Tour of Eastern Jeju Island

Eastern Jeju has the most dramatic scenery on the island and encompasses volcanic cones, basalt cliffs and lava tubes as well as rich vegetation and wildlife that have led to its protection as a Global Geopark. This full-day tour with a local guide gets you directly to the most interesting sights in a private vehicle, allowing you to make the most of your day and see a variety of attractions in a short space of time. Along with visiting an offshore island, you can hike to the rim of a dormant volcano and clamber through lava caves, with your guide teaching you about the geology of the island as well as its history and culture, as you go. The tour route is flexible, so if you have a particular interest or there’s a location you would like to visit, your guide can accommodate your preferences.

You’ll be picked up by your guide at your hotel and driven to the eastern side of the island, where the most interesting sights are located.

We would recommend making Udo Island, a much smaller island off the coast, your first stop. You can take a short ferry ride here and get a sense of what island life is like. It’s a particularly laid-back part of the province. One way to spend the morning is to rent some bicycles and cycle around either with your guide or independently, following their suggestions for where to go and what to see.

Your guide can wait while you spend an hour or two exploring, taking in the fields of flowers amid the volcanic landscapes and visiting the black-sand or coral beaches, perhaps cooling off with a swim. The going is relatively flat but the hills are easiest if you head south and make your way around the coast. Electric bikes are available.

After stopping on Udo Island for an early lunch, you’ll return to Jeju and drive around the coast to Seongsan Ilchulbong or ‘Sunrise Peak’. It’s a short but steep climb to see the crest of this dramatic tuff cone formed by underwater eruptions thousands of years ago. The view of the crater and the coastline is well worth the effort to get to the summit.

From here, you’ll continue a short distance to the Manjanggul Lava Tube, one of the longest lava tubes in the world and an example of this rare volcanic phenomenon. It’s quite surreal walking through the open section of the tunnel with its lava stalactites and stalagmites. Your guide will explain how it was created: molten lava continued to flow below a roof formed by cooling, hardened lava during an eruption thought to have taken place hundreds of thousands of years ago.

Once you’ve had some time to explore the cave, your guide will drive you back to your hotel.