Hiking Hallasan: Trails, Permits and Cut-Off Times

This is not a minor detour. The closed stretch sits right below the crater rim, so a Gwaneumsa hike this August or September will not reach Baengnokdam even with a valid permit for the lower section. If your dates fall in this window and the summit is the point of the trip, book Seongpanak instead.

The rest of this page assumes you are checking the live page before booking, since neither of us can promise the date range holds exactly as announced.

Hallasan has seven named trails, and I still meet hikers who assume any of them gets you to the top. Only two do.

Everything except Seongpanak and Gwaneumsa tops out at the Nambyeok, or south wall, junction, or at a separate lower peak in the case of Eoseungsaengak. Yeongsil is the trail most day-visitors actually walk, since it delivers the crater rim scenery from below without the permit and the full-day commitment. Last verified: August 2026, against visithalla.jeju.go.kr.

The Seongpanak and Gwaneumsa permit is a timed entry pass, not a paid ticket, and the mechanics are the same on both trails.

• It is free. There is no fee to book or to hike either summit trail.
• Daily quota: 1,000 hikers on Seongpanak, 500 on Gwaneumsa.
• Booking opens at 09:00 on the first business day of each month, for the following month, at visithalla.jeju.go.kr.
• The site has an English toggle and only needs an email sign-up, no Korean phone number required.
• Once booked, you receive an entry and exit QR code. Rangers check ID at the gate, and reselling or transferring a QR code is explicitly banned.

No-shows are penalised, and it is worth taking seriously if your plans are still soft when you book. A first no-show earns a three-month booking ban; a second no-show is a one-year ban. If your dates might slip, wait until they are firm before you take a slot someone else could use.

There is currently no reservation-free period in force, that only happened once, for a month from 27 November to 27 December 2024, and it has not been repeated in 2026.

Because booking opens exactly one month ahead, the practical planning window is narrow. If your trip dates are locked, mark the first business day of the month before you travel and try to book close to 09:00, since the more popular summer weekends can fill within the day even against a 1,000-person quota. The system does not currently offer a waitlist, so a missed booking window means either shifting to a different day within the same trip or accepting that the summit will not happen this visit.

The two summit trails share the same cut-off structure, and it is the single biggest reason hikers turn back short of Baengnokdam.

The shelter cut-off applies at Jindallaebat on Seongpanak and Samgakbong on Gwaneumsa. Arrive after the posted time and rangers stop you there, permit or not, the mountain does not negotiate at the gate. The descent cut-off works the same way at the summit itself, if you are not already heading down by that time you will be told to turn around before reaching Baengnokdam.

Last verified: August 2026, against visithalla.jeju.go.kr.

No water and no food are sold anywhere on either summit trail. The Jindallaebat and Samgakbong shelters used to sell instant noodles and drinks and have stopped, so whatever you carry up is what you have for the day. Toilets exist at the trailhead offices and at the shelters, and there is a campground with showers at the Gwaneumsa trailhead, though that sits at the base, not partway up the mountain.

Both trail pages carry the same standing line: hiking is permitted unless severe weather occurs, which is about as far as the official wording commits itself, and I would not add detail to it that is not there.

The weather up top can turn faster than what you see from the coast, and the season shapes what to expect more than the trail distance does. If you are choosing dates around the mountain, best time to visit Jeju covers the seasonal picture in more depth than I need to repeat here; the short version for hikers is that the shelter cut-off already builds in an hour's buffer for the shorter winter daylight, so the real variable is how exposed and cold the summit ridge feels once you are above the treeline.

Pack for a day with no resupply option at any point above the trailhead.

• At least 2 litres of water per person, more in summer heat
• A packed lunch and snacks, nothing is sold on the trail
• Layers, the summit runs noticeably colder and windier than the trailhead
• A rain shell, Hallasan generates its own weather regardless of the forecast in Jeju City
• A headlamp if you are starting at the 05:00 opening in low light
• Cash or a charged transit card for the bus back from the trailhead
• Your permit QR code saved offline, phone signal thins out on the upper trail
• Sturdy hiking shoes, the upper Seongpanak trail is loose volcanic rock

The summit is not the only way to experience Hallasan, and it is not for everyone given the permit process and the full-day commitment.

• Yeongsil, about 5.8 km to the Nambyeok junction and 3 to 4 hours round trip, delivers views of the crater rim and the volcanic cliffs without a permit or a summit-length day
• Eoseungsaengak, a short 1.3 km round trip to a separate 1,169 m peak, is close to an hour and works well as a half-day option
• The Jeju Olle Trail is a different kind of walking altogether, 27 routes covering 437 km around the island's coast, free to walk with only an optional paper passport as a cost
• On the Olle trail, look for the ganse, a small figure of the Jeju pony that marks the route and takes its name from old Jeju dialect for lazybones, a nod to walking slowly. Blue ribbons stand for the sea and orange for the island's tangerines, reassurance markers between the arrow signs.

The day tours around Jeju Island on this site typically include Hallasan's lower slopes as one stop among several rather than a dedicated hike, which suits travellers who want the mountain's scenery folded into a wider day. The west and south Jeju day tour is the one that spends the most time at Hallasan's foothills and viewpoints, and the private car charter can build a slower, custom-paced stop there if you would rather linger. I say this plainly because I would rather set expectations than let a guest arrive expecting a summit view from a van window.

How many days you give Hallasan changes the shape of your whole trip, especially if you also want time on the coast and at the UNESCO sites. If you are still working out how long to stay on the island, how many days in Jeju walks through the trade-offs, and a Seongpanak summit day is worth planning as close to a dedicated day on its own, not an add-on to something else.

None of the guided day tours around Jeju Island climb to Hallasan's summit, and I want to be direct about that rather than let a booking page imply otherwise. What they do reach is the mountain's slopes and viewpoints as part of a fuller day that also covers other parts of the island, which is a genuinely different trip from a dawn start on the Seongpanak trail.