Yangyang café for decaf coffee with your dog: Cafe Dunchi

A Yangyang Namdaecheon café visit with May, our dog

I went on a trip to Yangyang in Gangwon! :) If I had to pick one memorable place from this trip, it would be Cafe Dunchi, where my husband, May, and I went together.

At this Yangyang café, we made special memories with a drink and an unusual activity experience, too.

🌿 Cafe Dunchi in Yangyang It is at the lower reaches of Namdaecheon Stream.

We visited Cafe Dunchi on a weekend afternoon. It is a dog-friendly café, so we happily went in.

Dunchi is a café near the lower reaches of Namdaecheon Stream in Yangyang. I have actually traveled toward Sokcho and Yangyang quite a few times, but I had always only visited the coast, so this was my first time around Namdaecheon.

Perhaps because the floor-to-ceiling window view over the lower Namdaecheon is so nice, there were quietly quite a few guests. It seemed there were lots of people out looking for a Yangyang café on the weekend, just like us. I realized for the first time that Yangyang is not only famous for the sea, haha.

The first floor operates as an electric boat experience center, while the second floor is Cafe Dunchi.

We ordered our drinks and sat by the window. Since it is a bakery café, there are plenty of snacks and breads, too.

Seats with a Namdaecheon view through floor-to-ceiling windows

🪟 A café that is great for taking in the scenery through floor-to-ceiling windows

What I liked about the café was the floor-to-ceiling windows, where you can take in the Namdaecheon view at a glance.

It is in a good spot to keep in mind when you are looking for somewhere to have coffee while taking in scenery different from the beach.

Cafe Dunchi is a bakery café that is perfect for stopping to rest awhile, thanks to its peaceful scenery and blue sky. It is a fitting space for a day when you want to spend time looking at the view through the windows. It would be lovely to take a break from traveling and get lost in thought, too :)

We ordered a decaf Americano and an iced Americano! Non-chain cafés often do not offer decaf coffee, so I was happy that Cafe Dunchi did.

May, our dog, stayed quietly in her carrier as if she were hardly there at all~ The owner even complimented her for being so well behaved :)

Driving an electric boat on Namdaecheon ourselves

🚤 Yangyang activity: boat experience You can drive the boat yourself.

We got our café drinks to go and headed down to the first floor for the highlight of the day: the electric boat experience.

Life jackets are a must! May, our dog, did not need to wear one, haha.

The coffee at Cafe Dunchi was good~ The café atmosphere was nice, too~ But the best thing was riding the boat!!!

Cafe Dunchi’s electric boat experience was even more fun and exciting because we did not just sit there—we got to drive it ourselves.

Being able to drive the electric boat myself while looking at the wonderful Namdaecheon scenery made me feel so refreshed and relieved of stress.

The sky was blue, and the weather as it turned toward autumn was lovely, so I thought, this is exactly what travel is all about :)

At first, May, our dog, seemed a little nervous about the motor’s vibration, but after around five minutes she adjusted right away and looked comfortable. Later, this little cutie even gently closed her eyes and dozed inside her bag.

May must have been enjoying the beautiful scenery and nature of Yangyang’s Namdaecheon in her own way through the boat experience, together with her mom and dad.

If you are looking for things to do in Yangyang and want to visit a café as well, this is a combination worth considering. It seems like a really great hands-on activity for enjoying with children in Yangyang, too.

The two of us took turns driving for 15 minutes each. It was not very fast, so we could drive leisurely, and all you have to do is go forward and turn the wheel, making it much easier than driving bumper cars.

As we drove, we said that even my young elementary-school-age niece could probably drive it easily as long as an adult was beside her.

At first, 30 minutes sounded quite long, but as we enjoyed the boat experience, the time flew by :)

Electric boat prices and things to check before you go

🚤 Electric boat experience information

No matter how fun and worthwhile an experience is, it is natural to hesitate if the price feels too burdensome.

In my personal opinion, Cafe Dunchi’s electric boat prices do not feel overly burdensome. It is ₩30,000 per boat for 1–4 people and ₩35,000 per boat for 1–6 people, with 30 minutes of use for each.

The price is set per boat rather than per person, so it stays the same even if several people ride, which is a good deal. For reference, dogs are not included in the passenger count, haha.

Even for a family of four, ₩30,000 for 30 minutes feels like such a bargain! Café drinks are separate, so keep that in mind when planning coffee and the boat experience together. The boats cannot operate when it is raining or the weather is bad, so it would be best to check ahead.

Cafe Dunchi in Yangyang, which I visited with my husband and May. Adding the memory of driving an electric boat myself for the first time in my life made this Yangyang trip even more memorable.

On the drive back to Seoul, we liked our one-night, two-day Yangyang trip so much that we were even saying, “Should we look for a house in Yangyang as a second home someday?”

It is great for a hands-on trip with children, though I think adults might enjoy it even more—this Yangyang experience café. If I travel to Yangyang’s Namdaecheon again, I definitely plan to come back to Cafe Dunchi for the boat experience :)