Nami Island Without the Tour Bus

Nami Island is the day trip every Seoul itinerary eventually suggests, usually stapled to a tour bus that also stops at a rail bike and a garden. You don’t need the bus. The island is about an hour from Yongsan by train, the ferry takes five minutes, and if you let the subway do the work and walk from the station, the whole day costs less than ₩25,000 in transport and admission.

One piece of geography first. The island belongs to Chuncheon, in Gangwon Province, but the ferry leaves from a wharf in Gapyeong, in Gyeonggi Province. Everything about getting there is really about getting to that wharf, and the nearest train station is Gapyeong.

Three ways out of Seoul

Fares and times are as of October 4, 2026, from Korail’s tables and Nami Island’s directions page.

The ITX-Cheongchun from Yongsan is the default: ₩6,900, or ₩4,450 more than the subway from Cheongnyangni or Sangbong, buys a seat and a train that always stops at Gapyeong. Take the subway if you’re near Sangbong or Cheongnyangni and will check that your train goes all the way. The shuttle, run by Ktourstory, the operator Nami names on its directions page, saves every transfer from Hongdae or Myeongdong, but five hours on the island is enough for a walk and lunch, not a slow autumn day.

Buy ITX-Cheongchun tickets on Korail’s English website or its KORAIL+ app, which take credit cards, or from a vending machine or ticket counter at a Korail station such as Yongsan or Cheongnyangni; subway stations don’t sell them. Sales open at 7:00 two months before the travel date. When every seat on a train is sold, Korail sells standing tickets at 15% off the seat fare, good only in the car printed on the ticket. On weekdays other than public holidays, part of the lower deck is unreserved seating at 5% off. Both used to be sold only at stations; since February 27, 2026 the app sells them too. For a foliage weekend, buy your seat as soon as you fix the date.

On Korail’s timetable from September 1, 2026, the last ITX-Cheongchun from Gapyeong to Yongsan leaves at 22:33 on weekdays and 22:31 on weekends; the last subway toward Sangbong leaves at 23:12 (23:13 on weekends).

Gapyeong Station to the wharf

It is 1.5 kilometers: 20 minutes on foot, or five by bus 10-4 or taxi, according to Nami. Gapyeong County’s March 2026 timetable has bus 10-4 leaving Gapyeong Station 18 times a day, from 7:45 to 19:45, every 30 to 60 minutes. Each bus turns at the wharf and heads back from the Nami Island stop five minutes later, the last at 19:50. It is a county rural bus: ₩1,650 a ride on a transit card or ₩1,700 in cash, before any transfer discount. If the next bus is more than 15 minutes away and it’s dry, walk.

Nami Island admission and ferry: the ticket is a ‘visa’

Nami calls itself the Naminara Republic. The ticket office is “Immigration,” and your admission ticket is a “visa.” The joke has a practical point: the visa is the ferry ticket. It costs ₩19,000 with the round-trip ferry included; ₩16,000 for middle- and high-school ages and anyone 70 or older; ₩13,000 from 36 months through elementary-school age. Early-bird tickets (bought and boarded before 8:00) and evening tickets (after 18:31 from April to November, 18:01 otherwise) cost ₩13,000 by ferry.

Three ways onto the island, priced very differently:

• Ferry in and out, ₩19,000. Boats run from 8:00, every 10 to 20 minutes between 9:00 and 18:00. The last boat in leaves at 21:00, the last back at 21:05. The crossing takes about five minutes.
• Motorboat in, ferry out, ₩29,000. April to November only, 9:00 to 18:00. A boat leaves once two people are aboard and takes up to five.
• Zip-wire in, ferry out, ₩55,000 or ₩58,000. An 80-meter tower across from the ticket office, about a kilometer of line over the Bukhan River. The Family course (₩55,000) lands on Nami; the Adventure course (₩58,000) lands on Jaraseom and finishes by motorboat. Nami’s FAQ says the fee includes admission and the ferry back. Riders must be 140 to 200 cm and 45 to 120 kg; it runs 9:00 to 18:00, weather permitting.

The zip-wire goes one way: you fly in and ferry out. Don’t buy it to save time; the ferry takes five minutes. Buy it if the ride is the point of your day.

When it’s open

Nami says the island is open 365 days a year. Ferries run in rain, and icebreakers keep them running when the river freezes. The exception is a sudden release from the dam upstream; Nami then posts a pop-up on its website. No pop-up, no problem. Activities on the island can close for weather.

Autumn, and when to go

Nami’s own guidance puts peak foliage between mid-October and early December. Katsura and maple trees turn first, from mid-October. The ginkgoes turn later and briefly, at their best from late October to mid-November. In mid-November, the island spreads ginkgo leaves brought in from Seoul’s Songpa district along its Songpa Ginkgo Tree Lane.

Nami adds ferries for the season. From September 18 to November 22, 2026, the first boat leaves at 7:30 every day, and on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays the last boat runs at 21:30.

In foliage season, go on a weekday and go early. On weekdays, the 6:37 ITX-Cheongchun from Yongsan reaches Gapyeong at 7:35, and the 7:45 bus 10-4 has you at the wharf before the 8:00 boat. The early-bird fare needs boarding before 8:00, so this plan pays the full ₩19,000.

Petite France and the rest of Gapyeong

You can add a second stop without a tour. Gapyeong County’s hop-on, hop-off Gapyeong Tour Bus (Course A) links Gapyeong Station, Nami Island, the Rail Bike, Jara Island and Petite France & Italian Village, where you can change to Course B for the Garden of Morning Calm. A day pass is ₩8,000 for adults, ₩6,000 for teens and children, bought from the driver. It runs nine loops a day, never on Wednesdays unless the Wednesday is a public holiday.

Buses leave the Nami stop for Petite France at 9:05, 10:05, 11:35, 12:35, 14:05, 15:05, 16:35 and 17:35, about 25 minutes away; the last one back leaves Petite France at 18:00. Nami lists two stops by the wharf: outside the Starbucks for buses toward Gapyeong’s sights, and outside the GS convenience store opposite for buses toward Cheongpyeong, where Petite France is. Petite France is open 9:00 to 18:00 every day and charges its own admission: ₩12,000 for adults and teenagers, ₩10,000 for children, or ₩19,500 and ₩16,000 with the neighbouring Italian Village.

A workable day: the island in the morning, the 12:35 bus to Petite France, then the 17:00 bus back, which reaches Gapyeong Station at 17:45.

Tour or no tour

A tour isn’t a bad idea, but it should beat these numbers:

• Your baseline. Subway both ways plus a visa: ₩23,900. ITX-Cheongchun from Yongsan plus a visa: ₩32,800. Add ₩1,650 each way if you ride bus 10-4, and ₩8,000 plus ₩12,000 for Petite France.
• What the tour includes. Check whether the price covers the visa and every admission, or only the seat.
• Hours on the island. The direct shuttle gives you five. Ask a tour for its number.
• The day of the week. On a Wednesday the county bus doesn’t run, so any second stop means a taxi or a tour.
• The stops. Nami plus one Course A stop is easy on your own. Nami, Petite France and the Garden of Morning Calm in one day is where a tour saves real effort.

Steve OH edits Seoulpin. Steve runs Standardpin, a Seoul-based web studio that also builds websites for clinics; that work has no effect on whether or how any clinic appears here. Articles are drafted with AI assistance from the sources listed and reviewed by Steve before publishing. How we work