Sehwa Beach, Jeju

Sehwa is the northeast coast at its most local. It sits at Sehwa in Gujwa, about ten minutes east of the better known Woljeong, a small emerald cove of white sand and black rock that most island itineraries skip straight past. That is exactly its appeal. While the headline beaches fill in summer, Sehwa stays quiet, and the colour of the water here is every bit as good, a clear jade green held in the shelter of the little bay.

As the guide who likes a place with a reason to linger, I rate Sehwa for everything around the sand as much as the sand itself. The big Sehwa folk five day market opens right beside the beach, one of the largest on the eastern half of the island and over a hundred years old, so a visit timed to a market day pairs a swim or a paddle with stalls of seafood, herbs and crops a few steps from the water. This is haenyeo country too, the home of the free diving grandmothers, with the Jeju Haenyeo Museum along the coast and village kitchens serving cold mulhoe, and a string of sea view cafes to fill the gaps. It adds up to a richer half day than a bigger, emptier beach.

The honest caveat is scale. Sehwa is small and the sand is thinner than at Woljeong or Hamdeok, so if your plan is a long day stretched out on a broad beach with full facilities and a guarded swim, this is not quite it. Come instead for the cove, the colour, the market and the culture, and keep the longer swim day for Woljeongri or Gimnyeong, both only a short drive along the same northeast coast.