beaches within a few hours of ICN in June?
 

We'll be in ICN for a few days in early June and would like to get a little beach time in, if we could. Willing to fly a few hours away to obtain this. Any suggestions on where we could go?

Thanks!

If you are willing to fly a few hours to visit a beach, there would be thousands of options or maybe tens or hundreds of thousands options out there. I understand that there are even a few beaches in the island where ICN is located. What you might want to do is narrowing down your question so that others can give you better advices.

Gwangali Beach in Busan.

Jeju Island has some great beaches as well. We prefer the South side of the island, but only because we have our little private hideaway in Seogwipo.

Airlines:
Korean Air
Asiana
Jeju Air

Busan is also well accessible by KTX highspeed train from central Seoul.

A few hours from ICN would include beaches in Australia, Thailand, Indonesia, Guam, or even Hawaii!

If you were talking about beaches in S.Korea, I would recommend beaches in Busan, particularly Haeundae.

Cannot say if Busan is better than Jeju Island since I've never been to Jeju Island.

I'd vote for Jeju as well. Only downside is lots and lots of honeymooners. Maybe someone can help you find an area that isn't densely populated.

How about Okinawa? It's quite close. (I've never been)

That's a very liberal definition of "a few hours". The shortest nonstop from ICN to Australia is 7700 km. Of those, Guam is the closest at 3200km.

I was in Jeju two months ago (Dec). Certainly not worth a long distance trip, but it's easy to do from GMP. The absurdly frequent flights and low full-Y prices (about 100kWon each way) make it easy. Depending on where you are in Seoul, it can even be a nice day trip.

My first trip to Korea back in 1999 was a long weekend on Jeju from Osaka. Still remember the beaches as rather tranquil (it was non-season) and the overall atmosphere not nearly as hectic as at other beach type destinations.

Busan has very unique urban beaches that somewhat remind me of the Florida East Coast. Of course more people compared to Jeju but also very varied spa and dining offerings.

Actually, the shortest non-stop from ICN to Australia is 6350km. Korean Air operates chater flights between ICN and CNS.

His point is reasonable. How is an 8-9 hour flight a few hours?

Haeundae beach in Busan may be one of the better ones in Korea, but extremely crowded on summer weekends. The seafood and especially crabs are good, though :)

A more adventurous option would be to drive down the western coast of Korea, which has its share of beaches. The infrastructure does not cater to foreigners, but I have great memories from hosted trips to the area in the 70's, driving through lush rice fields, fragrant pine trees, and staying in rented bungalows literally on the beach (which I understand mostly made way to concrete resorts). Careful with ebbing tides, as they can be very strong in the Yellow Sea.

It is beautiful down that way. There was an oil spill a year or two ago along that coast. I think it was near Taean or Dangjin. If you look at the Korean peninsula on a map, it looks kind of like a sitting rabbit. The area affected is near the rabbit's front paws. My understanding is that the area wasn't cleaned up as well as one would like. A bit further south is probably okay though.

My experiences are from 2000 - 05 but it still is somewhat problematic to simply get to the beachside restaurants and spas if you do not speak Korean or have local friends. Two Cholla Southern Province cities, namely Mokpo on the SW coast and Yeosu on the S coast have especially high rated Korean sashimi and crab/lobster restaurants.

I would second Mosburger's advice. The west coast has some beautiful areas but you MUST have local friends and/or a knowledge of rudimentary Korean in order to get around. However, if you can do it, Mokpo sashimi is ^

Easiest option IMO, is just head to Busan or Jeju.

Thanks for all the replies! I have a lot of research to do obviously, but this is an excellent start. I appreciate it.