---
node: spot_jeju_hallasan
type: spot
slug: hallasan
destination: dest_jeju
title: "Hallasan"
lead: "Hallasan is a shield volcano and, at 1,947 metres, the highest mountain in South Korea. Its summit crater holds a small lake, Baengnokdam, that fills and empties with the rain."
published: 2026-08-12
updated: 2026-08-12
image_file: spot_jeju_hallasan.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hallasan_slope_(2025-01).jpg"
image_author: "Sadopaul"
image_license: "CC BY 4.0"
---

## Overview

The whole of Jeju is this volcano; the island is its slope. Two of the seven trails reach the summit — Seongpanak and Gwaneumsa — and both require a reservation booked online, with a headcount cap and a turnaround time enforced at a checkpoint partway up. The vegetation changes with height from citrus and pine through deciduous forest to a bare alpine zone of Korean fir, and the round trip is eight to ten hours.

## Highlights

Book the summit permit as soon as dates are set; they are released a month ahead and go quickly for autumn weekends. Seongpanak is longer and gentler, Gwaneumsa steeper and better looking; the classic day is up one and down the other. The lower trails, Eoseungsaengak and Yeongsil, need no permit and give the mountain in two hours.