I am always slightly skeptical of places with the UNESCO World Heritage Site title.  I don’t know what the requirements are to earn the title and I get nervous that it won’t live up to the hype.  Fortunately, the village lived up to the hype.

The Hahoe Folk Village is the holy grail of Andong tourism.  Photography enthusiasts come here to take pictures of the charming thatched roof houses and every Korean couple with a selfie stick has to come here to get their new profile pictures.

Fun fact: The Queen of England visited the village on her birthday in 1999.  Korea is probably one of the few countries she has visited that she didn’t reign over at some point.

It was about 45 minutes by bus to get to the village from downtown Andong.  The views from the bus were pretty enough to justify the trip.

even the bus ride was beautiful

I went on a Sunday, but I got there before 9 am and there was only a handful of people in the village.  Once noon hit, lines and lines of tour buses came in and I decided that was a good time to leave.

this was right at the entrance to the village

Most of the houses in the villages have been turned into displays of historic life in Korea, cafes, guest houses, and souvenirs shops.  Some farmers still live there but those numbers are decreasing.

You can take a ferry across the river to Buyongdae cliff where you can find an amazing view of the entire village.

the cliff

the view

This trip was definitely worth the several hours of travel.