My Chuseok Holiday in Jeonju

Nadiah’s Article

Ah! Getting a week-long holiday is rarer than black diamonds when living in South Korea. So as soon as I heard the news, my friends and I decided to go on a quick,  2-days-1 night road trip to Jeonju.

The trip started with my friend and I going to pick up our rental car for the trip to Gangnam. We paid a slightly more expensive rate since it was during the Chuseok holidays but we did not mind as we were very eager and excited to go on a road trip. After getting the car, we went to pick up our friends at their houses and we were off on the road!

After going through the highways and passing by the clear skies, while singing at the top of our lungs to nostalgic songs,  3 and a half hours later, we found ourselves near Jeonju Hanok Village, our main destination.

We were all quite hungry after the drive so we decided to head to Jeonju Sikdang, one of the more popular restaurants in the area, unfortunately, when we arrived, they were closed and would open again at 5.30 pm, so instead we decided to rent hanbok’s, take pictures, have some snacks and walk around a bit to pass the time.

As 7 pm rolled around, and we getting a bit hungrier than before, we returned to the Hanbok’s and headed on down the restaurant for dinner. Luckily we reached there just in time, right before the dinner rush so we were able to get seats. While in Jeonju, of course, we had to get bibimbap. After all, it was where it was created and birth, and it was the best bibimbap I have ever had and would definitely go again. We also had bingsu for dessert despite the weather being pretty cold With our dessert devoured, and our stomachs filled, we were ready to head to our accommodation for the night and go straight to sleep.

Day 2 was pretty quick and sweet. We woke up early in the morning, checked out of our accommodation and had a very hearty breakfast of Kalguksu at another infamous restaurant called Veteran. We each ordered one bowl but we quickly realized that maybe 3 bowls would have been enough cause the portion was humongous. Safe to say we were definitely full.

Next, on the agenda was the filming location of an infamous K-drama called ‘Twenty-five, Twenty-one’. Because we were on a time crunch, we parked nearby, got down and took a few pictures, shot some tiktoks and we immediately off to our final stop before heading back to Seoul, a Hanok cafe called ‘Tirol’.

Using a repurposed Hanok, this cafe had one of the nicest interiors and atmosphere that I have ever been to. They even had a pool with boats that customers could ride on to take pictures. It was very big and there were quite a number of people. The menu however was a very basic cafe menu that was slightly overpriced. Despite that, I enjoyed my time here. And just like that, we got into the car and started our drive back to Seoul.

The trip back to Seoul took longer than expected, with a lot of traffic, but by the time we saw the ‘Welcome to Seoul’ sign, we all could not wait to reunite with our beds again.