Korean Job Discussion Forums

[gibbythecat]

hi
I met some canadian esl teachers in Emart two weeks ago ,who claim to have found a good sandy beach in the inchon area.
from what i remember it was a little south of inchon,with clean water,clean sand,situated about 1.15H on the bus from from seoul,or 2.15 on the train.??There are a lot of cheap motels in the area too where they stay.
when I cross ref. with the LONLEYPLANET book of jokes,can not make sense of this..THE TIMES DONT ADD UP!
However,they highly reccomend this place,and claim to go every weekend now the weather has improved.
I wish i had asked more questions at the time.
is it called SOCKO BEACH?
IF anyone has been there ,knows its real location[or a similar Soul getaway escape destination ] please let me know.
I need to get out of the concrete for a few hours
thanx
gibby

[Korea Newfie]

[Son Deureo!]

I'm in Incheon, too. But I probably do suck

Any idea how to get to this Songdo Beach? Or any other in Incheon?

Surf's up!

[K-in-C]

You take a short ferry ride from Wolmi do (sp?), get off, walk for a bit till you find the open air fish market, look for the busses sitting there, and ask which one goes to the beach. It's over an hours ride by bus but it is a nice spot.

That's the best I can do for directions. I've been there with a Korean freind. She's in NY, NY right now and I'm in Ontario so I can't call her to get better directions.

Cheers,

Kate in Canada

Edited once

[Korea Newfie]

Sorry! I was being over-confident. I just checked with the LP, and it's not Songdo Beach (there's a Songdo Beach here, but it's not what you're talking about) but rather Eulwangni Beach.

To get there, take a taxi (~5 minutes) or bus (2, 15, 23, 60, 101, 550) from Incheon station or Dongincheon station to Wolmido. There are hourly departures for Yeongjongdo, a trip which takes 15 minutes. From there catch a local bus (40 mins.) to the beach.

No yeogwans available, but homestays are possible.

Disclaimer: If this is wrong, blame the LP, not me!

[K-in-C]

Lord tundering, boy, that's the place. There are a bunch of shops along the strip and it's a fair size beach.

Have fun,

Kate

[Korea Newfie]

Lord Tunderin'?

You've been to da rock aven't ya, Kate?

[Son Deureo!]

Surf's up! Eulwangni beach isn't bad, but it's a bit crowded. A beach in Incheon is still a beach, though. Good seafood restaurants, if you like that sort of thing. The clam bakes (jo-gae goo-ee) are really good, too. Lots of sashimi restaurants and kalbi restaurants, too. On the way to the beach is a series of tidal mudflats. During low tide, all you can see for acres and acres is sandy mud with tiny crabs skittering across the surface with Korean families tromping around digging them up. Fun!

You can catch a bus there from Incheon Airport from busstop 3A. There are yeogwans and homestays (min-baks) all over the place.

A little trickier to get to, but definitely worth it, IMHO is Muido. It's no substitute for your vacation to Thailand, but if you live in the Incheon area this is more than worth checking out. There are two beaches, and the island has two small mountains and a lot of forest. On this island I saw some of the most beautiful scenery I've seen in Korea yet. Forests, rice paddies, mountains, mudflats, beaches... fantastic. The beaches are hardly untouched, but since they are bordered by forests, rock formations and mountains the views are stunning. Anyone who says Korea doesn't have any natural beauty has not been to Muido.

The starting point to get to Muido is also Incheon Airport. From bus stop 9A take local (ma-eul) bus 222 (not listed on the sign, but trust me, it stops there). Ride this bus to the end of the line (only about 10-15 minutes from the airport), then walk up the causeway to the ferry port. The ferry ride is only about 15 minutes long and costs 1000 won for pedestrian passengers. You can walk to either of the islands two beaches from the ferry terminal or catch the island's bus (no bus stops that I saw, just flag it down if it passes by you). Since ferries leave every half hour from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., this is probably the most accessible of Incheon's Yellow Sea islands for a day trip. I didn't see any yeogwans, but minbaks were everywhere, and the beach had lots of mini-bungalow (read shacks) and tent rentals available, so an overnight trip would be easy to do.

How about that? I've found something nice about Incheon!

[Ilsanman]

I lived in Incheon for 1 week. It blows ass.

[Bulsajo]

I wouldn't get too worked up about Songdo beach, and I certainly wouldn't consider swimming there. It's about a 15 min bus ride from Dong-Inchon if the traffic's not too bad.

[howie2424]

I'm with Son Deureo!. Visited Muido last year, hiked up the mountain and down the other side to the beach. Nice place definitely worth a visit.

[the saint]

[Bulsajo]

I didn't like Eulwangni (aka Eulwanglee, Eulwangri) I thought it was an utter craphole.

This was probably due to the fact that some university's 'MT' had just taken place there- honestly, I've seen less garbage in a dumpster during a sanitation strike! It was almost too hard to see the sand on the beach through all the litter, and the public washrooms there made the one in trainspotting look pristine.

The beach had been scoured clean of all animal life by Koreans looking for seafood supplements to their picnics (one of them being my mother-in-law, I'm sorry to say).

Maybe it doesn't always look like that, and I went there on a really, really bad day...

(Haven't been to Muido, wish we had gone there instead of Eulwangni )

[phaedrus]

Keep in mind where the Han river drains to, and where all the grime of Seoul gets washed to when it rains, not to mention after treatment sewage (which can't be that clean).

[Bulsajo]

I've never seen anyone crazy enough to go swimming around Inchon (the islands further away from the coast might be a different story) but I have seen people windsurf and waterski on the Han in Seoul...