[KOREA TRAVELS] A DAY IN GANGCHON RAIL BIKE , NAMI ISLAND AND GARDEN OF MORNING CALM BY TRAZY.COM
E & I decided to spend a day out of Seoul during our one week stay in Korea. Thus, we visited 3 famous destinations in Gapyeong within a day. This was made possible courtesy of Trazy.com.Trazy.com is an one-stop portal for discounted attraction tickets, tours and transport! You can book the tour here to save your trouble arranging transportation and entrance tickets.
Once the booking is made through the website, there will be a confirmation email of the tour package. Do take note on the selected meeting point and timing.
Our meet up point is at Myeongdong Station (Subway Line 4), Exit 2, which was shown clearly on the confirmation email. This ease the doubts and also a better picture on the meeting point.
Once everyone is gathered, there will be tour guide to assist throughout the journey.And here you go photos taken during the day trip:
GANGCHON RAIL PARK
A post shared by Hazel (@hazeldiary_) on Dec 29, 2017 at 4:26am PST
Our first stop is to enjoy the ride on the old train tracks located in the beautiful countryside. There are 3 rail bike courses starting from Gimyujeong Station, Gangchon Station and Gyeonggang Station. And the distance from the starting point to the end is 8.6km in total.
During the journey, we passed by the farms and streams. Since it is during winter time, we saw snows covered all over the places.
We also passed by few tunnels with different theme throughout the journey. Each tunnels showcase different songs and theme. Thus, it was quite interesting as we were expecting surprises each time we saw the tunnel.
There are 2-seater ( 25,000 kr won) and 4- seater bike (35,000 kr won) with different pricing. The tickets need to be purchased in advance. Lucky for us because we book through Trazy.com, our tickets are included. Thus, all we need to do is to wait forour tour guide to distribute it to us.
Gangchon Rail Park (강촌레일파크)
Address: 1385, Gimyujeong-ro, Sindong-myeon, Chuncheon-si, Gangwon-do
강원도 춘천시 신동면 김유정로 1385 (신동면)
NAMI ISLAND
My second time here and this beautiful island is the filming spot of “ Winter Sonata”. The island is located 63km away from Seoul and 30 minutes drive away from Gangchon Rail Park.
Nami Island is known with the tree-lined roads that gives an instagram-worthy picturesque shot! We took quite a bit of time to take the shot below because there are people everywhere. We waited patiently for people to walk away and finally I got it!
Here’s a shot that I love it very much.
A post shared by Hazel (@hazeldiary_) on Dec 30, 2017 at 4:59am PST
It was lunch time when we reached the island. Thus, we decided to have our lunch in one of the restaurants there. For muslim tourists, there are also no pork no lard restaurants as well. Apart from that, there are street snacks including pan-fried rice cake, steaming hot buns, sausages and many more along the attraction spots.
We spent 2 hours venturing the places and taking #ootd shots. It was quite fun and relaxing walking around the island.
After all the photo-taking and exploring the island, we took the ferry back to the terminal to board our bus.
Nami Island
Address: 1 Namisum-gil, Namsan-myeon, Chuncheon-si, Gangwon-do
Website: https://namisum.com/en/
GARDEN OF MORNING CALM
We headed to the last stop of the day, which is the Garden of Morning Calm. This place is one of the biggest festivals of lights in Korea during Winter season. Expect to see thousands of LED lights beautifully illuminate the gardens.
Here are some shots taken during my trip there:
Garden of Morning Calm
Address: 432 Sumogwon-ro, Sang-myeon, Gapyeong-gun, Gyeonggi-do
Opening Hours:
Sunday –Friday 11:00AM – 9:00PM | Saturday 11:00AM – 11:00PM
Do note that opening hours change according to seasons.
Website: www.morningcalm.co.kr
Entrance Fee:
Adult 8,000krw (weekdays)| 9,000krw (Weekends & Public Holidays)
Youth 6,000krw (weekdays)| 6,500krw (Weekends & Public Holidays)
Children 5,000krw (weekdays)| 5,500krw (Weekends & Public Holidays)
The tour bus then sends us back to Myeongdong station after the tour. So basically we only spend on food for the whole day as the entrance tickets and transportation has been covered in this tour package. The best time about travelling with tour package is that we can save time on the planning and transportation. We also get to skip the queue for entrance tickets!
However the downside is that we need to follow the stated timing for each attraction spots. If you prefer free and easy trip, you may find that there is restriction on the timing. Nevertheless, it is good for big group and family outings. This save the time and hassle-free.
If you want to cover the 3 places within a day, you can book the tour package for Gangchon Rail Park, Nami Island and Garden of Morning Calm here.