Gyeongbokgung Opening Hours

Gyeongbokgung opens at 9am every day except Tuesday and closes at 5pm in winter, 6pm in spring and autumn and 6:30pm in summer, with last entry an hour before closing. When a Tuesday is a public holiday, the palace opens that day and closes the following day instead. Plan on two hours for the main halls. With a private guide you can fit more around them: Honey Trail’s private palace, temple and Bukchon tour takes in Jogyesa Temple, Gyeongbokgung and Bukchon in three hours, from US$91 a person (checked October 2026).

Check private tour dates

Opening hours by season

The National Folk Museum inside the grounds keeps its own hours, so check them if it is the reason you are going.

Closed on Tuesday: what to do instead

Every Tuesday the palace is shut, and the guard ceremony with it. Changdeokgung, closed on Mondays instead, is open, and so are its Secret Garden tours; the Changdeokgung guide has the details. The city tours keep running but change their route, so read the Tuesday line on any listing before booking:

• VIP Travel’s Seoul Highlights tour visits Changdeokgung and Bukchon on Tuesdays, without Gyeongbokgung, the guard ceremony or the folk museum.
• VIP Travel’s Bukchon tour visits Changdeokgung and Insadong.
• Cosmojin’s DMZ and Gyeongbok Palace day visits Deoksugung instead.

A Tuesday is also a good day to leave the city altogether. dmzinsidertour.com covers DMZ tours from Seoul in depth, including what to expect at the border and what to bring on the day.

The best day and time to go

A weekday, Wednesday to Friday, and either first thing or late. At 9am you have the courtyards before the 10am guard change pulls in the tour groups; the rental shops by the palace call 9am to noon their own peak, so the hanbok crowd is in the palace by mid-morning. Most of the tours on this page visit in the morning, so the late afternoon is the quieter choice. At the weekend, note that Korea Guide Tour’s half-day palace tour cannot confirm weekend or holiday dates at all. Avoid Mondays if you also want Changdeokgung the same day, since it is closed then.

How long to spend

About two hours covers the main line of the palace: Gwanghwamun, Heungnyemun, the Geunjeongjeon throne hall, Gangnyeongjeon and Gyotaejeon, and Gyeonghoeru, the pavilion on its pond. That is how long the half-day tour takes. Add half an hour for the National Folk Museum, which is what the city tours give it, and 20 minutes for the guard ceremony. The city tours give the palace about an hour with a guide; at ₩3,000, a second visit on your own costs little.

Pick how much time you give it:

Prices and review counts as listed on GetYourGuide in October 2026, not a quote.

Check dates and book