Busan, I would suggest two or three days, allowing time to focus on different parts of what is a sprawling city. There is plenty to see and do, and as I didn’t see it all, something for me to come back for.
Twintail 