Chuncheon – Day 3 of a 14-Day Trip in South Korea
We headed to Chuncheon by local train on Day 3. The train only comes a select number of times in a day, so make sure to check the timetable. The trip to Chuncheon from Seoul takes about 2 hours. There are also options for the intercity buses as well. Chuncheon is historically a chicken farming region and is particularly famous for being the birthplace of dakgalbi – a spicy stir-fry chicken dish.
Day 3
Chuncheon
We started our day with onigiri from the GS25 convenience store, then headed to the train station to catch the train to Chuncheon. Half way to Chuncheon is the stop for Nami Island – a popular tourist destination due to it being featured in many Korean dramas including the “Winter Sonata”. From the Chuncheon train station, we took a 15 minute bus to our hotel, Sangsangmadang Chuncheon Stay Hotel. We were too early for check-in, so we dropped our bags off at the front desk, then headed to lunch. For lunch, we picked 대진식당 (Daejin Saengohjingeobu Iguyi), which was a restaurant about a 10 minute walk from the hotel. The restaurant only served banchan during lunch time, which is essentially a meal made of many small side dishes, rice and soup. The sides included bean sprouts, seaweed, ham + egg, spicy small crab, spicy pork, corn, kimchi, and jelly. I had never had the small crab before but they were crunchy due to the shell, not my favourite, but was very interesting. Everything was delicious and the owner was very sweet!
After lunch, we headed to the Chuncheon Samaksan Mountain Cable Car. The bus comes infrequently (~30 minutes), so make sure to plan accordingly. The cable car took us up the Samaksan Mountain and offers great views of the area. We only had about an hour and a half at the Chuncheon Samaksan Mountain Cable Car as I had make reservations at the Ganchon Rail Park for 3:30pm, so our visit at the Mountain was very rushed. After exiting the cable car, we hiked up the trail (about 15 minutes) for more views.
The wait for the cable car back down took 30 minutes, which made us almost miss our rail park reservation! At the base of the mountain, we took a taxi to the rail park and arrived about 5 minutes before our rail cart was scheduled to leave. I had originally wanted to book the 5:30pm time slot, but all the times had already been booked (and I made reservations roughly 3 weeks ahead of time). The Ganchon Rail Park is a cool experience. Each group gets a rail cart with 2 or 4 seats depending on which cart was reserved. The path is an old railroad and we travelled through the farmland and decorated tunnels. The rail cart route was about 6km long and took us 40 minutes, then we boarded a train for another 20 minutes. At the end of the railroad, there were buses (included in the ticket) that took us back to the start.
After the rail park, we headed to the hotel to check-in, then headed to dinner. We had dinner at 춘천명물닭갈비, a popular dak galbi restaurant about a 10 minute walk from the hotel. We ordered dak galbi and soju. You can get unlimited lettuce, shiso leaves, radish, garlic, jalapeno, and ssam (soybean + gochujang paste) sauce. The perfect bite is a piece of chicken wrapped in lettuce and a shiso leaf with the condiments. The chicken comes out raw, so we had to stir fry it for about 15 minutes before it was ready to eat.
After dinner, we headed back to the hotel for the evening.
Complete Day 3 Itinerary
*Travel times may vary. Check Kakao or Naver Maps for most accurate travel details.
8:00am: Have breakfast from the convenience store.
9:00am: Travel to Chuncheon (2 hour train from Seoul).
12:00pm: Have lunch at 대진식당 in Chuncheon (15 minute bus ride from Chuncheon Station).
1:00pm: Visit the Chuncheon Samaksan Mountain Cable Car (12 minute bus ride from 대진식당).
4:00pm: Visit the Ganchon Rail Park (11 minute taxi from Chuncheon Samaksan Mountain Cable Car). Make reservations early to ensure the desired timeslot!
6:00pm: Have dak galbi at 춘천명물닭갈비 (15 minute taxi from Ganchon Rail Park).
14-Day South Korea Itinerary
Click “Download” below for an excel version of my 14-Day South Korea Itinerary. Feel free to use the excel file as a planning template for your own trip!
Travels with Carolyne 