“Can you take our photo?” asked the young Korean couple decked out in matching sneakers, jeans and sweatshirts that read “Remarkable” in English. I took the camera and waited for them to pose. Leaning against a sculpture of a man and woman engaged in an acrobatic — if not physically impossible — act of love, they smiled and said, “Kimchi!”

We were at Jeju Loveland, a sex-themed sculpture park and perennially popular stop for tourists visiting Korea’s self-proclaimed “Honeymoon Island.” Couples in their early 20s flitted among the sculptures, giggling, while tough-looking middle-aged ajummas in groups of six or seven erupted into peals of riotous laughter. The statues, dioramas and interactive displays — of which there are nearly 150 — were labeled with euphemistic titles like “When a Pepper Met a Shellfish.”

For several decades, this volcanic island 53 miles off the coast of South Korea has attracted travelers with its sandy beaches, citrus groves and laid-back pace. Populated by a host of luxury resorts and leisure activities, including not one but three sex museums, Jeju has long been the place Koreans go to let their hair down. And compared to the mainland — where couples on television, in music videos or in public exchange little more than meaningful glances — it might as well be a different country.

Created entirely from volcanic eruptions 2 million years ago, the island is said to have been founded by three brothers who emerged from holes in the ground near Mount Halla, the volcano at Jeju’s center (and Korea’s highest point). The brothers established the independent Kingdom of Tamna, and for centuries the islanders had little contact with the mainland.

Nowadays a short 45-minute plane ride connects the island to the peninsula, with Jeju-bound flights departing Gimpo International Airport every 15 minutes. But Jeju retains its unique customs, folklore and landscape as the country’s only autonomous province. As one descends into Jeju International Airport, the region’s unusual landscape is immediately apparent in the dense stacks of lava rock surrounding fields, houses, alleyways and burial mounds.

Jeju’s eponymous capital, housing more than half the island’s 565,000 people, looks much like any other Korean city. Leaving town, however, the storefronts and high-rise apartment buildings quickly fade into a lush landscape of palm trees, conifers and cacti. And while Jeju’s weather is Korea’s warmest, the island experiences four distinct seasons — a climate that encourages a vast array of flora and fauna, including the tangerines growing in nearly every yard year-round.

On the island’s southern coast, only an hour’s drive from Jeju City, lies the Jungmun resort area. Here, Korean honeymooners and families gather each summer to bask in the sun, albeit fully clothed (since having a tan is still considered low-class). Set on a cliffside overlooking Jungmun Beach, the area’s three resorts — the Hyatt Regency, the Shilla and the Lotte Hotel — offer unparalleled views of the white sand, turquoise water and hardened black lava.

Perhaps Jeju’s best feature is its people. Eager to embody the island’s clunky motto, “The world comes to Jeju, and Jeju goes to the world,” the locals are friendly and unassuming, willing to offer directions or share a slice of tangerine with a tourist. Even the island’s bus drivers bow to their passengers at the beginning of each journey.

But without a doubt, Jeju’s most famous residents are the haenyeo: female deep-sea divers. A remnant of a more matriarchal time, these quickly disappearing mothers and grandmothers — 85 percent of whom are 50 and older — spend hours at a time diving offshore for seaweed, shellfish and whatever else they can gather with nets and spears.

At one end of Jungmun Beach I found these tough-as-nails women serving hoe (raw fish) and soju (Korean vodka) at plastic tables lined up along the seawall. Still dressed in thick, homemade rubber wetsuits with their masks pushed up on their foreheads, they alternately unloaded nets, cleared tables and warmed themselves next to a wood fire.

One woman called and gestured to me until I took a seat; she padded over with trays of fresh oysters, conch and abalone. Each bite was cold and refreshing when paired with a smear of spicy red pepper paste and a sharp swig of soju. Clearing the empty shells, the haenyeo clapped me on the shoulder. “Mashissoyo,” she said. I nodded in agreement — delicious.

In addition to seafood, Jeju is famous for its livestock — specifically, the black pig barbecued at dozens of family-run restaurants all over the island. Served with whole cloves of garlic, marinated onions, egg soufflé and any number of pickled vegetables, each slice of juicy pork is carefully wrapped into bite-sized leaves of lettuce with all the fixings. Eating out in Korea is typically a social event, but if you find yourself dining solo — as I did — you can ask for the ample leftovers to be fried into pokkumbap, Korean mixed rice.

With the past several decades devoted to transforming Jeju into Korea’s top holiday destination, there’s no lack of museums, folk villages, shrines and historic sites to fill a tourist’s time. Scattered around the Jungmun resort area and the outskirts of Jeju City, hundreds of stops offer bizarre experiences ranging from the Paper Doll Museum and Teddy Bear Museum to the Museum of Trick Art (optical illusions) and Jeju Mini Mini Land.

Visitors without a taste for kitsch may want to head straight to Jeju’s natural attractions, which include some of the country’s most dramatic landscapes. Rising from the center of the island, 6,400-foot Mount Halla offers hikers a number of challenging routes through bamboo and evergreen forests to the crater’s rim. During the late spring and early summer, flowering azaleas and tiny roe deer can be spotted along any of the scenic trails. And in winter, fashionable hikers clad in the latest high-tech gear trek through the frost — and sometimes snow — to the top.

During Halla’s eruption in the first century, the resulting lava flow created the world’s longest lava-tube cave system, accessible from several parts of the island. At the airport’s tourist information center, the guides suggested I view the subterranean sights at Hallim Park, one of the island’s oldest and most popular attractions. A couple of hours strolling the 25-acre botanical garden, and I saw not only two lava caves but rock gardens, bonsai gardens, topiaries and exotic birds, including a Korean-speaking cockatoo.

Another peripatetic pleasure unique to Jeju is the Olle footpaths, a 125-mile network of walkways traversing the southern half of the island. Founded in 2007 by a retired journalist and Jeju native, the Olle trails meander along the coast through towns and pastoral lowlands in stretches averaging 10 miles each. For a true taste of Jeju, dedicated walkers can traverse much of the island in this fashion, lodging at simple Korean guesthouses along the way.

In searching for a route to the water one evening, I found myself wandering one of the Olle footpaths — denoted by blue arrows and ribbons — through the town of Seogwipo. Descending from the cliffs on which the town is perched, the path wends past narrow stairways and stone fences choked with ivy. On a rocky outcropping overlooking the sea, I could see a couple feeding each other oysters inside a pleasant-looking beer garden. Throwing back their heads to catch the contents of each shell, they laughed and slurped noisily as they ate, caught up in their own private world.

Diversions

Though it’s only warm enough to swim during the summer and early autumn, Jeju’s sandy beaches are its best-known feature. Jungmun Beach on the island’s southern coast is popular among resort-goers, while Geumneung Beach in the north has shallow water ideal for snorkeling. Several scuba shops in the southern city of Seogwipo, including English-speaking Big Blue 33 (Chilispri 4-Ro, Seogwipo City, tel 82 64 733 1733, www.bigblue33.co.kr), offer excursions in Jeju’s unique mix of tropical and temperate dive zones.

On terra firma, one of the most pleasant ways to explore the island is by bicycle. Several bike shops in Jeju City, like Jeju Pro Shop (Fantasia Amusement Park, Waterfront Promenade, tel 82 64 702 8243), rent wheels by the day or by the hour. Spend several days cycling around the island on the coastal road or just take a spin to one of the beaches lining Jeju’s northern coast.

Formed by volcanic eruptions, the island’s lava-rock landscapes are some of the nation’s most dramatic. Only a 20-minute hike from Seongsan Village, the rim of extinct volcano Ilchulbong (tel 82 64 710 7923) overlooks a lush green crater on one side and crashing surf on the other. Below ground, Jeju houses the world’s longest lava-tube cave system. Explore the subterranean sights at Manjanggul (Highway 1122, tel 82 64 783 4818), or take a shorter cave walk in Hallim Park (Highway 1132, tel 82 64 796 0001), a botanical garden on the island’s northwest coast.

Visible at the center of the island when it’s not cloaked in clouds, 6,400-foot Mount Halla is Korea’s tallest peak. For a closer look at Halla’s volcanic rim, choose one of a handful of trails originating in Hallasan National Park (tel 82 64 713 9950, www.hallasan.go.kr). The routes range in length from 2.3 to 6 miles each way, passing through bamboo and dwarf-fir forests on the way to Halla’s stunning crater lake.

Created by students of Korea’s top art university, Jeju Loveland
(Highway 1100, Jeju City, tel 82 64 712 6988, www.jejuloveland.com)
is an erotic sculpture park featuring nearly 150 statues, dioramas and interactive
displays. It’s worth a visit as much for the people-watching as for the unusual
artwork. Next door, the more tame Jeju Museum of Art (tel 82
64 710 4300) displays contemporary art by renowned local and national artists.