[Joyongjun's Travel Journey] Flowers, Forests, and Trees... Are Rest (休)

Everland Strengthens 5 Major Theme Garden Contents
Popular Forest Vacation and Flower Vacation Exploration Trips
Sky Garden Path, Forest Camp, Music Garden
Great for Forest Relaxation at Forest Camp

Visitors walking along the Sky Garden Path, where spring flowers such as Yoshino cherry blossoms and azaleas are blooming brilliantly.

After the plum blossoms on Sky Garden Road fall, the red flower beds take their place.

Entering an old forest or garden refreshes the senses. The pure sounds of birds and the wind open the ears wide. The sharp scent of trees sweeps away the old residue in the lungs, naturally calming the mind. Forests offer rest and comfort provided by nature. That is why trips to connect with forests are gaining popularity. A new term combining forest and vacation, ‘supkangs’ (forest vacation), has even emerged. According to an overseas study, experiencing flowers and forests just once a week can reduce stress by about 60%, and viewing gardens lowers anxiety by 20% and negative moods by 11% compared to urban landscape tours. Simply gazing at green leaves soothes the mind, evokes positive emotions, and brings happiness. This is the psychological stability that nature provides. According to the Korea Forest Service, 32.29 million adults in Korea, or 78% of the adult population, experience forest trails at least once a month. Well-maintained forests have become popular photo spots, with famous forests and gardens nationwide attracting long lines of visitors on weekends. Experts note that this popularity is driven by increased interest in health management and wellness after COVID-19, along with attention to the healing and therapeutic effects of plants in forests and gardens. Perhaps for this reason, Everland is focusing on ‘gardens’ as one of its content offerings for diverse customer groups amid changes in domestic leisure culture and demographics.

#Strengthening ‘Garden’ Content...Offering Diverse Experiences through Five Major Gardens

Everland, which anticipated this trend early on, began creating gardens that concentrate the most beautiful flowers, trees, and forests in 1976. In the spring of 2024, marking its 48th year, it completed a grand stage for healing flower vacations and healthy forest vacations through the creation and renewal of five themed gardens.

From heritage gardens like the Four Seasons Garden and Rose Garden, which have been around since Everland’s opening, to the Music Garden (2016), Sky Garden Path (2019), and Forest Camp (2019), each of the five major gardens offers unique themes and stories, providing customers with new experiences.

View from the Sky Garden Trail Observatory

On the 16th, we met Bae Taek-young, Vice President and Head of Samsung C&T Resort Business Division, at Everland. He said, “Nature with flowers, forests, and trees is a space for rest and recharging,” adding, “We plan to expand opportunities for customers to heal by linking the infrastructures of the five major gardens in line with trends and diverse customer needs.”

First, we visited the Sky Garden Path, which has recently been the hottest attraction among Everland’s five major gardens. Visitors of all ages were bustling about, walking while admiring various flowers such as plum blossoms, bamboo, and weeping cherry blossoms.

One of the two large gardens, the Sky Garden Path is Korea’s first plum blossom-themed walking garden. Unlike most plum blossom clusters in Korea, which are concentrated in the southern regions, this garden is located in the metropolitan area, making it a popular spring photo spot where plum blossoms can be enjoyed relatively late.

When the plum blossoms are in full bloom, you can fully enjoy the splendid spring. (Provided by Everland)

If you stop while walking along the garden path, that place becomes your own photo spot.

Although the plum blossoms have now fallen, the Sky Garden Path is home to about 700 plum trees of 11 varieties, including Mancheop Hongmae, Yulgok Mae, and Yongyu Mae. To compensate for the short blooming period of plum blossoms, which fade quickly, large weeping cherry trees and silver grass?rarely seen in Korea?have been planted along with various other plants.

Passing through a refreshing bamboo forest, it was enough to fully enjoy spring among the garden’s carpet of pink moss phlox and muscari flowers. The path lined with pink moss phlox looked like a beautifully laid carpet, and the weeping cherry blossom path by the lake offered a unique spring charm.

Everland Garden - Sky Garden Path, Rose Garden, Music Garden, Four Seasons Garden (photo clockwise from top left)

A landscape where bamboo groves and weeping cherry blossoms harmonize

From the summit, the Ferris wheel, Viking ride, and the plum trees filling the Sky Garden Path, along with the S-shaped curved garden path, could be seen at a glance.

Lee Jun-gyu, Head of the Plant Content Group, emphasized, “The Sky Garden Path was designed with the concept of being the most walkable path,” adding, “We carefully considered the placement of flowers from the moment visitors enter the garden path all the way to the summit.”

The Forest Camp, a place of healing and therapy, is a premium forest that Everland has cultivated over the past half-century around Hyangsu Mountain. Over 340,000 trees and herbaceous plants display their best beauty throughout the four seasons, and a roughly 1,000㎡ pond at the center is home to various aquatic plants and fascinating insects.

Tulips in Full Bloom at Four Seasons Garden

The Forest Camp features a multipurpose lawn plaza and outdoor performance stage that can accommodate about 1,000 people. Visitors can choose from various programs such as trekking, meditation, yoga, concerts, and barbecue parties, making it an ideal private space for GWP (Great Work Place) events or corporate presentations.

It is especially the main stage for the Vitamin Camp, a mental health management program for workers operated by Everland. Vitamin Camp focuses on relieving accumulated stress, helping participants quickly forget bad memories, and strengthening resilience to sustain good memories and experiences.

Last year, Everland installed the Forest Dome, a special facility combining cypress trees and glass walls, where visitors can meditate and stretch while listening to birds, wind, and water sounds and gazing at the sky.

Forest Camp, known as a forest of healing and restoration (Provided by Everland)

In addition to the Sky Garden Path and Forest Camp, Everland is expanding the discovery of new content using gardens. The Four Seasons Garden, which changes its festival themes each season, is filled with about 1.2 million spring flowers of approximately 100 species, including Sanrio characters, tulips, and daffodils, targeting not only children but also middle-aged and older visitors.

Moreover, the Music Garden, which combines plants and music, is another healing spot. Visitors can walk along a 370-meter path while listening to world-renowned classical masterpieces and specially produced Music Garden theme songs by Everland.

Vice President Bae Taek-young said, “Everland is differentiating itself from other theme parks by strengthening the content of the five themed gardens,” adding, “We are preparing programs that allow visitors to experience diverse gardens linked with attractions, animals, performances, and different seasonal concepts and themes.”