You've saved one day of your Seoul trip for palaces, and the official hours page opens with a small box headed 정기휴일 (jeonggi hyuil), "regular closing days." It has two rows, not one. Monday lists Changdeokgung, Deoksugung and Changgyeonggung. Tuesday lists Gyeongbokgung and Jongmyo. So the plan that works is simple: put Gyeongbokgung and Jongmyo on a Monday, and save the other three palaces for Tuesday or later in the week.
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Two closing days, not one
It's easy to file this away as "Seoul palaces close on Mondays." That's true for three of the five big royal sites and wrong for the two you're most likely to put first. Here is the split from the Royal Palaces and Tombs Center hours page:
| Day | Closed | Open |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Changdeokgung, Deoksugung, Changgyeonggung | Gyeongbokgung, Jongmyo |
| Tuesday | Gyeongbokgung, Jongmyo | Changdeokgung, Deoksugung, Changgyeonggung |
From Wednesday through Sunday, all five keep regular hours. The trouble starts when one day's plan mixes the two groups, like Gyeongbokgung in the morning and Changdeokgung after lunch on a Monday. On a Tuesday, that same pairing fails the other way around. If your only free day is a Monday or a Tuesday, build it from one row of the table and it holds together.
A Monday that works
Start at Gyeongbokgung. Exit 5 of Gyeongbokgung Station on Line 3 is a two-minute walk from the gate. In November the palace runs 09:00 to 17:00 and stops letting people in at 16:00, an hour earlier than in October. Adult admission is normally 3,000 won for visitors aged 19 to 64, but the palace's own notice says it's free from October 29 to November 15, 2026, during the Korea Grand Festival. The Tuesday closure still applies in that window.
Jongmyo, the royal ancestral shrine, is the natural second stop and the easy one to get to. Stay on Line 3 for two stops, past Anguk, to Jongno 3-ga, then take Exit 11 or Exit 8 and walk about five minutes. The catch is how you get in. On Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays, Jongmyo is 시간제관람 (sigan-je gwallam), timed viewing: you enter at a set time and walk the site with a guide for about 50 minutes. English groups start at 10:00, 12:00, 14:00 and 16:00, and admission is 1,000 won.
For a small group, you don't need to book. Parties under 10 can buy at the ticket booth, and if you'd rather lock in a slot, online booking on the palace reservation page opens 30 days ahead and closes 4 days before. What matters more is the clock: if you miss your entry time, you don't get in on that slot. The foreign-language tours are for foreign visitors, so a Korean friend can join you but can't take the English slot alone.
My call for the day: Gyeongbokgung in the morning, then aim for the 14:00 English slot at Jongmyo. Leave Gyeongbokgung by about 13:15 so the subway ride and the walk from Exit 11 aren't a race. If lunch runs long, the 16:00 slot is your backup and the last English group of the day.
A Tuesday that runs late
Tuesday is the other three, and it can go into the evening. Do Changdeokgung first, while it's light. It costs 3,000 won and closes at 17:30 in November, with last entry at 16:30. Its Secret Garden is a separate timed ticket, so treat that as its own booking.
Save Changgyeonggung and Deoksugung for later. Both are 1,000 won and stay open until 21:00, with last entry at 20:00. At Changgyeonggung, the evening works a little differently. From November through January, visitors in the daytime areas are asked to move into the night zone at 17:30. That zone covers Honghwamun Gate, Myeongjeongjeon Hall, Tongmyeongjeon Hall, Chundangji Pond and the glass greenhouse, 대온실 (Daeonsil). The greenhouse interior stays open in the evening in November, but from December through January it closes to visitors from 18:00. So a November Tuesday is the better pick if the greenhouse is the point.
Deoksugung keeps its grounds open late too, but Seokjojeon, the stone hall inside, works on online reservations with a guide, and the last tour is at 16:30. If you want inside that building, book it for the afternoon and come back to the grounds after dark. All three palaces on one Tuesday cost 5,000 won for an adult.
Whichever day you choose, entry is free at all five sites if you're 18 or under or 65 or older, so bring ID. The four palaces also let you in free if you're wearing hanbok (한복), the traditional Korean dress.
When a holiday moves the closing day
The weekday rule has one exception. When a public holiday or a substitute holiday lands on a regular closing day, that site opens anyway and closes on the next day that isn't a holiday. In a normal week you can ignore this. In a holiday week it can close everything at once.
Two dates in early 2027 show how. The Seollal (Lunar New Year) holidays run February 6 to 8, with a substitute holiday on Tuesday, February 9, so Monday and Tuesday that week are both days off. That means both groups open on their usual closing days, and both close on Wednesday, February 10. Then Independence Movement Day falls on Monday, March 1. Changdeokgung, Deoksugung and Changgyeonggung open that day and close on Tuesday, March 2, the same day Gyeongbokgung and Jongmyo take their regular closure. On February 10 and March 2, 2027, none of the five will be open unless a palace announces something different.
Those announcements do happen, for holiday free entry, events and maintenance. Each palace posts them on its 공지사항 (gongjisahang) notice board, and the Gyeongbokgung notice for October and November 2026 is a good example of what to look for. If your palace day touches a holiday week, open the notice board for that palace a day or two before you go.
Before you lock in your palace day, check which weekday it lands on. If it's a Monday, Gyeongbokgung goes first.
Sources checked October 28, 2026
- Royal Palaces and Tombs Center: Viewing hours and regular closing days (Korean)
- Royal Palaces and Tombs Center: Admission fees (Korean)
- Royal Palaces and Tombs Center: Directions to each site (Korean)
- Royal Palaces and Tombs Center: Reservations, Jongmyo timed viewing (Korean)
- Royal Palaces and Tombs Center: Admission Information (English)
- Gyeongbokgung notice: October to November 2026 operations (Korean)
- Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute: 2027 public holidays (Korean)
- Seoul Metropolitan Government: Line 3 stations from Jongno 3-ga to Gyeongbokgung (Korean)
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