Too Good To Be True: The Treat Of Bike Path Cycling In South Korea

Camille Remi Kirby is the Content Creator on the 2025 Journey to the East Cycling Adventure. In this report, she looks back at South Korea’s network of bike paths.

The crew sits around a coffee shop in central Seoul, discussing tour preparations and the days to come. We’re going through the route, from Seoul to Busan, discussing the pros and cons of a predominantly bike path tour. To the right of us, an older gentleman decked out in a Hawaiian shirt and khaki shorts is listening intently, his eyebrows raising every time we mention the bike paths. On the subject of Busan, he can’t help himself anymore – he interjects: he’d just returned from cycling from the exact same path we’re about to embark on.

After many words of wisdom, we parted ways with our new Australian friend, who left us with one last line: “I gotta say, South Korea has got to be the best place in the world.” Thus began the Journey to the East! With confirmation that our riders would be in for a treat, we set off to see these infamous bike paths for ourselves.

Thirty minutes into day one and every rider understood the hype – the bicycle paths of South Korea are unmatched. They allow cyclists to travel to almost every corner of the country, safely and without vehicle interference. You might find a tricky intersection coming in or out of a city, but that pales in comparison to riding through mountain passes and river valleys without seeing a single car. You expect that the city bike path out of Seoul will abruptly stop as soon as the city does, but miraculously it just keeps going. And going, as you’re ushered into a new bicycle highway system running past cabbage farms and riverbeds. As you follow the red lines with white cyclists painted every few kilometres or so, the paths beckon to take you anywhere you’re willing to go.

And the respect for long distance cyclists doesn’t end there. Parks along the paths are designed for riders to take breaks, with photo spots, cafes and toilets galore. Each bathroom is designed in the shape of whatever the speciality of that town is: we’ve seen bicycle shaped toilets, apple shaped ones and even ones that mimic crabs with pinchers coming out their sides.

Cafés, by nature, are almost cyclist-only. Our riders would stop and mingle, every barista and Korean cyclist asking where they’re from and where they’re going. Evenings are spent discussing which cafe you stopped on that day and all the quirks  – “The shop looked closed but then a lady appeared and offered me a free piece of cake so I ordered a coffee” – and how good its coffee was. The Korean riders found at these cafes and along these routes are nonchalant about the rides they’re taking and how far they’re going. They don’t even seem to be too impressed with our journey from Seoul to Busan. Here, cross country cycling is a common pastime, especially for the older generations. Want to go on a week-long cycle to visit your family in the South? No big deal!

The paths do come with a bit of trickery, given that they’re so vast and numerous. On day five of our ride, coming into the ancient city of Gyeongju, a new bike path seemed to spring out of nowhere, causing our riders to take all sorts of routes into the city. The original route went around the river and into the town, but all of a sudden a new path had been built to follow the river itself. Is it possible for a country to keep outdoing itself? Apparently so.

For our cyclists this journey through South Korea will go down as the most stress-free, straight forward point to point ride they’ve ever taken. After riding in the country for two weeks, you can get a bit jaded about the comfort of seamless and stress-free bike paths. You can find those tiny things to complain about or get too comfortable with the ease of traffic-less cycling and secluded routes. But our riders are starting to get ready for a big change brewing. Changes to their bikes are being made, new gear being purchased, GPS set ups being simplified. Because so long Korean bike paths and, hello, hilly Japanese mountain passes. Thank you South Korea for showing us the good life – we’re going to miss you as we head out into the wild.

RELATED
TOUR

Journey to the East

While South Korea and Japan are close neighbors, their lands and cultures are completely unique. Cycling across these countries, one after the other...