Our fourth and last day in Seoul was spent touring the outskirts of Seoul. We booked a private tour with Sweetravel Korea. I think the standard tour that we took is supposed to include a visit to Nami Island, the Garden of Morning Calm, and Petite France but we adjusted our tour so that instead of seeing Petite France, we would go strawberry-picking instead.
This visit to the strawberry farm was first in our itinerary for the day. We were given a container and we could take as much strawberries as we could fit into it. There were so many ripe fruits that I ended up overfilling my container so I actually had to give some of my strawberries to Mitch and Ferg and I had to eat a couple on the spot. Apparently, I also picked the strawberries incorrectly but it wasn't my fault; we weren't taught the proper way for picking strawberries. Thankfully, one of the ladies in the farm saw me and told me how to do it correctly. Despite my blunders, it was a really cool experience and the strawberries were very delicious!
Our second stop was Nami Island. This has become quite a popular place to visit among Filipino tourists because of the many photo opportunities here, especially during fall. It is actually in the middle of the Han River and to visit it, you have to take a short ferry ride.
It was December when we were there so it wasn't fall anymore. As such, we missed out on the photo op in the area lined by Gingko Biloba trees (this area looks beautiful during the fall). I still took a lot of photos, and had a lot of photos of myself taken, at the Metasequoia Lane. According to a sign in this area, this lane "began with seedlings from Seoul National University's School of Agriculture in 1977. First made famous as a setting for some of the most romantic scenes in Winter Sonata, it has now become one of the most visited spots on the island."
We then wandered around the rest of island to enjoy more of its beautiful scenery.
It seems that most other tourists don't venture much beyond the more popular photo op areas because there are a lot of other spots on the island that are quite isolated and serene.
I mentioned how the Metasequoia Lane was made popular by the Korean drama Winter Sonata. There's actually another spot on the island where another scene from this show was taken: the leads were building snowmen on a table. While I am not familiar with this show, I still decided to take a photo of it myself. :)
After our afternoon stroll, we decided to take a break and have some coffee and pastries at a cafe on the island. I noticed that there was a really nice deck outside where you can view the Han river. Naturally, I couldn't pass up on this photo op, especially since there was no one else around. :)
We left Nami in the late afternoon to head to our final stop: the Garden of Morning Calm.
This place becomes very popular during winter because from December to early March, it features the Starlight Garden Festival. During this time, the entire place is decorated with lights, providing its guests with an incredibly intricate and dazzling display of color and illumination at night.
There were a handful of vibrant tunnels that made for great photo ops.
The garden is actually a lot larger than we all initially thought. There are dozens of brilliant, interesting, and instagrammable sections throughout the grounds.
My favorite section though is this gloriously jaw-dropping sea/ocean scene.
We spent a couple of hours walking through the Garden of Morning Calm before heading back to our hotel. This was our last day in Korea and it was a good way to end our trip. That said, there is one more part of this trip that I still haven't written about: the U2 Joshua Tree Tour concert in Seoul.
Nami Island
This visit to the strawberry farm was first in our itinerary for the day. We were given a container and we could take as much strawberries as we could fit into it. There were so many ripe fruits that I ended up overfilling my container so I actually had to give some of my strawberries to Mitch and Ferg and I had to eat a couple on the spot. Apparently, I also picked the strawberries incorrectly but it wasn't my fault; we weren't taught the proper way for picking strawberries. Thankfully, one of the ladies in the farm saw me and told me how to do it correctly. Despite my blunders, it was a really cool experience and the strawberries were very delicious!
Our second stop was Nami Island. This has become quite a popular place to visit among Filipino tourists because of the many photo opportunities here, especially during fall. It is actually in the middle of the Han River and to visit it, you have to take a short ferry ride.
Welcome to Nami Island
It was December when we were there so it wasn't fall anymore. As such, we missed out on the photo op in the area lined by Gingko Biloba trees (this area looks beautiful during the fall). I still took a lot of photos, and had a lot of photos of myself taken, at the Metasequoia Lane. According to a sign in this area, this lane "began with seedlings from Seoul National University's School of Agriculture in 1977. First made famous as a setting for some of the most romantic scenes in Winter Sonata, it has now become one of the most visited spots on the island."
Metasequoia Lane
We then wandered around the rest of island to enjoy more of its beautiful scenery.
It seems that most other tourists don't venture much beyond the more popular photo op areas because there are a lot of other spots on the island that are quite isolated and serene.
I mentioned how the Metasequoia Lane was made popular by the Korean drama Winter Sonata. There's actually another spot on the island where another scene from this show was taken: the leads were building snowmen on a table. While I am not familiar with this show, I still decided to take a photo of it myself. :)
This is where a scene from Winter Sonata was taken.
After our afternoon stroll, we decided to take a break and have some coffee and pastries at a cafe on the island. I noticed that there was a really nice deck outside where you can view the Han river. Naturally, I couldn't pass up on this photo op, especially since there was no one else around. :)
We left Nami in the late afternoon to head to our final stop: the Garden of Morning Calm.
The Garden of Morning Calm
This place becomes very popular during winter because from December to early March, it features the Starlight Garden Festival. During this time, the entire place is decorated with lights, providing its guests with an incredibly intricate and dazzling display of color and illumination at night.
The garden showcases many awesome displays at night during the Starlight Garden Festival
There were a handful of vibrant tunnels that made for great photo ops.
The garden is actually a lot larger than we all initially thought. There are dozens of brilliant, interesting, and instagrammable sections throughout the grounds.
My favorite section though is this gloriously jaw-dropping sea/ocean scene.
We spent a couple of hours walking through the Garden of Morning Calm before heading back to our hotel. This was our last day in Korea and it was a good way to end our trip. That said, there is one more part of this trip that I still haven't written about: the U2 Joshua Tree Tour concert in Seoul.
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