Getting Covered in Mud Was the Best Decision I Made This Summer: A Boryeong 1N2D Travel Diary

Okay, I have to be honest with you. When my friend first said "let's go to a mud festival," my immediate reaction was: why would anyone do that on purpose? Mud is the thing I try to avoid. You step around mud puddles. You wipe mud off your shoes. You do not go to a beach and smear it on your face.

And then I went. And now I completely get it.

The Boryeong Mud Festival (보령머드축제) is held every summer at Daecheon Beach (대천해수욕장) in South Chungcheong Province, about two and a half hours from Seoul by KTX or bus. This year is the 29th edition, running July 24 through August 9, 2026. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism just designated it a "Global Festival" for 2026 through 2028, which is a big deal and basically confirms what regulars have known for years: this is not a local event anymore. In 2025 alone, over 169,000 people attended, and more than 135,000 of them were international visitors. That number still gets me every time.

Here is how I did it in one night and two days, what surprised me, and the food spots I would go back to without hesitation.

Day 1: Arriving at Daecheon, then going straight into the mud

I took the Janghang Line from Seoul to Daecheon Station (대천역), which took about two and a half hours. From the station, a local bus runs directly to the beach area and takes maybe 15 minutes. Honestly, just follow the crowd. Everyone on that train is going to the same place.

The festival runs across two main zones: Daecheon Beach (대천해수욕장) itself and the nearby Mud Expo Plaza (머드엑스포광장). The beach is 3.7 km long and made up of crushed shellfish fragments instead of regular sand, which apparently is rare in East Asia. It gives the shoreline a slightly silvery shimmer on sunny days. I spent a lot of time staring at it before remembering I had mud to get into.

There are two main experience zones. The General Zone (일반존) is where adults go full in. Large mud pools, mud slides, color mud painting, the Mud Mob-scene performance where everyone gets covered simultaneously to pounding music. The Family Zone (패밀리존) is calmer, designed for kids and anyone who wants to ease into things. I went general zone. Zero regrets.

The mud itself is the actual reason this festival exists. Boryeong's coastal flats produce mineral-rich clay with high concentrations of germanium and other trace elements that are genuinely good for your skin. Local cosmetics companies have been selling Boryeong mud products for years. At the festival there is a Mud Beauty Center (머드뷰티유관) inside the Boryeong Mud Theme Park where you can do a proper mud facial or a full-body treatment. I did the basic face pack (10,000 won) mostly out of curiosity and my skin actually felt weirdly good the next morning.

A few things I wish someone had told me before: bring old clothes or a rashguard you do not care about, because the mud stains. Bring a waterproof phone pouch (you can buy one on-site but it is more expensive). Pack your own small shampoo and body wash, because the free public shower area at the festival is basic and busy. And eat something before you go in. Post-mud hunger is very real.

After showering and changing, we walked toward the main stage area around 8 p.m. The evening programming is surprisingly good. The Mud-on-the-Beach Night performance (머드온더비치 나이트) brings out EDM and hip-hop acts on a beach stage as the sun goes down. There is also a drone light show over the sea later in the evening. Watching drones trace shapes over the water while standing on wet sand in the dark was one of those moments where I thought: yes, this is why people travel.

For dinner that first night, we went to the seafood alley (머드 먹자골목) near the mud plaza. The street is packed with grilled clam restaurants, most of them running outdoor tables with charcoal burners going. We ended up at a place doing unlimited refill grilled clams (조개구이 무한리필), which included scallops, pen shells (키조개), and abalone alongside the standard shellfish. The pen shell in particular, grilled briefly until just opaque and slightly charred at the edges, was the kind of thing I kept reaching for even when I was already full. We paired it with cold makgeolli (막걸리, a milky Korean rice wine) and stayed longer than planned. That tends to happen.

Day 2: Morning beach walk, zipline, then the seafood lunch that sealed it

The beach in the early morning, before the festival crowds come back, is genuinely peaceful. The shellfish-fragment sand catches light differently at 7 a.m. than it does at noon. I walked the stretch toward Daecheon Port with coffee and felt like I had the coast to myself.

The Sky Bike (스카이바이크) at the beach is worth doing if you have not tried it before. It runs 2.3 km along a rail from the beach toward the port and back, taking about 40 minutes total. You are pedaling in the open air above the shoreline, looking straight out at the sea. Tickets sell out on busy days, so get there before 10 a.m. The Daecheon Ziptrack Tower (대천 짚트랙타워) next door is faster and more intense: 52 meters high, 613 meters over open water, about 30 seconds of pure speed. The ziptrack is legitimately thrilling. The cafe on the upper floors has a 360-degree panoramic view of the beach that is worth the trip up even if you skip the ride.

For lunch, we chose something different from the previous night. Boryeong is known for its flower crab (꽃게), and the spicy flower crab stew (꽃게탕) at a place in the beach restaurant strip hit exactly right after a morning of activity. Big crab, daikon, napa cabbage, and a deeply savoury broth that had clearly been going for a while. We also ordered haemul kalguksu (해물칼국수), the hand-cut noodle soup loaded with clams and other seafood. The noodles were thick and the broth had a clean, slightly briny depth to it. This is Boryeong's classic pairing and it deserves its reputation.

If you have energy after lunch, the Mud Beauty Center inside the Mud Theme Park stays open through the afternoon and the Skybike queue is shorter around 2 p.m. But honestly, after two days of mud, food, and beach air, sitting in a cafe watching the tide come in with an iced coffee felt like exactly the right way to end it.

The Mugunghwa train back to Yongsan left from Daecheon Station (대천역) in the late afternoon. About two and a half hours back to Seoul, which is exactly enough time to eat whatever snacks you bought at the beach convenience store and fall half-asleep against the window. I had mud still in my hair despite two showers and I did not care at all.

#BoryeongMudFestival #BoryeongMudFestival2026 #KoreaFestival #SouthKoreaTravel #KoreaTravel2026 #VisitKorea #KoreaTravel#MudFestivalKorea #DaecheonBeach #KoreaBeach #KoreaSummer #SummerFestivalKorea #KoreaItinerary #SeoulDayTrip #KoreaWeekend #KoreaOvernightTrip #KoreaTravelGuide #KoreaTravelTips #KoreaBackpacker#ThingsToDoInKorea #KoreaHiddenGems #KoreaFoodGuide #KoreanSeafood #KoreaBeachTrip #MudSpa #KoreaSkincare #KoreaFestivalGuide #BoryeongKorea #KoreaAdventure #KoreaTravelBlog #KoreaTravelVlog#KTravel #KoreaTravelInspo #AsiaTravel #AsiaFestival #ExploreKorea #DiscoverKorea #KoreaLife #KoreaDiaries #TravelKorea #KoreaBucketList