Galmaetgil: Walking Busan's 278 km Coastal Trail

Galmaetgil is Busan’s walking network: 278.8 km arranged into nine courses and, since a 2023 revision, 23 individual routes. It wraps almost the entire city – along the coast, over two rivers, around a mountain fortress and straight through the old markets.

The name comes from galmaegi (갈매기), the seagull that is Busan’s civic bird, joined to gil, path. It is a dulle-gil – a perimeter trail rather than a summit route – which is why most of it can be walked in whatever shoes you packed.

Galmaetgil’s 9 courses – official distance & time

Routes covered on this site (13 of 23)

1-2Haedong Yonggungsa 2-1Haeundae · Dongbaekseom 3-2Jagalchi · Gukje Market 3-3Huinnyeoul · Taejongdae 4-1Songdo · Gamcheon 5-1Nakdong Estuary · Sinho Port 5-3Gadeokdo Island 1-1Imnang Beach Start 6-1Samnak Park Silver Grass 7-3Dongnae History Walk 8-1/8-2Hoedong Reservoir · Millak Bridge 5-3Gadeokdo (Winter)2-2Busan Galmaetgil 2-2 (reverse, KO)

Why it works for visitors

Three things make Galmaetgil unusually easy to drop into.

It is coastal. Long stretches run at sea level between beaches, headlands and fishing harbours. There is almost no climbing on the sections most visitors walk, and there is sea breeze on hot days.

It is already in the city. Busan’s subway and bus network reaches most of the route. You do not need to arrange transport to a trailhead – you get off at Haeundae, or Jagalchi, or Oncheonjang, and you are on it.

It is cut into pieces deliberately. Nobody expects you to walk 278 km. The courses are subdivided precisely so that a single route can be a half-day outing.

The nine courses

Official distances and walking times, from the Busan Metropolitan City Galmaetgil service. Times assume a steady pace with short breaks.

Course	From → To	Distance	Time
1	Imnang Beach → Moontan Road	33.6 km	10 h
2	Moontan Road → Oryukdo ferry pier	18.3 km	6 h
3	Oryukdo ferry pier → Dongsam	41.0 km	14 h
4	Namhang Bridge → Nakdong estuary barrage	36.3 km	13 h
5	Nakdong estuary barrage → Cheonga Bridge	42.1 km	13 h
6	Nakdong estuary barrage → Geumjeong Fortress / Children’s Grand Park	47.5 km	15 h
7	Seongjigok Reservoir → Sanghyeon Village	22.3 km	9 h
8	Sanghyeon Village → Millak Bridge	17.2 km	5 h
9	Sanghyeon Village → Gijang County Office	20.5 km	6 h

Those totals are for the full course. Each is split into numbered routes – 2-1, 3-2, 4-1 and so on – and a route is the unit you actually walk.

Four kinds of terrain

Busan classifies the network into coastal, forest, riverside and urban paths, and the difference between them is larger than the numbers suggest.

Coastal – courses 1, 2 and 3. Beaches, cliffs, harbours, the sections most visitors want.
Riverside – courses 4 and 5, along the Nakdong. Flat, wide, long.
Forest and mountain – courses 6 and 7, including Geumjeong Fortress. This is the part that genuinely climbs.
Urban – the market and old-quarter stretches inside course 3.

Which section to walk first

If you have one morning in Busan and want the best return on it, start with course 2 or the Yeongdo part of course 3. Both are short, coastal, dense with things to look at, and reachable from the city centre.

Waymarking and completion stamps

The route is marked with coloured ribbons tied to branches and railings, painted arrows on the ground, and posts at junctions. Follow the marker colour rather than the Korean text and you will not get lost on the coastal sections.

Busan runs an official completion scheme – walkers collect stamps along the network and can be certified for finishing it. There is also an official Galmaetgil walking app. Neither is necessary for a single afternoon, but the stamp boxes are a useful confirmation that you are on the right path.

Practical notes

Season – spring and autumn are ideal. Coastal sections handle summer better than any inland trail in Korea, but there is little shade; the monsoon arrives around late June or July.
Shoes – trainers are fine on coastal and urban routes. Courses 6 and 7 need grip.
Food – the coastal routes pass constant convenience stores and harbour restaurants. The mountain courses do not.
Direction – routes are described in one direction but walk equally well reversed, which often makes transport easier.

In an emergency

Korea has two emergency numbers, and both answer in English.

119 – fire, rescue and ambulance. This is the one to call for an injury on a trail.
112 – police.

Korean trails carry numbered rescue markers – small posts with a code on them. Reading that code to the operator locates you far faster than describing the scenery. Note the last one you passed.

Mobile coverage is good on almost all the routes described here, including the ridges.

Galmaetgil routes were last restructured in 2023 and are revised from time to time. Distances and times here follow the current official figures published by Busan Metropolitan City; check the official service for closures before you set out.

Busan walks by area

Every Busan walk written up on this site, grouped by part of the city. Several follow sections of this trail under the walking groups’ own route names, so the same stretch of coast can appear more than once in different seasons.

Gijang and the east coast

From the start of the trail at Imnang Beach down through Gijang, Songjeong and Haeundae.

Gwangalli, Igidae and Oryukdo

The Nam-gu and Suyeong coast, where the Haeparang Trail also begins.

Busan Station, Yeongdo and Songdo

Old downtown hills, the markets and the Yeongdo cliffs.

Gamcheon to Dadaepo

The southwest coast and ridges between Gamcheon and the river mouth.

Nakdong River, Gangseo and Gadeokdo

Riverside paths, the estuary and the island at the western edge of the city.

Northern hills: Beombangsan to Hoedong Reservoir

The inland ridges, Geumjeongsan's fortress walls and the reservoir loop.

Closures are the thing worth checking

Korean trails close for more reasons than just weather. National park ridgelines shut during the spring and autumn fire-risk periods, coastal sections close for construction or erosion, and some routes run on fixed opening hours rather than dawn to dusk. These are published by the managing authority and almost never by the blogs describing the walk.

Distances and difficulty ratings are worth taking from the official course data too. The national walking trail portal publishes track files and an assigned difficulty grade, which is a steadier basis for planning a day than someone else’s impression of how hard it felt.

Sources

Institutional sources behind the regulatory, statistical and practical statements above. Each link checked 16 September 2026.

Galmaetgil official site (Busan Metropolitan City) Course-by-course distances, stamp booth locations and current closures for the Busan coastal trail network.
Durunubi – Korea Tourism Organization walking trail portal The national register of walking routes, with track files and the official difficulty rating rather than a blogger’s impression.
Visit Busan – Busan Metropolitan City official tourism site The city’s own listings for opening hours, seasonal closures and admission. It goes stale far more slowly than third-party guides.
Korea National Park Service Entry hours, seasonal trail closures and the fire-risk restrictions that shut ridgelines in spring and autumn. Bukhansan included.

What This Page Does Not Cover

This page reflects our own research and, where noted, our own visits, on Galmaetgil: Walking Busan’s 278 km Coastal Trail at the time of writing. It does not show every option available, it does not track prices (these change too often to keep accurate here), and it cannot account for individual mobility, budget, or seasonal closures on the day you travel.

What Should You Know Before You Go?

See the sections above for the specifics on Galmaetgil: Walking Busan’s 278 km Coastal Trail; this page is meant as a starting point, not the final word – confirm current hours and conditions directly before you travel.