Jeonju
Jeonju is the reference point for bibimbap and a UNESCO City of Gastronomy, the fourth in the world. Eight hundred hanok stand in a few blocks, and you can sleep in one.
Jeonju in a nutshell
Jeonju: what to expect
What follows sits on 51,000+ stops planned in South Korea on Stippl.
Jeonju is the ancestral home of the Joseon royal house and a UNESCO City of Gastronomy, which is a lot for a provincial city. More than eight hundred traditional wooden houses stand in a few blocks, the largest concentration in Korea, and almost all of them now trade. Gyeonggijeon holds the portrait of Taejo, whose clan came from here. Jeondong Cathedral stands in Romanesque brick opposite a Joseon gate, on the ground where Korea's first Catholic martyrs were killed.
Jeonju is a detour rather than a corridor stop, and that is unusual in Korea. Only half of the trips carrying Seoul, Jeonju and Busan write them in line, against three quarters for Gyeongju, and filing Jeonju predicts the south-west specifically: Gwangju, Suncheon, Yeosu and Mokpo all lift far harder from here than the east or the north does. It also carries the highest one-night share in the country.
Two nights, and sleep in a hanok for at least one of them. Several hundred houses here will let you, and few other places in Korea do at this scale. Eat the bibimbap the city is the reference point for, and give yourself a Friday or Saturday for the Nambu night market. Short is not the same as skipped here: almost everyone who writes Jeonju down actually sleeps in it, so treat it as a stop worth the detour rather than a base.
Who Jeonju is for
Anyone here for the food
Jeonju is the reference point for bibimbap and it has its own versions of gukbap, makgeolli service and street snacks
Sleeping in a hanok
which several hundred houses here offer and few other places do at this scale
Families
for the short distances, the hanbok rental and the street food
Going deep into Korea
A Jeonju trip carries 6.65 Korean stops against 2.37 without
Heading southwest after
Its odds ratios with Gwangju, Suncheon, Yeosu, Boseong, Damyang and Mokpo all run at roughly twice Gyeongju's
When to go to Jeonju
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What not to miss in Jeonju
Photo by Minku Kang via Unsplash
Photo by Mathew Schwartz via Unsplash
Photo by Paran Koo via UnsplashJeonju Hanok Village
800-plus hanok in a few blocks, all of it trading, and at dusk genuinely beautiful despite that
Gyeonggijeon Shrine
the 1410 compound, rebuilt 1614, holding the portrait of Taejo, whose clan came from Jeonju. English tours at 11am and 2pm
Jeondong Catholic Cathedral
Romanesque brick opposite a Joseon gate, raised where Korea's first Catholic martyrs were killed
Omokdae
the hilltop pavilion where the future first Joseon king stopped on his way home from a victory, and the view over the roofs
Jeonju Hyanggyo
a 1603 Confucian school, unusually complete, with ginkgos that turn the courtyard yellow in late November
Nambu Market
the working market outside the south gate, with a night market on Friday and Saturday evenings
The neighbourhoods of Jeonju
Hanok Village
first-timers, families
Pungnam-dong and Gyo-dong: the 800 houses, the shrine, the cathedral and every visitor in the city
800-plus hanok, the Gyeonggijeon shrine and the cathedral opposite.
Gyo-dong
couples
The quieter east end of the village, towards the Confucian school and the Omokdae stairs
Jeonju Hyanggyo's ginkgos and the Omokdae stairs, away from the crowd.
Gaeksa
budget
The modern downtown shopping district around the old state guest house, where the city actually shops
The downtown where the city actually shops, fifteen minutes on foot.
Nambu Market
foodies
The traditional market outside the south gate, and the Friday–Saturday night market
Beansprout gukbap by day, and a night market on Friday and Saturday.
Seosincheon
foodies
The makgeolli alley: rice-wine taverns west of the centre, a taxi ride out
Order a makgeolli kettle and a table of side dishes follows unasked.
Deokjin
off-the-beaten-path
North of the centre, around the lotus pond and the original Gogung
A lotus pond that is spectacular for about six weeks a year.
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Where to stay in Jeonju
You can now book a hanok by name rather than by category. Hagindang, built 1908 and the oldest house in the village, opens by reservation. Sarangroo rates highest of the ten the one ranking covers; Seongsim and Pungnamheon are the budget end; Gaeunchae is the one two writers stayed in and wrote up, [timeout.com, erikastravelventures.com, travelsewhere.net, official: english.visitkorea.or.kr]
Hanok Village
Pungnam-dong and Gyo-dong: the 800 houses, the shrine, the cathedral and every visitor in the city
Gyo-dong
The quieter east end of the village, towards the Confucian school and the Omokdae stairs
Gaeksa
The modern downtown shopping district around the old state guest house, where the city actually shops
Nambu Market
The traditional market outside the south gate, and the Friday–Saturday night market
Seosincheon
The makgeolli alley: rice-wine taverns west of the centre, a taxi ride out
Deokjin
North of the centre, around the lotus pond and the original Gogung
What to eat in Jeonju
Rice, vegetables and beef in a brass bowl, mixed with gochujang
Beansprout broth over rice, egg on the side, eaten at any hour
Rice wine by the kettle, with a free table of side dishes
Low-alcohol spiced makgeolli, drunk with hot soup
Chocolate-covered cake, buttercream and jam
The full Korean table, dozens of dishes at once
"Shop beer", beer and grilled dried fish in a corner shop
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Jeonju customs and what not to do
Shoes off
in hanok stays and restaurants with floor seating
The mural village is lived in
people live behind those walls
Hanbok rental is normal
roughly half the visitors in the village are wearing it and many sites discount entry for it
The side dishes are not free
they come with the kettle, and ordering one kettle between four is the mistake
Do
- Stay the night; the village empties after six.
- Order gukbap at least once, not only bibimbap.
- Buy the choco pies on the way out, not the way in.
Don't
- Don't expect a subway: there isn't one, and you don't need one.
- Don't judge the bibimbap by the famous restaurants alone; the ₩6,000 ones are the point of the city.
- Don't plan the Hanji museum on foot.
Daily budget in Jeonju
Budget
A guesthouse dorm, market food, walking
Mid-range
A hanok room, bibimbap once a day, a makgeolli kettle
High-end
A courtyard hanok to yourself and a hanjeongsik spread
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Fun facts about Jeonju
Jeonju was made a UNESCO City of Gastronomy in 2012: the fourth city in the world to hold the title
The choco pie is a Jeonju-only franchise. PNB has been making them since 1963 and has never opened outside the city
What people from Jeonju actually eat is beansprout soup, not bibimbap: stated plainly by Time Out's Jeonju-born writer, and it is the most useful sentence in our sources
The city has made hanji: Korean paper, for about a thousand years, and still does, in a factory with a museum attached
The hanok village drinks tea, not coffee. Of the rooms the city board picks out inside the village, the ones that hold up are tea houses: a twenty-five-year leaf specialist, a room whose windows are hung as frames around Gyeonggijeon's wall and its ginkgos, another where you choose the leaf by smell. The coffee worth crossing town for is in the new town and Deokjin-gu instead
Jeonju's big destination cafes rate worse than its small ones: the board's "large-scale" picks run 30,000 to 50,000 square metres with lawns, rooftops and stargazing, and they land at 4.0 and 4.1 while hundred-seat rooms land at 4.6 and 4.8. Size drags a rating the way fame does
Local tips for Jeonju
No metro, no need
There is no metro and you will not need one. The hanok village, the cathedral, the gate and the market are all within twenty minutes on foot of each other
The bus terminal is closer
The bus terminal is closer to the village than the railway station, which matters when you are choosing how to arrive
The bus beats the train
From Busan the bus beats the train, because the rail route runs the long way round
Kakao T works for taxis
and is what visitors use
Jeonju is very safe
as Korea generally is
Cobbles, mind your shoes
The village lanes are cobbled and uneven, the one real hazard is footwear
Jeonju questions, answered
On the western line south from Seoul, about two hours by KTX. Jeonju carries 3.19% of everything planned in South Korea on Stippl, and it works as the food stop between the capital and the south coast. Put it into Stippl as an overnight rather than a lunch.
Two nights. Stops in Jeonju planned on Stippl come to 2 nights. The hanok village itself is small and you can walk it in an afternoon; what takes the time is eating your way across it properly, which is the only real reason to come.
It can be, at two hours each way by KTX, and only 3.97% of Jeonju stops planned on Stippl are same-day, so almost nobody does. The hanok village empties in the evening and fills with day visitors by eleven, which is the whole argument for sleeping here.
In a hanok inside the village, towards the quieter eastern end. They are converted courtyard houses with heated floors and thin walls, and that is part of the deal rather than a fault. Book ahead at weekends, when Koreans come down from Seoul for exactly the same reason you are.
Bibimbap once, because this is where the dish comes from and the local version arrives with beef tartare in a brass bowl. Kongnamul gukbap for breakfast, a bean sprout soup that people eat after a heavy night. Then a kettle of makgeolli, which comes with more side dishes than you ordered.
It is busy and it is commercial, and it is also the largest surviving hanok village in the country, which is why. The trick is timing: before nine in the morning and after seven in the evening it turns back into a quiet residential neighbourhood, and that is when to walk it.
Every guide is written by the Stippl editors and checked against the trips our travellers actually plan. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
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