Affordable South Korea topographic or hiking maps, in particular for the Jeju Olle trail

Question

Where can I find topographic maps of South Korea? If those don't exist, where can I find good hiking maps? Specifically, I'm looking for maps suitable to hike the Jeju Olle Trail.

For topographic maps, I've found the Genshtab maps — not ideal in a densely populated area with lots of infrastructure that has likely changed. According to omnimap, official maps do not exist, although geospatial.com offering maps for 149$ per sheet. To cover the trail takes six maps, and I don't want to pay 6*149=895$. The official English language Jeju Olle Trail website links to an English language guidebook, but this only includes sketches not suitable for navigating in nature. Although I get the impression the trail is well-marked, I prefer to have a detailed map in addition. It is fine if the map is in Hangul, although an English translation of the legend would be quite helpful. For Mt. Hallasan, I found this detailed, non-topographic sketch (Warning: 8583x6159 square pixels!), but for the coastal Jeju trail, I've found nothing. Does the map I'm looking for exist, or do hikers do with waymarks along with non-topographic sketches?

Answer 1

I am an English language volunteer with Jeju Olle Trail here on Jeju Island, South Korea. There is certainly no need to buy such expensive maps for the trail. The trail is well-marked and when you arrive at the airport you can get an English-language guidebook too, which was detailed route information.

Regarding Halla Mountain. You will be restricted to walking the well-marked trails only. There is no opportunity to walk off the trails and if you do you will be subject to fines.

Let me know if you need anything else over at http://jejuolletrailinformation.wordpress.com/ or our English Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/ollewalkers/