Naksan Beach & Seoraksan

Day 6 of solo 6-day road trip

My last day before heading back to Seoul, I drove north to Sokcho and Naksan beach before heading to Soraksan National Park to take the cable car to the peak. Another pleasant drive and good coffee followed by a lucky parking escape at the park…

Travelling off-season has its perks, low traffic being one of them. It was quite a nice 30-minute drive up the coast and there were glimpses of the Seoraksan mountain range on my left as I drove. I’d heard Naksan Beach (낙산해변) was very nice so I stopped there for a morning coffee. Looking around the parking area, I could tell this place would be rammed with tourists in the holiday season; right then, it was just me in the car park. It was a lovely day and the beach was awesome, a long strip of well maintained sand with nice restaurants and bars running along it (and no road for cars in between!).

There were a couple of fun sculptures along the path and some nice photo spots and very few people around. I stopped at La Mer Bleue for a coffee by the beach, thinking I want to come back here with my wife. There was a huge selection of coffee there and a bunch of fascinating glass coffee equipment by the counter.

I was now ready to drive to my final stop, lunch and a cable car ride. It was another 20 or 30 minutes drive to the national park entrance and things were going well when suddenly I encountered a lot of traffic. I guess even off-peak, this place is popular. It ended up not being as bad as bad as it had seemed at first, so I was still feeling good, but then I got to the car park… The attendants were getting people to double park and fill every available inch in an overflow car park, and cars we’re blocking in other cars. I really didn’t want my car trapped and having a nightmare getting out. I got lucky though, as an attendant flagged me into a spot right by the exit with no chance of being blocked in. I assume for those blocked in drivers, they were taking car keys? I didn’t ask…

Anyway, on to the park. I hadn’t been to Seoraksan for years and I had forgotten just how spectacular the mountain looks as you walk into the valley below.

The first time I had been here was to do an overnight hike up and over, with a 5 am final hike to the top to see the sunrise above the clouds. Very nice indeed. Today would be much easier!

There is a wait for the cable car; you buy a ticket for a time slot and mine was in an hour. Perfect because I was hungry. I went for a standard Korean food court pork cutlet with rice and then wandered around looking around the new restaurants and cafes that had been built since my last time here. They’ve been built in traditional ways and fit well with the surroundings. Very nice actually, considering it is just a place to keep tourists busy and fed.

Going up the cable car was amazing with the weather being perfect and me being able to stand by the cable car window. Once at the top, there’s a short hike up to the wide peak, again, perfect in this weather. The true peak isn’t really accessible but it’s enough to just look at it. On one side is a sheer drop into a canyon; very spectacular. I should arrange to hike this mountain again sometime.

Back down the mountain, I had a coffee in one of the many cafes (I should have called this the coffee tour…) before my three or more hour drive back to Seoul.

And so that’s it, the end of my first ever, solo road trip.