Jinhae beautiful cherry blossom

Cherry blossoms are beautiful. Pale pink and in full bloom for just one week each year, they’re elusive and ephemeral. And fickle too. It’s hard to plan a trip around the cherry blossoms because they’re so damn difficult to predict. They bloom when the weather gets warmer, and in Seoul, that typically happens around mid- to late-April. Exact dates are hard to pin down though. I read a commenter on TripAdvisor describe how she was about to make her third attempt in three years, having mistimed the cherry blossoms by a few days the previous two. Anticipating an earlier Spring because of global warming, I booked our trip for the last week of March. As we got closer to our departure date though, it became clear to me that we were two weeks too early. True enough, there were little more than red bulbs on the trees when we were there. But luckily for us, there was also Jinhae. About a four-and-a-half hour bus ride south of Seoul, Jinhae is a sleepy naval town that’s home to the biggest cherry blossom festival in South Korea. It’s warmer there so their festival starts earlier, around the first week of April. #staycation #awesomepic #cherryblossoms