Busan is the second largest city in South Korea and is a great place to visit if you have a long trip planned to South Korea. We only had a day in Busan so explored a few selected places. However, if you have more time, would recommend at least 2 full days to explore the city along with visiting Seoul and Jeju Islands.
Pro tip: Whilst visiting Busan, make sure that you consider time to travel between places. Depending on where your hotel is, you could spend an hour or so to reach some of these tourist destinations by public transport. Direct subway connections are really poor and travelling by road is out of question due to traffic. I really underestimated how long it took to travel between these places (especially from our hotel to Gamcheon Culture Village)! Here are some of my top things to do in Busan.
Haedong Yonggungsa Temple
Hands down, this place was one of my favourite spot in my whole Korea trip. If you are planning a trip to Busan, make sure to start your trip at this temple. I would recommend visiting this place as early as possible to avoid the rush of the tour buses. This is also a chance to really experience the serenity of the place and take in the sounds of the waves.
Visit a traditional Korean Tea House
Close to the temple, our hotel suggested us a traditional tea house called Bibibidang. It served a wide array of teas (both hot and cold) along with the Korean version of shaved ice with red bean. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this as I didn’t know what to expect. Only thing to beware is that the portion sizes for the shaved ice was massive for just one person. Definitely one experience that I would recommend whilst in Korea even if you do not get an opportunity in Busan!
Try the Sky Capsule
One of the more unique experiences in Busan was the Sky Capsule and Beach train. Both of these ride along the beaches of Busan. The Beach train runs a longer distance between Haeunde Blueline Park to Songjeong Station. A round trip costs 12,000 won per person. The capsule starts runs a shorter distance between Haeunde Blueline Park and Mipo Station. For the beach views, I would recommend the Beach train. However, the capsule is a great experience being high up in the middle of the trees (albeit a bit more expensive costing 35,000 won for 2 people and being slower than the train). If you have more time and the weather is good, they also have a walking trail along the same route and would definitely recommend it the whole way or part of the journey. We ended up only walking the last stretch from Haeunde Blueline Park to our hotel along the beach.
Gamcheon Culture Village
One of the other popular tourist spots in Busan was the Gamcheon Culture village. It is located on the complete other end to the places mentioned above but definitely worth the visit. Sadly, the weather decided turn against us and rain so we could not really enjoy the village. However, we managed to walk a short distance and take in the amazing views!
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