Three days in Namhae

Namhae is a quiet, pretty island on the south coast of Korea; Yeosu is on the west and Tongyeong is on the east. Romana and I spent a three days there and here’s what we got up to!
[I visited again on my own in 2023 and did some other things]

Day 1

Getting to and around Namhae

We took a bus to the main town, stopping off once at the Ginseng Land services. The bus arrived arounf 13:30, and near the bus station, we rented a small car. Romana did all the talking! It was a local rental place, so very reasonably priced for the three days.

We drove from town south and east. There were lovely lush green fields on the way where we stopped for photos. Next, we stopped at a harbour area on the east called Pyeongsan. After that we drove west then up through the middle part of the island, the west again to Jigokhang harbour area where we had lunch at Anchovy and Kalchi and Hello (멸치랑칼치 and hello.).

We started making our way to where our accommodation was. We stayed at a place called Namhae Pension 920 (남해펜션920) on the south west coast. We bought some food to cook (beef and vegetables) then headed there. It had a lovely, terrace with covered barbeque area looking out to the sea. We cooked up the steak and drank some bokbunja wine and made friends with a black cat!

Day 2

Boriam Temple, strange museum, and sashimi

We had a convenience store breakfast on the terrace and looked out to what promised to be a very wet day! Nearby is a well-known mountain temple called Boriam, so off we went! It was raining pretty hard by the time we got there. There’s a parking lot on the east side that you approach from the north west. There’s shuttle bus (I think), so no hiking necessary. Because of the rain there weren’t any views from the wide temple terrace out to sea, but the fog gave the whole temple a lovely and eerie atmosphere. Check my post from 2023 to see the temple in better weather!

After leaving the temple, we stopped at a reservoir. Then we headed north to get lunch. On the way, we dropped by an odd museum in a huge rundown house full of what seemed like random objects; no idea what it was called either, only that it was on the east coast (I’ve checked using the location info on the photo; it’s now a glamping campsite so they must have torn everything down!). There’s an area near the western bridge with a lot of restaurants that Romana found. Yujin Sashimi (유진횟집) raw fish restaurant was on the second floor looking out to the harbour and the old style navy boats. The sashimi was as expected, featuring mainly skate. We enjoyed the view and food before heading back to the pension.

Day 3

Daraengi Village

On this last day, Romana suggested an old village on the coast called Daraengi. It’s a lovely place of old houses on steep hills looking out to sea. It’s a well know spot for views of the sea and the farming terraces. We spent a while there down at the coast and walking the many alley and streets. We had lunch at Daraengi Matjip restaurant (다랭이맛집) and sat on the terrace. It’s a popular place, and the place I’d go to again in 2023.

After all this, we needed to get to the car rental place and to the bus terminal for a long but comfortable ride home. Even though the weather wasn’t what we wanted, this turned out to be a lovely trip and the reason I wanted to revisit. As you’ll see in my posts about the 2023 trip, I was also a bit unlucky with the weather!