HALLIM PARK IN JEJU - ULTIMATE GUIDE

WHAT TO SEE AT HALLIM PARK IN JEJU? IS HALLIM PARK WORTH IT? ALL INFORMATION ABOUT HALLIM PARK

Hallim Park, is an amazing tropical garden located in Jeju Island. If you want to spend a great time on the island, surrounded by stunning plants head to Hallim Park. Visiting Hallim Park was one of the highlight during our visit to Jeju.

Hallim Park is an amazing tropical garden in Jeju

Hallim Park is a vast park of nearly 30 hectares located near the west coast of the island, right behind Hyeopjae Beach (one of the best beaches in Jeju).

In a Nutshell

– The Park is home to a diverse flora, including subtropical plants, palms, bonsai, and many more rare trees.
– You can also see various animals such as ostrich, peacock, even crocodiles.
– The park is also part of the Geomunoreum lava tunnel system, with the entrance to the Hyeopjaegul and Ssangyonggul Caves.
– To explore Hallim Park in Jeju count at least 2.5 hours. Yes, it’s a pretty big park!

How to get to Hallim Park?

Hallim Park is located about 33km west of the city of Jeju. The address is 300, Hallim-ro, Hallim-eup, Jeju-si, Jeju-do, South Korea. (제주특별자치도 제주시 한림읍 한림로 300 (한림읍)

From the airport, you can hop on the bus 202. It takes about 90 minutes to reach the park from the airport by bus. By car count less than 1 hour. If you do not have your own car, you can also hire a Van with a driver for a day or as long as you need.

BOOK A DRIVER FOR A DAY

Best time to visit Hallim Park?

Spring is by far the best time to visit Hallim Park. Most of the flowers would be in full bloom. Also, the chance of rain would be much lower than in the summer.

Overall, traveling to Jeju during Spring was our favorite time of the year. Autumn is also very nice, as there is very little rain and it is mostly sunny with warm temperatures.

Useful information about Hallim Park in Jeju

Admission Fees: Adults 12,000 won / Teenagers 8,000 won / Children 7,000 won / Senior citizens 10,000 won. Book your ticket online here, to avoid any hassle and skip the queue at the entrance.
Website (Korean only): http://hallimpark.com
Parking: available right in front of the entrance. It is free.
Operating Hours: 08:30-17:30 (16:30 in Winter)
Duration: 2 to 3 hours

What to bring?

Hallim Park is huge and takes a few hours to explore. Wear comfortable shoes and bring a hat if you visit the park in the summer. Don’t forget to bring some snacks and water as well.

What to see in Hallim Park – overview of the different themes

1. Subtropical Garden

This is the first part of the Garden. Half is indoors in the greenhouse and the rest is outdoors. It consists mainly of cactuses, some of which were absolutely gigantic. This is also where we spotted 2 crocodiles and beautiful sparrows.

The final part of the subtropical garden was full of bamboo, banana trees, coffee trees and gorgeous flowers. After finishing the visit of the subtropical garden which already took us a good 30min, we thought we were halfway through. To our surprise when looking at the map, we realized this was only a tiny bit of the park. We were so excited to explore the rest!

2. Palm Tree Avenue

Alright, if like us you love California (full post here about our trip to SoCAL), this part will definitely remind you of this state. This avenue is filled with tall Californian palm trees. It brought us back directly to our awesome holiday on the West coast of the US.

What a stunning place, we could have stayed there for a few hours sitting on a bench…

3. Wild Grass and Flower Garden

After walking through Palm Tree Avenue head to the Wild Grass and Flower Garden, one of our favorite parts of Hallim Park. By the way, to optimize your visit at Hallim Park, simply follow the signs which brings you the best path along the park. If you want to see more, there are some extra trails which are also indicated by a sign.

When entering the Wild Grass and Flower Garden, the avenue is filled with Dol hareubang statues. These are the very cute statues that you will see all around Jeju. For us, they are definitely a symbol of Jeju Island. They are considered to be gods offering both protection and fertility. They were usually placed outside of gates for protection against demons. For us they are just super cute! On the way to this part of Hallim Park, you will see many of them.

If you travel to Jeju in Spring, this is where you will see the stunning Tulip garden with hundreds, perhaps thousands of them with different colors. There are many other flowers as well. This is such a great part of the park.

To get to the next section, you need to take the same way out and head to the caves.

4. Hyeopjae and Ssangyong Caves, one of the best things to see in Hallim Park!

Before visiting Hallim Park, we did not really look it up online. So we were really surprised about the diversity of the park. We had no idea we would have the opportunity to visit some caves.

There are actually 2 main caves to visit although this part of Jeju has many different caves passing through. They were all formed by lava and present many stalactites and stalagmites which are of high academic interest. These structures are actually deposits of lime stones that form when water passes through.

The first cave to visit is Hyeopjae cave. It was named after the village where the cave is located. This natural lava cave was made by the volcanic explosion of Halla Mountain and the flow of lava. Hyeopjae cave is piled up with brown sand and shell powder from the beach near the cave. The originally dark lava cave has therefore been changed into a golden lime cave.

The 2nd cave is Ssangyong Cave. Ssangyong means 2 dragons. Indeed, this cave is shaped like 2 dragons. It was also formed by an eruption of Mount Halla. Fossilized sea shells including abalone were found in the cave, leaving many to believe this cave was under the sea when it was formed long ago.

Visiting these 2 caves was another big highlight of our visit to Hallim Park in Jeju.

5. Jeju stone and Bonsai garden

If like us you like these amazing bonsai trees, this part if for you. For those who don’t know what a Bonsai is, it translates to “planted in a container” in Japanese term. The ultimate goal of growing a Bonsai is to create a miniaturized but realistic representation of nature in the form of a tree. There are various techniques to keep the tree in such a small size, such as root reduction.

The Bonsai Garden in Hallim Park in Jeju is honestly one of the most impressive bonsai gardens we’ve ever seen. They have all kinds of trees and sizes. It’s simply fascinating to watch those trees.

There are also huge stones from Jeju on display, but the stars are definitely the bonsai.

6. Folk Village

At this stage, you’ve probably covered 2/3 of the park. We started to be a bit exhausted so decided to chill a bit on a bench before heading to the next section of the park.

Next is the Jeju Folk Village. This part has many traditional houses, a restaurant serving local foods, and a souvenir shop. We enjoyed visiting some of the old traditional houses and learning more about life in the past in Jeju. The houses are very well maintained.

7. Bird Garden

At this stage we saw so many trees and flowers that it was refreshing to see some animals. First, hundreds of peacocks in different cages and with different colors. Then we saw many ostrich, which was very impressive.

8. Cherry Blossoms (only in April)

Unfortunately, we were a bit late to see the full bloom. But could still catch some beautiful cherry blossoms in Hallim Park. We could only imagine how beautiful it must be when the cherry are in full bloom in this part of the park.

9. Waterfall

To finish the park with a huge highlight, you will pass in front of a beautiful waterfall. There is also a Lotus pond right in front of it. With the sunset on its way, it was the perfect finish of our amazing visit to Hallim Park in Jeju.

Where to stay near Hallim Park in Jeju?

Hallim Park is located in one of our favorite parts and most beautiful areas of Jeju behind Hyeopjae Beach. This area is a good place to visit some of the main attractions of Jeju but also to enjoy some beach time, since Hyeopjae is one of the most stunning beaches in Jeju.

Therefore we highly recommend staying at Aguila Hotel Jeju Oceano. This hotel has an infinity pool and a beautiful rooftop overlooking the ocean.

BOOK THIS HOTEL

Other things to do near Hallim Park?

1. Hyeopjae beach

Hyeopjae is definitely the most beautiful beach on Jeju Island. This stretch of white sand, its turquoise blue water, and its pine forest offers an absolutely exceptional landscape. Hyeopjae stretches for about 200 meters and is 60 meters wide.

Due to its shallow depth, it is an ideal beach for children. You can also go to Geumneung Beach connected by a long strip of sand backed by grassy dunes from Hyeojae Beach. It offers another equally magnificent panorama.

2. Wollyeongri cactus village

Less known in Jeju, and often not in guide books, is the village of Wollyeongri. We ended up there by chance, as we stopped randomly along the coast while driving on our way back to the airport.

However, we were quite surprised to see a village with thousands of Cactuses. These cactuses grow naturally in between the rocks of Wollyeong. This species are originally from Mexico. As of today, no one knows how come those cactuses ended up on jeju Island.

3. Gwakji beach

Gwakji beach is another beautiful beach in Jeju Island. We went there for surfing, and absolutely loved it. There are a few surf shop to rent boards. It’s also a good place to just chill or get a coffee in one of the cafes facing the sea.

In conclusion – Is Hallim Park in Jeju worth it?

We only went to Hallim Park after our 3rd trip to Jeju. We didn’t really know about Hallim Park before that. But we absolutely loved it. It is one of our highlights in Jeju.

What we like about Hallim Park is the diversity of flowers, trees, and theme with 2 amazing caves to visit and many animals such as crocodile and ostrich, which we didn’t expect at all.

We highly recommend putting Hallim Park on your itinerary when visiting Jeju. The best would be spring as most flowers would be in full bloom.

If you want to find out what else to see in Jeju, check out our full post with the most awesome things to see here.

HAPPY TRAVELING!

HALLIM PARK IN JEJU – ULTIMATE GUIDE

How to get to Hallim Park?

Best time to visit Hallim Park?

Useful information about Hallim Park in Jeju