A visit to one of Seoul's numerous palaces is easily one of the no-brainer itinerary items for a typical tourist in Korea. A seasoned traveler's advice (or an expat's one) would be that a trip to one palace is enough for a 3-5 day stay. So it's key to decide which one to go to, right? There's plenty of information about these palaces on the Official KTO Site as well as on iTour Seoul. Do browse around and pick a palace which best attracts your curiosity and fits into your schedule.
And I mentioned schedule because
1. Most Important: Palaces are closed on specific days and
2. Some of the palaces offer Guided English, Japanese and Chinese tours (free!) on fixed schedules.
I consider myself a pretty much self-guided type of person so I chose the self-guided one on Changdeokgung Palace on my first palace visit. This one is more expensive than the guided tours, I think. You basically get a map at the front office and some audio device which provides you with a short discourse on specific spots in the palace. My audio device was a bit temperamental at that time so I didn't get to maximize its usage. Anyway, I was busy ooh-ing and ahh-ing and taking pictures and painfully navigating with the map to worry about the audio ^^.
So to make the long story short, we got lost. Me and my friend weren't best navigators out there. Plus the heat of that early summer day was a tad bit too much so we had to circle our way back to the gates sooner than we thought we would.
So that's the sad part of doing the self-guided one ~ I just had to call it out immediately haha. On the bright side of things, we did enjoy walking leisurely on the palace grounds. We took our time idling by the intricate doorways (and hiding from the sun at that) and admiring the lush greenery and the huge empty spaces. We sort of pictured the scenes from the historical dramas we watched. We were MOST LIKELY incorrect on where we imagined those scenes to play out but it was fun. It was more of a personal palace experience I suppose. That's how I remember it. Even if we were clueless on the historical details, we still thoroughly appreciated our own tour of the place. And that goes to show how amazing that landmark is.
So while a self-guided tour is completely memorable, I still wanted to try see what a guided tour would be like. So on the following year, I took a guided English tour at Gyeongbokgung, again with friends.
Oh and what a tour geek I was. I found the stories of the tour guide to be absolutely fascinating. I felt like the nerdy kid in school being so attentive and interactive with the guide. So sue me, I was finally enjoying learning things (too late maybe haha). Sure we had to walk fast and keep with the group in order to hear her lectures, and we did have limited time on specific areas so we had to hurriedly do our picture taking ~ but I think it was well worth it. The palace was huge (well, same with Changdeokgung) so we never would have visited all the stops on the tour if we were just walking around on our own. Since we were supposed to follow the guide, we didn't really notice how far we've walked from the entrance already. And soon enough, an hour (i think) has already lapsed. Time sure flies when you have somewhere to go ^^.
So that's that. It was great to experience both the self-guided and the guided tours. If I had to do it again, I would have done the guided one on my first trip and the self-guided for the 2nd ... just so I would have a greater appreciation of the palaces (added to my personal tour of the place of course).
Here's a crude compilation of some palace schedules and admission fees. I hope it helps you pick which one you should visit on your Seoul trip. Do let me know if anything here is helpful. Enjoy!
Gyeongbokgung Palace 경복궁 Seoul, Jongno-gu, 1 Sejong-no http://www.royalpalace.go.kr/ | 9AM to 5PM daily except Tuesdays (Nov-Feb) 9AM to 6PM daily except Tuesdays (Mar-Oct) Until 7PM on Saturdays, Sundays and National Holidays (May-Aug) Admission: KRW 3,000 Interpretation Services In front of information center, Hongryemun Gate (main gate) * English: 11:00, 13:30, 15:30 * Japanese: 9:30, 10:30, 13:00, 15:00 * Chinese: 10:00, 12:30, 14:30 |
Deoksugung Palace 덕수궁 Seoul, Jung-gu, 5-1 Jeong-dong http://www.deoksugung.go.kr/ | 9AM to 7PM except Mondays (Mar-Oct) 9AM to 5PM except Mondays (Nov-Feb) Admission: KRW 1,000 |
Changdeokgung Palace 창덕궁 Seoul, Jongno-gu, 2-71 Waryong-dong http://www.cdg.go.kr/main/main.htm | Non-guided Tour every Thursday at KRW 15,000* Guided English tours (1 hour and 20 minutes) at 11:30 AM, 1:30 PM and 3:30 PM except Mondays |
Changgyeonggung Palace 창경궁 Seoul, Jongno-gu, 2-1 Waryong-dong | 9AM to 5PM weekdays except Tuesdays; 9AM to 6PM weekends & holidays (Mar-Oct) 9AM to 4:30PM alldays except Tuesdays (Nov-Jan) Admission: KRW 1,000 |
Gyeonghuigung Palace 경희궁 Seoul, Jongno-gu, Sinmunno 2-ga, 1 bunji | 9AM to 6PM except Mondays (Mar-Oct) 9AM to 5PM except Mondays (Nov-Feb) Admission: Free |
Dongnimmun Seoul, Seodaemun-gu, Hyeonjeo-dong, 945-beonji | Open 24 hrs Admission: Free |
Jongmyo Royal Shrine Seoul, Jongno-gu, 1-2 Hunjeong-dong http://jm.cha.go.kr/ | 9AM to 6PM/7PM (weekends & holidays) except Tuesdays Admission: KRW 1,000 |
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