Bijindo is an island in the Southern sea. It's loacted in Hallyeosudo Marine National Park. The Southern sea's shore line is a typical rias coast and has more than 750 islands. Water is relatively more blue and clear compared with the Yellow sea.
Bijindo is one of the island in the national park. ('Do' usually means island in Korean place name) It has a beach side, small mountain to hike. There are some lodgings, small marts where you can buy water, alcohol and other simple foods, restaurants selling seafood based menu. Camping is available on beach.
HOW TO GO
1. How to go to Tongyeong
Tongyeong is a seaport located in the southern part of Korea. If you don't drive by yourself, you don't have much choice to go Tongyeong from other city. There is NO KTX station in Tongyeong. Basically, you will take a bus to reach the city.
There is a direct bus from Seoul to Tongyeong (and of course from other cities too)
If you fail to get a direct ticket from Seoul to Tongyeong(Tickets are sold out quickly on peak season), you can go to Busan via bus or KTX, then take an intercity bus from Busan bus terminals to Tongyeong bus terminal. Intercity bus from Busan to Tongyeong are easy to get even on-site.
2. Go to Tongyeong Ferry terminal
People usually use a bus to go to Tongyeong if they don't drive by themselves. There is a ferry directly go to Bijindo from Tongyeong Ferry Terminal. You can buy tickets on site but some islands are popular especially in holiday seasons and summer. Therefore I recommend you to buy tickets in advance via Internet. (Read my other post about buying ferry tickets via on-line)
Tongyeong Ferry terminal is 6.6 km from Tongyeong Bus terminal.
①If you take a taxi,
-it will take around 17 minutes and costs around KRW 7,800.
②If you take a bus,
-there are some buses directly going to the ferry terminal from bus terminal.
-Tongyeong bus terminal's bus stop's number is (5065).
-Bus no. 301, 101, 141, 530, 401, 300, 341, 400, 442, 501, 505, 534, 535, 600, 104, 105, 200, 435, 630, 670
-Get off at Seoho Market(서호시장: bus stop's number is 1107)
-It takes around 30 minutes if you take a bus
-Walk from the bus stop to the ferry terminal (around 6 min.)
3. Take a ferry
Ferries go to Bijindo stop twice. First stop is Bijindo Naehang(내항: meaning 'inner port'), Second stop is Bijindo Oihang(외항: meaning 'outer port'). Most of tourists take off at Oihang. There is not much fun things in Naehang. Tourists usually stay on Oihang side because there is beach and mountain. However, if you want, you can walk to Oihang to Naehang in the island. The island itself is quite small and you can cover by walking.
To take a ferry, you need to bring ID proof. If you book a ticket via On-line, you need to bring the credit card which you used to buy the ticket. There are also some minor things to follow to take a ferry. Read my other post about how to take sea ferry in Korea.
Facilities
1. Where to Stay
①Camping is available in this island
-You can freely tent on beach
-There is a public shower, toilet right beside of the beach but they only open in the peak season (In summer)
-I camped on the beach on May and those facilities were closed
-Town management charges some cash on the shower facility
-There is one other public toilet but it's quite far from the beach (I walked 5 minutes to brush my teeth and wash face in the morning...)
-There is a close down school and some people camp on the playground
-However you need to let the town management know before you make a tent there (Some people camped there and misused it several times so town management made a restriction)
②There are some B&B
-I couldn't find AirBnB in the island
-However, if you searched 비진도 민박(Bijindo B&B) on Naver or Kakao Map, it's easy to find them with the contacts
-Some of them provides English and some are not. Residents of the island are familiar with foreigners but it doesn't mean they can all speak English.
2. Where to Eat
①Restaurants
-There are few restaurants near the beach side
-They usually sell sea food based Korean food (Hot fish stew, Sea food Bibimbap etc.)
-Fried chicken delivery service is there
-However those restaurants close early if they don't have customers
-They will provide services even in quite late time on Friday and Saturday night but it's a whole different story on Sunday night. Me and my friends were turned down only at 8 p.m..
②Cooking by yourself
-There are some small stores selling water, ramyeon, Instant rice, snacks, alcohol
-I recommend you to bring basic ingredients from the main land
3. Where to wash if you are a camper
In the peak season, shower facility is available with a reasonable price so no worries. However if you camp on May like me, you will be in bit pain. I needed to walk along side the sea to go to public toilet to brush my teeth and wash my face. The road heading to the public toilet from the main beach is bit far as you can see on above screenshot.
What to do
1. Beach
-Main beach is a sand beach
-There is a pebble beach on other side
-Sea level changes a bit a lot but it's basically a gentle slope
-Water is relatively warm compared with other Korean seas because it's in South
-Some B&Bs rent Kayaks and paddle boats: usually only for their own guests if you don't put some deposit
2. Fishing
-Fishing from the rocks on seashore is possible on low tide
-There are nice rocks reveal on the surface in low tide at the and of the beach under the cliff
-You can also fish near port on hide tide
3. Hiking
-There is a small mountain(312 m) with hiking trail
-Trail is well maintained and it's easy to follow signs
-Trail is along side the mountain heading to the peak
If you find any errors, have updates information or want to add some comments, feel free to let me know (Last update: 2019. 5. 10.)
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