A Must do Day Trip: Sokcho City and Seoraksan Mountain

Korea is such a small country that it is easier to explore than most, and it offers the best opportunities to fill your weekends with day trips. On Children’s Day this year, my friend and I traveled to Sokcho City, a beautiful beach city about 2 and a half hours from Seoul, on the East coast of South Korea.

For starters, the express bus to Sokcho is very affordable: a morning ticket costs about 17,900 won, and a midnight ticket back to Seoul costs about 22,900 won. Sokcho City is very calming and a beautiful place to escape the bustle of Seoul. There are two main places I visited in Sokcho, the first is the beautiful beach with unforgettable waves. My friend and I spent hours chatting, relaxing, and building sandcastles on the beach in Sokcho. I brought shorts hoping to jump in for a swim, but didn’t realize how cold the Pacific Ocean is, which explained why hardly anyone but children were stepping into the water. However, I really enjoyed being knee-deep and running with the tide, trying to find hidden rocks. As a foreigner, I didn’t realize how important Children’s Day was to Koreans until I saw so many parents on the beach with their babies, toddlers, and teens. Because of this, there are many street performers on the beach, and I enjoyed watching people of all ages sing while I made sandcastles.

​

The most unforgettable experience was visiting Seoraksan, especially since this location always came up in my Korean Language textbooks. It was a surreal experience to visit and hike this place in person. I finally got to use my most-used practice sentence: 설악산에 가본적이 있어요!

What I didn’t expect was just how big the park was and how beautiful the range looked in person, so beautiful that my camera does not do it justice. I hiked up the easiest trail to see some beautiful waterfalls, and it offered gorgeous views and a hike that made me sweat. What will always stay in my memory, however, is the Buddhist temple where the biggest statue of Buddha I’ve ever seen resides.  

​

For context, I have irrational fears of statues, probably due to constantly seeing realistic statues in cathedrals as a child. They always make me uncomfortable; the bigger they are, the more fear I feel. Before reaching the Buddha Statue, I heard it was big, but no one truly explained how ginormous it was, and it made me fall onto the floor in fear because it suddenly pops up after turning a corner. I do not regret viewing the statue, as I appreciate the historic and religious significance of the location, but I wish I had been better prepared.

This was an unforgettable day trip to Sokcho, ending with delicious food on the beach and fireworks. For anyone coming to Korea for an extended time, this is a place I highly recommend visiting during the hot months.