Beacon Hill Park

Victoria, BC; Canada
Parking: Free

Beacon Hill Park is THE park to visit when in Victoria. 

Feed ducks at the duck pond

Find a hidden trail

Children's Petting Zoo

Suggested Donations:

Adults $3.50

Children $2.50

Ducks

Peacocks

Goat Farm

Baby goats just born... only 1-1/2 months old!

Cute baby goat

More baby goats

Pigs

Birds

Miniature Pony

World's Largest Totem Pole

Walk the Trail from Ogden Point to Clover Park

Fly kites at Clover Park

The Olympic Mountains in Washington State are visible from the south end of the park

Royal British Columbia Museum

Victoria, BC; Canada

Recommended visit time required: minimum of 2 hours (not including the time it takes to purchase your tickets)

Photography Allowed?  Yes; no flash

The Royal BC Museum has a collection of items that are specific to the province of British Columbia, giving you a good insight and understanding of its history.  My favorite part of the Museum was Old Town on the third floor.  The Old Town exhibit is a mock-up of a Victorian street where you peer into the windows of shops and buildings staged in intricate detail that would have existed in that era.  The Museum is extremely kid-friendly.  Aside from the kids' area in the Ocean Station exhibit on the second floor, there are sketch stations located throughout Old Town.

Second Floor: Natural History Gallery

Ice-Age Mammoth

Seashore exhibit

Seashore exhibit

Ocean Station exhibit

Ocean Station exhibit

Ocean Station exhibit

Third Floor: First Peoples Gallery

Totem Poles

Third Floor: History Gallery

Century Hall

Vehicle in Old Town

Old Town exhibit

Lobby of the Grand Hotel; Old Town

Kitchen of the Grand Hotel; Old Town

Pharmacist in Chinatown; Old Town

Gold Rush exhibit

Outside the Museum

Thunderbird Park

Thunderbird Park is a small park situated just east of the museum.  It is known for the several totem poles located here.

Mungo Martin House in Thunderbird Park

Totem poles of Thunderbird Park

Helmcken House

Dr. John Sebastian Helmcken was a surgeon with the Hudson's Bay Company who later became a statesman who helped negotiate the entry of British Columbia into Canada as a province.  His home is the oldest building in British Columbia, which still stands on its original site.  It is open to the public only between June and September from noon - 4PM, included with your museum admission.

Helmcken House

Boseong, South Korea

 

If you love green tea or just appreciate the beauty of green tea fields, Boseong is a great weekend trip.   Aside from the tea plantation, which deserves at least 2-3 hours which includes hiking time, you can enjoy a green tea soak in a jimjilbang, eat some green tea ice cream, drink some green tea, and play on the beach in the nearby town of Yulpo.

 

Yulpo Beach

 

How to Get There:
Take the Non-Stop Bus from Seoul Express Terminal (lines 3, 7, 9) to Beolgo Express Bus Terminal in Boseong, Jeollanam-do. The bus only leaves twice a day and the first bus is at 08:10AM. The ride is roughly 4hours, 40 minutes or nearly 5 hours. Return bus will be about the same amount of time. The last bus to leave Boseong on Sunday will be at 16:00 (4PM), from Beolgyo Intercity Bus Terminal (different from point of arrival).

What to Do:
This link has a great general itinerary for a weekend stay. 

What to Budget: (all prices are estimates)
Return bus fare: W40,000
Lodging: W15,000 - 20,000 each person
Green Tea Spa: W5,000
Body scrub: W15,000
Bus rides in town: W5,000
Meals: allowance of W8,000 per meal x 5 = W40,000
Minor incidentals (water, ice cream, etc): W10,000

Total: W130,000 - 135,000

Everland

Location: Yongin, South Korea

Recommended Time Required:  3/4 to full day

Everland and Lotteworld are the two biggest and most popular amusement parks in Korea.  Everland is an easy, although lengthy, bus trip from Seoul.  Its biggest draw is the wooden roller coaster, which I have to admit is quite thrilling and a lot more stable than I imagined it would be.  When I asked my co-teacher which park he preferred he said, "Everland.  It is better."  And according to my students when I asked them what they did over the weekend or a long break, their answer was Everland more often than Lotteworld.

Entrance

Wear fancy headbands like the locals do!

Zootopia, the zoo section of Everland is quite fun if you enjoy animals as I do.  You have to line up early and have patience to wait for the safari tour where you can view a real life LIGER! (as made popular in Napoleon Dynamite)  Unfortunately, since my friend and I slept in and didn't get on the road until early afternoon, we didn't get to the park until mid-afternoon which meant our time was limited and we had to skip the long line to see the liger.  Bummer.

I guess it's OK to feed the monkeys.

White tigers

Not a liger

Kangaroos

In all honesty, the main ride is the wooden roller coaster.  There were a couple other small roller coasters and other attractions (i.e. haunted house) and the park is quite big, but I thought it lacked in the amount of adult rides.  The Caribbean Bay water park is only open in the summer.

Everland really requires a full day as the lines to wait for the attractions can be really long, plus the Moonlight Parade at night is quite fun to see.