Tongyeong in two days, built around the first boat out of the harbour

Tongyeong (통영) has no railway. You arrive by bus, and from the terminal the town tips downhill toward a harbour where the sailing board, not the guidebook, decides what your two days will look like.

Day one, on foot from the harbour

Express buses from Seoul take a little over four hours; from Busan's Seobu terminal it is closer to ninety minutes. Leave your bag near Gangguan, the inner harbour, and climb Dongpirang (동피랑), the painted village on the eastern bluff, where the lanes narrow enough that you pass somebody's laundry single file.

Below it, the Jungang market sells fish still moving in the tanks. What to eat is chungmu gimbap (충무김밥): rice rolled plain in seaweed, with squid and radish kimchi on a separate plate, kept apart so the rice would keep on a boat. The counters sit near the ferry terminal for that same reason.

Check the sailing before you sleep

Island boats leave the passenger terminal in the morning and come back in the afternoon, and when the wind is up they do not go at all. Buy the next day's ticket the evening before, ask the counter what time the return leaves, and plan backwards from that number.

The timetable is the itinerary. Everything else arranges itself around it.

Day two, out to the water

Yokjido (욕지도) is the working choice: a coastal road, a few guesthouses, sweet potatoes sold at the pier. Somaemuldo (소매물도) is the photograph — a gravel bar opens to the lighthouse island only at low tide, then closes behind you, which is why the tide table matters more than the walking time.

통영에서는 배 시간표가 곧 하루 계획표다.

If the sea is closed

Take the cable car up Mireuksan instead and look out over the scattered islands of Hallyeohaesang. Then walk the 99 steps at Seopirang, the quieter western bluff, and buy kkulppang (꿀빵) — small honeyed buns, sold by the box — for the bus home.