Jeju has a signed cycling route running the entire two hundred and thirty kilometres around its coast, with a passport you can get stamped at checkpoints along the way. It is one of the best multi-day rides in Asia and almost unknown outside Korea. Travellers who book Jeju flights with Traveloka should allow four days to do it comfortably.
The official route is marked with blue lines and signage and runs clockwise or anticlockwise around the island, mostly on dedicated path or quiet coastal road. Ten certification centres along it stamp a cycling passport, available at the start points for a small fee, which is a surprisingly effective motivator.
Which direction to ride
Anticlockwise, keeping the sea on your right, is the usual recommendation because it puts you on the seaward side of the road at most points and the prevailing wind tends to favour it. The wind is the main difficulty on this island rather than the gradient, and it can be relentless on the exposed western side.
Four days, broken sensibly
Jeju City to Hamdeok, Hamdeok to Seongsan, Seongsan to Seogwipo, and Seogwipo back to Jeju City via the west makes four stages of fifty to sixty kilometres. The eastern stages are flatter; the southwest around Sanbangsan has the only real climbs. Accommodation is plentiful at every stage end.
Bike hire and transport
Hire shops in Jeju City and Seogwipo rent road and hybrid bikes by the day or the week, panniers included, and several will collect from the far end of the island if you only intend to ride half of it. Buses on Jeju do not generally carry bicycles, so a one-way ride needs the hire company’s cooperation arranged in advance rather than assumed on the day.
The inland alternative
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If a loop is too much, the roads up towards Hallasan from the coast give serious climbing on good tarmac, with the 1100 Road and the 5.16 Road both crossing the island over the shoulder of the mountain. These are gradients rather than distance and are popular with Korean club cyclists at weekends.
What to expect on the road
Korean drivers are generally considerate of cyclists and the coastal road has light traffic outside the towns. Convenience stores every few kilometres solve food and water entirely. Surfaces are good. The hazards are the wind, the sun on the exposed stretches, and the occasional tour bus on the narrow southwest section.
Practical notes
April to June and September to October are ideal; July and August are hot, humid and typhoon season. Jeju City and Seogwipo have bike shops for repairs. Flights from across the region are frequent and cheap into Jeju. Traveloka offers the lowest flight prices in the region for the connections in.
Get the passport stamped, ride anticlockwise, and split it into four days with the sea on your right. The wind is the only thing on Jeju that will genuinely slow you down, and the certification centres are a better motivator than they have any right to be.
