Korea’s Mainland Autumn Leaves Last in Haenam: Duryunsan Cable Car and Daeheungsa Temple Foliage Walk

Featured photo: Travelers walking across the Daeheungsa courtyard and pointing up at the peaks of Duryunsan. Photo: Kim Ji-ho / Korea Tourism Organization, KTO Photo Korea, KOGL Type 1 (September 2019).

In mid-November, ride the Duryunsan Cable Car in Haenam up to Gogyebong and the red mountains and island-dotted sea fill the view below you, and on a clear day you can see all the way across the water to Hallasan on Jeju. Back down, you walk a 4 km tunnel of autumn leaves along the valley to Daeheungsa Temple, sit down to a Haenam-style chicken course for dinner, and ride the Ttangkkeut monorail to the southern tip of the peninsula the next morning.

At a glance

• When to go: On the Korea Forest Service’s 2026 peak foliage forecast map, maples on Duryunsan were set to peak on November 11, later than Jirisan (October 27), Naejangsan (November 4) and Wolchulsan (November 9) on the same map (Namdo Ilbo, October 7, 2026). The Daeheungsa area is billed as peaking November 10 to 20 (Insight, November 2026), and Namdo Ilbo wrote that you can “hold on to autumn a little longer, even into late November.” This year, a late heat wave has slowed the foliage across the south (Mokpo MBC, November 1, 2026). The surest window is the second and third weekends of November.
• Check before you go: The fastest way to learn how the leaves look is to call the cable car ticket office (+82-61-534-8992) (Naver blog, November 2026). The day after wind and rain, the leaves come down fast.
• Money in one line: Cable car round trip $11.30 (15,000 won) for adults, Daeheungsa entry free with parking $2.30 (3,000 won), Ttangkkeut monorail round trip $4.50 (6,000 won). A day of tickets and rides stays under $20 per adult.
• Getting there by public transit: Express buses run from Seoul’s Central City Terminal to Haenam Bus Terminal five times a day, about 4 hours 50 minutes, $34.90 (46,200 won) for a premium seat (bus timetable site, as of October 2026). Dong Seoul Terminal has two departures a day, and Gwangju has 26. Daeheungsa is about 12 km from downtown Haenam, so switch to a county bus or a taxi at the terminal.
• Straight to Incheon Airport: Since October 1, a late-night direct bus runs from Haenam to Incheon Airport once a day, leaving Haenam at 12:05 a.m. (MTN, September 22, 2026). You can ride it the night before your flight home.
• Route rule: A day trip from Seoul is too much. Make it an overnight: Daeheungsa and the cable car (Samsan-myeon) on day one, Mihwangsa and Ttangkkeut (Songji-myeon) on day two, moving north to south.

Also read: Rained Out, Then Bumped by an Election, Pohang's Fireworks Finally Burst Over a November Sea: Pohang International Fireworks Festival and the Space Walk Sunset

Top 10 things to do in Haenam in late autumn

1. Ride the Duryunsan Cable Car to the Gogyebong observatory (see)

The cabin climbs a 1.6 km line in eight minutes and drops you just below the summit of Gogyebong. The cable car’s team leader put its appeal this way: “You can see Hallasan on Jeju, Mudeungsan over toward Gwangju and the islands of Gangjin Bay all at once” (Mokpo MBC, November 1, 2026). Follow the walkway in front of the observatory and the view opens on every side; in November you look down on valleys gone red.

• Price: Round trip only. Adults (middle school and up) 15,000 won (about $11.30), children (36 months through elementary school) 12,000 won (about $9.10), 2,000 won off for seniors 65+ and people with disabilities (official website, checked November 6, 2026).
• Hours: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. in summer, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in winter, changed in bad weather (official website).
• Wait tip: Tickets are sold on site for the same day only, and each ticket is printed with a boarding time. Each cabin holds 50 people and runs every 10 to 20 minutes, so on a foliage weekend afternoon you can wait a long time after buying. Buy your ticket the moment you arrive, then use the wait for No. 7 (the healing park) or a nearby restaurant. No phone reservations.
• Note: To protect the provincial park, hiking up to Gogyebong is banned, so you ride down too. Food, alcohol, hiking backpacks and trekking poles aren’t allowed on board (official website).

This is the view from the observatory at the top. The photo was taken in early summer; in November this green turns red and gold.

• Sources: Duryunsan Cable Car official website, fares and info, Mokpo MBC, “Following chrysanthemums and silver grass: autumn in the south” (November 1, 2026)

2. Walk the Jangchun forest path under the leaves to Daeheungsa (see)

From the ticket booth to the temple’s One Pillar Gate, the path runs about 4 km beside a stream under trees that close overhead like a tunnel. Its name, Jangchun, means “long spring,” but November is when it’s reddest. It won top prize as one of Jeollanam-do’s “forest paths you want to walk” in 2021, and you don’t need to climb the mountain: this path alone gives you all the foliage you came for (Naver blog, November 2026).

• Price: Free to walk.
• Time: About an hour one way. A wide road and a cypress footpath run side by side, so take one up and the other back.
• Tip: For a quiet walk, park in the free lot near the ticket booth and walk up. You can drive in to the paid lot farther inside (3,000 won), but then you pass most of the forest through a car window. With kids, walking one way is plenty.

Here’s what the path looks like at its peak, in a 4K walk filmed in mid-November.

• Sources: “Haenam Daeheungsa foliage lasts the longest on the mainland” (Naver blog, November 2026), Travie, “Haenam, where autumn stays the longest” (August 28, 2026)

3. Daeheungsa, a UNESCO World Heritage temple under a reclining Buddha ridge (see)

Daeheungsa is one of seven temples listed together as the UNESCO World Heritage site “Sansa, Buddhist Mountain Monasteries in Korea” in 2018. Stand in front of the main hall, Daeungbojeon, and look up behind it: the rocks along Duryunsan’s summit line up like a Buddha lying on his side (Travie, August 2026). It has more stupas than any temple in Korea, and its stupa garden, with dozens of them gathered inside a stone wall, is worth the detour.

• Price: Free entry (fees for state-designated heritage sites were abolished in May 2023); car parking 3,000 won (about $2.30) (several Naver blogs, 2026).
• Hours: Open every day; general visitors aren’t allowed in after 7 p.m. (Naver blog, November 2026).
• Tip: To stay longer, the temple runs a templestay with meditation and tea ceremony (Namdo Ilbo, November 1, 2026).

Farther inside the grounds, old trees throw shade between the halls.

• Sources: Namdo Ilbo, “8 foliage spots in Jeonnam and Gwangju in November” (November 1, 2026), Daeheungsa visit (Naver blog)

4. Tea at Yuseongwan, the hanok at the end of the forest path (experience)

Where the Jangchun path ends, just before the temple, an old hanok inn called Yuseongwan and its café sit beside the stream. After an hour’s walk under the leaves, it’s the spot to rest on the wooden porch. It also runs as an inn, so you can spend a foliage-season night right at the temple’s doorstep.

• Tip: Rooms on foliage weekends book up early.

• Sources: Stayfolio: Yuseongwan, Daeheungsa café and parking review (Naver blog)

5. Mountain greens and shiitake below the temple (eat)

Daeheungsa’s barley ssambap is one of the “Eight Flavors of Haenam” picked by Haenam County (Travie, August 2026). In the restaurant strip at the start of the forest path, people mostly order sanchae bibimbap (rice with wild mountain greens) and a shiitake hot pot with seafood and meat. Jeonju Sikdang at 170 Daeheungsa-gil comes up again and again (Naver blog, November 2026).

• Tip: If you’ve bought cable car tickets and have time before your boarding slot, an early lunch in this strip is the most efficient move.

• Sources: Naver blog, November 2026, Travie: Eight Flavors of Haenam

6. A Haenam-style chicken course (eat)

Haenam’s chicken course splits one whole chicken into several dishes served one after another, and it tops the list of the “Eight Flavors of Haenam” (Travie, August 2026). Dolgorae Sikdang in Samsan-myeon is one of the county’s designated “Haenam Matjip” (recommended restaurants), known for its chicken course and charcoal-grilled ribs (Kuki News, January 2025).

• How it’s sold: By the whole-chicken course, so come with two or more people.

• Sources: Kuki News on Haenam Matjip (January 2025), Travie: Eight Flavors of Haenam

7. Go-karts and four-season sledding at Duryunsan Eco Healing Park (experience)

Across from the cable car, this theme park opened in July 2025 with a 356 m go-kart track and a 70 m four-season sled run, with Duryunsan as the backdrop the whole way down (Travie, August 2026). It’s a good way to fill the wait before your cable car boarding time.

• Sources: Travie (August 28, 2026)

8. Mihwangsa under the rocks of Dalmasan (see)

Stop here on day two on the way down to Ttangkkeut. Behind the main hall, the jagged rock ridge of Dalmasan stands like a folding screen, so your photos look nothing like Daeheungsa’s. Dalmagodo, a 17.74 km trail linking Mihwangsa’s 12 old hermitages, was cut by hand without heavy machinery, as dirt and stone paths (Travie, August 2026). Walk even one section and the island-scattered sea opens up below you.

• Tip: Dalmasan is also counted among the top foliage spots in Korea’s southwest (Mokpo MBC, November 1, 2026).

• Sources: Travie (August 28, 2026), Mokpo MBC (November 1, 2026)

9. The Ttangkkeut monorail to Land’s End Observatory (experience)

A yellow monorail takes six minutes to climb to the observatory on top of Galdusan, the tip of the Korean mainland. From the observatory you look down on the south sea scattered with islands, and in November the slopes below have turned a reddish brown.

• Price: Round trip adults 6,000 won (about $4.50), children 4,000 won (about $3), one way adults 4,500 won (about $3.40) (travel info sites and blogs, 2026).
• Wait tip: A single car runs up and down, so you may wait up to about 15 minutes. There’s also a forest path you can walk up.

From the air, the observatory sits on the end of a hill jutting into the sea. This photo was taken in November 2021, so the late-autumn colors are all there.

• Sources: ktriptips: Ttangkkeut Monorail, mom-mom: Ttangkkeut Monorail

10. The glass skywalk at the Land’s End Tower (photo spot)

Follow the coastal deck down from the observatory and you reach the Ttangkkeut Tower and a glass skywalk stretching 41 m out over the sea. Entry and parking are both free (telltrip). A photo in front of the tower is the last shot of a Haenam trip.

• Sources: telltrip, “A free 41 m skywalk stretching from Land’s End into the sea”

Nearby

• Uldolmok Skywalk at Usuyeong: Under Jindo Bridge, you look down through a glass floor at Uldolmok, where the current swirls into whirlpools. You can also cross to the Jindo side on the Myeongnyang Marine Cable Car (Travie, August 2026).

• Dosoram Hermitage on Dalmasan: A tiny hermitage perched on the rocks at the top of Dalmasan, often paired with Mihwangsa to close out an overnight trip (Namdo Ilbo, November 1, 2026).

Where to stay

With Daeheungsa and the cable car on day one and Ttangkkeut on day two, a night in downtown Haenam or right by Daeheungsa works best.

Stay	Location	Price per night (approx.)	Why
Yuseongwan	Hanok at the end of the forest path, right by the temple	Check booking sites	Sleep inside the foliage and walk at first light
Daeheungsa Templestay	Inside Daeheungsa	Check the temple’s templestay page	Meditation, tea and dawn chanting
Namdo Hotel	53 Yeongbin-ro, Haenam-eup	About $44.60 (59,000 won) (sample price on a hotel comparison site, varies by date)	For bus travelers, in town near restaurants
Ttangkkeut Village stays	Ttangkkeut Village, Songji-myeon	Check booking sites	Catch the sunrise and the first monorail on day two

• Room rates weren’t checked for specific dates; look them up before you book.

A sample overnight (from Haenam Bus Terminal)

• Day one, 10 a.m.: Arrive at Haenam Terminal, then a taxi or county bus to the Daeheungsa ticket booth
• 10:30–11 a.m.: Buy cable car tickets first (check your boarding time)
• 11 a.m.–12:30 p.m.: Early lunch in the Daeheungsa-gil restaurant strip (No. 5), go-karts at the healing park (No. 7)
• 12:30–2 p.m.: Cable car to the Gogyebong observatory (No. 1)
• 2–4:30 p.m.: Walk the Jangchun path to Daeheungsa (Nos. 2 and 3), tea at Yuseongwan (No. 4)
• 6 p.m.: Haenam chicken course dinner (No. 6), then a night in Haenam-eup or at Yuseongwan
• Day two, 9–10:30 a.m.: Mihwangsa and one section of Dalmagodo (No. 8)
• 11 a.m.–1 p.m.: Ttangkkeut monorail, observatory and tower (Nos. 9 and 10)
• Afternoon: Bus from Haenam Terminal to Gwangju or Seoul, or the 12:05 a.m. direct bus to Incheon Airport

On a foliage weekend, the boarding time printed on your cable car ticket sets the order of your whole day.

Sources

• Namdo Ilbo citing the Korea Forest Service 2026 peak foliage forecast (October 7, 2026), Namdo Ilbo, 8 foliage spots (November 1, 2026), Insight, “Catch the last foliage train” (November 2026), Mokpo MBC (November 1, 2026), Travie (August 28, 2026), MTN: Haenam–Incheon Airport late-night direct bus (September 22, 2026)
• Duryunsan Cable Car official website, Naver blog hiomogi (November 2026), heri_tale Daeheungsa visit, ktriptips: Ttangkkeut Monorail, telltrip: Ttangkkeut Tower skywalk, Haenam express bus timetable (info.koreacharts)
• Photos: Korea Tourism Organization, KTO Photo Korea, KOGL Type 1 (photographer credited on each photo)
• Currency conversion: 1,324.6 won per dollar (Seoul FX market base rate, October 23, 2026). Won prices come from the official cable car website, Naver blogs and travel sites (2026) and may change.