In terms of maximizing the amount of time we can spend in a country when on vacation, we try to take red-eye flights departing Singapore overnight so that we can arrive at the start of a day, and depart the vacation country in the mid-afternoon. Our 18-day vacation in South Korea wasn’t finally 18 days of touring: specifically because our flight on the last day tomorrow is departing at 8:50AM, and Incheon International Airport isn’t exactly near Seoul either at a distance of 50km. So, either we stayed in Seoul on Day 17 night and got up super early to catch the first AREX/train option from the city to Incheon, try to see if there were cab options between the two cities, or spend the Day 17 night in Incheon city itself, and preferably a hotel that was close to the airport.
We went with the latter option mostly because we were unfamiliar with Seoul city, but that of course also meant that we’d be spending Day 17 in a city we knew very little about. It was finally just as well, because it meant that our Day 17 was really just going to be chilling and relaxing instead of the many days of running and hustling around we’ve had this trip!
Our Seoul Airbnb check-out time was 10AM, and we planned to catch the 9:53AM Airport Rail train from Seoul Station to Gyeyang Station, where the missus found a strawberry farm close to that station for us to include a strawberry-picking experience for the kids. We were already much earlier than that, and were actually at Seoul Station by 8:45AM — plenty of time for us to get some Dunkin’ Donuts for a quick breakfast before we got on the 9:25AM train in the direction of Incheon Airport. The Airport Rail train was an all-stop one, but we eventually got to Gyeyang Station at 10:15AM.
The farm that the missus had found was Gossi Strawberry Farm, and we’ve indicated the spot on the map below. The location as indicated on Naver Map is misleading though: in that the farm is indeed opposite Gyeyang Station, but you would not be able to bash your way straight through foliage, fencing, and drains in order to take a straight line there. We found ourselves having to lug luggage along a partially iced-up pavement and walked a fair bit before we got to the entrance of the farm.
Our Seoul Airbnb host had earlier assisted in calling the farm and making an 11AM reservation for us. Reservations do seem necessary, as the lanes in the specific fruit farm we were assigned had perhaps three picking lanes, and it seemed like it can host perhaps a dozen guests at a time at most. We were also able to deposit our heavy luggage at the farm itself. We opted for the package where our two kids would pick the berries while the parents supervised and took pictures. Costs were determined by how much fruit you pick, and start at a minimum of a 1kg box for 35,000 KRW, and a maximum of three persons can pick berries for a box.
There were three other small families besides us, and it looked like this was also a children’s activity for them too. The farm hosts first showed the kids the correct technique for picking berries, and they were set off. Pictures!
About 20 minutes of picking later and we were done, and the kids enjoyed the experience.