It's easy to reach out to river for kayaking in Korea. Even you're in Seoul, there is a Han river in the middle of the city. Kayaking and other water sports are not popular as much as hiking in Korea yet. However there are many nice place, easy to reach from Seoul, Kayaking places.
Seoul is surrounded by mountains (honestly most of Korean cities are) so it's easy to hike. Furthermore, Seoul has Han river. Han river is not gigantically big but it's enough to enjoy kayaking with city view. Most of all, it's easy to reach.
I think city view makes Han river kayaking special. If you go out on clear day you can see tall buildings with small hills near by Han river and Namsan, Seoul N tower. When it's a sunset time, golden orange sunlight lies upon the metropolitan city. It's quite pleasant to see Han river park's green lawn with sky and river altogether. There are noise of city but you can also catch children laughing on river side park. You might see kites flying above the bridge. Han river bridges are lighten up at night and you can see the night city's light.
It might be bit hard to row against the water flow. Sometimes motor boats or ferries create small waves too. It's still bit cold in April in Seoul to do kayaking so also check the temperature. Usually after October to March, people barely do kayaking there. Han river area is usually more windy and cold then other area.
If you have your own kayak...
My boyfriend bought his own kayak. Inflatable, for 2 people one. We don't need to rent kayaks and more importantly, we can start our kayak wherever we want. Our only pain is to carry it because it's quite heavy. We use a small trolley to carry our kayak. It's small enough to put on kayak so we can just roam around water and decide our course freely.
You can start Kayak wherever you want in Han river. There are no fishing zones in Han river to protect the water quality. If you want to fishing on Kayak, start kayaking on fishing available zone. Otherwise you can start anywhere.
Below is a map of Han river. I personally recommend 3 places to start kayaking.
Jamwon, Ttukseom and Jamsil. All of them have subway station with same names.
You can find camping sites or docks for kayaks, motor boats, wind surfing near there. You can find stairs going down to the river from the river side easily near camping site in Jamwon. There are also convenient stores near by, public washroom. You can order delivery foods to the camp site too.
Those 3 places also have docks. Some of them are public, others are private. Private dockmeans hobby clubs or rental business pay money to use them or installed them with government's permission. You can use public one freely of course. In private docks, even though they are private, I haven't experienced owners chasing me away yet. I smiled, said hi nicely and asked whether I can start kayak here, then they said okay. They often approached and asked questions about my boyfriend's kayak when we were inflating it. I don't actively recommend to use private docks freely but at least I haven't been chased away yet.
If you don't have your own kayak...
There are some rental places on Han river. You can find them searching 한강 카약 / Han rive kayak. If you search it in Naver, advertisements come up on top often with discount coupons. Therefore if you can read Korean, I recommend you to use Naver. Most of them accept credit card and you can make reservation in advance.
I haven't used them but I searched some to write this post. It seems some of them even provides beer or other beverage. If you don't have your own kayak, you can use the rental kayak service. They provide life vest of course and teach basic way to row.
Be careful with...
There are big ferries and other fast motor boats on Han river. Usually those fast or big boat/ships use the center of the river. Don't go to far from the river side if there are motor boats or ferries' passage.
I'm not sure whether it's okay to write this or not because it's toooooo much basic. Han river is deep. Wear life vast.
If you find any errors, have updated information or want to add some comments, feel free to let me know (Last update: 2019. 5. 14.)
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