These are some of my favorite hidden gems from a Busan trip.

During the summer of 2024, I had a life changing opportunity. I received a second Critical Language Scholarship from the U.S. State Department. This meant I was fully funded to live and study in Busan, South Korea, for two months. It was my first time back in Korea after six years, so it was like a bit of a homecoming for me in so many different ways.

As I just mentioned, I spent two months in Busan. I had three hours of classes a day, some cultural excursions, some trips, and language partner meetings in-between all of this, but I still found time to adventure out into the city. Some of these stops might not be worth it if you only have two days in the city, but others I highly recommend going to. I’ll bold these ones to distinguish them.

After two months, I can comfortably say I saw most of the city. There were some sights I missed for the sake of time, such as Haedong Yonggungsa, but I felt like I got to know Busan really well. By the end, I wasn’t even using my phone to navigate to certain areas! I was also told some locals have never even been to some of the spots I went to.

Here are my top hidden gems from Busan. I truly loved these spots, and if you have the time, go to them!

Beomeosa is one of the oldest Buddhist temples in South Korea.

Beomeosa is pretty famous if you know anything about Buddhism or temples. but I feel like whenever I see Busan online, no one ever really talks about Beomeosa as a must-visit place in Busan. It was at the top of my list as someone very interested in Buddhism and studying its history.

So on my first weekend with my language partner, we boarded a bus from Pusan National University. It’s about twenty minutes from the college, but we had to transfer to two different buses and then walk up a massive slop to get there. There are also temple stay programs available if you want to spend the night; I did one of these in Gyeongju and it certainly was a fascinating experience.

This temple was founded in 600, and when I went, there was no one that was a foreigner really around. Early on a Saturday morning it wasn’t crowded yet, and most of the people there were praying at the shrines. It was gorgeous to look around and see the architectural details on these hanoks.

We walked around and took a glance at all of the buildings. We spent about an hour here total, but there’s a little hiking area behind if you want to continue going up the mountain. If you want to come and pray as well, there are plenty of shrines and opportunities around the property.

Hwangnyeongsan has the most gorgeous views of Busan from the top of the mountain.

This was also at the top of my list for Busan ever since I saw an Instagram reel showing what the view of the lookout was. I went with two other friends for what we thought was a brief hike, but then we ended up taking almost two hours to get to the top—and it was steep!

We couldn’t find the actual hiking trail, so we ended up going through following the road. Eventually, we made it to the top, and I thought that the view was worth the agony of the steep hike. You could see the entire city from both sides of the lookout, and it looked like thousands of little stars.

There’s also a cute cafe at the top of the lookout that overlooks Gwangalli and Haeundae. We grabbed some drinks for 7,000 won each, took a table that was right by the window, and chatted while looking out at the fantastic view.

Definitely come here at sunset on a clear day if you want a gorgeous view! You can also drive or taxi to the top if you don’t want to hike like we did.

Hocheon Cultural Village was such a hidden gem.

One day, when I was looking for things to do in Busan, as I was running out of ideas quickly, I learned that Hocheon Cultural Village was a thing. It was featured in a Korean drama I have not watched yet called Fight My Way, and it was one of the many cultural villages located throughout Busan.

So I told my language partner and we decided to go! We kind of made an entire day of going to a cafe in Jeonpodong, then a samgyetang restaurant that was a hop and a skip away from Hocheon. We made it out to the top of the village at night, after taking the bus, and we both really loved it.

There’s a tiny bar and section overlooking the village. We spent about thirty minutes just kind of enjoying the view, and my language partner picked up a mojito from the bar. She said it wasn’t that good, but she did say she was going to bring her boyfriend there another time because the vibes were good.

I absolutely adored the Modern and Contemporary History Museum, as well as Busan Museum.

This was a stop I made later in the program with two of my friends. I had tried to go to the museum earlier in the month, but it apparently closes before it says it does. We tried to enter an hour before closing the first time and they denied us entrance.

This is a national museum, so it is free to enter. All national museums in Korea are public and free, so keep this in mind if you’re looking for a more budget friendly option when you’re wandering the country. Located in Nampodong, near a busy shopping and entertainment district, the history museum is small but mighty.

When we went there was a nice exhibit on photography and Busan, which was my favorite part of the museum. The upper floors consisted of explaining colonial history onwards, and it had some poignant examples of what the Japanese did in Busan specifically.

As someone who did my master’s thesis on colonial Korean women’s literature, it was nice to get this perspective so focused on Busan. A lot of my research was clustered on Gyeongseong, or Seoul, and what is now North Korea.

Busan Museum I went to earlier on in the summer, and I enjoyed this free museum a lot as well. There’s a chunk on pre-colonial history in this museum as well, plus the Korean War and its impacts, but the special exhibit on Korean art collected by chaebols is what I was most interested in.

Jeonpodong Cafe Street has some of the best cafes in town!

My roommate showed me this street. She was obsessed with coffee shops and going to them. withfriends,a nd she took me to some of her favorites during our time together in Busan.

Jeongpodong was apparently her favorite part of the city, as there are a ton of cafes and restaurants crammed into this section of the city. I went to a handful during my time in Busan, and I loved the aesthetics of this street. At night everything is lit up too, and it’s so pretty to witness.

If you’re into cafes and have time to spare in Busan, definitely head to this part of town! There are also shops and places to eat, and it’s only a stop or two away from the main shopping hub of Seomyeon.

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