Camping in Korea - Yongdam, Jinan 섬바위캠핑장

If you have a car here in Korea then camping is super easy and a wonderful way to spend the weekend. Even if you don't have a car, you can easily get to most camping spots by bus or train and if you have an International Drivers license you can easily and rather cheaply hire a car too! 

Camping is a very affordable way to spend the weekend, and the cost of your camping gear is easily covered by your first or second trip when you compare it to the cost of staying in a motel. Also, as we have a large dog, and so camping means we don't have to worry about him when it comes to finding places to stay here. Korea is not very dog friendly, and it is near impossible to find places to stay that allow dogs (especially bigger ones) and so camping makes life easier. And it's far more fun!

This camping site near Jinan, Jeollabukdo Province allows dogs (please do double check with the super friendly campsite manager before hand, he speaks perfect English and is really helpful...contact details posted below). Dogs are allowed as long as they don't bother the guests. Our dog is rather too friendly and so we had to tie him up to a tree to stop him from saying hello to everyone.

We have camped a lot here in Korea (click here for more posts on places to camp here in Korea) and have found that you can actually camp just about anywhere as long as you clean up after yourself (we have camped on tennis courts, in sports parks and along the side of abandoned roads before and have had no problems running into grumpy land owners). As long as you are respectful of the area you are in pick up all your rubbish you can camp just about anywhere.  

섬바위캠핑장 Yongdam Camping Site

Out of all the places we have camped in so far, this camping site in Yongdam, Jinan has been the best equipped. Yongdam Lake is an artificial freshwater lake created by creation of the Yongdam Dam. The camping grounds are just above the lake and and only 20km from Jinan.  

We have camped here twice, the first time we made use of the actual camping grounds and facilities and the second time we camped down by the river. Staying at the camping grounds was very comfortable, with great clean ablutions and hot showers. There are even really nice washing up facilities which makes life easy if you stay for more than one night. It's W30 000 per night for a camping spot, and W50 000 for two nights. This gives you use of all the facilities.

The other big draw to this area is the fishing. Farmboy spent hours fishing in the reservoir and has said that the fishing here has been some of his best here in Korea. 

If it's your first time camping here in Korea then I would highly recommend staying at this camping site. If you are on a tight budget or simply want a more rustic experience then head to this camp site and drive/walk straight down to the river where you can camp for free. Just bear in the mind that you won't have use of the toilets or other facilities. This is what we did the second time we camped here (pictured below).

As we were down by the river on our second trip here, we were able to make a big fire pit and have s'mores and campfire coffee and just enjoy the peace and quite while soaking up the night sky. It was wonderful.

Directions

1159-2 Samrak-ri, Ancheon-myeon, Jinan, Jeollabukdo

When we initially plugged the actual address of the campsite into our GPS it only took us to the area around the dam and not to the actual campsite. So rather Click here for the google map pin of the campsite.

If you are taking public transport the easiest place to get to is either Ancheon or Jinan (19km from the camp site) and then take a taxi. There are local buses that go close to the campsite (just ask for a bus to Yongdam) but they aren't very frequent. It would be easier to get a taxi from Ancheon or Jinan and then just show them the name of the campsite: 

섬바위캠핑장.

Here is the Naver website for this camping site.: 섬바위캠핑장

Contact details: Mun Hui 063 4333 7737

If you do camp at Yongdam I'd love to hear about your experience. Please leave me a comment below.

Happy Camping!