Korea // Nami Island: Unleash the Drama Girl!

One of the highlights of my Korea trip is a popular destination not only for tourists but also locals: Nami Island! Though a pain to get to from Seoul it is worth it and a must visit place for drama fans. 

That tower is for ziplining onto the island. We were so excited to try it but when we arrived at around noon it was a 3 hour wait. Tip: if you want to zipline make sure you arrive early in the morning. It's only a one-way zipline so the turnover is pretty slow. We were stuck with going by boat.

It's a pretty cheesy boat ride because they commercialized it as if you are visiting a different country, complete with flags and "passports". The scenery along the boat ride though is gorgeous.

Approaching Nami Island!

Nami Island is known for its trees and as the filming location for the Hallyu drama "Winter Sonata". The island itself is tiny but still lovely to walk around and enjoy the gorgeous scenery. My friend and I joked that if we had a hard breakup we'd escape here. Also a great place for picnics and frisbee because there's lots of big grassy fields.

The iconic Winter Sonata spot

Afterwards we headed back to the main island for a late lunch. Basically your only option is dakgalbi, so we picked the one that's right in front of the bus stop for convenience. Very yummy. My favorite part with these types of dishes is always the very end when they add rice to make it fried rice!

The next must visit place is Petite France, which is about 30 minutes away by bus. It's also another popular filming location that drama fans will instantly recognize.

Before "My Love From The Stars" catapulted it to iconic status, it was actually also featured in "Beethoven Virus" and "Secret Garden". Yes, I know, it's a bit lame to be visiting a fake France in Korea (especially when I've already been to France and it looks nothing like it) but it's really photogenic and features sculptures of The Little Prince all over. As a Little Prince fan I couldn't resist!

We also were lucky and got to see a puppet show performance. It featured puppets like the ones they had in "Lovers in Prague". Cue fan girl squeal. Indeed, many drama milestones were accomplished today.

There's actually more to do around Nami Island but because we had a late start we didn't get to see anything else. Guess that'll be left for the next time I visit!