Spring picnic at Banpo Hangang Park
The Hangang river, is a major river in South Korea and is the fourth largest river in the Korea peninsula and it divides the South and the North. In this article, I will be writing about the top two picnic spots in Seoul that are nice for a picnic while enjoying the Hangang River. I’ve had picnics at two different spots that oversee the Hangang River. These two places are the Yeouido Hangang Park and the Banpo Hangang Park. Let’s find out more about them.
Now let me introduce you to do the first picnic spot. It is Yeouido Hangang Park. I went during the Autumn. My friends and I went during the evening and stayed until just before it gets dark. We brought our own food, like french fries, sandwiches etc. Koreans usually like to order delivery chicken and drink beer while having their picnic or they would eat ramyeon bought from the nearest convenience store. There are usually plenty of convenience stores spread around at Yeouido Park so you can always find a convenience store near you. If you’re a muslim or a vegetarian, I would recommend that you bring your own food because chances are you can’t eat the ramyeon or the chicken.
Picnic mats – You can find picnic mats for rent by Korean ajummas (aunties) for about 4000-6000 won. The little stalls are usually outside the entrance of the Yeouido or Yeouinaru train station. You’ll be able to spot them upon entering the Yeouido park. OR you can bring your own mat.
One other activity that we did at Yeouido Park was riding a bike. I really recommend this. It’s fun and healing as you bike around the Hangang river with refreshing wind blowing to your face. The bike rental is affordable too. Pricing at 3,000 to 5,000 won per hour or two hours for a single rider bike and 6,000 to 7,000 won for a couple rider bike. Not to mention there are variety of bike colors and they’re cute! Besides that, Hangang Park also offers other facilities like boat rides and cruise.
Read More: 5 Things To Do In Yeouido Hangang Park
The second picnic spot would be at the Banpo Hangang Park.
The Hangang river is long so there are quite a couple of picnic spots you can enjoy. Banpo Hangang Park is 40 mins away by subway from the previous picnic spot, Yeouido Hangang Park. I went there in Spring. My friends and I went during the evening around 3pm and had our picnic there until 9pm.
We took the train and met at Sinbanpo station, exit 1. It was quite a walk until the picnic spot by the Banpo Bridge but it was worth it because we got to see the cherry blossoms, discovered so many pretty flowers and nice photo spots along the walk to Banpo Bridge.
As soon as you arrive at the Sinbanpo station, you can set your Naver map to that location. In the first picture attached above, the tteokbokki and the drinks were bought at the picnic spot. When we went there, they had a food truck festival that starts at 6pm so we were able to purchase some food on the spot even though we already brought some of our own. As always, there are also convenience stores located nearby for food and other supplies.
I recommend you to stay until night time if possible because then you’d be able to experience that water lights show at the Banpo Bridge!
When would be the suitable time to go for a picnic? I had the picnic with my friends at Yeouido Hangang Park during autumn and Banpo Hangang Park during spring. I’ve never went during summer or winter because usually it’d be too hot or too cold during those two seasons. So I recommend you to go during spring or autumn. Besides, you get to enjoy the cherry blossoms, other types of beautiful flowers in spring and enjoy the maple leaves in autumn. However, it is still up to you in whichever season you want to go to, if you enjoy the hot weather you can go during summer!
If you decide to go during autumn, make sure you bring with you some blanket or sweater because it gets colder as the day goes by and it can get windy
Thanks for reading and I hope you got some useful information from this!
