Source: https://heyseorak.com/spots/abai-village-ferry
Last-Updated: 2026-06-17

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# Abai Village Ferry (아바이마을 갯배)

Category: ferry | Type: do, see, learn | Area: abai | Price range: budget
Address: 51 Jungangbudu-gil, Sokcho-si, Gangwon-do
Phone: +82-33-639-2449
Hours: Short crossing between downtown Sokcho and Abai Village. Operating hours and fare can change by season, weather, and dock conditions; check the sign or tourist information before relying on a late return.
English menu available: Yes

## Trust and freshness
- Verification: research / 2026-05-02
- Menu freshness: updated 2026-05-03T01:31:10.033+00:00

Abai Village Ferry is the hand-pulled cable ferry that turns the short crossing from Sokcho Tourist & Fishery Market toward Abai Village into a cultural experience. The boat has no engine: passengers and staff pull a hook along fixed steel cables to move across the narrow Cheongchoho waterway, connecting daily transport with the memory of displaced residents who used this route before modern road access became easy.

Pro tip: Use the ferry as the start of the story, not just a shortcut. Board from the downtown market side, help pull the cable if invited, then walk into Abai Village with the Korean War refugee history already in mind.

## Story

### How it started
Sokcho Tourism explains that the ferry was created by displaced residents who settled in Abai Village during the Korean War and needed a way to cross into downtown Sokcho. That origin makes the crossing part of the village's survival infrastructure, not a retro tourist ride invented later.

### Signature
The gaetbae is a small barge-style boat without an engine. It crosses the roughly 50 m waterway by fixed cables, and the slow manual pull makes visitors physically participate in the route that once carried residents between work, market, and home.

### Finding the place
Map apps may show different dock addresses because the ferry has two sides. For collection routing, pin the downtown Jungangbudu-gil dock first: it links naturally from Sokcho Tourist & Fishery Market to Abai Village, Art Platform Gaetbae, and the mural alleys.

### Seasonal notes
Wind, rain, ice, and crowding can change the feel of this very short ride. Keep the ferry as a flexible connector in a route rather than the only way to make a timed reservation.

### For international visitors
For international travelers, this is an easy, low-barrier way to feel how geography shaped Sokcho's refugee culture. The crossing is only a few minutes, but it explains why Abai Village developed as both a separate community and a daily extension of downtown Sokcho.