Hwadam Botanic Forest 화담숲
Last year I heard about Hwadam Botanic Forest and we visited it on a Saturday as a family. It was so busy! This year a friend mentioned that she would like to go there, so we loaded up the kids and went on a Friday - also busy! This place doesn’t get much of a spotlight among the foreigner crowd but is a favorite destination for Koreans and it’s obvious to see why. The colors are magical! Having grown up in Texas there was a point in my life that I had no idea that most of these colors really existed in nature. It is stunning during autumn.
Last year we got there super early and made our way straight to the monorail to purchase tickets only to find out the monorail was broken. This year, we made our way to the kiosk just before 2:00 and had to purchase monorail tickets for 4:50. I honestly thought we would be sitting around waiting for at least an hour trying to kill time but I was wrong. We walked almost the entire park, sat for a quick lunch and made our way to the monorail 5 minutes in advance. The time was perfect. If the monorail is operating, I highly recommend you spend the money for the ticket. The monorail has 3 stations. You start at station 1 and can buy tickets to get off at stations 2 or 3 or to ride it roundtrip. If you only to ride up and then walk down, getting off early saves you a few won and cuts down on your walking. We knew we wanted to ride the whole thing and we’d already walked the park anyway.
Weather wise, this year it was much warmer than last year. Last year we were soooo cold that we walked around for an hour or so and headed home. This year we were chilly in the shade, should’ve brought heavier sweaters, but overall pretty comfortable. Unless you’re visiting during the summer, I would recommend taking a heavier sweater or coat to layer on at some point.
Hwadam Botanic Forest is located next to Konjiam Resort Ski Resort and you can see the slopes from the botanical gardens. The parking lot is free and you can take the ski lift up to the botanical garden. It’s not a far walk but it is straight up hill. The whole garden is stroller friendly including the monorail. There is a restaurant but the menu was limited to about 5 items. I would love to make my way out here in the winter to see how beautiful everything looks covered in snow or in the spring to check out the cherry blossoms.
Will you be adding this place to your Korean travels?
