Manjanggul Lava Tube 만장굴

Manjanggul is open again: it reopened on 30 May 2026 after a 2½-year closure. About 1 km of the lava tube is open, 09:00–18:00 daily (last entry 17:00). Adults pay 4,000 won. It is closed on the first Wednesday of each month (next: 4 November 2026).

Manjanggul (만장굴) is a lava tube in the forested north-east of Jeju, about 3 km inland from Gimnyeong beach. It runs for about 7.4 km, and its main passage reaches about 18 m wide and 23 m high, one of the largest lava tubes in the world. It belongs to the Geomunoreum lava tube system, which UNESCO listed in 2007 with Hallasan and Seongsan Ilchulbong as Jeju Volcanic Island and Lava Tubes.

Is Manjanggul worth the detour?

For most first-time visitors to the east coast, yes. It is the only one of the island’s UNESCO lava tubes you can walk into, the visit is a level 2 km walk there and back, and it works in any weather. It is also a natural break between Seongsan or Udo and the Bijarim forest, which is a short drive inland.

	Manjanggul	Seongsan Ilchulbong
What it is	Walk underground through a lava tube	Climb a tuff cone above the sea
Effort	Level deck, about 1 km each way	Stairs, 30–40 minutes up
Adult fee	4,000 won	5,000 won
Hours	09:00–18:00 (last entry 17:00)	From 04:30–06:00, by season
Closed	First Wednesday of the month	First Monday of the month
Best for	Rainy or hot days, families	Clear mornings, sunrise

World Heritage Office, Jeju Special Self-Governing Province; checked 21 October 2026. The two have different closing days, so an east-coast day works on any date except the first Monday or first Wednesday, when you lose one of them.

Skip it if you have seen a large lava tube elsewhere, or if you are short of time and travelling without a car: the bus connection is the weak point (see below).

What you see inside

The only public entrance is Entrance 2, one of three openings where the cave roof collapsed. From there you walk upstream for about 1 km and back the same way.

• The tunnel itself. The main passage is the attraction: a dark, ridged tube many metres high, with lava flow lines along the walls and lava shelves where the flow level dropped.
• The “stone turtle”. A lava raft (용암표석), a block that rode on the flowing lava and came to rest on the floor, is said to look like a turtle.
• The lava column. At the end of the open section a column of lava about 7.6 m high drops from the roof to the floor. The heritage office describes it as the largest known in the world, and it marks your turning point.

The cave is a habitat as well as a sight. Visit Jeju counts 38 cave-dwelling species, among them a Jeju cave spider. A colony of bent-wing bats lives near Entrance 3, well away from the open section.

Hours, fees and closed days

Ticket	Individual	Group (10+)
Adults (25–65)	4,000 won	3,000 won
Youth and soldiers (13–24)	2,000 won	1,500 won
Children (7–12)	2,000 won	1,500 won

Heritage office fee table, checked 21 October 2026. The table lists no band for under-7s or over-65s, so ask at the ticket office if that applies to you.

• Hours: 09:00–18:00. Tickets are sold, and you can go in, until 17:00.
• Closed: the first Wednesday of every month. Next dates: 4 November 2026, 2 December 2026, 6 January 2027.
• Free guides: heritage interpreters work from 09:00 to 16:00. The talk is free; sign up on site.
• Parking: free, with 135 spaces.

Getting to Manjanggul

The cave is inland, off the coast road. There are two bus stops: Manjanggul Entrance (만장굴입구) on the coast road, served by the island’s main east-coast bus, and Manjanggul (만장굴) next to the cave car park, served only by a village bus.

From	Bus	Then
Jeju Bus Terminal (Jeju City)	201, east coast road	Get off at Manjanggul Entrance; walk about 30 minutes or take a 711
Seogwipo or Seongsan	201, the other way round the coast	Same stop, same last leg
Gimnyeong or Manjanggul Entrance	711 village bus (711-1 and other variants)	Get off at Manjanggul (만장굴), a few minutes’ walk from the entrance

Stops and routes from the Jeju Bus Information System, checked 21 October 2026; the walking time is the heritage office’s. The 711 is a small local route, and the official site publishes no fixed timetable for it. Check the next departure in Kakao Map or Naver Map before you leave the coast. For the ride back towards Jeju City, the 201 leaves from the stop on the other side of the coast road (Manjanggul Entrance [N]). A T-money card works on all island buses.

Driving is much easier. The heritage office puts the drive at about 50 minutes from Jeju Airport via Hamdeok and Gimnyeong, about 24 minutes from Seongsan and about 80 minutes from Seogwipo. By taxi, show the address 제주 제주시 구좌읍 만장굴길 182.

Rules and tips

• Dress for the cave, not the weather. It is cool and damp inside all year; on the day before reopening it was about 14 °C, Yonhap reported. The heritage office lists a warm jacket, trainers and a torch, plus a rain jacket or hat on rainy days, when the roof drips.
• Not allowed: high heels, pets and food.
• Light is low on purpose. The 2026 works fitted dimmer LED lighting to keep algae from growing on the rock, so give your eyes a minute and use a phone torch on the floor if you need it.
• Strollers. Since the 2026 works the whole open section has a level deck. Korean press reports that you can push a stroller once you are down the steps at the entrance; there is no official statement on wheelchairs.
• Combine it. Bijarim forest and the Jeju World Natural Heritage Centre near Geomunoreum are the nearest sights inland; Gimnyeong and Woljeong beaches are on the coast road below.

A short history

Local people knew the cave entrance as Manjeongi-geomeol, which gave Manjanggul its name. It was first explored systematically in 1946 by Bu Jong-hyu, a teacher at Gimnyeong school, with his pupils. Manjanggul and the neighbouring Gimnyeonggul were probably one tube until the passage between them was blocked.

On 29 December 2023 rock fell near the entrance and the cave closed. No one was hurt. Repairs costing 12.1 billion won, Yonhap reported, ran from January 2024 to March 2026 and added a new walkway along the whole open section, rockfall protection and new lighting. The cave reopened on 30 May 2026, in the 80th year since its exploration.

Around Manjanggul

Manjanggul is in Jeju’s east district, between the north coast and Seongsan. A full east-coast day can start with sunrise at Seongsan Ilchulbong and the ferry to Udo. After that, drive or bus back west to Manjanggul and the Bijarim forest, and end at the Haenyeo Museum or Hamdeok Beach. For flights, buses and where to stay on the island, see the Jeju guide and the Jeju region page; to see Jeju inside a full trip, see the 10-day Korea itinerary.