Planning late vacations? Escape to this island with hidden beaches, tidal paths, emerald seas

The 600-meter-long beach is an endless banquet hall for a tiny hermit crab measuring barely 1 centimeter from head to toe. Carrying a white sea-snail shell on its back, it scurries forward, its tiny claws and mouth moving more busily than its legs.

The crab is not the only resident enjoying the beach. Seagulls peck relentlessly at the muddy sand, seemingly unconcerned about straining their necks, while blue crabs, wary of the gulls, remain absorbed in their own hunting. Just a few steps away, vacationers splash in the water, but the commotion does little to disturb them.

After boarding a passenger ferry at Incheon Port, it takes about 70 minutes to reach Deokjeok Island. Located in Incheon's maritime Ongjin County, the island is the largest among the 41 islands that make up the Deokjeok Archipelago.

White-sand beaches, mixed-sand shores and pebble beaches stretch along different sides of the island, while trails revealed by the ebbing tide add an element of mystery. Deokjeok Island is an ideal destination for a summer getaway, as well as for ecotourism and camping, yet it is far from overcrowded.

The relatively long ferry ride may seem like a drawback. But those who make the journey often find themselves counting down the days until they can board the ferry to return.

Hidden beach: Batjireum

Batjireum Beach, on the southern coast of Deokjeok Island, has only recently begun to attract attention as a summer getaway. For years, it was an inconvenient place to stay, with no restaurants or even small grocery stores nearby. Compared with Seopori Beach, the island’s best-known beach, its accommodations were also modest.

Even its name reflects its location on the outskirts of the village. The beach was once called “Bakkatjinri,” meaning “outer Jinri,” referring to the area outside Jinri (鎭里), a village where a naval military post was once established. Over time, the name evolved into “Batjireum.” The island’s main port is still Jinri Port, located in Jinri.

That began to change in March last year, when Deokjeokdo Natural Recreation Forest opened in Batjireum. The new facility includes the island’s most modern accommodations, along with a campground equipped with convenient amenities.

For travelers to remote islands, the trade-off has often been clear: enjoy cleaner, more beautiful seas, but put up with limited lodging and facilities. The new recreation forest has eased that drawback.

It is reportedly the first public natural recreation forest established on an island that is not connected to the mainland by a bridge. It is also the first natural recreation forest in Ongjin County.

Although access and accommodations have improved, the beach remains difficult to stay at unless visitors lodge at the recreation forest or another facility nearby, as there are still no restaurants or other food and beverage facilities in the area. The recreation forest can accommodate no more than 41 guests per day — far too few to make the expansive beach feel crowded. Even in early to mid-August, when the summer heat was at its peak, the only people in the water when this reporter visited the beach were a family of four.

Yet that sense of modest isolation is precisely what makes Batjireum Beach special. Swimming there can feel like having a private island all to yourself, a rare and indulgent experience. The beach is surrounded by an old grove of Korean red pines, shielding visitors from almost all signs of bustle and leaving little but the sea and forest in view.

A three-minute walk south from the recreation forest leads to a footbridge crossing a small stream. After crossing the bridge and passing through a curtain of pine trees, Batjireum Beach comes into view.

The beach is a mixture of sand and mud, but even at low tide, it does not reveal the kind of soft, sinking mudflat that swallows your feet. The western side of the beach, on the right, sits slightly higher, allowing the water to recede quickly. On the eastern side, on the left, the water remains at a certain depth regardless of the tide. As a result, most beachgoers tend to gather on the left.

The right side, where the tidal range is greater and people are fewer, is a treasure trove of marine life. Countless shells have accumulated in sandy channels carved by the retreating water. A few gulls gather here and there on the nearby sand dunes, their movements unhurried and relaxed. The mounds of shells appear to be their handiwork, perhaps the remains of a satisfying meal.

Noticing movement among the shell mounds, I bent down for a closer look. Hermit crabs, the sea's little cleanup crew, were wriggling about here and there. The lugworm burrows scattered across the area must seem as towering and imposing to them as the stately old pine trees do to us.

If Batjireum Beach is an emerging destination known mainly to those in the know, Seopori Beach has long been the heart of summer tourism on Deokjeok Island. While the area around Jinri Port serves as the island’s administrative and transportation hub, the Seopori Beach area is its tourism center.

A forest of about 800 red pine trees, planted along the beach, offers an alternative way to enjoy the island. Visitors who are not interested in swimming can instead take a forest bath beneath the trees.

Neungdong Pebble Beach and Mokseom Island, on the northern side of the island, are also worth exploring. Neungdong is known for its pebble shore, while Mokseom stands out for the sandy stretches lining both sides of its access road.

Neungdong Pebble Beach is relatively expansive for a pebble beach, and its unusual rock formations and standing rocks create a spectacular landscape best enjoyed with both the eyes and ears. Mokseom offers a different kind of appeal: as you approach from the direction of Igae Beach, the sea comes into view gradually along the access road, creating a particularly striking scene.

Soya Island is connected to Deokjeok Island by the Deokjeok-Soya Bridge near Jinri Port. Before the bridge was built, passenger ferries called at both islands separately. Today, however, ferries stop only at Jinri Port on Deokjeok Island, effectively bringing the two islands into the same living and tourism sphere.

Soya Island’s signature attraction is a 1.3-kilometer tidal flat trail that emerges between the islands. Beginning at Seonchon Port on the northeastern side of Soya Island, the sandy path links Gatseom, Gandet­seom and Mulpure­seom.

Seen from a distance, the beaches of these islands appear strikingly white. But the color does not come from sand. Instead, it comes from oyster shells that have been bleached by years of exposure to sunlight. The area has long been a gathering ground where local women collected oysters.

The large tidal range gives the oysters their distinctive flavor, making them a sought-after local product. They are commonly branded as “Deokjeok oysters,” although the oysters are actually harvested on Soya Island.

The sea is exceptionally clear, so even when the tide has not yet fully receded, the submerged path can still be seen beneath the surface.

Beaches worth exploring

Ttaepuri Beach and Juknogol Beach are also worth a visit. Known for its exceptionally fine sand, Ttaepuri is considered the most beautiful beach on Deokjeok Island and Soya Island. Its emerald-colored waters are the picture-perfect definition of an idyllic beach.

Juknogol Beach, adjacent to Ttaepuri, takes on the shape of a traditional Korean bow when viewed from above. The resemblance is even more striking because the uninhabited Mokseom Island just offshore sits where the fletching of an arrow would rest on a drawn bow.

The two beaches also served as filming locations for scenes of an island trip in the 2002 Korean film "Lovers' Concerto," starring Cha Tae-hyun, Son Ye-jin and Lee Eun-ju.

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.