In shortGyeongbokgung and Jongmyo close on Tuesdays; Changdeokgung, Changgyeonggung, Deoksugung and Gyeonghuigung close on Mondays. When a closing day falls on a public holiday, the palace stays open and closes on the next day that is not a holiday instead. Every Wednesday is free everywhere except Gyeongbokgung and the Secret Garden, and Changgyeonggung and Deoksugung stay open until 21:00 all year.
Key facts
- Closed Mondays
- Changdeokgung, Changgyeonggung, Deoksugung, Gyeonghuigung
- Closed Tuesdays
- Gyeongbokgung and Jongmyo Shrine
- Holiday rule
- A closing day that falls on a public holiday stays open; the next non-holiday closes instead
- Free days
- Every Wednesday, except Gyeongbokgung and the Secret Garden; Gyeonghuigung is always free
- Open until 21:00
- Changgyeonggung and Deoksugung, all year (last entry 20:00)
- Last entry
- One hour before closing at the four palaces and Jongmyo
- Korean search terms
- 경복궁 · 창덕궁 · 창경궁 · 덕수궁 · 종묘 · 경희궁Naver Map
Checked Oct 25, 2026 against the official sources listed at the end of this guide.
Check a date
Choose a day between Oct 25, 2026 and Dec 31, 2027 to see which palaces are open, their hours and whether entry is free.
Tuesday, October 27, 2026: 4 of 6 sites open.
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ClosedRegular Tuesday closure
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Open09:00–18:00 · last entry 17:00
Adults 3,000 won
The Secret Garden runs by timed tour with a separate 5,000-won ticket and is never part of a free day.
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Open09:00–21:00 · last entry 20:00
Adults 1,000 won
From late afternoon, visitors move to the evening zone around Myeongjeongjeon, Chundangji pond and the glasshouse.
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Deoksugung덕수궁
Open09:00–21:00 · last entry 20:00
Adults 1,000 won
Seokjojeon's interior is seen only on a booked guided tour.
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ClosedRegular Tuesday closure
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Open09:00–18:00
Free
Run by the Seoul Museum of History, which lists it as closed on Mondays and January 1.
Monday and Tuesday: the two closing-day groups
The Korea Heritage Service runs four of Seoul's five Joseon palaces and the royal ancestral shrine, and it staggers their weekly closures so that something is always open. Changdeokgung, Changgyeonggung and Deoksugung close on Mondays. Gyeongbokgung and Jongmyo close on Tuesdays. The fifth palace, Gyeonghuigung (경희궁), belongs to the Seoul Museum of History rather than the heritage service and follows the museum's calendar: closed on Mondays and on January 1, free on every other day.
The practical consequence is simple once you see it. On a Monday, Gyeongbokgung and Jongmyo are your palace choices, and they sit a short subway ride apart. On a Tuesday, head east to Changdeokgung and Changgyeonggung, which are joined by a gate, or downtown to Deoksugung by City Hall. No ordinary day of the week shuts all of them at once, which is why it pays to plan the order of your palace days around the weekday rather than the map.
Search the Korean names in Naver Map or Kakao Map: 경복궁, 창덕궁, 창경궁, 덕수궁, 종묘 and 경희궁. The English names are shown inconsistently in map apps, while the Korean names always find the main gate.
The holiday rule that moves a closing day
Public holidays do not close the heritage-service palaces. When a palace's regular closing day falls on a public holiday or a substitute holiday, the palace opens as normal, and its closure moves to the first following day that is not a holiday. This is the rule printed on the Royal Palaces and Tombs visiting-hours page, and it produces a few days a year when the closures stack up.
The 2027 calendar shows how it works. Seollal runs from Saturday, February 6 to the substitute holiday on Tuesday, February 9, so every palace opens on Monday and Tuesday of that week and they all close together on Wednesday, February 10. Independence Movement Day falls on Monday, March 1: the Monday palaces open that day and close on Tuesday, March 2, the same day Gyeongbokgung and Jongmyo take their regular closure, so all five heritage-service sites are shut on March 2. The same stacking happens on Tuesday, May 4, after the Labor Day substitute holiday on Monday, May 3.
Chuseok 2027 runs from Tuesday, September 14 to Thursday, September 16. Gyeongbokgung and Jongmyo therefore stay open through the holiday and take their closure on Friday, September 17, a day many visitors would not expect a palace to be shut. Gyeonghuigung does not follow this rule: the museum lists only Mondays and January 1 as closed, so treat a holiday Monday there as a closed day.
Opening hours by season, and the last-entry hour
Gyeongbokgung, Changdeokgung and Jongmyo change their hours with the season, while Changgyeonggung and Deoksugung keep the same 09:00 to 21:00 day all year. Gyeongbokgung uses a long winter, November to February, when it closes at 17:00; Changdeokgung and Jongmyo use November to January and close at 17:30. In every case entry ends an hour before closing, and staff begin guiding visitors toward the exits about 30 minutes before the gates shut.
Gyeonghuigung opens from 09:00 to 18:00. Because it is a small, free site next to the Seoul Museum of History, it fits around a museum visit rather than anchoring a day.
| Site | Winter | Spring and autumn | Summer (Jun–Aug) | Last entry |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gyeongbokgung | 09:00–17:00 (Nov–Feb) | 09:00–18:00 (Mar–May, Sep–Oct) | 09:00–18:30 | 1 hour before closing |
| Changdeokgung | 09:00–17:30 (Nov–Jan) | 09:00–18:00 (Feb–May, Sep–Oct) | 09:00–18:30 | 1 hour before closing |
| Jongmyo Shrine | 09:00–17:30 (Nov–Jan) | 09:00–18:00 (Feb–May, Sep–Oct) | 09:00–18:30 | 1 hour before closing |
| Changgyeonggung | 09:00–21:00 | 09:00–21:00 | 09:00–21:00 | 20:00 |
| Deoksugung | 09:00–21:00 | 09:00–21:00 | 09:00–21:00 | 20:00 |
| Gyeonghuigung | 09:00–18:00 | 09:00–18:00 | 09:00–18:00 | Not stated |
When entry is free
Every Wednesday is Culture Day (문화가 있는 날), and admission is free at Changdeokgung's palace halls, Changgyeonggung, Deoksugung and Jongmyo. Gyeongbokgung and the Changdeokgung Secret Garden are excluded, so a Wednesday is the day to spend at the palaces that charge least anyway and save Gyeongbokgung for another day.
Some visitors never pay at all. Foreign visitors aged 18 and under or 65 and over enter the four palaces and Jongmyo free with a passport, and anyone wearing hanbok that meets the heritage service's guideline enters free, whatever their nationality. The Secret Garden has its own, narrower list: only children aged six and under go in free there. Gyeonghuigung charges nobody.
Otherwise, adults pay 3,000 won at Gyeongbokgung and Changdeokgung and 1,000 won at Changgyeonggung, Deoksugung and Jongmyo. The 6,000-won integrated pass covers one entry to each of the four palaces and Jongmyo within six months, but not the Secret Garden. The heritage service also announces occasional free-for-all periods around holidays and festivals on its notice board; when one is coming up, it appears in the dated notice at the top of this guide.
Jongmyo and the Secret Garden keep their own timetables
Jongmyo is open six days a week but not in the same way every day. On Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays you can enter only with a timed guided tour of about 50 minutes; English tours start at 10:00, 12:00, 14:00 and 16:00, and each session takes up to 200 people, half booked online and half sold on site. On Wednesdays, weekends and public holidays the shrine is open for self-guided visits, which is the better choice if you want time with the long main hall.
The Secret Garden (후원, Huwon) behind Changdeokgung is seen only on timed tours of about 100 people. Half the places go online from 10:00 six days ahead and half are sold at the palace from 09:00 on the day. English sessions run at 10:30, 11:30 and 14:30, with an extra 15:30 session from March to November. The garden ticket costs 5,000 won for adults and seniors alike, and you also need a palace-hall ticket. Spring and autumn sessions sell out quickly.
Planning a week around the closures
A visitor arriving on a Sunday can see all five palaces in three days without meeting a closed gate. On Monday, take Gyeongbokgung in the morning, with the guard ceremony at 10:00, and join a Jongmyo timed tour at 14:00 or 16:00. On Tuesday, book the Secret Garden for 10:30 or 11:30, walk Changdeokgung's halls, then cross through the connecting gate into Changgyeonggung. On Wednesday, enter Deoksugung free for Culture Day, stay into the evening, since it is open until 21:00, and stop at Gyeonghuigung on the way if you are near Gwanghwamun.
Shift the pattern by a day if a public holiday falls inside your trip, and check the day after a long holiday with particular care: that is when a moved closure catches people out. The checker above applies these rules to any date through 2027, along with the dated notices the palaces have published.
What the checker covers
The checker combines the weekly closing days, the holiday rule, seasonal hours, Culture Day and age-free rules with the 2027 public-holiday calendar announced by the Korea AeroSpace Administration, and with dated changes the palaces have posted, such as a free-entry period or an early closing. Occasional changes to hours and one-off closures are posted on each palace's notice board at royal.khs.go.kr, which is the page to check on the morning you go.
Questions visitors ask
Are Seoul's palaces open on Seollal and Chuseok?
Yes. The heritage-service palaces and Jongmyo stay open on public holidays. If a palace's regular closing day falls during the holiday, its closure moves to the first following day that is not a holiday. In 2027 that means every palace closes together on Wednesday, February 10, after Seollal, and Gyeongbokgung and Jongmyo close on Friday, September 17, after Chuseok.
Which palace can I visit on a Monday?
Gyeongbokgung and Jongmyo Shrine. Changdeokgung, Changgyeonggung, Deoksugung and Gyeonghuigung are closed on Mondays. At Jongmyo a Monday visit is by timed guided tour only, with English tours at 10:00, 12:00, 14:00 and 16:00.
Which palaces are open in the evening?
Changgyeonggung and Deoksugung are open until 21:00 every day they are open, with last entry at 20:00. Gyeongbokgung opens at night only during announced seasonal runs.
Is any palace free every day?
Gyeonghuigung, run by the Seoul Museum of History, is always free. At the other palaces and Jongmyo, foreign visitors 18 and under or 65 and over and visitors in hanbok enter free, and every Wednesday is free except at Gyeongbokgung and the Secret Garden.
Sources and method
Written for: Visitors fitting palace visits into a fixed set of travel days who need to know which palaces open on which date, how late, and when entry is free.
Method: Researched from the official sources listed below, checked on October 25, 2026. The date checker applies the published rules and dated palace notices; the linked official pages are the final word. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.
- Royal Palaces and Tombs Center (Korea Heritage Service) — Visiting hoursWeekly closing days, the holiday rule, seasonal hours and last entry, Jongmyo timed and self-guided days, Secret Garden sessions, guidance out from 30 minutes before closing.
- Royal Palaces and Tombs Center — Admission feesAdult fees, foreign age bands, hanbok and Culture Day free entry and its exclusions, Secret Garden fees and free list, the 6,000-won integrated pass.
- Royal Palaces and Tombs Center — Hanbok free admission guidelineWhat counts as hanbok for free entry; foreign visitors are eligible.
- Seoul Museum of History — Gyeonghuigung PalaceHours 9:00–18:00, closed Mondays and January 1, free admission.
- Korea AeroSpace Administration (우주항공청) — 2027 calendar almanac (June 29, 2026)2027 public and substitute holidays, including Labor Day and Constitution Day.
- Royal Palaces and Tombs Center — October–November 2026 free admission noticeFree admission at the four palaces, Jongmyo and the royal tombs from October 29 to November 15, 2026; closing days and the Secret Garden excluded.
