Museums

For one museum on a first trip, go to the National Museum of Korea in Seoul: free, open every day of the week, and until 21:00 on Wednesday and Saturday. Pair it with the War Memorial of Korea (free, closed Mondays) in the same district, or see the National Palace Museum next to Gyeongbokgung. Outside Seoul, Gyeongju National Museum is the one worth planning a day around.

Korea’s big public museums are run by the national government or the city, and most charge nothing for their permanent galleries, so a museum is the cheapest rainy-day plan in Seoul. What you do need to check is the closing day: several museums close every Monday, the palaces close on Mondays or Tuesdays, and a few national museums shut their galleries on one Monday a quarter. The tables below sort that out.

Which museum fits your trip

Your situation	Do this
One museum, Korean history and art	National Museum of Korea: prehistory to Joseon, celadon and the two pensive bodhisattvas in one building, free
Visiting a palace the same day	National Palace Museum beside Gyeongbokgung, or the National Folk Museum inside its grounds
It is a Monday	National Museum of Korea, National Palace Museum, National Folk Museum or MMCA Seoul, all open (check the closures in the table)
Interested in the Korean War	War Memorial of Korea, with free English tours at 10:30 and 14:30, Tuesday to Sunday
Modern Korean history and independence	Seodaemun Prison History Hall (₩3,000) and the Seoul Museum of History (free)
Art and architecture	Leeum Museum of Art in Hannam-dong, then MMCA Seoul near Bukchon
An evening plan	National Museum of Korea or MMCA on Wednesday and Saturday until 21:00
Travelling beyond Seoul	Gyeongju National Museum for the Silla kingdom, free

If you only have a morning, take the National Museum of Korea. The palace museums suit a palace day better than a special trip.

Seoul museums: fees and hours in 2026

Museum	Fee	Open	Closed	Getting there
National Museum of Korea	Free (paid special exhibitions)	09:30–17:30; Wed and Sat to 21:00	1 Jan, Seollal, Chuseok; galleries also close on the first Monday of Mar, Jun, Sep, Dec (next: 7 Dec 2026)	Ichon Station (Line 4, Gyeongui–Jungang), Exit 2
National Palace Museum	Free	09:30–17:30; Sat to 21:00	Last Monday of each month (26 Oct, 30 Nov, 28 Dec 2026), 1 Jan, Seollal, Chuseok	Gyeongbokgung Station (Line 3), Exit 5
National Folk Museum of Korea	Free (palace ticket separate)	09:00–18:00 Mar–Oct, 09:00–17:00 Nov–Feb; Wed to 20:00 Mar–Oct; last entry 1 h before closing	1 Jan, Seollal, Chuseok	Anguk Station (Line 3), Exit 1
War Memorial of Korea	Free	09:30–18:00, last entry 17:00	Mondays, 1 Jan, Seollal and Chuseok days	Samgakji Station (Line 6), Exit 12
MMCA Seoul	By exhibition; combined ticket ₩10,000 when 3+ paid shows run; free Wed and Sat 18:00–21:00	10:00–18:00; Wed and Sat to 21:00	1 Jan, Seollal, Chuseok; also Tue 1 Dec 2026	Anguk Station (Line 3), Exit 1
Leeum Museum of Art	Traditional-art galleries free; other exhibitions paid	Tue–Sun 10:00–18:00, tickets until 17:30	Mondays, 1 Jan, Seollal, Chuseok	Hangangjin Station (Line 6), Exit 1, then about 5 min uphill
Seoul Museum of History	Free	09:00–18:00; to 21:00 except Thu until 30 Nov 2026	Mondays (open on public-holiday Mondays), 1 Jan	Gwanghwamun Station (Line 5), Exit 7
Seodaemun Prison History Hall	₩3,000	09:30–18:00 Mar–Oct, 09:30–17:00 Nov–Feb; last entry 30 min before closing	Mondays (Tuesday if Monday is a holiday), 1 Jan, Seollal, Chuseok	Dongnimmun Station (Line 3), Exit 5

Adult fees and hours from each museum’s official website, checked 25 October 2026. Six of these eight have free permanent galleries, and four stay open on Mondays. Leave the War Memorial, Leeum, Seodaemun Prison and the Seoul Museum of History for Tuesday to Sunday.

National Museum of Korea and the War Memorial

The National Museum of Korea in Yongsan is the country’s main museum and the best single introduction to Korean history and art. Its permanent galleries run from prehistoric tools through the Three Kingdoms to Goryeo celadon and the Joseon dynasty, and two pensive bodhisattva statues, both National Treasures, sit in a dark room of their own on the 2nd floor, the Room of Quiet Contemplation. Entry is free with no booking. Parts of the 2nd- and 3rd-floor Buddhist sculpture, metalwork, painting and calligraphy galleries are closed for renovation until 28 January 2027, so some headline pieces may be off view.

It gets very busy on weekends and school holidays; weekday mornings and the Wednesday and Saturday evenings are quieter. The National Hangeul Museum on the same grounds is closed until the second half of 2028 for fire-damage repairs and an extension.

The War Memorial of Korea is two subway stops away at Samgakji. Its galleries tell the story of the Korean War from the 1945 division to the 1953 armistice, the last room is given to the UN forces, and a monument outside honours the 22 countries that sent forces, among them the US, UK, Canada, Australia, the Philippines and India. Around 70 aircraft, tanks and boats stand in the grounds. Free English tours start at 10:30 and 14:30, Tuesday to Sunday. Together the two museums fill a day in Yongsan, with dinner in Itaewon.

Palace quarter: Palace Museum, Folk Museum and MMCA

Three national museums sit on the edges of Gyeongbokgung, so they combine well with a palace visit or with Bukchon.

• National Palace Museum. Thrones, royal seals, court paintings, scientific instruments and the cars of the Korean Empire, at the palace’s south-west corner. Free, and open on Tuesdays when Gyeongbokgung is closed. Free English tours run on weekdays between 13:00 and 15:00; the day’s time is on the museum calendar.
• National Folk Museum of Korea. In the north-east of the palace grounds, about everyday life: the farming year, food, homes, weddings and ancestral rites. Entry is free (the palace ticket is separate), and it has no weekly closing day. Permanent Exhibition Hall 1 is closed for renovation from 30 September to about 21 December 2026; the other halls stay open. English tours: Monday and Friday at 10:30 and 14:30, Wednesday at 14:30, Thursday and Sunday at 10:30.
• MMCA Seoul. The national museum of modern and contemporary art, a low modern building across Samcheong-ro from the palace’s east wall. Exhibitions change through the year and each is priced separately; Wednesday and Saturday evenings from 18:00 to 21:00 are free.

For more on the palaces themselves, see palaces.

Modern history: Seodaemun Prison and the Seoul Museum of History

Seodaemun Prison History Hall is a red-brick prison opened by the Japanese in October 1908, where many Korean independence activists were held under colonial rule and, after liberation, opponents of the military governments. It closed as a prison in November 1987; the administration building, cell blocks 9 to 12, the leprosy ward and the execution building were kept, and it opened as a museum in 1998. It is a sombre visit that may upset young children. Entry is ₩3,000 for adults, and the hall closes at 17:00 from November to February. The prison is within 50 m of Exit 5 of Dongnimmun Station, in Seodaemun Independence Park.

The Seoul Museum of History near Gwanghwamun traces the city from Joseon capital to today. It is free, closed on Mondays, and lends audio guides in English, Chinese and Japanese free of charge at the 1st-floor desk (leave an ID). It is about 5 minutes on foot from Gwanghwamun Station Exit 7, so it fits with a walk around Gwanghwamun Square.

Art museums: Leeum and more

Leeum Museum of Art, the Samsung Foundation’s museum on a hillside in Hannam-dong, holds one of Seoul’s finest private collections, with ceramics, Buddhist art and paintings in the traditional-art galleries and modern and contemporary art in separate buildings. The traditional-art galleries are free; other exhibitions are paid. Tickets can be booked online from 14 days ahead (up to 4 per person), and walk-up tickets are sold at the desk, though you may wait on busy days. It closes on Mondays.

MMCA Seoul (above) shows Korean and international contemporary art, and MMCA also runs a smaller gallery inside Deoksugung. Combine Leeum with lunch in Itaewon or Hannam-dong.

Museums beyond Seoul

• Gyeongju National Museum. The finest collection from the Silla kingdom, with gold crowns, Buddhist sculpture and the great Divine Bell of King Seongdeok in the garden. Free; 10:00–18:00, to 20:00 on Saturdays from March to October. The galleries close on the second Monday of March, June, September and December (next: 14 December 2026), but the garden stays open. See Gyeongju and UNESCO sites.
• Busan Museum. The city’s free history museum in Nam-gu, 09:00–18:00 Tuesday to Sunday (last entry 17:00), closed Mondays. From Daeyeon Station (Line 2), Exit 3, walk towards the UN Rotary. It sits near the UN Memorial Cemetery; see Busan.
• Other national museums. Jeonju National Museum opens on Mondays; Daegu National Museum closes on Mondays. Both are free.
• Small museums worth the stop. The Haenyeo Museum on Jeju, about the island’s women divers; the Hahoe World Mask Museum at the Hahoe village ticket office in Andong; and the Suwon Hwaseong Museum for the fortress.

Tips for visiting museums in Korea

• Check the closing day first. Mondays are the usual closing day, but the National Museum of Korea, the Palace Museum, the Folk Museum and MMCA stay open. Gyeongbokgung closes on Tuesdays, so Tuesday is a good day for the palace-quarter museums.
• Free does not mean ticketed. Walk in at the free national museums; only paid special exhibitions sell tickets, often online.
• Bring your passport. Audio guides are often lent against an ID, and the War Memorial’s English tours ask foreign visitors to show a passport or residence card.
• Use the evenings. On Wednesday and Saturday the National Museum of Korea and MMCA stay open until 21:00, and MMCA charges nothing from 18:00.
• Holiday closures. Nearly every museum closes on 1 January and on the main day of Seollal and Chuseok; around those dates, check the museum’s website before you go.

For a full Seoul plan that includes the palaces and the National Museum, see Seoul in 3 days.