My Korea tour Day 3 – Travel guide to Gwangalli Beach Busan

After leisurely strolling down the Haeundae Beach and went back to our motel to take a bath in the evening, we hit the road again upon nightfall. What could we go after the fall of the weekend night in Busan? We took a short subway trip from Haeundae to Gwangan subway station. From there, we walked for about 10 minutes and came to another popular beach of Gwangalli Beach Busan.

Busan Gwangalli Beach is popular among local people especially during weekends when various cultural and musical events are being held on the beach. We could see many teenagers going towards the same direction when we got out of the subway exit. In fact, we were not very sure the direction to the beach at night so I believed we would not go wrong by following the crowds.

This situation reminded me of what I experienced in Barcelona when we also noticed crowds and followed them to somewhere we did not know at first but excited to find out that it was their favorite night spots during weekend. Off course, this time round in Busan, we knew where we were going to reach, and that is Gwangalli Beach.

Once we reached the Gwangalli Beach, what being laid before us was an awesome scene of the beach and its surrounding features under the moonlight.

Gwangalli Beach Busan (광안리해수욕장) is a 1.4 km long and 64m wide beach. It is famous for its fine sand and a popular gathering place for young local people in their 20’s and 30’s. Located at Gwangan 2(i)-dong, Suyeong-gu, west of Haeundae Beach,  Gwangalli Beach Busan sits inside a cove spanned by the gigantic Gwangan Bridge that lit up at night with changing colors.

On the beach there is an outer concert stage where the Busan Ocean Festival and other various events are held. Live musical performance was organized during the weekend where local artists have successfully attracted hundreds of local people to gather there. We had the opportunity to join the fun and had a great time enjoying Korean musical performance which ended eventually with a small scaled but surprised fireworks display.

After hanging out at the Gwangalli Beach Busan for almost 2 hours, included having a Starbucks Latte sitting in front of the beach while listening to Korean songs, we finally felt hungry. Reluctantly and unwillingly, we left the beach and headed to a Korean barbeque restaurant for our late dinner at around 9:30 PM.

I believed it is a popular Samgyeopsal or barbeque restaurant in Busan as there were many people especially locals dining inside there. We passed by and spotted it when we headed to the beach, so we went back to try it. Dont’ ask me about the name and the whole shop had no non-Korean wordings so I couldn’t read. It is located along the Gwangan-ro, in between the beach and the Gwangan Subway station.

We did not know what is written in the menu so we asked the waiter to order 2 portions of popular meat weighing 500G each for us. Each portion cost around KW15,000 or USD15. Kimchi were accompanied as side dishes as usual.

Jean enjoyed grilling the pork. Each table has a industrial standard exhaust chute just above the grill so we found no bad smell issue here.

When the charred meat turned black, it is fully done and ready to eat. Yummy!

No Samgyeopsal meal is complete without drinking the Soju.

We were curious about the type of charcoal they used to provide the high heat for barbeque that last quit long, and this is the answer.

We were completely full after consuming those portions of grilled meat. It was almost 11PM at night. We deliberately walked slowly to the a subway and back to where we stayed, the Haeundae. It was actually quite a fascinating scene to view and we passed by all those motels with colorful neon signs in the area.

This wraps up my Friday night explore to Gwangalli Beach Busan. Coming up next: We went to the morning Jagalchi market and later to the Busan Tower, before seeing the world’s largest water fountain musical display. Stay tuned! – Travel Feeder

Further reading: Suyeong-gu official website.

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Location map of Gwangalli Beach Busan.

About The Author

Cecil Lee

The author is an avid traveler and photography hobbyist who loves to share with others his travel and photo-taking experience in many popular tourist destinations around Europe, Asia and Australasia. Read the exciting stories with many photos captured on his journeys.