Gangneung stroller-friendly café & excavator play: Gangneung Sand

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Where is Gangneung Sand Main Branch, the last stop of a Gangneung trip?

Gangneung Sand Main Branch (강릉샌드 본점) is a butter sand dessert shop in a building that uses three floors, near Ojukheon. After our last meal in Gangneung I was craving something sweet. I looked for a dessert snack and found Gangneung Sand, famous for its butter sand, so we went straight there. There are two locations, and the one I visited is the three-floor one near Ojukheon!

Official Gangneung Sand store list

• Main Branch (Seongdeok-goyang-gil) - 5beonan-gil 31, Seongdeokgoyang-gil, Gangneung
• Branch 1 (Wolhwa Street) - 6 Geumseong-ro 12beon-gil, Gangneung
• Branch 2 (Chodang) - 249 Nanseolheon-ro, Gangneung
• Branch 3 (Cookie Lab) - 23 Namgu-gil 30beon-gil, Gangneung

Can you visit Gangneung Sand Main Branch with a stroller or wheelchair?

The building has an elevator, so guests with strollers or wheelchairs can get up easily. If you go to the top of the building, you can also see a lookout.

Gangneung Sand Main Branch hours and address

• Hours: daily 9:30 a.m.–7:00 p.m.
• Last order: 6:30 p.m.
• Address: 31 Seonggokgoyang-gil 5beonan-gil, Gangneung, Gangwon, South Korea, floors 1–3

What is inside Gangneung Sand Main Branch?

On the 2nd floor, on the same level as the counter, there is a small exhibit space where I could see art related to Gangneung.

I heard the Main Branch on Seongdeok-goyang-gil is the original Gangneung Sand, which won the gold prize at the 2022 Gangneung tourism souvenir contest.

Not just the exterior but the inside too is clean with blue accents and full of an ocean feel. You can rest with a coffee inside, and the interior is pretty, so it looked great for photos.

How to order and the flavors

You order at a kiosk, and there were 6 flavors of Gangneung Sand: coffee, dried persimmon, Chodang corn, black sesame, strawberry and sweet potato.

What can you do at Gangneung Sand Main Branch with kids?

There is an excavator experience, which looked great for people visiting with children. I heard that if you choose the event experience you can find a capsule, and it looked so much fun.

I also took photos at the photo zone in the back, haha

What kind of butter sand is Gangneung Sand?

Gangneung Sand is made with top-grade gourmet butter, and I heard it has a higher butter content than imitation products.

Everything is made by hand from start to finish, which makes it an even more famous Gangneung souvenir snack. The package design is something anyone would like, so it looked good as a travel gift. The box holds 10 individually wrapped sands, so they were easy to eat.

How did the Chodang corn and strawberry Gangneung Sand taste?

Gangneung Sand comes in flavors like coffee, corn and dried persimmon, Gangneung's signature foods, so you can choose to taste. I picked corn and strawberry, which my son loves. The wrapper lettering is a different color for each flavor, so there was no mix-up.

"Gangneung Sand" is written on the sand itself, which really gave me that Gangneung trip feeling. From the moment we entered the café there was a sweet butter smell, and the sand itself was full of sweet butter flavor too..!

Strawberry Gangneung Sand

The thick sand holds just the right amount of strawberry filling, and the balance was so good and so delicious.. It's soft enough for a child to eat, and once you open one, it was so tasty I could finish a whole box on the spot (sobs).

Chodang corn Gangneung Sand

I'm not really a fan of corn desserts, so why is Gangneung Sand so good (sobs)? You can bite into the corn kernels, the texture was fun and tasty, so I enjoyed the corn flavor too.

Who is Gangneung Sand Main Branch recommended for?

If you usually like cookies such as Butter-ring-type or Lotte-type sand biscuits, Gangneung Sand lets you taste a more upscale Gangneung dessert snack..! If you're wondering about a Gangneung travel gift or souvenir snack, I recommend stopping by Gangneung Sand Main Branch, the three-floor building on Seongdeok-goyang-gil.