By day, Gyeongbokgung is busy. It has 46,922 Google reviews averaging 4.6, and on a sunny afternoon it can feel as if every one of those reviewers is standing at the same gate in rented hanbok. The Starlight Night Tour is the other version of the palace. A ticketed group walks the courts after dark, by lantern light, once the day crowd has gone home.
On Gyeongbokgung Starlight Night Tour tickets, the short version is this. The tour is its own booking, separate from ordinary palace entry, and it runs only on the dates the organizers publish, with limited places. Wearing hanbok gets you into the palace free by day and does nothing for this ticket. Book the night first, then fit the rest of Seoul around it.
For 2026 dates and the price, go to the season’s official listing. We haven’t printed either here. Dates change every season and prices can too, and a number copied from an old blog post is how people end up at a palace gate on the wrong night.
Everything we could confirm is below: what to check before you pay, and the palace’s official hours, closing-day rule and family facilities. Those last three come from the Korea Tourism Organization’s listing, which is published only in Korean, and we’ve translated them here.
🏮 Why the night walk earns one of your evenings
The daytime palace is bigger than people expect. Past Gwanghwamun, the main gate, halls and courtyards keep opening up one behind another, with mountains standing behind the roofs. Give it a whole afternoon and you’ll still skip parts.
It’s crowded, too. Tour groups, hanbok photo shoots, phones held up in every doorway. Visitors who know Beijing’s palaces sometimes find this one small by comparison, and they have a point.
Night changes the terms. You walk through courtyards that were packed a few hours earlier, now lit by lanterns, and the size of the place lands differently when you can’t see the far wall. On a first trip it’s a strong use of one evening. If you’ve done the day palace before, it’s the reason to go back.
🎟️ Gyeongbokgung Starlight Night Tour tickets: how a foreign visitor books
Places are limited and the dates are set in advance, so waiting until you land in Seoul is a gamble. Start from the official listing and work outward.
Find the right listing
Search the English name and the Korean one, 경복궁 별빛야행. The page you want comes from Korea’s national heritage authorities or the ticketing site they name. Seoul’s palaces run several evening programs under different names, so make sure the page is for the Starlight tour at Gyeongbokgung before you pay.
Travel-booking sites sometimes package palace evenings as well. Compare anything they sell with the official page before paying.
What to check before you pay
- Date and start time. Set a phone alarm for an hour before.
- Where the group gathers, and at which gate. Walk there in daylight if you can. At night, one stretch of palace wall looks a lot like the next.
- A route for foreign visitors. An English booking page or a phone line. Whatever the listing offers, start there.
- What the price covers. If food is included, raise allergies or dietary rules when you book.
- Language. Which language the guiding is in, and whether anyone interprets.
- Children. Any age rules, and whether the route suits a stroller.
- Refund deadline. Plans change. After that date, the ticket is a souvenir.
- Name and ID. Whether the ticket is tied to the person who booked it. Carry your passport that evening either way.
When a Korean ticketing site stops you
Korean ticketing sites often ask for identity verification through a Korean mobile number, and a visitor’s phone can’t get through it. If the listing offers a foreign-visitor route, take that. If a Korean friend offers to book on their account, check the name and ID rule first. It decides whether the favor still works at the gate.
The palace office is on 02-3700-3900, or +82-2-3700-3900 from abroad. That’s the number the Korea Tourism Organization lists for Gyeongbokgung, so it’s the one for palace questions like hours and facilities. Booking problems go to the contact printed on the tour listing.
Hanbok covers the daytime palace
Wear hanbok and daytime entry is free, which explains the costume-drama crowd at the gates. That rule belongs to ordinary admission. The Starlight walk is a separate ticket, and you pay for it like one.
Planning to wear hanbok on the night? Check the rental shop’s return time against the end of your tour before you rent. A shop that shuts halfway through your walk turns a nice idea into a sprint.
🕰️ Official palace hours by season
These hours are from the Korea Tourism Organization’s Korean-language listing, as of September 2026. Google Maps shows 09:00 to 18:00 every day except Tuesday. That’s right in spring and autumn and wrong in summer and winter, so go by the table.
| Months | Open | Last admission |
|---|---|---|
| March to May | 09:00–18:00 | 17:00 |
| June to August | 09:00–18:30 | 17:30 |
| September to October | 09:00–18:00 | 17:00 |
| November to February | 09:00–17:00 | 16:00 |
The palace is closed every Tuesday. When a Tuesday falls on a public holiday, it opens that day and closes on the next working day instead.
Why daytime hours matter for a night ticket
If you want the palace in daylight on the same date as your tour, you need to be through the gate by last admission: 17:00 from March to May and in September and October, 17:30 from June to August, 16:00 from November to February. Miss it and that day you’ll only see the palace by lantern.
🗺️ Planning the day around your ticket
Book the night first. Then plan the daylight around it.
Daylight and night on the same date
Go in around 15:00 in September or October. That leaves two hours before last admission and three before the 18:00 close. From November, move everything an hour earlier.
At closing, walk out through Gwanghwamun and across to Gwanghwamun Square (광화문광장). It’s free, open ground, with statues of King Sejong, who created the Korean alphabet, and Admiral Yi Sun-sin, the naval commander of the turtle ships. In summer the floor fountains fill with children. The rest of the year it’s a place to sit and wait out the gap.
If the listing says food comes with the tour, go easy on snacks. Head back to the gathering point with time to spare. The catch with this plan: you’ll cover the same ground twice in one day, and your feet will say so.
The night on its own
This is the better plan if your trip has room. Do the daytime palace on a different morning, in hanbok for free entry, and catch the guard-changing ceremony at 10:00. There’s another in the afternoon, but check that day’s schedule before you plan around it. The Starlight evening is then just the walk, on fresh legs.
On the tour day itself, keep the morning short. Ikseon-dong’s hanok alleys are a short ride away and best early, before the crowds, and our Ikseon-dong guide has the timing. Spend the afternoon off your feet and come back to the palace rested.
If you couldn’t get a ticket
It happens. In past years the palace has also held simpler evening openings, a different ticket with no guided walk, so check whether one falls on your dates. Failing that, do the palace late in the afternoon, walk out into the square at closing, and give the night to the skyline. Our N Seoul Tower guide covers the hour that decides that visit.
🚇 Getting there and parking
The address is 161 Sajik-ro, Jongno-gu. Two subway stations serve it: Gyeongbokgung Station on Line 3, named for the palace, and Gwanghwamun Station on Line 5, which comes up at the square. For a taxi, show the driver the Korean name, 경복궁, along with the gathering point on your ticket.
Before you leave the palace grounds after the tour, look up your last train home in Naver Map or Kakao Map.
There is parking, but the tourism listing gives no capacity or rates, so we won’t guess at them. The only parking figure it does give is for accessible spaces (see below). If you’re driving to a night booking, confirm the car park’s closing time before you commit.
♿ Wheelchairs, strollers and nursing rooms
The Korea Tourism Organization publishes barrier-free details for Gyeongbokgung. They’re written for wheelchair users, and they happen to answer most of what parents ask. Here’s what’s listed, and where:
- Accessible parking: 9 spaces in the outdoor car park to the right of Gwanghwamun.
- Main entrance: ramped, so a wheelchair can get in.
- Wheelchairs and strollers: both can be rented. The listing doesn’t say where, so ask at the ticket booth, which is where the audio guides are handed out.
- Audio guides: audio handsets and handheld PDA guides, both rented from the ticket booth.
- Accessible toilets: on site. The listing doesn’t give locations.
- Nursing rooms: at Heungnyemun (흥례문), the second gate straight ahead after Gwanghwamun, and inside the women’s toilet at the car park.
- Baby changing tables: in the nursing rooms and in the regular toilets.
These are the palace’s daytime facilities. A group walking in the dark is a different situation, so if you’re bringing a wheelchair or a stroller, ask the organizers about the route and pace before you book.
🏯 Names to know before the lights go down
Gyeongbokgung was built in 1395 by Yi Seong-gye, who founded the Joseon dynasty and ruled as King Taejo. It’s the largest of Seoul’s five royal palaces. People call it the Northern Palace, with Changdeokgung as the eastern one and Gyeonghuigung the western.
Many Joseon kings were crowned here. The palace burned during the Imjin War (1592–1598), and all of its buildings were restored under Heungseon Daewongun in King Gojong’s reign. After Empress Myeongseong was assassinated, it stopped serving as a royal palace, and it was still standing when the dynasty fell.
Three names worth knowing in the dark. Gyeonghoeru, the pavilion the palace still has in its original form. Hyangwonjeong, the pavilion with its pond. And Geunjeongjeon Hall, whose sculptures are textbook examples of Joseon carving. Which of them your route passes is the organizers’ call each season.
On the west side of the area outside Heungnyemun is the National Palace Museum of Korea. Keep it in mind if rain pushes the daytime half of your plan indoors.
📸 On the night: photos and what to carry
Switch your phone to night mode before the walk starts. The group keeps moving while you hunt through settings, and the good frames go by quickly.
Turn your screen brightness right down. In a dark courtyard, one bright phone spoils everyone else’s shot, and you don’t want it to be yours. In hanbok, face the nearest lantern so the light falls on you.
- Passport. For any name or ID check at the gate.
- A screenshot of your booking. Quicker than loading the confirmation page at the gate with people waiting behind you.
- A layer. Autumn evenings in Seoul turn cool, hanbok or no hanbok.
- Walking shoes. The grounds are large, and at night you see less of what’s under your feet.
❓ Short answers
How does a foreign visitor book the Starlight Night Tour?
Through the season’s official listing, well before your trip. Look there for a foreign-visitor option first. Korean ticketing sites often need a Korean mobile number to verify you.
Does wearing hanbok get me in free?
For daytime palace entry, yes. The Starlight tour is a separate paid ticket.
What are the palace hours in autumn?
09:00 to 18:00 in September and October, with last admission at 17:00. From November it’s 09:00 to 17:00, last admission 16:00.
Which day is the palace closed?
Tuesday. If a Tuesday is a public holiday, the palace opens that day and closes on the next working day.
Can I bring a stroller or a wheelchair?
By day, yes. The palace rents both, the main entrance has a ramp, and there are nursing rooms at Heungnyemun and in the car-park women’s toilet. For the night route, ask the organizers when you book.
When is the 2026 tour, and how much does it cost?
Check the official listing for both. We only print dates and prices we can confirm.
Which number do I call?
For hours and facilities, call the palace office on 02-3700-3900 (+82-2-3700-3900 from abroad). For bookings, use the contact on the tour listing.
📝 In short
- The Starlight Night Tour is its own ticket, sold for published dates with limited places. Book it before you plan anything else.
- Before paying, check the date, start time, gathering gate, language, what’s included, refund deadline and ID rules.
- Hanbok gets you into the palace free by day. It doesn’t cover the night tour.
- Daytime last admission is 17:00 from March to May and in September and October, and 16:00 from November to February.
- Closed Tuesdays. When a Tuesday is a public holiday, the closure moves to the next working day.
- Nursing rooms are at Heungnyemun and in the car-park women’s toilet. Wheelchairs and strollers can be rented.
- Palace office: 02-3700-3900, or +82-2-3700-3900 from abroad.