Jeju Island is a small island off the coast of South Korea. It has several natural wonders to explore, including waterfalls, beautiful beaches and volcanic features.
Flying to Jeju Island from Seoul was surprisingly easy, and the journey was simple and efficient.
On arrival at our Airbnb, we were wowed by the traditional Jeju Island house that would be our home for the next few days, and its simple interior that housed everything we needed.
Food in Jeju is an eclectic mix of seafood and hipster favourites. One local speciality is abalone, so do try it, but you might find that this chewy seafood is an acquired taste.
Despite the island’s small size, we found that you needed bookings for some of the more popular restaurants. Checking opening hours is a must too, and be wary of these changing for various national holidays.
Another island speciality is black pork, and after picking a spot that looked popular with locals, we sat down to the most incredible, although somewhat smokey, barbecue experience.
After a couple of days we attuned a little to the local bus routes, and it was quite easy to navigate between popular tourist spots. We were wishing that we had time to explore the enchanted forest and glass-art theme park.
We did however put a full day aside for the Osulloc tea museum and I highly recommend that you visit if you are ever on Jeju Island.
Jeju is also famous for the Hallabong, a sweet and flavoursome orange, similar to a mandarin. There was Hallabong juice available at every stop we visited, and we never missed an opportunity to have this refreshing drink. No surprise that I had to recreate this sweet orange flavour through our Jeju Tangerine fragrance.
If you can brave the language barrier, Jeju is the perfect place to break up a busy trip in Korea, and we returned with plenty of fresh inspiration from this unique and beautiful holiday island.