Cherry Blossom Season in South Korea

Spring is right around the corner which means so are the Cherry Blossoms in Korea.

Our first Cherry Blossom season, 2018. Waegwan, Chilgok, near Camp Carroll.

Cherry Blossom season brings in droves so tourists but it’s so hard to predict exactly when the blossoms will peak. Here are the two maps I’ve seen floating around the web this year. The one on the left is from the Korea Tourism Organization and the one on the right is from www.inmykorea.com.

The weather has already drastically warmed up so it looks like the cherry blossoms will peak about a week earlier than normal. Last year, they were late and peaked the second week of April. I’ve read that the first week of April is typical and this year we’re looking at the last week of March into the first of April.

There are so many Cherry Blossom festivals happening around Korea.

Jeju is the first place you’ll be able to see the Cherry Blossoms as it’s further south and warms up faster than the rest of the country. Jeju is the origination point of the King Cherry that is harder to find throughout the country. It is a larger, more vibrant pink than the paler, whiter cherry blossom, and it blooms a few weeks later than Cherry Blossoms. You can find some spread throughout Seoul as well.

Jinhae Gunhangje Cherry Blossom Festival is the largest cherry blossom festival in the country with over 350,000 cherry blossom trees. You can typically find tours starting from both Seoul and Busan for this with Seoul being a bit more expensive as it is further away. Jinhae has some of the most photographed Cherry Blossom spots in all of Korea, including the stunning Yeojwacheon Stream and Gyeonghwa Station. The cherry blossoms fall over the stream and line both sides of the railroad tracks.

In Seoul, two festivals to hit are the Seokcheon Lake Cherry Blossom Festival and the Yeouido Spring Flower Festival. Seokcheon Lake is situated next to Lotte Tower / Lotte World and there so much to do in the area besides the lake. You could fill a whole day here. Yeouido Spring Flower Festival is situated on the Han River at Yeouido Park. Besides Cherry Blossoms you’ll find azaleas, forsythias and spireas. Both of these are free to the public to enter. As with any popular event in Korea, there will be crowds. If you’re looking to avoid crowds the best time to show up is before 10am on a weekday. Other places to visit are the Seoul Children’s Grand Park, Seoul National Cemetery (they have weeping willow Cherry Blossoms!), Seoul Forest and Seoul Changgyeonggung Palace.

Nami Island is also a great place to visit in the Spring. I previously did a post on Nami Island in the fall and would love to see how colorful it looks when all the flowers bloom in the Spring. It looks so romantic and magical in the pictures I’ve seen!

Daegu E-World - A theme park is a great way to combine cherry blossoms and fun for the whole family. This is a great place for a night view of cherry blossoms as well.

Buraksan latte from Boaz Mansion with the cherry blossoms in the background.

If you’re local to Osan AB, the City Hall and Kukje University streets are lined with Cherry Blossoms. I do not recommend driving to Kukje on a weekend once they’re in bloom - definitely take a walk. The street will become grid locked. I recommend coming during the week early in the morning. We made the mistake of coming last year to take pictures and it was pointless. I came back two days later and had the whole street to myself. If you’re looking for a great viewing point I can recommend Boaz Mansion, Starbucks across from City Hall and a slew of other cafes on the street near City Hall.

If you can’t make it to any of these festivals or you’re not into crowds, you won’t miss out. While these are clustered areas of cherry blossoms you can pretty much find them all over the peninsula this time of year. There’s hardly a street you can drive or walk around Osan that won’t have a few cherry blossoms.