Jeju island is famous for its hills and the magnificent views you get from the top, and Saetbyol Oreum is one of the hills that I recommend you to visit. This hill is located in Bongseong-ri, Aewol-eup, Jeju-si. It is popular as Saebyeol Oreum, but people sometimes call it Hyoseongak. The reason why this high-altitude part of the island is unique is because it is a parasitic volcano cone set alone that looks like a lonely star (Saetbyeol in Korean) in the night sky, and that is where it got its name. The hill is a mid-sized oreum among other 360 oreums on Jeju Island and it also has stunning views from the peak of the beautiful ridges that are connecting one to another hills.
There is no enterance ticket for coming to the top. I recommend to schedule your visit for the sunset, as it has gorgeous view from the top! However, I must warn you, this is not as easy as it looks. You need some preparation, so I will give you some tips below.
Tips on enjoying your adventure on Saebyeol Oreum
1. If you want to enjoy the sunset, come way before time
Biggest mistake I made is going there to catch the sunset, but did not spare enough time to slowly hike the hill. I thought I was in a good shape, but clearly I was not prepared for the steep, long, hike to the peak! Of course itโs easy to find out exactly when the sunset is going to happen (use the weather app) but we often forgot that sunsets happen quite fast, so ideally, you would want to arrive early (I suggest maybe start hiking at least one hour before sunset time), and then just keep your pace hiking up. This way, youโll have time to slowly hiking up, or even have few stops if youโre feeling tired. Even you arrive quite early at the top, you can definitely take your time to take more pictures to the view. Also, keep in mind, in the winter, once the sun is gone, the temperature drops pretty fast, so most likely you would want to just hurry up to go down the hill and be done with it.
2. Wear comfortable shoes
Itโs not necessary to be hiking shoes, but you would want to wear anything as comfortable as sneakers, because, as I told you before, is a long and steep hike. Dressy shoes is totally not an option, some of my friends were not prepared in this matter so they were complaining and regretted for not preparing otherwise.
3. Go to the toilet before the hike.
This goes without saying, but it is crucial! You can find the toilet below the hill, nearby the parking space, so please just remember to do so after you enter the entrance areal. Imagine how annoying it is when you feel the urge when you are already half way to the top. Lol.
4. Eat before coming here.
I can’t stress enough how much of a work hiking up there. You will need a lot of energy for the walk and the hike, and there will be no place to eat other that a cafรฉ, but it is a bit of a walk away from the hill. Therefore, I recommend eating before coming to this destination.
The first thing you see when you start the hike was tall silver grass (because it was the winter), which obviously a nice scenery to take pictures with. If you travel with an elderly or a person with walking difficulties, you can take nice pictures in this area with the sunset, instead of going all the way to the top.
Half way walking towards the top, you can already starting to see how nice the view is, but donโt be fooled, on top is 10-times better! Take a quick break if you need to, but donโtโ spend too much time taking pictures or something.
Finally, when you get to the top, literally anywhere you look, it is like a 360 degrees of good views of Jeju island, and the grasses are all nice to pose with. That is why I told you before in my list of tips, come much earlier before the sunset time, so that you can have enough time to enjoy all the views, and when the sunset comes, it goes so quickly and the temperature will immediately change and you might want to end this quickly.
Okay, so that was the story of my experience, and some tips I gained based on my own experience, so that you can enjoy the visit much better than my friends and I did.
How to get there
Follow this point map below to get to Saebyeol Oreum. I recommend using Kakaomap because it has the most accurate navigation using the public bus, and it even has English narrative navigation if you ride a rental car.
[KakaoMap] Saebyeol Oreum
59-3 Mt., Bongseong-ri Aewol-eup, Jeju-si, Jeju-do http://kko.to/aK5v3oYYj
