Checking out Nami Island during Cherry Blossom Season

Nami Island Cherry Blossoms

Nami Island is a tiny half moon shaped island in Chuncheon, Korea that attracts lovers and families to stroll along the tree lined paths and enjoy a tiny taste of nature outside the city. This island is very small, spanning just over 3 miles. Nami island is also famous for filming a well-known scene of a famous Korean drama called Winter Sonata.

Nami Island is an imaginary country that is completely made up to boost tourism!

You can get to the island only by a ferry ride for 8,000 won each, or for those who are not on a budget, by a zipline for 38,000 won.

Waiting for the ferry tests your patience seeing how it looks like you could swim to the island in two minutes by anyone. You have to wait for the ferry to come and then be herded like cattle onto and off the boat. It would be way more efficient to build a cute walking bridge over to the island and just charge admission instead of having these expensive ferries that travel less than a half mile to and island in a lake, but that’s just our opinion.

Since it was our first time going to Nami Island, we panicked a bit when we say an immigration office and a visa line. We didn’t bring our passports for a dinky island in the same country we were living in. Soon we found out this is just a gimmick to make visitors feel like this island is more special than it actually is. NO SERIOUSLY! Nami Island is an imaginary country that is completely made up to boost tourism! If you don’t believe us, check it out here.

They call it the Namimara Republic and pretend it is its own country. They even have their own currency you can buy on the island, which only has about five places you can spend money at. We thought this was a bit ridiculous and enjoyed poking fun at it.

After finally getting to Nami Island we had a great time taking some silly photos, biking, and wandering around aimlessly. We were there during the cherry blossoms so we snapped some photos of that.

Nami Island cherry blossoms

Romantic things to do in Seoul

Once you get to the island you can rent bicycle cars that seat up to four, single or tandem bicycles, these wild looking almost Segway looking bicycles, and swan boats. There are paths throughout the island to enjoy. We rented a tandem bicycle for 10,000 won an hour.

Nami Island Ostrich Photobomb

There’s a pen of ostriches as well as wild squirrels and rabbits on the island. Nami is also known for dirt paths with perfect lines of trees all over. This is where the famous Korean drama scene was filmed. There is also a hotel on the island, a music museum, and kids book museum, and an area where musicians play.

Nami Island Tent 1

Nami Island Tent 4

While taking some photos in front of a hut on Nami Island, Megan ended up getting more than she expected when some excited kid just really wanted to get into the tent.

We did end up getting a photo. But it really made our day how excited that kid was to get in on the action.

Nami Island Dalk Galbi

Nami Island is great for lovers looking for a cute, laidback day trip outdoors. The biggest highlight for us was the food. Although you have limited options on the island, you can enjoy dalk galbi (chicken rib meat bbq) on the mainland. This dish is famous in this region of Korea and it really was amazing. This is a must if you are traveling to this area!

Nami Island Travel Selfies

We enjoyed our day trip, the highlights were definitely the food, and some of the interesting statues!