First Ferry to Nami, Petite France, Sunset on Jarasum

YOUR TIMETABLE FOR THE DAY: 09:20 step onto Nami Island / 09:35 the metasequoia lane / 12:50 lunch at the restaurant row by the wharf / 14:50 Petite France / 16:20 Italian Village / 18:22 Jarasum / 19:15 the mart by Gapyeong Station, then the 20:02 train on a weekday, 20:01 on Saturday and Sunday. Those afternoon times are not preferences. They are the times the Gapyeong tourist circular bus actually stops: the A course leaves Nami at :25 past each hour and reaches Petite France at :50; coming back it leaves Petite France at :50 and reaches Gapyeong Station at :20 and Jarasum at :22. There is no 14:30 and no 18:05 — aim for those and you stand at a roadside stop in the countryside for twenty minutes. GETTING THERE is the easy half. ITX-Cheongchun train 2005 leaves Yongsan 07:51 / Cheongnyangni 08:10 and reaches Gapyeong 08:50 on weekdays (weekends: Yongsan 07:51, arrive 08:47). Yongsan-Gapyeong is 6,900 won seated (5,900 standing); from Cheongnyangni it's only 5,700 (4,800 standing) — board at Cheongnyangni or Sangbong if you can. Book in the Korail Talk app, which has an English mode; seats sell out days ahead on April cherry-blossom and October-November foliage weekends, and a standing ticket for a one-hour ride is perfectly fine. WHAT BREAKS THIS DAY IS THE RIDE HOME. On weekdays only six ITX trains leave Gapyeong for Seoul after 17:00: 17:15, 18:34, 19:12, 20:02, 21:32, 22:33 — miss the 20:02 and you sit in the station for 90 minutes. Weekends are far denser, and SATURDAY RUNS THE SUNDAY TIMETABLE, NOT THE WEEKDAY ONE: 17:17, 17:45, 18:17, 18:42, 19:24, 20:01, 20:56, 21:43, 22:07, 22:31. On a Saturday your train is 20:01, not 20:02; walk up expecting 20:02 and you have missed it by a minute, and the next is 20:56. Last train: weekday 22:33 (Cheongnyangni 23:12 / Yongsan 23:28), weekend 22:31. Cheaper backup: the ordinary Gyeongchun Line metro takes T-money and runs later than the ITX — the last Sangbong-bound train leaves Chuncheon 22:44 weekdays / 22:45 weekends and passes Gapyeong about 20 minutes after that. Sangbong to Gapyeong is about an hour. THE BUS YOUR WHOLE AFTERNOON RIDES ON. The Gapyeong tourist circular bus is an 8,000-won all-day paper pass (6,000 for students, seniors and soldiers; free under 3) that you buy FROM THE DRIVER — carry cash, expect Korean-only announcements, and show the driver the Korean name on your phone (남이섬 / 쁘띠프랑스). Since 2 April 2026 it runs as two courses: the A course (Gapyeong Terminal - Rail Bike - Jarasum - Gapyeong Station - Nami - Gapyeong Cruise & Begonia Garden - Petite France) covers everything this day needs, and Petite France is where you transfer to the B course (Petite France - Cheongpyeong Terminal - Cheongpyeong Station - Suljium - Garden of Morning Calm). Two lines are worth memorising: NORTHBOUND Nami :25 past the hour, Petite France :50. SOUTHBOUND-TO-TOWN Petite France :50, Gapyeong Station :20, Jarasum :22. THE LAST BUS OUT OF PETITE FRANCE TOWARD GAPYEONG STATION IS 18:50, arriving 19:20 — miss it and it is a taxi or nothing. There is one morning hole: after the 08:50 run the next departure toward town is 10:50; there is no 09:50. You do not need to phone anyone in Korean to learn the schedule. The county tourism site (gptour.go.kr, "관광지순환버스") posts the 2026 operating leaflet — screenshot it before you leave. Only if you doubt whether it is running at all, call Gapyeong tourist information 031-580-2114 or Gapyeong Terminal 031-582-2308. If you do miss a bus, take a taxi: Nami wharf to Petite France is a 20-25 minute drive on the meter, and the Kakao T app shows you the fare as you book, in English. If the return leg falls apart entirely, use CHEONGPYEONG STATION instead of Gapyeong: the B course runs Petite France 17:50 → Cheongpyeong Terminal 18:10 → Cheongpyeong Station 18:15. One catch — not every ITX calls at Cheongpyeong. On weekdays 17 of 18 stop there (the 17:15 skips it); on weekends only 18 of 26 do, so check the stop list in Korail Talk before you buy. Going this way you give up the Jarasum sunset and the pine-nut makgeolli. NAMI ISLAND costs 19,000 won for adults (16,000 for middle/high schoolers and over-70s, 13,000 for ages 3 to elementary) and that INCLUDES the round-trip ferry. Boats run daily 08:00-21:00 (last boat back off the island 21:05); every 30 min before 09:00, every 10-20 min from 09:00 to 18:00, every 30 min after. The 2026 summer late service (17 Jul - 23 Aug) is over. THE AUTUMN EXTENSION RUNS 18 SEPTEMBER - 22 NOVEMBER: first boat moves up to 07:30 every day, and on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays the last boat is 21:30. That is foliage season, which is exactly when arriving early pays most. Do not plan on the 09:00 boat. Getting off the platform, into a taxi, 1.5 km down the road and through the ticket hall realistically puts you on the 09:10 or 09:20 sailing and on the island at 09:20-09:25 — still a full hour before the tour buses land around 10:30, and boats are every 10-20 minutes by then, so the extra ten minutes costs you nothing. If the taxi rank is empty, the A-course bus calls at Gapyeong Station 09:20 and reaches Nami 09:25. Walking takes 20 minutes. Local bus 10-4 goes there too but roughly hourly, and it will not line up with your 08:50 arrival. Gapyeong taxi fares rose on 1 July 2026: 4,800 won for the first 2 km, then 100 won per 83 m, with a 30% surcharge 23:00-04:00 — station to wharf is about the flag fall. Map-app trap a Korean wouldn't hit: the island is legally in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, so searching "Nami Island" routes you to the island, not to the pier where you buy the ticket. Search 남이섬 가평 선착장 (Nami Island Gapyeong Wharf); enquiries 031-580-8114. The island loop is 6 km, about two hours on foot. If your legs give out, rent a bike at the Bike Centre in the middle of the island (09:00-18:00) or ride the UNICEF Sharing Train (3,000 won a ride; it is occasionally out for maintenance). You can also arrive by zipwire instead of boat (09:00-18:00), but it shuts for the whole day in strong wind, heavy rain, snow or thick fog — 0507-1393-8093. Nami is one of the most foreigner-ready places in Korea: English signage everywhere, cards accepted, ticket staff speak English. PETITE FRANCE AND ITALIAN VILLAGE are both open 09:00-18:00, every day of the year. That single line, plus a note that closing time flexes with season and weather, is all the operator publishes — there is no published last-admission time, so build the afternoon around the 18:00 closing rather than a 17:00 cut-off, and if you are arriving late just ask at the ticket window what time they are closing that day. Adult tickets are 12,000 won (Petite France, 031-584-8200) and 16,000 won (Italian Village Pinocchio & Da Vinci, 031-5175-8929), or 19,500 for the combined ticket on booking apps — buy the combo and save 8,500. They are a walk apart and three hours covers both. THE SUN DECIDES STOP 6. Sunset in Gapyeong: 18:37 mid-March, 19:05 mid-April, 19:32 mid-May, 19:53 June-July, 19:14 mid-August, 18:41 mid-September, 17:55 mid-October, 17:21 mid-November, 17:12 on 8 December, 17:35 mid-January. The bus only ever reaches Jarasum at :22 past the hour, so THE RULE IS: take the last :22 arrival that still beats that day's sunset. - Mid-March to April, August-September: the 17:50 bus, Jarasum 18:22. You wait anywhere from fifteen minutes to an hour by the river, get the sunset full in the face, then walk 15 minutes to the station for the 20:02 (Sat/Sun 20:01). - May to July: sunset is 19:32-19:55, so 18:22 means over an hour of sitting and the 20:02 train leaves before the sun does. Take the LAST bus instead — 18:50 from Petite France, Jarasum 19:22 — watch the sunset, then take the 21:32 (Sat/Sun 20:56). If you can't stay that late, go in at 18:22 and take the 20:02, but call it what it is: an evening walk by the river, not a sunset. - October: sunset 17:55, so the only usable arrival is 17:22. Shift the whole afternoon one slot earlier — leave lunch at 13:20, take the 13:25 bus from Nami (Petite France 13:50), give the two villages three hours, and catch the 16:50 back. Trains unchanged. - November to February: drop Jarasum entirely — the flower beds are turned-over bare soil and it is dark by 17:30. Leave Italian Village at 17:45, take the 17:50 bus to Gapyeong Station (18:20), eat early in Gapyeong town, and take the 19:12 (Sat/Sun 19:24). If you want to stay until the 18:00 closing you must taxi, because the 18:50 bus lands at 19:20 and misses both of those trains. Winter's real reason to come is the metasequoia lane under snow; island shops close around 18:00 even though ferries run to 21:00. JARASUM IS FREE MOST OF THE YEAR — 15 minutes on foot from Gapyeong Station — but not in early autumn. The 2026 Jarasum Flower Festa (12 September - 5 October) charges 7,000 won, of which 5,000 comes straight back at the ticket booth as Gapyeong local-currency vouchers you can spend in town restaurants and cafes, so the real cost is 2,000 (free for Gapyeong residents and under-5s). September is the one month this course's sunset timing lands perfectly, so budget for that 7,000 won. And during the Jarasum International Jazz Festival (9-11 October) the whole island is a ticketed concert venue — no sunset stroll. MONDAY is actually the best day for this course: Nami, Petite France, Italian Village and Jarasum never close, and it is quieter. But do not bolt Chuncheon onto a Monday — the Makguksu Museum, Kim Yujeong Literary Village, the old Gimyujeong Station and the Animation Museum all close Mondays, and Soyanggang Skywalk closes Tuesdays. FOOD: Gapyeong grows more pine nuts than anywhere in Korea, and the local dishes are jat-dubu (pine-nut tofu), jat-guksu and jat-kalguksu. The famous pine-nut specialists are 20-30 minutes away in Buk-myeon and Seorak-myeon, not near the pier, so eat at the restaurant row facing the Nami wharf and pick whichever place lists 잣두부 or 잣막국수. Menus are mostly Korean with photos and little English; if pine-nut dishes aren't on, the regional default is dakgalbi (spicy stir-fried chicken, usually a two-portion minimum, awkward solo) or makguksu. Eating on the island costs more and queues at noon. You have exactly ninety minutes: BE AT THE WHARF BUS STOP BY 14:20 for the 14:25 departure. Some smaller stalls and market shops are cash-only — carry 20,000 won. For the last stop, Gapyeong pine-nut makgeolli is brewed locally by Woorisool (Gapyeong plant 031-585-8525) and sold in the marts and convenience stores by the station; you'll be asked for ID — a passport or ARC works, a foreign driver's licence often doesn't. RAIN PLAN: Nami is entirely outdoors. Take the narrated Story Tour Bus around the island instead of walking, but ask at the ticket booth whether commentary is available in a language you read — it may be Korean only. Give the afternoon's extra time to Italian Village, which is mostly indoor exhibition buildings, and cut Petite France short. The zipwire and the Cheongpyeong Lake water sports (May-September only) stop the moment the wind or rain picks up.

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Photos: Drcbrothephotographer · CC BY 4.0 · 변경함 · Tosile08 · This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. · 변경함 · kimgon (Pixabay) · CC0 · 변경함 · ⓒ한국관광공사 포토코리아-송재근 · ⓒ한국관광공사