Beaches in South Korea

A peninsula with three very different coasts. The east is deep, clear and steep, with the shortest continental shelf and the best sand — this is where the beach holiday happens, from Gangneung down to Busan. The south is broken into thousands of islands, with aquaculture, ferries and a national park archipelago at Hallyeohaesang. The west has one of the largest tidal ranges in Asia, and mud flats stretching for kilometres at low water that are a critical stopover on the East Asian–Australasian flyway and a World Heritage site. Beach season is short and intense — essentially July and August, opening and closing on published dates — with parasols in numbered rows, rented in blocks, and crowds counted in hundreds of thousands at Haeundae on a peak weekend. Outside those weeks the beaches are used for walking, coffee and fireworks rather than swimming, and the water is cold. Jeju, the volcanic island off the south coast, has black sand, a World Heritage volcanic landscape and the longest season in the country. Practically: the east coast is two and a half hours from Seoul by high-speed train, swimming outside the marked and dated season is not done, and the typhoon season runs July to September. Beach cafes and night markets are as much the point here as the sand.