When many people hear island trip in terms of traveling in South Korea the first thought is Jeju Island. There is however another island that should get attention and that is Ulleungdo or Ulleung Island. It is on the east coast of South Korea and there are several ferry ports you can travel from.

If you are staying Seoul, the closest port will be Gangneung and you can book through Seaspovill. As of now you can only travel by ferry, but in 2025/2026 there will be the opportunity to travel by plane. The ferry leaves early in the morning, so I advice a night in Gangneung so you don`t miss the ferry.

Gangneung (강릉)

As stated the ferry leaves early and it is better to leave the day before and stay the night. There are some very nice hotels right by the ferry port, but I decided to stay about 30 minutes away because I was told about this one hotel that really intrigued me. If you can, leave early for Gangneung in the morning as Gangneung is beautiful and has a variety of things to do as well as great seafood. Also book your KTX seat a day or two before so you do not risk standing as I did. Reason why I did not book was because I had nothing in the morning and could sleep in and therefore I left Seoul when I woke up rather than pre-plan it.

Sun Cruise Resort and Yacht

Whoever decided to put the cruise ship on a hill really has some imagination, though I know another place in South Korea where a boat is placed on a hill to lookout over the ocean. This was a bit out of my way and made me get up extra early the next morning, but the stay was great. I would have appreciated if they were more up front when I asked about calling a taxi in the morning, but I had luck and still got one. The hotel itself has a bakery, a karaoke facility, convenience store and a sculpture park.

Since this is the first cruise I have stayed on, I now feel like I have to book a cruise and compare them both. To get a closer look at the room and other facilities you can visit their website.

Ulleungdo (울릉도)

The 3 hour ferry ride started at 08:15 AM which already gives you almost one full day at the island. If you travel the route I did you will arrive at Jeodonghang port and there are plenty of hotels and motels nearby you can stay at, if not taxi´s are very affordable.

I stayed at a motel about 7 minutes walk from the port so I could easily leave my things on the day I arrived and go out to explore. Ulleungdo is known for many things, but among them is coastal walks. They have the prettiest ones among South Korea according to the people I met and talked to there. You can walk from Jeodohang port to Dodohang port, unfortunatly when I was there it had been some landslides and I did not know of this, so I made it all the way to the barrier before taking a u-turn.

While caught in the rain this was my view and the bridge is my absolute favorite as it is a squid. One of the other things along with pumpkins that Ulleungdo is known for.

Before continuing my day I went to change and check in at the hotel. As I did not know where the bus stop is, I took a taxi to Dodohang port and it went very fast up the hill and down the hill before reaching the destination. The part from this side of the coastal walk is probably the more famous part and I do recommend walking it as well.

Dodohang port also has a tourist center you can visit and the ladies working there were very helpful when it came to the ferries for Dokdo the next day as I had trouble deciding to go or not. It is a benefit if you speak Korean while visiting Ulleungdo, but I met many people that had moved from Seoul to Ulleungdo and spoke great English, but most people will not have those language capabilities here.

Taeha Monorail up to Taeha Hyangmok Observatory

This is a must visit! I had luck and got there right before sunset and the last monorail ride. The walk from the monorail is about ten minutes, so the people I went up with had to walk rather fast to enjoy the view and the sunset to make the last ride down. There is also a hike and a coastal walk you can do for this, but it takes 2 – 2,5 hours to complete and if you want to do it, you should do it before dark. So it was out of the question for me as the sun was already setting. But I heard talks about how beautiful it is and if I had one more day, this would have been one of the trails I probably would have done.

Dokdo (독도)

Dokdo is the furthers east you can go in South Korea, but be aware it is a 1,5 hours ferry ride one way from Ulleungdo and you can only access the island from Ulleungdo. I had been very back and forth on going or not as this is a special place for Koreans as Japan is still calling it their land in 2024. After thinking about it the whole evening as well as before, during and after dinner I decided it would be a shame not to go while I first was in Ulleungdo. Who knows when the opportunity will come again? What almost stopped me is that it is 1,5 hour boat ride to Dokdo, 20 minutes ashore and then 1,5 hour ride back. Sometimes it is not even possible to go ashore, but I decided to try my luck. Tickets can be purchased on the same site as tickets for Ulleungdo is booked at or on the day of, but go early so you are sure to get tickets!
Seasickness? It can happen, yes. If you are prone to it and still want to go, my advice is to sit in the back of the catamaran. If you sit in the front you will really feel the waves.

The ride
It was fine in the start, I left from Dodohang port as that was the earliest one, my head screamed “more out of my day, yeeeeey”. This meant another early morning for me. I am not big on breakfast and skipped it because I usually do not eat it. The first 15 minutes of the ride was fun the next hour and 15 minutes however was not. I was beyond thankful that I did not eat breakfast.
Five minutes into the ride and the first person near me started puking. I was still holding strong, but at the 20 minutes mark I asked for a puking bag and I do not get seasick easily. Catamarans are my nemesis of boats, but this is the first time it has been this bad for me. Everything I had eaten the day previously came back up. People around me had it worse, but at this point I just wanted to get of the ferry and regreted my choice.

To enter Dokdo
There is no certainity of getting to Dokdo. It depends on the waves that day, if they are too big there is a high chance the ferry can not stop there and therefore you would not get to step a foot on land. The reason being that underneeth the ferry there are very large, sharp rocks that with a strong enough wave can push the ferry down on it.

At this point I just wanted to set a foot on land to try and regain myself a bit. When it was announced we would get to enter Dokdo all of us clapped, except the people still too busy leaning forward and emptying their stomachs.

I was possibly the only foreigner there as I only heard Korean around me and all of them had brought Korean flags celebrating they were there. If you get to stop at Dokdo it is only 20-25 minutes because the next ferry will come soon after. 1 minute was enough for me to recover, just needed some steady ground under me, however I felt bad for some of the people there as they were not apply to get up. They were just sitting with their heads in their hands.
When leaving it is a 1,5 hour trip back as well and I did admit to a group of Koreans I ended up talking with that I was not looking forward to the ride back.

Back to Ulleungdo

No time for buying a snack or something to drink as the bus was leaving in five minutes. It would only take me two minutes from the port, but better to be sure to make the bus than not. Going counter clockwise to get to the northern side of the island. Where the first stop was Ulla Cafe. It is another must stop with a large Ulla to take a photo with.
The drink I ordered was amazing and was what became my breakfast as well as lunch.

Cheonbu Underwater Observatory
The observatory is very close by, but still a bit further to walk than it seemed. For me it is not a must stop spot, but it was indeed cute and you go about 4 meters under sea level and see the fishes around the observatory. You are ensured to see a lot of different fish species as the observatory has put out feeders to attract them.

Samseonam Hermitage
This is a must stop spot. There is no bus stop near it, so you either has to walk a bit to it or if you drive it will be easier though when I passed there on the second day it was a lot of people there and packed with cars. Because of that I decided to just return to Jeodohang port for the evening. But the next day when I went there in the morning it was no people and I had taken a taxi making it easy to hop in and out to see the unique formations standing up in the middle of the ocean.

Gwaneumdo Island

From the blue bridge to the short walk up the stairs to island and on top of it, is worth it. This might have been my favourite place on the whole of Ulleungdo. The weather was perfect and it was breathtaking. You could see over to Samseonam Hermitage as well as Jukdo Island. Before you cross the bridge you have to pay to enter, but this includes an elevator ride so you can save your energy for Gwaneumdo Island itself. This was on the last day and the ferry left at around 13:00, so it was the only thing I had time for, but it was the nearest to where I was staying. Which is one of the reasons why I saved it for the last day.

Must eat

Seafood is a must to eat here, but it is also famous for pumpkins. They also have their own soju you can try as well as Ulla has two types of beers. One with pumpkin flavour and one with squid ink and coffee taste. But my main recommendation is their Dokdo shrimps.

Dokdo shrimps
These types of shrims are only to be found here so if you go to Ulleungdo this is your only chance to taste it, at least fresh.
There are three types of Dokdo shrimps: Pink shrimp, Striped Shrimp and Golden Shrimp.
To make you aware though, these are pricey! I bought a set of 12 shrimps and it was 75.000 won for them. What surprised me was that the head came back fried. You can also buy one of the shrimps which are very overgrown for 20.000 won.

Honghap
This is a must if you like mussles. It is rice with mussles and seaweed. I went to a restaurant in Jeodonghan port called Myeongga(명가) for this and it was incredibly good and I would honestly come back to Ulleungdo just to eat here again. They also served so many side dishes that I felt bad for not being able to finish it all.

Arirang Kimbap
On my last day I had already decided my last meal would be honghap and was excited to eat it, but my taxi driver strongly recommended this place to me. I would have never found it without his suggestion as it was on the third floor inside a building and I am not always the one to read signs to find a place to eat. I bought it to bring with me as a packed lunch for the ferry, but I ended up saving for until I got home and it is handsdown the best kimbap I have ever eaten. I got the 먹물김밥 or in English, ink kimbap. This place is also in Jeodonghan and is worth a visit if you want to bring lunch with you somewhere. The taxi driver also said that Korean girls from Seoul stops by here and buy them with them to Seoul,… which I guess I also did.

I spent three amazing days in Ulleungdo and I got to eat shrimps that is only possible to get there. I got to visit Dokdo and watch some amazing sunsets over Ulleungdo. It is a small island and three days are enough, but I would have loved to stay one or two more days to explore the hikes even more.