Travel Trends of Koreans in their 20s & 30s – 차박, 불멍 & 멍때리다 Culture & Words

Eunji Jang
Nov 25, 2024
3 min read

Updated: Dec 8, 2024

💎 What you'll learn in this post

As the weather gets colder, more and more people are getting ready for camping. Summer camping is great, but winter camping has its own unique vibe, right?😉

In this post, you’ll get to know the latest camping trends in Korea and learn some vocabulary related to it, so you can talk about it with confidence!

📌 Heads up before you read

In this post, [ ] indicates the actual pronunciation.

Overnight Sensation Words Expressions that are particularly common in conversations during cold winters like now

⚡ Frequency of use by K-pop fans

★★★☆☆

⚡ Frequency of use in general

★★★☆☆

차박[cha-bak]

Car camping, Car sleeping

Unlike traditional camping with setup tents, car camping involves sleeping and living in your car, offering a more convenient and flexible camping experience.

[cha-bak] is short for 자동차 숙박[ja-dong-cha suk-ppak],

✅ 자동차[ja-dong-cha]: Car

✅ 숙박[suk-ppak]: Stay

🎁 Essential insights into Korean culture

Actor Ahn Bo-hyun, who has captured hearts through works like Itaewon Class, Yumi's Cells, My Name, and Military Prosecutor Doberman, appeared on Korea's popular reality show I Live Alone in 2020. He showed how he turned his car into a camping vehicle and enjoyed [cha-bak]. Fast forward to today, and [cha-bak] has become a major travel trend in Korea, especially among people in their late 20s to early 40s.

⬇ Check out the [cha-bak] video

on YouTube ⬇

불멍[bul-meong]

Relaxing while staring at the campfire

Spacing out while staring at the campfire

✅ 불[bul]: Directly translates to 'fire', but here it refers to a campfire.

✅ 멍때리다[meong-ttae-ri-da]: Space out. This is a casual Korean expression that means clearing your mind and zoning out, often used to describe a state of being lost in thought with no particular focus.