Winter Retreat

Snow on the temple roofs, warm floors underfoot, and the quietest weeks of the Korean year.

Slow down for the quiet season

Winter is when Korea turns inward. The crowds thin, the mountains go white, and life gathers around warm floors, long tables and steaming bowls. It is the season Koreans have always given to rest.

The days are shaped around that rhythm. Crisp mornings outdoors in the snow, and long, warm afternoons indoors, in a hot spring, a hanok with heated ondol floors, or a kitchen where the year's kimchi is being made.

From December through February, every journey is planned around the weather and the light, so each day meets the season at its best.

Follow the snow into the mountains

The province of Gangwon holds the deepest snow in Korea and some of its finest winter days. Ski and snowboard at resorts such as Yongpyong, which hosted events at the 2018 Winter Olympics, or High1, or walk quieter trails in snowshoes with a private guide.

Between runs there are high meadows such as those at Daegwallyeong, where sheep graze under the snow, and a hot meal waiting in a mountain town at the end of the day.

Gather around the winter table

Late autumn and early winter are the season of kimjang, when families gather to make the kimchi that carries them through the cold months. It is also when the sauces that shape every Korean meal begin their slow ferment in rows of earthenware jars.

Kimjang, by hand: In late November and December, a private kimjang with a family or a chef, salting cabbage, mixing the seasoning and sharing the first taste, with fresh pork and oysters in the traditional way.
The jars of the head houses: A visit to a historic head house such as Myeongjae Gotaek in Nonsan, where soy sauce and doenjang have been made in the same courtyard for generations.
Meju and slow fermentation: Blocks of fermented soybean hanging to dry in a warm room, and the makers who keep the craft alive, followed by a meal built around what they make.
Bowls for the cold: Hot pots, rice cake soup and slow simmered broths, the dishes Koreans turn to when the temperature drops.

What the journey holds

Snow days in the mountains: Skiing, snowboarding or snowshoe walks in Gangwon, with private instruction and a driver waiting at the end of the day.
Hot springs and warm floors: A long soak in mineral springs such as Cheoksan near Seoraksan, and nights in a hanok warmed from below by traditional ondol floors.
Temples under snow: A winter temple stay at a mountain temple such as Baekyangsa, with morning chanting, tea and a silence that only snow can make.
The year turns in Seoul: The last nights of December in the city, from the bells rung at midnight on New Year's Eve to the first sunrise of the year watched from a mountain or the coast.

Enquire

Spend the winter somewhere warm at heart

Tell us a little about what you have in mind and we will write back personally.

[email protected] Instagram · @ieumconcierge