10 Best Things to Do in Busan

Haeundae Beach runs about 1.5 km of pale sand between Dongbaekseom Island and Mipo Harbour, and it is the beach most Koreans picture when they think of Busan. Swimming season officially runs from early July to late August, when lifeguards, changing rooms and rental parasols operate. Outside those weeks the beach stays open and much quieter, which suits anyone who came for the walk rather than the water.

Parasol and deckchair rental costs around 8,000 KRW per day in season. Behind the sand, Gunam-ro leads inland to Haeundae Traditional Market, where fishcake and grilled scallop stalls stay open past 22:00. The Haeundae Blueline Park beach train starts at Mipo, a 15-minute walk east along the shore, and runs 4.8 km to Songjeong for roughly 7,000 KRW one way. Dongbaekseom Island at the western end has a 1.2 km boardwalk loop and a clear view back across the bay to the Gwangan Bridge.

Gwangalli Beach faces the Gwangan Bridge, a 7.4 km suspension crossing that opened in 2003 and lights up in changing colours after sunset. The sand here is coarser than Haeundae and the beach is shorter at roughly 1.4 km, but the view is the reason people come. The seafront strip is lined with cafes and bars whose windows point straight at the span.

The Busan Drone Light Show runs over the water on selected Saturday evenings, usually around 20:00 in summer and 19:00 in winter, with several hundred drones forming shapes above the bay. Check the schedule before travelling, because dates shift with the weather. Millak Waterside Park sits at the eastern end, where you can buy raw fish from the market building and eat it at the outdoor tables for a table fee of about 5,000 KRW per person.

Jagalchi Fish Market is the largest seafood market in South Korea, spread across a seven-storey building on the Nampo waterfront plus the open stalls along Jagalchihaean-ro. Trading starts before dawn on the wholesale floor, and the retail level runs from roughly 05:00 to 22:00. The market grew after the Korean War around the women vendors known as Jagalchi ajumma, who still run most of the ground-floor stands.

The routine is simple: buy live fish downstairs, then carry it to a second-floor restaurant that prepares it as hoe, or raw slices, for a preparation fee of about 10,000 to 15,000 KRW per table. Flounder, sea bream and abalone are the usual picks. Prices are rarely marked, so agree a figure before the fish leaves the tank. The market closes on the first and third Tuesday of every month, which catches out a lot of visitors.

Haedong Yonggungsa is one of very few Korean temples built on the sea rather than in the mountains. The original was founded in 1376 by the monk Naong Hyegeun, destroyed during the Japanese invasions of the 1590s, and rebuilt in the 1930s. The complex sits on black rock directly above the water in Gijang-gun, and a 108-step stone staircase drops through a stone gate to the main hall.

Admission is free and the grounds open from roughly 05:00 until sunset. The 108 steps stand for the 108 earthly desires in Buddhist teaching, and the small stone pagoda near the entrance is where visitors toss coins for wishes. Sunrise on 1 January draws tens of thousands of people. For seasonal opening hours and city-wide event dates, the official Visit Busan tourism site keeps an English calendar.

Beomeosa was founded in 678 during the Silla kingdom by the monk Uisang, which makes it roughly seven centuries older than Haedong Yonggungsa. It sits on the eastern slope of Geumjeongsan, the mountain that forms the northern edge of Busan, so the setting is forest rather than coastline. The Iljumun entrance gate, carried on four stone pillars, dates to 1614 and is registered as a national treasure.

Entry is free. The temple runs a Templestay programme with day and overnight options, typically 50,000 to 80,000 KRW depending on the format, bookable in English through the national Templestay system. Behind the compound, a marked trail climbs to Geumjeongsanseong Fortress, whose walls run 17 km and are the longest in South Korea. The North Gate is about 90 minutes up on foot, and the path is well signed in Korean and English.

Taejongdae occupies the southern tip of Yeongdo Island, where pine forest ends in cliffs dropping about 100 m to the sea. The park takes its name from King Taejong Muyeol of Silla, who is said to have practised archery here. A paved 4.3 km loop road runs past the observatory, the lighthouse and Sinseon Rock, a flat shelf at the base of the cliffs reached by a steep staircase.

The Danubi road train circles the loop with four stops, costs 4,000 KRW for adults and 2,000 KRW for children, and departs roughly every 20 minutes. Walking the same loop takes about 90 minutes. Near the lighthouse, a line of tented stalls sells grilled shellfish and sea squirt with soju, run by the local haenyeo divers. On clear days the observatory deck gives a view across to Tsushima Island in Japan.

The Songdo Marine Cable Car, branded Busan Air Cruise, runs 1.62 km across Songdo Bay between Songnim Park and Amnam Park, reaching about 86 m above the water at its highest point. It reopened in 2017, nearly thirty years after the original 1964 line was dismantled in 1988. Standard cabins and Crystal Cruise cabins with transparent glass floors run on the same cable, so the only difference is the floor and the fare.

Round-trip fares run about 17,000 KRW for a standard adult cabin and 22,000 KRW for the Crystal Cruise, with one-way tickets at roughly two thirds of that. At the Amnam Park end, the Songdo Yonggung Cloud Trails form a 365 m looped skywalk pinned over the rocks, and walking it costs nothing. Songdo Beach itself is small at 800 m, but it opened in 1913 as the first public beach in Korea.

Gukje Market began in 1945 as a place where returning Koreans and, later, Korean War refugees sold surplus goods, and it still operates as a grid of covered alleys across Jung-gu. Sections are loosely organised by trade: fabric in one lane, hardware in another, then kitchenware and clothing. Kkangtong Market on the eastern side is the food alley, where the night stalls set up from around 19:00 and run late.

BIFF Square, two minutes south, was the original home of the Busan International Film Festival and has the handprints of directors and actors set into the pavement. The street food to order is ssiat hotteok, a fried pancake split open and packed with seeds and nuts, at around 2,000 KRW. Eomuk fishcake skewers cost 1,000 KRW and bibim dangmyeon noodles about 4,000 KRW. Most stalls take cash only, and few have English menus.

Huinnyeoul Culture Village runs along a cliff edge on the western side of Yeongdo Island, a single row of low houses above the water with a narrow coastal path below. The name refers to the white streams that once ran down the slope. Like Gamcheon, the settlement started with Korean War refugees, and the houses were repainted decades later as part of a regeneration scheme.

The village is smaller and quieter than Gamcheon and takes about an hour to walk end to end. The cliffside path connects to the Jeoryeong Coastal Walk, a 3 km route with sea views and several sections of steel walkway bolted to the rock. Cafes occupy converted houses along Huinnyeoul-gil, most with rooftop seating facing the container terminal and the shipping lanes. People still live here, so the residential lanes carry quiet-hours signs.