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Year-roundFreeNational Institute of Ecology·Programme
The ant exhibition at Korea's National Institute of Ecology
At the National Institute of Ecology in Seocheon, the Ant World Exploration exhibition hands visitors a lab coat and walks them through the working day of an ant scientist, ending with a report they write themselves. There is no separate charge — the standard admission of KRW 5,000 for adults covers it — and a 30-minute guided session runs year-round, in September 2026 at 10 am, 1 pm and 3 pm from Tuesday to Sunday except Wednesday. That guided session is conducted in Korean and booking needs a Korean-language account, but the exhibition itself can be walked without either.
Special exhibition hall, Ecorium, National Institute of Ecology
Last dayBaekdudaegan National Arboretum·Exhibition
Wildflower Hill in Bonghwa — native autumn flowers to 18 October
Baekdudaegan National Arboretum (국립백두대간수목원) in Bonghwa has planted Wildflower Hill with around 200,000 plants of 15 native species for a month-long outdoor show called Wildflower Taste, running from 19 September to 18 October 2026. There is no separate exhibition ticket: you pay the usual arboretum admission of KRW 5,000 for adults, and entry is free altogether from 1 to 11 October during the Bongja Festival. The site is shut on four days inside that window — 25 and 28 September, and 6 and 12 October — and the last admission is 5 pm.
19 Sept – 18 OctWildflower Hill, Baekdudaegan National Arboretum
Korea Tourism Organization·Notice
Korea's autumn accommodation discount runs 22 September to 8 November
The government's Stay Sale Festa reopens at 10am on 22 September and runs to 8 November, knocking KRW 20,000 to 70,000 off accommodation outside the Seoul region. A separate island edition, new this year, covers 32 coastal and island districts and is issued through one booking site only. Vouchers are released daily at 10am, first come first served, one per person.
22 Sept – 8 Nov
On nowFreeNational Museum of Korea·Programme
Wednesday nights at the National Museum of Korea: what is open, and what needs Korean
The National Museum of Korea stays open until 9pm on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and it uses those evenings for programmes. This autumn's NMK Writing Club runs on three October Wednesdays, free, for fifteen people chosen from written applications closing on 27 September — and it is conducted in Korean. The drop-in Curator's Talk on the same evenings needs no application at all.
14 Oct – 28 OctNational Museum of Korea, permanent galleries and the education wing, Seoul
EndedFreeKorea National Park Service·Exhibition
National park photography exhibition in Cheongju, free, until 27 September
The Korea National Park Service is showing prize-winning photographs from its national park competition at the Chungbuk Gallery in Cheongju until 27 September, free and without booking. Three themed rooms cover landscape, plants, and animals and cultural heritage, alongside video and a character merchandise pop-up. It closes on Mondays and on Chuseok day, 25 September.
17 Sept – 27 SeptChungbuk Gallery, OSCO, Cheongju
On nowFreeKorea National Park Service·Event
A new 30-minute trail at Songnisan opens on 21 September, with a view over Beopjusa
Songnisan National Park opens a new 0.8 km path from Beopjusa temple to Sujeongbong peak on 21 September 2026. It takes about thirty minutes one way, needs no booking and costs nothing, and the summit looks across to Cheonwangbong, the highest peak in the park, and down over Beopjusa, a UNESCO World Heritage temple. It is a permanent trail with no closing date.
From 21 SeptSongnisan National Park, Beopjusa to Sujeongbong, Boeun-gun, Chungbuk
On nowFreeRoyal Palaces and Tombs Center·Exhibition
Changdeokgung opens the Huiuru pavilion for the first time, 22 September to 8 November
The pavilion on the east side of Seongjeonggak at Changdeokgung, closed to visitors until now, opens from 22 September to 8 November 2026. There is no booking: you sign up on the spot, Tuesday to Saturday between 10:30am and 4:30pm, for a fifteen-minute slot with a maximum of eight people. Everything in the programme is free, but you still need a Changdeokgung ticket to reach it.
22 Sept – 8 NovChangdeokgung Palace, Seongjeonggak and Gwanmulheon, 99 Yulgok-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul
On nowFreeKorea National Park Service·Programme
Jirisan's Chilseon Valley gets a QR stamp trail with AI narration, in English too
Jirisan National Park has put AI narration and a mobile stamp card on seven points along Chilseon Valley, running to 28 February 2027. There is no app to install and no booking: you scan a QR code at the Chuseong car park and walk. The narration is offered in English as well as Korean, and the single thing to know is that once a stamp is collected, that point's narration cannot be replayed.
1 Sept – 28 FebChilseon Valley, Jirisan National Park, Hamyang-gun, Gyeongnam. Starts at the Chuseong car park
On nowFreeGimhae National Museum·Exhibition
Gimhae shows a camel-shaped pot from a Gaya grave, free, until February
Gimhae National Museum opens the first full exhibition of the Changwon Hyeondong site on 18 September, running to 14 February 2027. Some 951 objects from a cemetery of more than 900 graves go on show, including the first camel-shaped pottery found in Korea from the Three Kingdoms period, displayed alongside two boat-shaped vessels. Admission is free and no booking is needed; it closes on Mondays.
18 Sept – 14 FebGimhae National Museum, special exhibition hall, third floor, 190 Gayaui-gil, Gimhae, Gyeongnam
EndedKorea National Arboretum·Exhibition
Star-shaped succulent flowers at the Korea National Arboretum, to 30 September
The Korea National Arboretum is showing succulents whose flowers open as five-pointed stars in its tropical research glasshouse until 30 September. Between Monday closures and the Chuseok forest rest period there are only about ten days left to see it. Admission is the standard arboretum ticket of KRW 1,000 for an adult, and arriving by car requires a parking reservation.
8 Sept – 30 SeptTropical plant research centre glasshouse, Korea National Arboretum, 509 Gwangneungsumogwon-ro, Pocheon, Gyeonggi-do
EndedKorea National Park Service·Event
Korea's walking week, 1 to 11 October, and the two long trails behind it
Korea Walking Week runs from 1 to 11 October 2026, opening with a ceremony and a 3 km coastal walk at Taeanhaean National Park. The registered walk itself closed to applications on 20 September, but the week's other programmes — a stamp challenge on the Durunubi app, free coffee for completing set sections on six days, and rest-stop events around the country — need no booking at all.
1 Oct – 1 OctTaean Marine Healing Center, Dalsanpo beach, Taeanhaean National Park, Chungnam — walking to Mongsanpo beach, about 3 km
EndedFreeNational Folk Museum of Korea·Event
A free Chuseok festival at the National Folk Museum, 26 and 27 September
The National Folk Museum runs its Chuseok festival across two sites on Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 September, with twenty-five activities — wrestling, circle dancing, harvest games, craft making and four performances — all free and twenty-three of them walk-in. Note that Chuseok day itself, Friday 25 September, is not part of it: both sites are closed that day.
26 Sept – 27 SeptNational Folk Museum, 37 Samcheong-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul, and the Paju site, 30 Heyri-ro, Tanhyeon-myeon, Paju
National Museum of Korea·News
The twin-lion stone lantern is going back to Yeoju — but not yet
The National Museum of Korea, the Korea Heritage Service and Yeoju City announced on 9 September that the Goryeo-era twin-lion stone lantern from the Godalsa temple site will be returned to the ruins it came from. No date has been set: conservation work, a final excavation report and site preparation all come first. For now it stands where it has for decades, in the museum's outdoor stone garden in Seoul — which is free to walk into.
Outdoor stone garden, National Museum of Korea, 137 Seobinggo-ro, Yongsan-gu, Seoul
EndedFreeNational Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea·Event
MMCA is free across the Chuseok weekend, 24 to 27 September
All four MMCA buildings open over the Chuseok holiday and charge nothing from 24 to 27 September 2026. Seoul closes on Chuseok day itself, Friday 25 September, so it gives three days rather than four; Gwacheon, Deoksugung and Cheongju open all four. Gallery talks are suspended from 24 to 26 September, and Deoksugung still needs a palace ticket on top.
24 Sept – 27 SeptMMCA Seoul, Gwacheon, Deoksugung and Cheongju
On nowFreeNational Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea·Programme
MMCA Seoul's architecture tour, and the four centuries stacked under it
MMCA Seoul runs a free architecture tour of its own building on Friday mornings until 20 November, walking the site rather than the exhibitions. No booking — you sign up on the spot at 10:50am by the red postbox, thirty places. It is conducted in Korean and borrowing a receiver requires a physical Korean ID card, but the history it covers is worth knowing whether or not you join.
4 Sept – 20 NovMMCA Seoul, 30 Samcheong-ro, Jongno-gu — meet at the red postbox beside the museum shop
On nowRoyal Palaces and Tombs Center·Event
Changgyeonggung's night light show now needs a ticket: 7 October to 1 November
Mulbit Yeonhwa, the light and media installation around Changgyeonggung's ponds, runs Wednesday to Sunday from 7 October to 1 November 2026 in three sixteen-minute sessions a night. For the first time it is ticketed and booked: KRW 1,000 a head through TicketLink, credit card only, 400 people a session, no sales at the gate. Without a ticket you can still see five of the eight scenes on a normal evening ticket.
7 Oct – 1 NovAround Chundangji pond, Changgyeonggung Palace, 185 Changgyeonggung-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul
On nowFreeKorea National Park Service·Programme
Naejangsan's new wishing trail, and when the maples actually turn
Naejangsan National Park has opened a themed walk called the Wish Fulfilment Trail, running from the visitor centre through the 108 Maple Road and past a natural-monument maple to Naejangsa temple. It is free with no booking — you fill in a form at the visitor centre and start. Naejangsan is the country's best-known maple destination, and in both 2024 and 2025 the colour peaked around the first week of November.
From 1 SeptNaejangsan National Park, Jeongeup, Jeonbuk — visitor centre to the 108 Maple Road, the natural-monument maple, and Naejangsa temple
In 45 daysFreeRoyal Palaces and Tombs Center·Exhibition
Banners Korea hung at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair come home on 2 December
Five ceremonial banners displayed in the Korean pavilion at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and kept ever since at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia, go on show in Seoul from 2 December 2026 after conservation work in the United States. The National Palace Museum will show all twenty-seven of the Penn Museum's 1893 objects for the first time, alongside Korean entries to the 1900 Paris exposition. Admission is free.
From 2 DecNational Palace Museum of Korea, 12 Hyoja-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul
On nowFreeNational Museum of Korea·Exhibition
National treasures are touring three small county museums until late November
The National Museum of Korea's touring exhibition puts designated national treasures into small local museums, and the autumn leg runs at Gochang, Seongju and Cheongdo. Seongju and Cheongdo are free; Gochang charges its own museum admission of KRW 3,000 for adults. All three close on Mondays, and Gochang and Seongju move to winter hours in November.
1 Sept – 29 NovGochang Dolmen Museum, Seongju Seongsan-dong Tumuli Exhibition Hall, and Cheongdo Museum
National Museum of Korea·Notice
A Silla tomb dug in 1909 and never properly reported is being excavated again
Gyeongju National Museum announced on 10 September 2026 that it will re-excavate Seokchimchong, a Silla chamber tomb opened by Japanese colonial-era surveyors in 1909 who left no formal excavation report. The new work will analyse the chamber floor soil, the lime on the walls and the stone itself, and pursue research on the objects taken in 1909, which are held at the University of Tokyo. No start date has been announced and there is nothing on site to visit.
Seoak-dong, Gyeongju, Gyeongsangbuk-do — within the designated Seoak-dong tomb group
Korea National Park Service·News
Ninety-two illegal structures cleared from a Palgongsan valley, and the animals came back
The Korea National Park Service removed 92 illegally occupying structures from the Dohak-dong valley in Palgongsan National Park and disposed of about 356 tonnes of waste. Three months of camera-trap monitoring afterwards recorded seventeen wild species using the valley again, including the yellow-throated marten and the northern goshawk, both listed as Class II endangered wildlife in Korea.
Dohak-dong valley, Palgongsan National Park, Daegu
National Museum of Korea·Notice
Buyeo National Museum's main galleries are shut until December — but the great incense burner is not
Buyeo National Museum closed its permanent galleries on 28 July 2026 for a full redisplay, the first since 2014, with reopening planned for 14 December. Until then only the Baekje Gilt-bronze Incense Burner hall and the children's museum are open, both free, on timed entry ticketed from a kiosk on the day. Tickets are issued at the Sabimaru performance hall, not at the galleries.
28 Jul – 14 DecBuyeo National Museum, 5 Geumseong-ro, Buyeo-eup, Buyeo-gun, Chungcheongnam-do
National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea·Notice
MMCA runs a free shuttle between its three buildings, Tuesday to Friday
A free art shuttle connects MMCA's Seoul, Deoksugung and Gwacheon buildings four times a day in each direction, Tuesday to Friday only. It does not run at weekends, on Mondays or on public holidays, and none of the three stops is at the building's main entrance — the Deoksugung stop is not even inside the palace. No booking, no fare, and exhibition admission is separate.
MMCA Seoul, MMCA Deoksugung and MMCA Gwacheon
Korea National Park Service·Notice
Jirisan's Baemsagol campsite is now a free picnic area — no booking, no fee
The two campsites in Baemsagol valley at Jirisan National Park became free picnic areas in September 2026. The booking process and the fee are both gone: between 9:00am and 5:00pm anyone can walk in and use 34 picnic tables, toilets, showers and drinking water. Camping and dogs are not permitted, despite the old name.
Baemsagol picnic zones 1 and 2, Jirisan National Park, Namwon, Jeonbuk