Escape Mokpo by Boat

The Mokpo Ferry Terminal (목포여객터미널 aka Mokpo Yeogaek Terminal) is the only exit point for escaping Mokpo by boat.

The terminal itself is a multi-building complex and the important buildings to remember are the domestic terminal (previously used for Oedaldo and other local adventures) and the international terminal. All taxis usually recognize a foreigner asking "Yo-gek-sun" as a request for the domestic terminal; you can specify the international terminal by saying 목포국제여객터미널 (aka Mokpo Gukjae Yeogaek Terminal).

The domestic terminal connects Mokpo to a range of Korean islands; practically all of the tourist sites suggest that you depart via Mokpo for the southern islands.Tour2Korea has a nice summary of these destinations, although it tends to focus on the more popular destinaton, like Jejudo & Hongdo, and ignore Mokpo's local islands. The most complete information, in Korean is listed on the terminal's official page, organised by the companies that operate the routes.

Mokpo is also one of South Korea's international terminals, connecting (it seems) to Shanghai via the Korea-China Bridge.

비금도

비금도 (Bigeumdo) is a fairly large vacation island that lies just outside of Mokpo in Sinan county's archipelago. Even though it is largely ignored by Mokponians who prefer Oedaldo, the island is arguably better thanks to its two large sand beaches 원평해수욕장 (Wonpyeong Beach) and 하누넘해수욕장 (Hanuneom Beach); the latter is used as a shooting location for the television show Spring Waltz while the former has a...

...falling sunset beyond the horizon is so beautiful that it makes you feel like fantasy melting into the sea.

A 50 minute high-speed ferry is available from Mokpo's Yeogaekseon ferry terminal to Bigeum's Sudae-ri (Sudae Wharf) and is operated by Namhae Express. If you can handle Korean credit card transactions you can also buy tickets online via Seomticket; if you can't, there's always the ticket counter inside the terminal. Regardless, a Mokpo to Bigemdo ticket will cost you 14900₩ and the return ticket (purchased locally at Sudae-ri) is 13350₩.

Mokpo to Bigeumdo	Bigeumdo to Mokpo
07:50	11:50
13:20	17:30

There is an alternative ferry that's cheaper at 6300₩, stops at Gasan-ri (the other wharf), but takes over 2 hours.

The island is large enough to have it's own fleet of taxis, bank branches and seaside resorts. On the Internet, the island is popular enough to have a slighted outdated official page in English, an entry on Tour2Korea, a nice map and, of course, the various blog entries and the photos.

외달도

외달도 (Oedaldo) is Mokpo's tourist island and is often referred to as Love island. It has two beaches, a resort boasting a salt water pool and an indigenous farming community; enough to warrant its own tourist entry and of course some blog posts, (and some with their own spellings).

The ferry schedule is posted (along with other tours) on the Tour Mokpo site and is fairly straight forward if you can read Korean. The translated version clears it up a bit, giving us the following table:

No.	Mokpo to Island of Love (Oedaldo)	Island of Love (Oedaldo) to Mokpo	Remarks
1	(06:50)	(07:25)	Rising
2	08:30	09:20	Rising
3	09:30	10:20	Provisions
4	10:30	11:20	Rising
5	11:30	12:20	Provisions
6	12:30	13:20	Rising
7	13:30	14:20	Provisions
8	14:30	15:20	Rising
9	15:30	16:20	Provisions
10	16:30	17:20	Rising
11	17:30	18:20	Provisions

There are two notes at the bottom of the table:

• The 1 ferry runs only in season (when the resort swimming pool is open).
  
• Rising and Provisions are the companies operating the ferry during the run.

Tour2Korean provides some more information with the Mokpo Ferry Terminal phone number:

☏ Tel : 061-240-6060~1