Seoul Hwacheon Sancheoneo Full-Day Fishing Experience
- This tour will not let you miss out on the Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival!
- Experience carving out snow holes and fishing for 'Sancheoneo' cold water mountain trouts
- Be a chef for a day and cook your freshly-caught fish and find out how it tastes right after!
- You can also try out other winter activities on ice such as fish catching and sledding
- Enjoy the convenience of round trip shuttle bus transfers to/from Seoul included in the package
Similar adventures in Hwacheon-gun
What to expect
Take the opportunity to experience a unique Korean winter festival, in celebration of Mountain Trout, the Hwacheon Sancheoneo festival! Follow the locals on their annual pilgrimage into the beautiful mountainous countryside away from the city. Dig holes into the hard ice and fish for fresh trout as part of this hundred-year-old tradition. When you've made your catch, have it cooked up for consumption at the festival kitchen. Afterwards, spend some time trying out the numerous ice activities on offer such as sledding, bobsled, ice soccer, ice sculptures, and much more wintry fun. With transportation to and from the festival included, this activity comes highly recommended for anyone looking to venture beyond the city and get a unique insight into Korean culture
Reviews
The activities are so interesting, from fishing, sledding to snow soccer. The best thing would be there are more locals than tourists, which means this is the real deal.
overall the experience was refreshing but there are issues that could improve things. 1st the bus ride is long especially when going back to Seoul. the actual fishing had a separate zone set aside for foreigners which was nice but we don’t get to eat the fish we caught. the provided smoked trout was delicious though. The ice sculpture was 15 min walk which is very far when walking in sub zero temp. perhaps its normal for guides to not show us the way but i saw mandarin speaking guides from other tours lead to and fro to the ice sculpture venue. we weren’t provided any food voucher so it was just stuffing ourselves with street food sold at the festival.
The staff was only responsible for taking us to buy tickets; we had to figure out everything else ourselves. If you go on a weekend, I recommend lining up for the game that you can only play three times first. We spent too much time fishing, and didn't have time to line up for it later, which was a shame. Plus, going on the weekend meant we were stuck in traffic for a while, which cut into our playtime. Since the drive from Seoul is almost three hours, and the heater in the car was very strong, wearing too many layers was uncomfortable the whole way, so pay attention to what you wear. Overall, it was a very good experience.
The experience entailed a bus taking us to the ice festival early in the morning. Once we were there, we were immediately given a fish each. These were so good! After that, it was free time until 4pm. Unfortunately we didn’t end up catching any trout. Would highly recommend the ice sledding and ice museum. Make sure to prioritise activities that you are interested in as we found that there wasn’t enough time to explore everything!
The shuttle bus is near Starbucks at Hongdae Exit 8, which is very convenient. The tour guide's explanation is also very clear. The venue is great. You can fish for ice fish, grill fish, ice sculpt, sled, ice skate, and play ice soccer. There are also live singing and dancing performances nearby, as well as a small market. It's a very interesting annual event. I will definitely participate again next time.
The Hwacheon Ice Festival itself was an amazing experience, but unfortunately, the tour didn’t go as smoothly as expected. Due to a transportation delay and traffic jam of seollal holiday we arrived later than planned and had only about three hours of free time at the festival, which felt quite rushed. The journey to go there from seoul took around 3.5 hrs. That said, the festival was fantastic! Ice fishing and snow sledding, made it a truly unique winter experience. I managed to catch two red salmons. We even got to eat the grilled fish, which was definitely a highlight. However, with more time, I would have loved to explore more activities. Regardless, our tour guide was friendly and informative. Also the festival was properly run despite a lot of people. There were clear sections for locals and foreigners. Also prayer rooms (gender seperated) are available for muslim. Thats great!
It was a super cool experience. It happened to be snowing today and it felt great. The children had a great time. Everyone caught fish and the grilled fish was super delicious! The tour leader was very considerate and assisted in taking photos!
Great tour, very well organised, excellent value for money and we had a fantastic day. I would definitely recommend this. Thank you
A great experience, with many interesting facilities, very friendly to foreigners, and the tour guide is also very kind. It is very worth it and will participate again next time.
It was a memorable trip to the ice festival, with very well-planned activities. One small suggestion: allowing a little more time during breaks for restroom visit mid way and grabbing a bite would make it perfect!