We had been looking for a kid-friendly campsite for the Children’s Day long weekend, and Naepo Camping Square (내포캠핑스퀘어) ended up at the top of the list mostly because of one feature: every campsite has its own private bathroom. Plus its own refrigerator, its own sink, its own deck. That setup is rare in Korean camping. Most family campsites have shared bathroom buildings two to three minutes away. Fine for adults, exhausting for kids who need the toilet at 11 p.m.
We booked three nights through the Campit (캠핏) app for May 1 through May 4. Packed the car the night before, drove out the next morning. The drive should have taken two hours. It took five. Children’s Day traffic on the western coast highway was as bad as I’ve ever seen. Our 9-year-old daughter had asked “are we there yet” too many times to count before we finally parked at Naepo Camping Square.
Booking Through Campit and Picking the Dates
We don’t camp every weekend. We camp a few times a year, mostly during long weekends or school breaks. Korean camping in mid-May is a sweet spot, because it’s warm enough that you don’t need a serious thermal sleeping bag while the bugs aren’t yet at their summer peak. Since Children’s Day weekend (어린이날) is the unofficial start of camping season for Korean families, every kid-friendly campsite books out months ahead.
Naepo Camping Square sits about an hour inland from Anmyeondo and the western coast, near Yongbongsan (용봉산), a small but well-known hiking mountain.
Three Reasons We Picked This Campsite
One: each site has a private bathroom and fridge, and I cannot stress enough how much that matters with two grade-school kids. Two: the campsite advertised a Children’s Day program with free activities and giveaways, which meant the kids would have things to do beyond the usual “stare at trees and complain about boredom.” Three: auto-camping access. We could park the car right at the site, unload everything in one go, and live out of the trunk for three days.
We booked through the Campit app, a Korean campsite reservation platform that handles availability across hundreds of sites. The total for three nights came to around 320,000 KRW, which works out to roughly $80 USD per night. Not the cheapest option in the area, but the private facilities and the holiday program made it feel worth the premium.
The Five-Hour Drive on Children’s Day Weekend
Although Google Maps had told us the drive from Hanam to Naepo Camping Square would take just over two hours, it had not anticipated something. Every Seoul-area family with a kid had also decided to drive to a campsite or beach town that morning. We left Hanam at 9 a.m. We pulled into the campsite parking lot at 2 p.m.
The kids handled it well for the first hour. By the second hour our daughter was asking for the bathroom every time we hit a slow patch (which was constantly). Tablets came out around hour three. Things went sideways in hour four when they started fighting over the seat. Then somewhere in hour five they gave up and went silent. The kind of quiet that would worry me if I weren’t grateful for it.
Cold Rain Closing In Toward the End
The weather was not helping. Light rain had started somewhere around hour three, and it got steadier as we drove west. By the time we pulled in, the campsite parking lot was a half-puddle, and the wind had picked up. I was already mentally calculating how miserable the tent setup would be. My wife, who had napped for an hour in the front seat, woke up when we stopped, looked at the sky, and said “of course.”
We unloaded the car under one umbrella between the four of us. But the kids didn’t run for the activity tent right away. Our daughter, who had been calm through five hours in the car, finally cracked. She sat on the wet curb refusing to move, cold rain on her sneakers, hungry and tired. My wife held the umbrella over her while her brother watched in confusion. Then she got up, wiped her face, and walked straight to the cake-making line. She didn’t bring up the parking-lot moment for the rest of the trip. Of all the things I’d expected from her this weekend, the wet-curb meltdown was not one.
Pulling In Under the Rain, and What Was Already Happening
The first sign that this campsite took the Children’s Day program seriously was the sheer number of kids already at the activity tent. We arrived at 2 p.m., which I had assumed would be too early. Most families on a 3-night weekend wouldn’t show up until later. But the place was packed. Kids ranging from toddlers to twelve-year-olds in lines. Cake-making, balloon-twisting, recreation games, snack giveaways. A few stations I didn’t have time to identify before our daughter pulled me toward the cake table.
The activity tent was a large covered pavilion attached to the check-in building. Long tables, plastic chairs, plastic table covers, and a constant stream of staff replacing materials as kids burned through them. The vibe felt closer to a community center event than a campsite, which, with the rain still coming down, was exactly what we needed.
We didn’t get a chance to set up the tent for another two hours. The kids cycled through three or four activity stations. My wife and I tried to figure out how to move luggage from the car to our site without leaving the kids unsupervised. We left the gear in the trunk. Kids could have their fun. The tent setup could wait. The Children’s Day vibe had already won the kids over, and the rain had slowed enough by 4 p.m. that we managed the setup without too much trouble.
Setting Up Camp on a Private Auto-Camping Deck
Naepo Camping Square uses an auto-camping layout, meaning you can drive your car directly into your site and unload from the trunk. For families with strollers, coolers, multiple bags, and possibly grandparents in tow, auto-camping is the easier mode of camping. We parked the car at the edge of our deck, popped the trunk, and the kids could ferry small items between the car and the tent without me supervising every trip.
What’s Inside Each Site Structure
Each site is a wooden deck with a small attached structure. Inside that structure: full toilet, shower, sink with hot water, and a small refrigerator. Decks are big enough for a 4-person tent plus a screen room plus a small dining table outside. Neighboring sites are close enough to hear each other’s kids, though private enough that no one looks into anyone else’s setup.
The private bathroom was the headline feature. With two grade-school kids and a long drive of held-in coffee, I cannot describe how quickly it paid off. Our daughter needed it within minutes of arriving. No flashlight walk to the shared building. None of the trying to remember which way the toilets were across the dark gravel paths. And no coordinating bathroom schedules with strangers.
And the fridge mattered too. We had brought milk for the kids’ breakfast. Juice for the road. A few extra ingredients we’d picked up at a roadside Hanaro Mart. Without the fridge, we’d have been hauling a cooler with ice replenishments. With the fridge, we just plugged it in and forgot about it.
Inside the Activity Tent: Cake, Balloons, Water Guns, Snacks
Cake-Making With Sponge Layers and Whipped Cream
Our daughter had spotted the cake-making station from the car window before we parked. Two pre-baked sponge cake layers, a bowl of fresh strawberries, whipped cream, food coloring, and decorations. Each kid got a kit. Staff walked around demonstrating the steps: slice the cake horizontally, layer cream and fruit, decorate the top.
Our 9-year-old daughter took this seriously. She layered the cream, then layered it again to get an even spread. The strawberries went into a circle pattern that she insisted had to be perfectly even. Blue food coloring came next, and she panicked because blue cake looked weird, then added red to make it pink, which became the goal all along. Her brother lasted about ten minutes at the station before declaring his cake “done” and going to the next activity.
Still, both cakes came out edible. The kids ate slices for dessert that night, and we packed the rest in the fridge for the next day. For a free activity at a campsite, this was a much higher quality experience than I’d expected. The cake-making cost nothing extra. No additional charge. The campsite included it as part of the Children’s Day program because Korean campsites that organize activities like this usually charge per kit. Naepo Camping Square didn’t, at least not for that weekend.
A Beige Balloon Dog and a Balloon Sword
Right next to the cake station was the balloon-twisting station. A staff member in a hat sat in a plastic chair with a giant box of long balloons next to him, twisting them into shapes for any kid who joined the line. Dogs, swords, flowers, hats. He could do all of them on demand and apparently never ran out of material.
Our daughter waited in line for what felt like a long stretch for a balloon dog. The line was longer than the cake line because every kid wanted one and the balloon-twister, while fast, was not as fast as the cake station’s parallel kits. She watched him work, observed which kids picked which colors, and when her turn came she asked very politely for a beige one. He made it. He handed it over. She held it like a real puppy for the rest of the afternoon.
The 10-year-old got a balloon sword. He spent the next stretch of the afternoon pretending to fight a younger kid from a neighboring site, and the younger kid pretended back, and balloons made loud popping noises every few minutes. No one cared. Other parents just kept handing replacement balloons.
Water Guns Around 4 p.m. Until Dinner
By around 4 p.m. the staff had switched gears from craft activities to active games. Water guns were the centerpiece. Every kid who showed up got a small water gun handed to them, plus a target (a paper face stapled to a stick). The game was loose: shoot whoever, shoot whatever, just don’t shoot the staff. The staff stayed dry through some kind of unspoken kid agreement.
Our two kids joined immediately. Soaked through within minutes. Didn’t care. The temperature was around 18°C with the rain still finishing up, so the water-gun game was uncomfortable from an adult perspective but apparently fine from a kid perspective. Both ours stayed in the game until the staff called time around dinner.
Free Snack Giveaways That Surprised Us
The bigger surprise was the snack giveaways. Individual packs of Crown chocolate cookies (a Korean classic), packs of chicken-flavor instant ramen, juice boxes, and other randomly distributed kid-targeted snacks. All free. While the staff walked through the activity tent with a tray of snacks, they handed them out to whichever kids were nearby, then moved on. Our kids ended up with a small cache by the end of the afternoon.
So we saved the ramen for the next morning’s breakfast, and the cookies disappeared within the hour. This is the kind of small detail that turns a “fine” weekend into a memorable one. Kids talked about the free Crown cookies for the rest of the trip. It’s not a gimmick, since it’s the standard at a kid-focused Korean campsite.
The Bonfire and the Magic Rainbow Flame
Our bonfire started after dinner once the kids had eaten, dried off, and changed into warmer clothes. That night was a quieter campsite dinner. Delivered fried chicken from a local BHC branch (one of the better Korean fried-chicken chains), some pickled radish, and grape juice the kids had brought. We ate on the deck under our screen room and then moved to the bonfire spot. The grilled-clam meal was reserved for the next day’s lunch, and we wrote about Pungnyeon Hwesenta on Korea Food Trails separately.
The bonfire box itself was the standard galvanized metal type that Korean campsites use. Logs included with the site fee. Lighter and starter sticks at the camp store. While the kids watched the fire start, they begged to roast marshmallows we hadn’t actually packed. So we compromised on s’mores using leftover cake.
How the 마법불꽃 Powder Turns Flames Rainbow
Then came the rainbow flame. The 10-year-old had spotted a small box of “magic flame powder” (마법불꽃 powder) at the camp store earlier. It’s a Korean novelty product. Sprinkle the powder on burning logs and the flames turn green, blue, and red for a few minutes. We bought one packet for around 5,000 KRW. He sprinkled it. The flames turned electric blue, then green, then deep purple. The 9-year-old gasped. I took a lot of photos and only one came out half-decent.
For Korean families, this kind of campfire trick is normal. Most camp stores sell them. Worth the few thousand won.
After the rainbow flame finished, the regular orange flames came back. And we sat around the fire for another stretch while the kids fell asleep around 9:30 in the tent. My wife and I stayed by the fire with the last of the grape juice. Compared to our usual Hanam-area family outings like the bike-and-picnic day at Misari Park, the slow campsite night felt completely different. Both kinds matter.
About the Heater We Had to Rent
The campsite advertises free air conditioning rentals on a first-come basis during summer. We were there in early May, so the air conditioning wasn’t the issue. The cold rain was. The first night the temperature dropped to around 9°C, which is colder than May usually feels in Korea, and our sleeping bags were rated for around 15°C. The kids would have been miserable.
So we rented a fan heater from the camp store for 50,000 KRW for the three nights. Not free. The camp staff explained that fan heaters had become more expensive recently because of supply issues related to ongoing global events (their words, not mine). The heater itself was fine. Quiet, warm, plugged into the deck outlet, no issues. We ran it on low through the first two nights, although we didn’t run it at all on the third when the weather warmed up.
If you’re booking Naepo Camping Square in late spring or fall, factor in 50,000 KRW for heater rental as a possible add-on cost. The free air conditioning offer covers the summer months, but heating in shoulder season is paid. The camp store also rents out other gear (camp lights, extra blankets, kid-sized sleeping bags) at reasonable per-night prices.
What Each Part Scored With Us
⭐ Overall: 4.1 / 5
- ⭐ Family Friendliness: 5 / 5, Children’s Day activities, balloon dogs, snack giveaways, and a full activity tent operating in the rain. Designed for kids.
- ⭐ Site Privacy & Facilities: 5 / 5, private bathroom, fridge, and sink at every site. Rare in Korean camping. Worth the premium on its own.
- ⭐ Children’s Day Program: 4.5 / 5, free cake-making, balloon-twisting, recreation games, snack giveaways. The water-gun timing in 18°C rain was rough on the adults though.
- ⭐ Age Fit (9-10 yrs): 4 / 5, our two slotted in with the 8–12 cohort. Younger kids may struggle with some craft stations.
- ⭐ Cleanliness: 4 / 5, site bathrooms were clean on arrival. The activity tent got messy by evening, but staff cleaned overnight.
- ⭐ Value for Money: 3 / 5, 320,000 KRW for three nights plus 50,000 KRW heater rental hits hard. The private facilities pay for themselves, but only just.
If You’re Planning Your Own Trip
- 📍 Address: Hongseong-gun area, Chungcheongnam-do, near Yongbongsan (용봉산)
- 🗺️ View on Google Maps
- 📱 Booking: Through Campit (캠핏) app, a Korean campsite reservation platform
- 💰 Rate: Around 80,000 KRW per night (varies by site type and season). Three nights ≈ 320,000 KRW
- 🛏️ Site type: Auto-camping decks with private bathroom, sink, and refrigerator
- 🚗 From Seoul: ~2 hours via Seohaean Expressway in normal traffic. 5+ hours during long weekends, leave early or late
- 🅿️ Parking: One car parks directly at each site (auto-camping)
- 🍴 Food: Bring a cooler. Korean delivery apps work in this area (BHC, Baemin, Coupang Eats — confirm with the campsite first)
- 👶 Stroller access: Mostly flat gravel and wood-deck paths. Stroller-friendly
- 🎈 Children’s Day program: Free cake-making, balloon-twisting, water guns, snack giveaways (offered during the Children’s Day weekend in early May)
- 🌧️ Heater rental: 50,000 KRW for 3 nights (not included). Air conditioning is free on a first-come basis in summer
By 9 a.m. on the morning we left, the rain had cleared, the sun was warming up the deck, and the kids were eating Crown cookies for breakfast (against my better judgment). I had packed most of the gear back into the car. My wife was wiping down the cooler. Our daughter was clutching her balloon dog, which had survived three days and was finally starting to lose air. We pulled out at 10. Pungnyeon Hwesenta on Anmyeondo for grilled clams was the next stop, so we treated the campsite as a clean handoff to the rest of the day.
Part 2 covers the third day separately, which was the day we did horseback riding at the nearby horse ranch, made horse-themed key chains at the flea market, and watched the kids run around in a recreation game I still don’t fully understand. The Children’s Day weekend at Naepo Camping Square deserves more than one post, since the activities on day three are different enough from day one that they need their own breakdown.