What: Jeju’s famous Olle Trails are a series of 15 connected walking trails that total more than 200km. They provide fantasic scenery, secluded gems “off the beaten path” of Jeju-do Island. You can see temples, volcanic cliffs and formations, palm tree forests, beautiful beaches, wonderful waterfalls, quiet farmlands and more simply by spending time walking along the clearly marked trails. Here is a great resource that we used to research a bit about the sights you’ll encounter on each trail.
Where: The Olle Trails are all connected, so you can easily pick up where you left off if you plan to hike for multiple days. Or, if you’re like Elicia and I and don’t have a car (yet!) you can simply walk one of the trails end-to-end. They’re designed to be walked east-to-west, but we went against the grain and went west-to-east, and we were happy to find others doing the same, so no biggy on the directionality thing. Trails are marked well in both directions.
15 connected trails, mosly on southern part of Jeju.
Elevation: N/A The trails vary in difficulty, but most of them are very, very flat and generally follow the coastline. There are some technical sections along rocky beaches and through some forests, but I’d say 75-80% of the trails are on easy-to-navigate foot paths.
Get There: Getting there all depends on where you are, how far you plan to walk, and most importantly, what you want to see! What intrigued Elicia and I the most were waterfalls, beautiful views of cliffs and ocean. What would you like to see? I’d encourage you to do some research on Olle Trails in Jeju and find the trail(s) that intrigue you the most… I’ll guarantee you that there is truly no better way to see the true Jeju and all it’s beauty than to spend a day walking the trails.
After hiking Hallasan Mountain on Friday, we made our way to Hwasun Beach, which is near the southwest corner of Jeju Island.
Awesome GuestHouse & Coffee Shop at Hwasun Beach. Stone’s throw from the sand.
View of Hwasun Beach from my bunk in the guesthouse
After a pleasant stay at a guesthouse on the beach, we woke up to rain on Saturday morning. And wind. And more rain. I ran 200m through puddles to a store to buy ponchos. It was going to be a wet day. I’m thankful for my upbeat wife who encouraged me to not sit around and waste a day… why should rain ruin our Jeju parade? We took a taxi to see some famous cliffs called JusangJeolli Cliffs, which was a 20min drive away from Hwasun Beach.
Enduring wind and rain at cliffs.
Smiles all around..
After we took in the cliffs, it was about 10:00am and we were about to leave when we stumbled upon a nice walking path… Olle Trail #8. What was our plan next? We didn’t have one! We just started walking. And walking. And walking some more. We didn’t realize the JusangJeolli Cliffs were RIGHT on Olle Trail #8, but since it was raining, what the hay? We figured we might as well keep walking to see some other cool things. We headed east on Olle Trail #8.
We started at JusangJeolli Cliffs, walked east for an hour or two, and finished at Wolpyeong Port. Total journey = 8Km
Bird resting on little rock pile. We walked along the sea for much of this journey.
Flowers everywhere
Stumbled into this nice little bay
After walking about 8Km, we came to the end of Olle Trail #8. “What should we do?” – Let’s keep walking!! So, we began Olle Trail #7 which is 15.1Km long and goes from Wolpyeong Port to Oedolgae Rock. It was only about 1:00pm so we had plenty of time to explore!
Olle Trail #7 Map
HUGE temple. Wasn’t on the map, but Olle Trail #7 took us here!
Found fuel (sandwiches) and hydration (coffee and beer) at a cool coffee shop right along the ocean.
Soaking it all in
Oedolgae Rock, the finish of Olle Trail #7. They film a Korean TV show here.
We covered the 15.1Km in about four hours, so it was now 5:00pm. The constant rainy drizzle and extremely heavy legs from yesterday’s Mt. Hallasan hike began to set in, and we were ready to head to Seongsan, where we would be staying that night. BUT, we wanted to first see some waterfalls, so we grabbed a taxi and….
Checked out Cheonjiyeon Waterfalls, which is a few Km into Olle Trail #6.
What a day! We walked 23+ Km of Olle Trails #8 and #7 after hiking 18.3Km up and down Hallasan the day before. Needless to say, we were tired! For anyone visiting Jeju-do Island, I would highly recommend Olle Trails because they are a great way to take in the scenery, culture, and main tourist attractions without being trapped on roads and in cities. Researching the trails is easy, finding them is even easier, and the beauty of them is second to none!
KLIMBING KOREAN MOUNTAINS 
Wow – I didn’t know about these trails but they look awesome! I love your suggestion to do some research first to see where you want to go, but also love that you just explored what was right in front of you. Looks amazing! And getting off the beaten path is always the right way to see the true gems. Despite the rain, looks like you had another amazing and memorable day!!
I learned that sometimes research is good, because it can point you in the right direction and give you lots of good ideas of what’s possible. At first I was a little flustered because we weren’t “sticking to the plan”, but it turned out to be AMAZING and we hiked other sections of Olle Trails than intended. I learned a good lesson of being flexible!