If you are in South Korea visit Haeundae beach!
We are lucky and staying right in front of, and looking Haeundae beach from our place!
*The Beach view from our windows 🙂
Living in Busan we found that Haeundae is better than most other beaches.
It’s easy to take the subway to Haeundae, the beach is nice and clean (most of the time) with good landscape and it’s surrounded with markets, food, a casino, and hotels.
More info about Dongbeak Island and Daljima Hill in below.
*Busan Subway Train Map, click for full-size viewFrom Gimhae (Busan) Airport to Haeundae beach, it’s about 45-60 mins by taxi and it should cost about 25,000-35,000Won (~$25 – $30).
By subway it’s about 24 subway stations from the Purple line (GimHae Int Airport) to the Green Line (Haeundae Station), and it takes about an hour, but it’s very cheap (like $3-$5).
We prefer to take a taxi when we travel with suitcases!
Before you head to Haeundae Beach, you should know that…
The BEACH IS OPEN FOR SWIMMING DURING SUMMER ONLY (around the last weeks of June – August).
For the other months, you can walk around or sightseeing but if you jump in the water you may find someone blowing a whistle and directing you out of the water.
During the summertime, lifeguards will set up stands and watch you. The beach does have a strong rip tide and there are typically several rescues during the summer season
Here is what we know about Haeundae Year-A-Round based on our experience living by this beach.
January – No Swimming Allowed
1st of January locals will gather to see the first sunrise at Haeundae Beach (other places as well, including the mountains). But as we’re here at Haeundae Beach, it was so amazing to see thousands of people covering the beach early in the morning!
Local news reported that there were more than 100,000 people on Haeundae beach for the first Sunrise of the new year!!!
Next up is the Polar Bear Festival which is held on the first weekend of the new year when the temperature is about -1 to 5 Celsius (~30 -41 F)
The Festival is for the brave (or crazy) people who registered in advance to run into the cold water!
But anyone can come to see them shiver! During the festival, they have live local concerts and fun booths (food and games).
Its quite an interesting festival!
Tim was interviewed by the local media, watch here https://youtu.be/4eKnoaLy2_E
February – No Swimming Allowed
For the first full moonrise (Lunar Day) of the year there is a Fire Festival – this ceremony is held in many places throughout South Korea and also at Haeundae Beach.
A week or two before the ceremony, they will start building a House type structure out of pine branches, it looked a little like a big Christmas tree to us. The locals will bring stuff to put inside the Tree House to burn. Some of my friends said they are burning the old stuff which represents something bad for them. So after burning those bad things away, they are pure (or like re-born), and ready for something good for the rest of the year!
*The Jeongwon Daeboreum Fire Festival 2019The ceremony of burning the They started to burn about 6 pm (moon rise time) and the fire lasted late into the night. During the ceremony they have dancing and local shows.
March – April (Cherry Blossom Season) – No Swimming Allowed
During Cherry Blossom Season Haeundae Beach is crowded but mostly because there is a famous place for Cherry blossom viewing nearby.
It’s Dalmaji, 달맞이 which I mentioned before, you can get here by Subway to Haeundae Station and 20-25 mins walk up the hill.
Dalmaji Hill can walk from Haeundae beach by turning to all the left (if you are facing to the sea).
*Dalmaji Hill has so many cherry blossom trees from hill to hill.Most tourist will visit Dalmaji and Haeundae in the same day!
May – No Swiming Allowed
May is getting warm in Busan.
This month will have the Haeundae Sand Festival – which will be held about the last 2 weeks of May.
June – August (Swimming Season!!!)
When it’s getting hot, it’s more lively at Haeundae Beach! There will be more activities going on the beach with band stands setting up most weekends.
AND, the lifeguards will be set up with the beach open for swimming legally!!!
These months the beach allows you to swim from 6am to 6pm everyday. But it doesn’t mean you can swim as far as you can. They will have a floating line to keep you within about 500 meters from the beach!
At every 100 meters, they will set the Lifeguard stands watching you. I mentioned that the beach is about 1km long, I think there are 10-12 lifeguard stands along this beach!!!
July and August are the busiest time on the Haeundae beach. They will set up the beach umbrellas over the entire beach… There are also additional water sports like Jet Ski, Flying Fish etc.
You can get the ticket at the ticket office, this makes one-price service (I think I like this idea better than Thailand).
Sometime, we can’t see the sand but only umbrellas on the beach.
Korean people don’t like to sunbath???
We didn’t expect it to be this hot in South Korea as we packed and bought more coats than shorts during our move here.
But it’s HOLY HOT here in Summer!!!
Even living on the beach we would only come to swill about 9-10 in the morning, after that we stayed inside with the air conditioner!
At night, there are many live concerts, live DJ’s or one-man shows almost every night!
September – NO MORE swimming!!!
Once it’s over (end of August), they clean it all out! The sand is back, and no more umbrella!
We went back to Bangkok during the last week of August and once we’re back in Busan. We were confused about what is going on here? Where’re the people???
For us, it was like a dream – we didn’t know that the beach can be closed!!! Until my Korean friend told me that they allow swimming only July & August!
It’s quite sad to see people walk along the beach but they can’t even touch the water….
But it’s all about your safety!
They report that they do have the rip current here.
And September – October are raining season, not just rain but typhoon too.
During our stay, there is a typhoon Kong Rey which was a very strong typhoon (10 years record).
It’s very strong current during a typhoon and very windy. We are not even allowed to walk around under our building because everything is blowing over. Next year we will make sure that we have bread and milk during the typhoon time.
brought huge seaweeds on the beach. Those seaweed can eat, and it’s fun to help the locals collect them from the water. But they are smelling so fishy!
October – No Swimming Allowed
There is the big event called the Busan Firework Festival, it’s held at Gwanganli Beach, the neighbor beach nearby Haeundae. Most people go to Gwanganli Beach (Gwangan Station) but some people come to Haeundae beach!
Dongbeak Island or Marine city are very popular spots to see the firework as well.
During the event, you can see a pack of people around this area as well as at Gwanganli beach.
November – December (No Swimming Allowed)
The Weather in Busan is pretty tough, it can be up to 37Celsiou (100 F) during the summer and can be down to -6Celsius (20F) in Winter!
The beach quiet but there always a few people walking on the beach. It’s easy to see the locals with their long black coats on the beach. You can spot me in among the locals because I have my orange coat 🙂
Haeundae is only allowed to swim just a few months in a year, but there are year-round activities.
SEA LIFE Busan Aquarium is right in front of the Haeundae beach, open all year long.
For us, Haeundae offers a better city layout between beach and day life and nightlife.
There are so many restaurants all the way from the Haeundae stations.
Our favorite street is a small traditional shopping street (해운대 전통 시장) right off the main walking street.
This shopping street opens every day from early in the morning until late of the night. You can find all you want to try for Korean food list, Tokkbukki or Live Octopus or Korean BBQ etc!
About April to September (not sure, it depends on the weather) there is a street art market on the weekend that starts about 6pm to 10pm
You will see, and walk right into this market once you get off the Haeundae Station exit 3 or 5
This is my favorite shop…
The middle path also has a fountain that dances to music… But I never see it working during winter time.
And if you miss the Busan Firework Festival, you can see the firework free every Saturday night at Haeundae beach (~8.45pm – 9pm)
The local tourists like to buy hand firework (you can buy them from all the shops around Haeundae Beach).
Haeundae is a good place to run when the beach not crowded!
Next to the beach on the right (if you are facing to the sea), behind the Westin Chosun Hotel, it’s Dongbeak Island. It’s good for walking and running up there.
We don’t have much hotel experience in Haeundae, only the one we stayed when we arrived with our dog at The Petel hotel. But if I want to stay in a Hotel in Haeundae, I will pick any of them that in 1km distance from Haeundae Station or Haeundae Beach.
But the most famous hotels along the beach include The Westin Chosun Hotel, and the Paradise Hotel.
Try coffee at Chosun Deli shop in the Westin Chosun Hotel. We like “Haeundae Ice Latte” which is mixed with blue syrup but it’s a $6 coffee!!!
*Haeundae is a very clean beach with nice clear water.
Swimming in Haeundae makes us feel like we are swimming in a big swimming pool.
When you face to the water, and walk all the way to your left you’ll find a tourist ferry that seems to stay busy all year long!
*Local fishing boat nearby the ferry.
There are many local seafood restaurants in the building next to the ferry and all along the road. We went to try the king crab here but I’d like to recommend you to try it in the more Traditional Market better (that I mentioned above).
King crab is selling at $100 per kilogram and they cook for you.
If you keep walking past the ferry, you can walk up the hill “Damaji” (달맞이) where the cherry blossoms bloom around Mar- Apr.
There are good restaurants like Thai food (Dal Thai), Shabu-Shaba, Starbucks, The Chocolate Factory and our Korean Crab Marinated Buffet like I mentioned above.
*The other view of Haeundae from Dalmaji Hill
Most of the locals like the hill for hiking. It’s good excercise!
Well, there are many activities on Haeundae beach all year long but most of them are pretty much for KOREAN LOCALs as there’re very poor about English signs (but we are in Korea!).
Like us (foreigners), we have no idea what’s going on when we look out of the window and see that there are so many locals on the beach!
I think the only problem on this beach for us is, we can’t speak or read Korean!
I would not recommend you to book the trip and fly across the World for Haeundae Beach, BUT If YOU ARE IN SOUTH KOREA, Haeundae is one of the good spots to check out while you’re here!
I’m not really sure about paddleboard in Haeundae but I saw it at Gwangan-li beach, it’s about 6 stops from Haeundae Subway station.
Thank you for sharing this information! Would you know if it’s allowed to do stand-up paddleboarding at Haeundae Beach? (I know the other nearby beaches allowed it) Thank you!