Access Seoul서울 · Seoul

Palaces & Shrines

궁궐 · GUNGGWOL

Five royal palaces on one three-month ticket, free entry to every one of them in hanbok, and two different closing days to get right.

Tiled palace roofs and a red-pillared gate at Changdeokgung
Photograph by Richard Mortel from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
A wooden pavilion above a green stream in the wooded Secret Garden at Changdeokgung
Photograph by Joycekim77, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Five palaces, one ticket, and two different closing days

The Joseon dynasty ran for five centuries from five palaces in this city, and all five are still here in some form. Gyeongbokgung is the formal one and the biggest. Changdeokgung is the one the kings actually lived in and the only one on the UNESCO list. Changgyeonggung adjoins it and is the quietest. Deoksugung is downtown and mixes Joseon wood with Edwardian stone. Gyeonghuigung is a fragment, and it is free.

Jongmyo, the royal ancestral shrine, is not a palace but belongs with them: it is on the same ticket and it is the most severe and the most impressive building of the six.

Deoksugung's throne hall low against the glass office towers of central Seoul
Photograph by sellyourseoul, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

⚠️ The closing day is different depending on which palace

Gyeongbokgung closes on Tuesday. Changdeokgung, Changgyeonggung, Deoksugung and Jongmyo close on Monday. Plan "palaces on Monday" and four of the five are shut; Gyeongbokgung is the one that is open.

Sungjeongjeon, the main hall of Gyeonghuigung, on its stone terrace
Photograph by Andrew Currie (a flickr user), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

The integrated ticket

One ticket covers Gyeongbokgung, Changdeokgung including the Huwon garden, Changgyeonggung, Deoksugung and Jongmyo, and it stays valid for three months. That long validity is the useful part: it does not force you to do five palaces in two days, and it is worth buying as soon as you know you will see three.

The Huwon inclusion is the main argument for it, because the Huwon is otherwise a separate ticket on top of a separate admission.

⚠️ Two things that must be booked, not turned up for

  • The Huwon (Secret Garden) at Changdeokgung is a timed, guided, capped walk. You cannot wander in. In blossom and maple season the English slots go days ahead. This is the commonest wasted journey in Seoul.
  • Jongmyo is guided-tour-only on most days. The exceptions are Saturdays and Culture Day, the last Wednesday of the month, when you may walk the site freely — which is much better for a place whose entire effect is silence.

⭐ Free ways in

Hanbok, always. Culture Day, the last Wednesday of most months, when admission is waived and several palaces open later. And Gyeonghuigung, which is simply free.

The changing of the guard at Gyeongbokgung and at Deoksugung happens outside the ticket line — you can watch the whole ceremony without going in.

What you are actually looking at

Almost nothing standing is older than the 1860s, and much of it is later than 1990. The 1592 invasion burned the palaces; the colonial administration demolished what the nineteenth century rebuilt. The reconstruction programme has been running for over thirty years and is not finished — you will see scaffolding, and that is the story rather than an interruption to it.

Booking the Huwon at Changdeokgung Before You Fly

by Access Seoul Editorial Team
Canal Grande in Venice with traditional gondolas and historic architecture under a cloudy sky

Book the Huwon (후원) at Changdeokgung the day it releases, not the week before your trip. Reservations open once a month, at a fixed hour, for the entire following month, and weekend and English-language slots are commonly reported gone within minutes. Miss it and your only route in is a same-day standby queue at the … Read more

The Integrated Palace Ticket: What It Covers and When It Pays

by Access Seoul Editorial Team
Discover the beauty of Venice's Grand Canal at twilight with its historic architecture and romantic ambiance

The Integrated Palace Ticket bundles entry to four royal palaces and Jongmyo shrine into one pass, sold by South Korea’s heritage authority. It only saves money once a visitor plans to enter three or more of the five sites within its validity window. Below that, buying single tickets is cheaper and simpler. The rest of … Read more

Which Seoul Palace Is Closed on Which Day (Full Rules)

by Access Seoul Editorial Team
Grand Canal in Venice, Italy, with boats and historic architecture

Seoul’s royal palaces do not share one closing day. Gyeongbokgung (경복궁) closes on Tuesdays. Changdeokgung (창덕궁), Changgyeonggung (창경궁), Deoksugung (덕수궁) and Jongmyo (종묘) all close on Mondays. Mix the list up and you arrive at a locked gate — the single most common wasted trip in the city, according to how often the mistake shows … Read more

Free Palace Entry in Hanbok: How It Actually Works

by Access Seoul Editorial Team
Explore the cityscape of Venice's Grand Canal with architecture and colors

Wear hanbok to any of Seoul’s five grand palaces and the admission fee is waived at the gate — no ticket, no separate line, just the garment itself acting as the pass. It does not, however, work the same way at Jongmyo. That single exception trips up more visitors than the policy itself ever saves … Read more