Samcheok, Hwangseongul Cave

This is definitely the best cave I have seen. I've only seen one other cave at Luskentyre beach in Scotland though, and that one was small, but pretty neat too. Hwanseongul is much bigger, about 1000x bigger! It's also inside a mountain. They've made it into a big tourist attraction and have walking platforms inside, so it's easy to walk on. 

How to get there: 

There is a bus which takes you there from the bus terminal. It's about 1300won which is fairly cheap. It takes about 45 minutes though!

David and I took a taxi which cost 27,000won. Hefty, however it was comfier and we weren't exactly scrimping. 

We did get a bus back to the terminal though. 

Cost:

4500 won per adult to enter the cave. 

4000 won single for the monorail.

7000 return trip for the monorail. 

So, the cave is pretty far from the entrance. You can choose to go on the monorail if you wish, however it is a long wait. It goes so slow, and the queue is massive. There is an option to walk 20-30 minutes to the cave. However, it's a very steep climb, with many stairs. David and I walked and it took about 20 minutes to get to the top.

You have to follow the platforms in the cave, it takes about an hour to walk round the whole thing. Bare in mind, the ceiling drips and it's very cold. The platforms do get slippy, so wear decent footwear. 

The cave is the biggest limestone cave in Korea. The stalagmites and stalactites weren't that big, but they were pretty impressive. There were various boards which told you what things were. Things like rimstone, cave popcorn, dripstones, various waterfalls and lakes, cave corals and flow stones can be seen.

The cave is pretty impressive, they shine bright lights at all of the main attractions. I love the still water in the cave! It was crystal clear, and looked amazing.

Another cool part was the Hell bridge. It was a bridge with gaps so you could look down. And it was a pretty high drop! When you walk across it, all of your sins are gone or something like that.



There are restaurants at the bottom of the steep slope which sell things like mountain bibimbap.
There is also another cave, Daegeumgul, however you do need to book for this trip as they only allow 40 people in at a time. We didn't bother as one cave was enough. It's also 12,000 won to look at that cave. We'll go there next time.



So, when you're in Samcheok, be sure to visit the cave, it's pretty amazing.

Kelly