Palaces & Hanbok

Seoul has five palaces and a royal shrine within walking distance of each other, and they disagree about almost everything — which day they close, what a ticket covers, whether you can simply walk in.

The ticket arithmetic is the place to start, because the combined pass only pays past a certain point and the closing days do not line up.

What most visitors miss:

• Free English tours run at every site, on a published timetable, with no booking — and Jongmyo cannot be entered any other way on four days of the week
• Free performances happen at Gyeongbokgung four times a day and need no Korean at all
• Hanbok waives admission, but the palaces have a written definition of what counts and some rentals fail it
• The National Museum is free and closes three days a year, which makes it the answer when a palace has shut
• Changdeokgung’s Secret Garden opens bookings exactly six days out, and half the seats sell at the gate same-day
• The palace night tours run three different ticket systems, and foreign visitors queue on a different site entirely from Korean residents

Dancheong — the painted eaves — is a color system rather than decoration, and it is the thing worth having explained before you look up.