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Arboretums · Korea Forest Service

Korea National Arboretum

A 500-year-old royal forest north of Seoul — and you cannot drive in without booking a month ahead

Vehicle entry bookingOfficial site031-540-2000

The Korea National Arboretum at Gwangneung is built around a forest that was protected as a royal burial ground from the fifteenth century and never logged, which makes it one of the best-preserved temperate forests in East Asia and a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. The arboretum layers formal collections — a rock garden, a wetland garden, conifers, a herbarium — over that older woodland, and keeps a seed bank and a forest museum on the same site.

The rule that governs a visit is the car quota. To protect the forest, vehicle entry is capped and entirely by advance booking: no reservation, no parking, and cars are turned away at the gate. Arriving on foot or by public transport needs no booking at all, which is worth knowing because it turns an apparently impossible day trip into a straightforward one.

Visiting

Hours
April–October 9:00 am – 6:00 pm (last admission 5:00 pm) November–March 9:00 am – 5:00 pm (last admission 4:00 pm)
Closed
Mondays, 1 January, and over the Seollal and Chuseok holidays
Admission
Adults KRW 1,000, teenagers KRW 700, children KRW 500. Free if you are 6 or under, 65 or over, disabled, a person of national merit or from a family with several children. Free on Culture Day, the last Wednesday of each month
Address
509 Gwangneungsumogwon-ro, Soheul-eup, Pocheon-si, Gyeonggi-do
Getting there
Arriving by car is 100% advance booking, opening at midnight 30 days before the visit and capped at 4,500 people a day. Arriving on foot or by public transport needs no booking
From the airport
From Incheon (ICN): AREX to Seoul Station, Line 1 to Uijeongbu, then a local bus to Gwangneung — about three hours, so pair it with a night outside Seoul rather than doing it on an arrival day
Parking
Only booked vehicles may enter; unbooked cars are turned away at the gate. Same-day remainders can be booked up to an hour before last admission
  • Booking opens at midnight, Korean time, 30 days before your date, and autumn weekends go quickly.
  • Older visitors and disabled visitors can also book by phone on 031-540-2000.
  • The old-growth Gwangneung forest is the reason the quota exists — it is the part worth walking slowly.

Checked against the official pages on 2026-09-21. Hours and fees change — confirm before you travel. Official site

How much English you will find

  • Signage on the main trails is bilingual in Korean and English; the more specialised botanical labelling often is not.
  • The booking system and the visitor pages are Korean-language, which is the practical obstacle for a foreign visitor planning to drive in.
  • Because arriving on foot or by bus needs no booking, a visitor who cannot use the reservation system can still visit without difficulty.

Exhibitions and events

Full schedule

How to visit

  1. 1

    If you are driving, book the moment the window opens

    Vehicle entry is capped and booking opens at midnight 30 days before the date you want, with a daily ceiling on visitor numbers. Unbooked cars are turned round at the gate rather than parked elsewhere, so this is the single thing to get right before setting out.

  2. 2

    If you are not driving, just go

    Arriving on foot or by public transport needs no reservation at all. That is the loophole worth knowing: the booking system everyone warns about applies to parking spaces, not to people, so a bus from Uijeongbu solves the problem entirely.

  3. 3

    Aim for the last Wednesday of the month if the date is flexible

    Admission is free on Culture Day, the last Wednesday of every month. At KRW 1,000 for an adult the saving is not the point; the point is that it is an easy date to build a plan around and the arboretum is rarely as busy as a weekend.

Frequently asked questions

Do I really need a reservation?

Only to bring a car in. Vehicle entry is capped and fully pre-booked, and cars without a booking are turned away at the gate rather than directed to overflow parking. If you arrive on foot or by public transport you can simply buy a ticket and walk in.

When does booking open and how fast does it go?

At midnight Korean time 30 days before the date you want, against a daily ceiling on visitors. Weekends in the autumn colour season are the ones that fill; a weekday outside October is usually available much later. Same-day remainders are released up to an hour before last admission.

What makes this different from a city botanical garden?

The Gwangneung forest at its centre was protected as a royal burial ground from the fifteenth century and never logged, so it is old-growth temperate woodland rather than planting. UNESCO lists it as a Biosphere Reserve, and the visitor cap exists to keep it that way.

Official channels

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