Welcome to Samdalri Filming Locations

Welcome to Samdalri (웰컴투 삼달리) is the ultimate Jeju healing drama — a hometown romance about a photographer who stumbles in Seoul and comes home to her seaside village, where her first love is now the local weather forecaster. Filmed almost entirely on Jeju Island, it's basically a love letter to the island's coast, oreum (volcanic cones) and slow island life. I've watched a lot of Jeju-set dramas, and what makes this one special is how little it has to dress the island up. The places are just genuinely that beautiful, and the show knows it — it lingers on coastlines and stone walls the way you'd linger over photos from a trip you didn't want to end.

Here's the part fans will love: unlike a lot of filming-location guides where half the "spots" turn out to be vanished studio sets, almost everything in Welcome to Samdalri is real, public and visitable. The village of "Samdal-ri" itself is fictional, but it was assembled from actual Jeju places you can stand in. There's even one purpose-built set the production left standing on purpose, which is a rare treat. So this is one of the most genuinely doable filming pilgrimages in all of Korea — you can build a real trip around it.

One honest caveat before we start: Jeju is bigger than people expect, and these spots are scattered around its whole coastline rather than clustered in one town. That's not a problem, just something to plan around — I'll group them by area later so you're not zig-zagging across the island. For now, here's the guide to each place, what was filmed there, and how to reach it.

Why Jeju is the real star of the show

Here's something worth understanding before you go: in Welcome to Samdalri, Jeju isn't just a backdrop, it's practically a character. The whole emotional logic of the drama is that the city wore Sam-dal down and the island heals her, and that only works because Jeju genuinely feels like another world from the mainland. It's a volcanic island, formed by eruptions over hundreds of thousands of years, which is why the coastline is black basalt rather than golden sand, why the fields are walled with porous lava stone, and why those distinctive cone-shaped hills — the oreum — rise up everywhere inland. The show leans into all of it.

You'll also notice the island has its own culture that the drama quietly honours. The haenyeo, Jeju's famous free-diving women who harvest the sea by hand, are part of the texture of Sam-dal's hometown, and that tradition is real and centuries old. So as you visit these spots, you're not just ticking off scenes — you're seeing a place with a distinct identity that even other Koreans treat as somewhere apart. That, more than any single location, is what the show is really about, and it's why a Samdal-ri trip ends up being one of the best ways to actually understand Jeju.

The filming locations

Planning a Welcome to Samdalri Jeju trip

• Rent a car if you can — the locations are scattered around Jeju's coast and inland, and public transport is slow. Driving (or a guided day tour) makes a filming route realistic.
• Group them by area — Seongsan Ilchulbong, the Pyeongdae-ri bus stop and the Secret Forest are all in the east/northeast; pair the Sinchang windmills with the west coast; slot Mangjangpo into a southeast loop.
• Use Naver Map in Korean — search the Hangul names (삼달리 촬영지) for the most accurate, up-to-date pins.
• Respect the village sets — the kept sets sit in real residential villages, so keep it quiet and tidy.
• Verify before special trips — privately run spots (like the Secret Forest) and kept sets can change their hours or access, so check first.

Best time to go

Jeju is a year-round island, but the seasons genuinely change what a Samdalri trip feels like. My personal favourite is spring, roughly late March through April, when the canola fields turn the island's edges bright yellow against the volcanic peaks — that exact "pure Samdalri scenery" you see in the show. Cherry blossoms come through around the same window, and the weather is mild and walkable. Autumn is the close second: clear skies, comfortable temperatures, fewer crowds than peak summer, and beautiful light for the coastal spots like the Sinchang windmills.

Summer is when most Koreans actually holiday on Jeju, so July and August bring the biggest crowds, the highest prices, and a humid, rainy stretch during the monsoon weeks. It's still doable — the sea is warm and the island is lush — but you'll share the famous spots with a lot of people and should pack for sudden downpours. Winter is the quietest and can be genuinely lovely and stark, with dramatic seas, but it's windy and cold on the exposed coast, and some privately run spots (like the Secret Forest) trim their hours. Whenever you come, build in flexibility: Jeju's weather turns fast, and a grey, blustery morning can become a glorious afternoon, so don't write off a day too early.

Getting around

I'll say it plainly: rent a car if you possibly can. Jeju's public buses do exist and are cheap, and a T-money card works on them, but the network is slow and indirect, and these filming spots are scattered around the coast and tucked up inland tracks that buses simply don't serve well. The Secret Forest's farm-track approach and the quiet southeast harbours are realistically car-only. With a rental, the whole island is roughly a ninety-minute drive end to end, and a Samdalri route becomes a relaxed day or two rather than a logistical headache. If you don't drive, a guided day tour is the sensible alternative — it'll cluster several spots for you and handle the navigation.

For finding the exact pins, use NAVER Map and search the Korean names in Hangul (삼달리 촬영지 will pull up the Samdalri locations) — Google Maps is unreliable for driving and walking directions across Korea, and Jeju is no exception. Fuel stations and convenience stores are easy to find on the main roads, but some of the prettiest stops have little or no facilities nearby, so top up your water and your tank before heading down a coastal or inland detour. And reach the island itself by a short flight from the mainland — Gimpo to Jeju is one of the busiest, cheapest air routes in the world, so it's rarely the hard part of the trip.

Frequently asked questions

Is the village of Samdal-ri a real place I can visit? The village itself is fictional — "Samdal-ri" was created for the drama — but it was filmed across genuine Jeju locations, and the production left its bus stop and "Lucky" store set standing in the real coastal village of Pyeongdae-ri (평대리). So you can absolutely stand in "Samdal-ri," it's just stitched together from several actual places rather than one town.

Do I really need a car for a Samdalri trip? Strongly recommended. The locations are spread around Jeju's coast and inland, and the bus network is slow and doesn't reach several of them well. A rental car (or a guided day tour) turns a frustrating day of waiting for buses into an easy, scenic drive. If you're not comfortable driving abroad, book a tour instead.

How many days should I plan for Jeju? You could hit the headline spots in a long single day with a car, but I wouldn't. Jeju rewards slowing down, which is the whole spirit of the show — give it two or three days, group the eastern spots together and the western ones together, and leave room for a harbour, a café and a sunset that aren't on any filming list.