Nami Island

This is how excited you should be to go to Nami Island. EXCITED.  These are the #Nami5. New school friends who are fun travel buddies. Thanks to that blondie in the pink for planning this awesome trip for us!Little known fact: Nami Island is right in the middle of Korea. Not in the ocean on the coast as you would assume from the word island. It's actually a small island that is about 3 miles in circumference in the middle of a very, very wide section of the Han river. The Han, if you remember is the river we live by. It's apparently a very long river because it took us about 2 hours by buses, trains and taxis to get to this part from Seoul.***Full travel tips are at the bottom of the post. I'm not even going to attempt to explain to you how to get to Nami Island from where ever you may be in Korea. But you can use this site to see the different options and for a better, in depth explanation. We took a subway to a train to a bus to get us to the island. It was fairly simple and only cost about 3$ USD a person. Crazy cheap. This was our first experience getting out of the city and we immediately fell in love with Korea's beautiful mountains and abundant rivers and streams. The view from the zipline tower. It was high. The zipline was a bucket seat and you carried your backpacks on your lap. We had to wait about 2 hours for the zipline, so we wandered around the small town on shore. There isn't much to do. There is some food and there's a bungee jump option for you while you wait. We got some snacks and eventually found a little coffee shop and I promise you I had the best strawberry smoothie I've ever had in my whole life. If you are there, you must walk past the bus stop on your right, straight down that street until you come to the little brown building on your right that is a tiny coffee shop and try one. It will change your life. Now, on to the adventuring. We took a zipline to get ONTO the island. EPIC. This little swing cost us about 38$ USD each, but it included the zipline, island entrance fee and ferry ride back to the mainland. The other super fun, slightly expensive, touristy thing we did was ride this crazy flying water contraption. I have absolutely no idea what you would even call this moon walking type occurence. It was $20 a person and you got to wear these really amazing see through water proof plastic pants. You lay down in this inflatable thing and put your feet on an inflated bar at the bottom and hold on for dear life to some ropes. The boat then drives incredibly fast until the float catches air and you are lifted at least 10 feet in the air and fly until it falls to the water and then catches air again.  It is by far, the most exhilarating and incredibly death defyingly scary/fun thing I have ever done. This was the best 20$ I've ever spent.Ps. There were tons of other water rides you could do too, like the banana boat, just a really fast boat ride, swan paddle boats and more. Now, onto the cute little kitschy island itself. There are tree-lined walkways and the island is well-preserved with its natural beauty. It is famous for its Dak Galbi, which is Korean chicken barbeque and it has been my favorite Korean BBQ we have had since moving here. The island is filled with art. Sculptures, paintings, hand-made good, folk art, traditional art, and more. There is a children's library on the island and it is a Pinterest dream! Look at this display wall! It was 2 stories high and wove around the sides of the attached wall. There was also an entire column built out of old books.  And a weird invention museum....We ALL need these glasses, right?!  The famous lantern lit walk.  Also, ostriches. You can pet them. I decided on this trip that ostriches are terrifying. Sculpture lily pad gardens for the win!  It doesn't get any kitschier than riding a double bike around the island. Apparently in Korea I break all my rules and do things like ride bikes. And do weird couple things like ride bikes double. Also, were the worlds worst at this.   Hey Nami, thanks for being adorable and kitschy and beautiful and the perfect first Korea exploration event! Tips for traveling to Nami Island:

• You only need a day to do/see most everything on the island, we had 8 hours but would have liked a little more, but it was worth waiting to do the zipline
• You can spend a whole day doing rides and a whole day doing museums and exhibits, so it depends on the experience you want and how much money you want to spend.
• The zipline times get full fast, so the earlier you get there the better. Rides start at 8am and they do not take appointments
• You can stay the night in some really cute villas on the island that overlook the island, but know that everything shuts down around 8 and the island is deserted. No one lives here.
• There are a few sit down restaurants, few food stands and little convenience stores with typical gas station snacks, but you will only find Korean foods
• Eat the Dak Galbi
• You can spend as little or as much money as you would like while on the island. All the exhibits are free but the rides cost and the art is for sale and moderately priced.
• The have a Winter Wonderland, as a famous Korean Drama is filmed here. So all year round they have snowman statues everywhere, but they really beef up the cuteness in the winter
• To be an island and to have tons of water activities, no one swims here and everyone wears the plastic pants over their fancy clothes, so no swimsuit is necessary
• It is a small island, so be prepared for crowdedness
• There are public bathrooms on the island