한국어

Guide · Korea National Park Service · 10 min read

Korea's national parks — free entry, what to book, no Korean phone

Entry to Korea's 24 national parks is free, but mountain shelters, campsites and a few reservation-only trails must be booked. What needs a reservation, when windows open, what it costs, and how the KNPS English portal works without a Korean phone.

Kang Shin-wookUpdated 22 September 2026Editorial policy

In short

  • Entering any of Korea's 24 national parks is free. The Korea National Park Service (KNPS, 국립공원공단) abolished entrance fees on 1 January 2007, and since 4 May 2023 the heritage fee once charged by temples on park trails is waived at Jogye Order temples.
  • Three things need a reservation: overnight mountain shelters (대피소) in Jirisan, Seoraksan, Deogyusan and Sobaeksan; park campsites (야영장); and a short list of reservation-only trails (탐방예약제) such as Jirisan's Chilseon Valley.
  • KNPS runs a separate English portal. Sign-up asks for a name, e-mail, password, date of birth and sex — no Korean phone number or ID. It covers shelters and campsites only.
  • A shelter bunk is 20,000 won per person on weekday nights and 30,000 won on Friday, Saturday and pre-holiday nights. On the English portal you pay at the shelter on the day, so no Korean bank card is needed.
  • In spring and again in late autumn, high trails and shelters close for fire prevention. Check the KNPS closure page before fixing a date.

Everything here was checked 22 September 2026 against KNPS pages; the English site english.knps.or.kr did not respond that day, so the sources are the Korean site and the reservation system.

What is free, and what still costs money?

Park entry is free. The KNPS history page records the abolition of the entrance fee on 1 January 2007, and shows the park count at 24 after Geumjeongsan was designated on 3 March 2026.

Several famous temples sit on the main trail into a park and long charged a "cultural heritage viewing fee" at an unavoidable gate. The Cultural Heritage Administration's release of 1 May 2023 says that from 4 May 2023 the state funds this fee, so Jogye Order temples holding nationally designated heritage stopped charging. What remains — parking, shelters, campsites, eco-lodges — is what the reservation system is for.

WhatNeeds booking?WhereFee
Park entry, day hikingNo—Free since 1 January 2007
Temple on a park trail (Jogye Order, national heritage)No—Fee waived from 4 May 2023
Mountain shelter, 13 shelters in 4 parksYes, in advance onlyreservation.knps.or.kr (English: /foreigner)20,000 won weekday / 30,000 won weekend, per person
Park campsiteYesSame system; Korean site runs a lotteryDohak auto-camping: 20,000 won off-peak / 30,000 won peak, per night
Reservation-only trailYes, day permitKorean reservation site; some trails also on siteFree
Eco-lodge, guesthouse village, ranger programmesYesKorean reservation siteVaries

Which things must be booked, and when do the windows open?

The policy page on reservation.knps.or.kr sets the calendar for the Korean-language system:

  • Shelters open on the first weekday of each month at 14:00, first come first served, for the following month. Up to 4 bookings a month (6 in Jirisan), one night each. Booking stays open until 14:00 on the day of use; cancellation until 12:00 that day.
  • Campsites are allocated by lottery, with applications on the 1st of every even-numbered month. Stays are up to two nights; payment is due by 14:00 the day before.
  • Reservation-only trails open on the first weekday of each month at 10:00, first come first served, until 14:00 the day before use (Uiryeong and Nogodan close at 16:00 on the day).

If an opening day is a public holiday it moves to the next weekday. A "weekday" night is Sunday to Thursday except the night before a holiday; a "weekend" night is Friday, Saturday or a pre-holiday night. Campsite peak season is 1 July to 31 August and 1 October to 15 November.

The English portal's own guide says only "from the first day of the month", moved to the nearest weekday if the 1st is a holiday, maximum 5 people per booking. Treat the Korean policy page as current and check the notice board for the month's date.

The trail booking page lists the reservation-only sections: Chilseon Valley and Nogodan in Jirisan, Gombae-gol and Heulrim-gol in Seoraksan, Uiryeong in Bukhansan, and sections in nine other parks. Chilseon Valley ran 1 May to 31 October in the 2025 season, Friday to Tuesday, 60 people a day, now self-guided. Gombae-gol runs year-round except Mondays, Tuesdays and fire-prevention periods, 09:00 to 14:00 with last entry at 11:00, 350 people a day, and accepts on-site registration.

Hallasan on Jeju is run by the province, not KNPS; its trails are booked at visithalla.jeju.go.kr, opening at 09:00 on the first business day of each month.

Does the reservation site work without a Korean phone number?

For shelters and campsites, yes. The Korean site verifies identity by Korean mobile phone or I-PIN, so KNPS runs a separate English portal at reservation.knps.or.kr/foreigner. Its sign-up form asks for first name, last name, e-mail (used as the ID), password, birthday and sex, all required and nothing else. The password must be 8 to 16 characters with upper-case, lower-case and special characters. No SMS step is described.

Payment is the other relief: the portal's shelter and campsite pages say you pay at the facility on the day of your visit. At the shelter you register at the office and everyone in the group must show an ID card or passport; a booking cannot be transferred. Check-in is 15:00 to 18:00 in every season.

The English portal does not cover trail permits, the campsite lottery, eco-lodges or ranger programmes. Whether a foreign passport is accepted on the Korean site's manual identity route is not stated on any page I could fetch, so treat that as unverified. Alternatives: book a trail like Gombae-gol on site, or call the KNPS reservation line, +82-1670-9201 (weekdays 09:00–18:00, closed 12:00–13:00), or the park office named on the trail page.

What do shelters cost, and what is the refund rule?

Every shelter page carries the same table: 20,000 won per person for a weekday night, 30,000 won for a weekend or peak-season night. Jangteomok in Jirisan sleeps 120, Nogodan 36, Satgatjae in Deogyusan 40. The 13 bookable shelters are seven in Jirisan (Jangteomok, Seseok, Byeoksoryeong, Rotary, Chibatmok, Nogodan, Yeonhacheon), four in Seoraksan (Huiungak, Suryeomdong, Socheong, Yangpok), Satgatjae, and Second Yeonhwabong in Sobaeksan. Shelters sell water (1,500 won for 500 ml) and instant rice (3,000 won); there is no restaurant.

Refunds follow a sliding scale: three or more days before use, everything back; two days before, 10 percent kept; one day, 20 percent; same day, 30 percent. A no-show gets nothing and is barred from booking for one month, three months after a second. If KNPS cancels because of a weather warning or disaster the full amount is returned. On the English portal nothing is prepaid, so simply cancel online rather than be recorded as a no-show.

When do trails close, and what does "탐방로 통제" mean?

"탐방로 통제" (trail control) means a section is closed to entry; passing the barrier is an offence under Article 28 of the Natural Parks Act, cited in the park notices. Closures come from rockfall, storm warnings, construction, rest years for eroded trails, and the two fire-prevention rounds.

Spring is the big one. Jirisan's 2024 notice set the fire-prevention season at 1 February to 15 May with trail closures from 15 February to 30 April. Seoraksan's 2026 notice closed high trails from 4 March to 15 May, Gombaeryeong from 1 March to 21 April and Heulrim-gol from 4 March to 15 April for rockfall. Shelters follow: Seseok was closed 15 February to 30 April 2026, Satgatjae 4 March to 30 April 2026. A second round comes in late autumn; the 2026 autumn notices had not been posted when this was checked, so look them up rather than assume.

Two places to check: the live status page (통제정보), which lists all 24 parks as "정상" (normal) or "부분통제" (partial closure) with a timestamp and links to each park's closed sections, and the reservation site's notice board for the seasonal notices. Separately, the entry-time system (입산시간지정제) fixes when you may start up a trail — for example 04:00 to 12:00 in winter (November to March) on some Seoraksan routes; start late and rangers turn you back.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just turn up at a shelter and pay? No. The English portal states that same-day reservations at the shelter and phone bookings are not accepted, and that a booking is for the named group only.

I only want a day hike on Jirisan or Seoraksan. Do I need anything? Nothing, unless your route uses a reservation-only section or is closed for the season. Check the closure page and the entry-time table for your trailhead the evening before.

Are English trail maps available? KNPS publishes an English site at english.knps.or.kr, but it did not respond on the day checked. The Korean park pages carry course maps with difficulty grades, and visitor centres hand out printed maps.

Do children or seniors pay less at shelters? The discount table covers Korean veterans, disabled visitors, large families and local residents, verified against Korean documents. There is no age-based or foreign-visitor rate; assume the full 20,000 or 30,000 won.

What if a typhoon closes the park after I have booked? The reservation is refunded in full with no penalty. The shelter guide adds that local offices cancel all shelter bookings once a special weather report is issued, so watch the notice board before a trip.

Sources

Last updated 2026-09-22