Last updated on June 30th, 2023 at 11:12 am

If I told you the best way to beat the summer heat in Korea is to make your way to a festival that embodies mud baths, live concerts, parties on a beach, rain dance, air show, and skincare products, you will say I’m crazy.

Crazy I am, and crazy Boryeong Mud Festival is too!

Each year in July, S. Korea becomes the highlight of East Asia’s biggest frat party. It’s absolutely okay if you haven’t heard about this festival yet. We stumbled upon this festival at the very last minute and booked our tickets less than 24 hrs before leaving Seoul. So here’s all you need to know about the Boryeong Mud Festival.

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Boryeong Mud Festival makes for an easy day trip from Seoul, S. Korea. For us, it was a faint reminder of the Indian festival of Holi. Instead of colors, people are covered in mud. TIP: Carry a waterproof pouch for your phone so you can take photos & videos. 

When is Boryeong Mud Festival 2019

This year the festival is from July 19 to July 28, 2019. The event is held at Daecheon beach in Boryeong every year. They have live K-Pop concerts and DJ parties hosted throughout the festival. Be sure to check out the event schedule for Boryeong Mud Festival. 

We were lucky to see an air show by the beach as we enjoyed a live DJ concert. Although alcohol was involved early in the day, most of the crowd was very well behaved.

Why have a Mud Festival in Korea?

Turns out, this clay-like mud from the mud flats of Boryeong in S. Korea is so rich in minerals that it does wonders for your skin. It should come as no surprise that very soon Koreans started using this mud in cosmetics. As a genius marketing strategy, Boryeong organized a small event in town which has now turned into Asia’s biggest summer party ever. 

Today Boryeong attracts over a million visitors including Koreans and foreigners alike during this one week of Mud Festival. It helps that the festival takes place on Daecheon beach, you can take a swim if it gets too hot.

How to get from Seoul to Daecheon Beach in Boryeong

We booked a 1-day shuttle package tour with Trazy who took care of our round trip transportation, festival entry tickets, and lockers. The price per person was $54 USD which wasn’t bad in our opinion. Now there are many other ways to get to Boryeong – Public Transport Buses from Seoul or a flight to Boryeong, check out flight options by clicking here. But given that we only had a day to enjoy this adventure we didn’t want to go through public transport hassles.

The shuttle bus picked us up at 7 am from Myeongdong and we reached Daecheon Beach at around 10.30am. So it took us about 3.30 hours with a coffee & restroom break at a service station where our mini adventure of losing the shuttle bus began. I wish I was making this up but true story.

DRAME – Our adventure of getting lost in Korea before the Mudfest

We didn’t see our shuttle bus when we came outside in the parking after our allotted 20 mins stop. Anxiety arose when we couldn’t find the bus anywhere else in the parking lot and no one around us spoke English. Thankfully we had our international roaming activated so we were able to contact the English speaking tour guide in the bus.  

But panic took over when he asked if we could hitchhike with someone nearby as there was no way for him to come back. While Gaurav refused to sit in a stranger’s car, I was still in disbelief that we were left behind.

Luckily there was a nice American-Canadian couple on the bus who recommended our tour guide to talk to the closest Korean we can find in the parking lot. So we handed the phone to the closest Korean who turned out to be a Chinese tour bus driver. Reading their facial expressions the conversation did not look convincing at all. After about 10 minutes of loud verbal exchanges, that guy asked us to sit in his bus. In his broken English, he told us they are going to drop us mid-way on the highway where our shuttle was now waiting.

In all of our adventures, there is none like sitting clueless on a bus full of curious Chinese tourists. Seeing our shuttle bus, I think I finally know how a lost child feels when he/she is reunited with their parents. Our tour guide was so regretful that he probably cried a little after seeing us back. He had forgotten to count the number of people on the bus before they left! We finally laugh it off after reaching Boryeong and milked the guy’s guilt for a couple of Sojus 🙂

Where to stay for the Mud Festival

In Seoul: 

We have a few recommendations if you wish to stay in Seoul. 

1. The Westin Chosun Hotel 
2. The Hilton 
3. The Radisson Seoul

Check more hotel options here. 

In Boryeong:

We have a few recommendations listed below: 

1. K-Hotel
2. Hotel Wooyeon Flora 

Make sure to check out travelers hotel reviews on TripAdvisor before heading to Boryeong.

This was one of the best adventures we had in S. Korea. After reading our post, we hope you will also add this to your bucket list!

Happy Traveling!