Three Days in Seoul - Access Seoul

The long low front of the National Museum of Korea across its reflecting pond — Photograph by Jinah78, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Three days is the first length at which Seoul stops being a checklist. It adds the national collection, the mountain in the middle of the city, and an evening that is not spent walking between monuments.

The plan

Days 1–2 — As above.
Day 3, 09:30 — The National Museum of Korea at Ichon. Free. Take the Path to History hall in order, then the Pensive Bodhisattva and the Silla gold crowns. Allow three hours and do not try to see all of it.
13:30 — The War Memorial of Korea, ten minutes away and also free, or straight on if one large museum is enough for a day.
15:00 — Namsan. Take the shuttle bus rather than the cable car queue, or walk up from Namsangol. The plaza at the top is free and has the same view as the paid deck from seventy metres lower.
17:00 — Walk down the north side to Namsangol Hanok Village — relocated genuine hanok, free, and far quieter than Bukchon.
19:00 — Hongdae for the evening if you want it loud, Euljiro if you want a bar on the third floor of a print works, Ikseon-dong if you want to sit down.
⭐ If it is Saturday — Swap the museum for Jongmyo, which on Saturdays can be walked freely instead of on a guided tour. A hundred metres of shut doors above an empty stone court, and the most severe thing in the city.

A cable car climbing the wooded slope of Namsan towards the tower at the summit — Photograph by Jean & Nathalie, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

⚠️ The National Museum shuts on Seollal and Chuseok, whose dates move every year with the lunar calendar. If your trip is near either, check before crossing town.

Ritual musicians in red robes performing the Jongmyo Jeryeak on the shrine terrace — Photograph by Noh Mun Duek, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

What this plan is built around

Not a list of sights, but the constraints: Gyeongbokgung closes on Tuesday while Changdeokgung, Changgyeonggung, Deoksugung and Jongmyo close on Monday; Jongmyo is guided-tour-only except on Saturdays and Culture Day; the Huwon garden must be booked ahead and is capped; and the last train goes around midnight, which is the only hard deadline in a city where nothing else shuts.

The head of the Cheonggyecheon stream with its fountain and banks of flowers — Photograph by Basile Morin, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Other lengths

2 daysTwo Days in Seoul 5 daysFive Days in Seoul A weekA Week in Seoul

Checked on 5 September 2026. Closing days, ticket structures and booking requirements change — confirm before you travel. All sixteen sights, one page each, in Landmarks & Sights.