Yangyang café for a kid's first boat ride and yuja tea: Cafe Dunchi

On our Yangyang trip, my kid and I had a slightly special experience — the Cafe Dunchi boat ride! It's a café floating on the water where you can drink coffee and actually ride a boat…!! At first I thought it was just a pretty café, but it turned out to be a place where you can ride a boat with your kid, so we thought, this is it! and went haha 😎

Today I'm introducing Cafe Dunchi & Leisure on Namdaecheon in Yangyang! I found it while looking for Yangyang cafés, and the building itself floats on the water, which felt strange and cool from the very start 😳 It's not just a café for coffee — you can also enjoy water sports with your kid, so it's a great Yangyang spot for kids and one of the most memorable things we did on this trip 💙

295 Ilchul-ro, Yangyang-eup, Yangyang-gun, Gangwon State, South Korea (Water Leisure Center and Cafe Dunchi)

First impressions of Cafe Dunchi, a café floating on the water

Cafe Dunchi floats right on the water! The first thing that caught my eye when we arrived was the café building itself — it looked like it was floating, and it felt completely different from any regular café I've been to…!

It sits on the lower stretch of Namdaecheon in Yangyang, so the river stretches out all around, and you can even see the sea horizon and mountains in the distance 🖤 So not only is the building itself fascinating, but seeing the surrounding scenery together made me understand why this place gets recommended as a spot to visit in Yangyang! Especially on a clear day, the floating café and the scenery around it would make for great photos 📸

Around Namdaecheon there's also a deck road lined with reeds and silver grass, plus an observation deck, so it's a good spot to stop by the café and take a walk around too! They say the scenery changes with the seasons — cherry blossoms in spring, lush green in summer, reeds and silver grass in fall, and a frozen river with snowy mountains in winter. The mood must be completely different each season, so I'd love to come back in a different one 🤍

A cup of coffee on the water ☕️

Inside Cafe Dunchi: window seats facing the Namdaecheon

Walking inside, there's a surprisingly cozy space set up for drinking coffee! From outside it felt mostly like a water sports place, but inside you can relax with a drink, so I'd recommend it as a café too…! Especially with Namdaecheon's scenery right through the window, just sitting there already felt like being on a trip!?

When looking for cafés in Yangyang, I like places where you can enjoy the surrounding scenery, not just pretty interiors, and here the space itself — floating on water — was special 🌊 And the biggest perk if you're going with a kid is that you can have a coffee and then hop straight onto a boat! From the kid's point of view, going to a café and suddenly getting to ride a boat too — how exciting is that haha ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

Cafe Dunchi menu: the blueberry smoothie and handmade yuja tea

There's a wide range of menu choices and everything is made with care, so you really can't go wrong with whatever you pick…!

There are also handmade snacks, and since they suit all ages, it's a good spot to come with family!?

I ordered a blueberry smoothie and a handmade yuja tea (citron tea)!

Before a boat ride with a child: life jacket and whistle at Cafe Dunchi

Before boarding, we put on life jackets, and inside there was also an emergency whistle! 🔥

Our child's first boat ride on the Namdaecheon

Finally, we set off! Once on the boat, the scenery we'd been looking at from the café looked totally different. Seeing it from the water, the surrounding mountains and the river came into full view all at once, and my kid kept looking around the whole time ㅋㅋㅋㅋ Since it was his very first time on a boat, that's probably what stuck with him the most. It wasn't a fast-moving boat but more of a slow loop around Namdaecheon, so we got to enjoy it at a relaxed pace with our kid ❤️

You can bring your drink onto the boat too, so I sipped my coffee while looking at the scenery with my kid ㅋㅋㅋㅋ and thought, this is what a trip should feel like 🤍 When you look for things to do in Yangyang, there are a lot of active options like surfing or water play, but if you're with a young child, an experience like this — something the whole family can enjoy slowly — is pretty great too.

And depending on the season, they say you can even see salmon or dace jumping above the water as they return to Namdaecheon, but unfortunately we didn't catch that this time 🥹 Next time I'd love to come during salmon season and see it for myself!

Is Cafe Dunchi worth visiting in Yangyang with kids?

Cafe Dunchi felt distinctly different from a regular Yangyang café where you just drink coffee. The floating space itself was fascinating, you get to see Namdaecheon's scenery, and best of all, you can ride a boat with your kid. It'd be a great stop especially for families traveling with children.

My kid had so much fun on the boat that he kept talking about it even after we got off ㅋㅋㅋㅋ If you're looking for things to do in Yangyang and want a special experience with your kid, Cafe Dunchi & Leisure is worth stopping by 🌊 Having coffee at a Yangyang café, taking in the Namdaecheon scenery, and getting to ride a boat with your kid — it ended up being a surprisingly full experience. The floating building alone was so unusual that I kept taking photos from the moment we arrived ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 📸

If you're planning a Yangyang trip with a kid like us, I'd recommend adding this kind of water experience to your list of things to do in Yangyang. There's also the Namdaecheon Salmon Ecological Park trail and an observation deck around the café, so if you have time, it's worth walking around too. Coming home with just coffee is one thing, but adding a boat ride with your kid made this trip feel like it gave us one more memory 🤍 I personally like Yangyang spots that come with this kind of experience, so next time I go back, I'd love to see Namdaecheon in a different season 🌷 Coffee at a floating café, plus a boat ride with my kid — this ended up being a much more fun stop than I expected on this Yangyang trip ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 🚤💙