The other weekend Elicia and I stayed in Yeosu and began exploring the many islands off our beautiful city of Yeosu. We visited Geumodo Island with our friends Victoria and Brennan and we had a blast hiking! We were excited to explore more of the islands off Yeosu, and our car would once again come handy to get us to a ferry terminal “off the beaten path”.
On September 14 we drove south and west of Yeosu with our friends Cory and Michelle. Our destination? The Baekyado Ferry Terminal, which is near one of our favorite beaches called Jangdeung Beach, about 45min away from Yeosu. We would catch a ferry at 8:00am, the first of four options per day (one ferry drives the circuit 4x per day). If you live in the Yeosu area and want to get to the Baekyado Ferry Terminal, you can plan on a somewhat expensive taxi ride (40 minutes) OR hop on bus #28 at the bus terminal-side of the street by eMart. First bus is 5:40am, last bus is 9:10pm, running every 30 minutes.
This time, we would first visit Sado Island for a few hours and Elicia documented that here, and then we’d stop at Hahwado Island to hike the 5.7km course around the perimeter of the amazing island. Here’s a map of the islands off Yeosu as well as the 5.7km trail map of Hahwado Island.
The trail starts right at the pier at Hahwado. There’s a small mart where you can grab snacks, and there’s also a restaurant or two if you’re in need of some proper Korean eats. Well, we headed left to persue the hiking trail in a clock-wise fashion. The trail wasn’t too difficult; there’s not a huge mountain or anything, so it’s mostly walking/strolling/trekking. The 5.7km trail takes 2-3 hours to complete. We took our time, took several pictures, and it took us 2.5 hours. Here’s a few pics of the left (west) and top (north) side of the island:
Unfortunately the gray skies moved in, and we got rained on a little bit. Not enough to pull out the ponchos, but enough to make us hide under a pagoda (a little Korean shelter to stop and rest or eat some food). A nice group of Korean folks joined us, it was great to chat with them in broken Korean and English.
We carried on to the eastern-most (right) part of Hahwado Island, and things just got more and more beautiful! Stunning cliffs and beautiful overlooks with views of more islands surrounded by turquoise water.
It had stopped raining, and the weather was perfect! It was an excellent end to the hike. The route back to the pier where we’d catch the ferry back to Baekyado was flat and followed the coastline.
We stumbled upon this brand new, German-like bathroom:
What a day! Sado and Hahwado Islands were amazing! I’d definitely recommend Hahwado Island if you’re looking for an easier hike with plenty of great views.
KLIMBING KOREAN MOUNTAINS 
Fab pictures and descriptions! Want to take a group hiking down there soon. Any thoughts on Sanghwado??
Una
Hi! Thank you for reading :) I haven’t been to Sanghwado yet, but looking at Naver Map it honestly doesn’t look too promising for hiking. Looks pretty small and no mountain with trails (from what I can see)! I will ask around some more to confirm.
Hey Thomas,
Thanks for the reply. Looking to do a 2-nighter from Seoul and thinking of train to Yeosu day 1, then ferry to one or two islands to hike Day 2, train back Day 3. Maybe you have some thoughts on which 2 would be a good idea! Tho your blog mentioned you did 2 in one day…I’ll read it again!
Thanks…hiking in Korea the best!
Cool! It depends on how much hiking vs. relaxing you’d like to do. I enjoyed our day when we visited Sado Island (with dinosaur foot prints) and Hahwado Island. Sado Island is quite small, you can spend 2-3 hours there and that’s plenty of time. Hahwado is more of a hiking island, where it takes about 2-3 hours to walk around the 5.7km path. The cliffs and views are stunning on this island, so I’d recommend this itinerary. Guemodo is also very nice, but very long, with the whole trail being 18km, but it’s not extremely difficult. You could do a portion of it and return, however. Something to keep in mind is the ferry terminals – from Yeosu Ferry Terminal the times are different. I went from Shin-Gi Ferry Terminal on Dolsan Island to get to Geumodo Island, and Baekyado Ferry Terminal to get to Sado & Hahwado. Each of these terminals are about 45 minutes south of Yeosu, so if you take a train to Yeosu, you’ll either need a taxi or public bus to get to these ferry terminals. Let me know and I can help you with the proper bus numbers to catch to get you there. Let me know if you have any other questions!
Pingback: Gaedo Island (개도) | KLIMBING KOREAN MOUNTAINS