Changdeokgung Secret Garden Tickets and Entry Times

The Secret Garden at Changdeokgung takes two tickets: a timed garden ticket (₩5,000 for a foreign adult) and ordinary palace admission (₩3,000). Book the garden online from 10 a.m. Korean time six days before your visit, or buy one of the 50 on-site places per session at the ticket office from 9 a.m. on the day. English sessions start at 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 2:30 p.m. and, from March through November, 3:30 p.m. Your entry time applies at the garden’s own entrance, about 15 minutes’ walk inside the palace, and late arrivals are not let in.

Book the garden first and fit the rest of the day around it. The palace buildings can be seen whenever you like during opening hours; the garden cannot. The garden was laid out north of the palace a year after Changdeokgung was built in 1405, and the palace was the kings’ main residence for about 270 years until Gyeongbokgung was rebuilt in 1867, so the buildings deserve their own time rather than serving as a corridor to the garden.

How much are Changdeokgung and Secret Garden tickets?

A foreign adult aged 19 to 64 pays ₩3,000 for the palace building area and ₩5,000 for the Secret Garden, so ₩8,000 in all. A garden visit requires a palace ticket as well; the garden ticket alone does not get you through the palace.

The garden costs ₩2,500 for ages 7 to 18 and ₩5,000 for visitors aged 65 and over. Children aged 6 and under are free. The palace’s wider free list (foreigners aged 18 and under or 65 and over, and anyone wearing hanbok) covers the building area only, not the garden.

Does free Wednesday or the palace pass cover the Secret Garden?

No. Since October 7, 2026, the Changdeokgung building area has been free every Wednesday, but the fee page lists the Secret Garden as excluded. You still pay ₩5,000 and need a timed slot.

The ₩6,000 royal palace pass covers one entry each to the four palaces and Jongmyo within six months, and also excludes the Secret Garden. It takes care of palace admission; the garden ticket is still separate.

How to book Secret Garden tickets online

On the reservation site, each date opens at 10 a.m. Korean time six days ahead and stays open until the day before. For a visit on the 24th of a month, booking opens at 10 a.m. on the 18th. You need a free account with your email address as the login. Online sales are 50 places per session, one reservation per visit date and up to 10 tickets.

Choose the date, then a session in your language, then the number of foreign visitors. Foreign-language sessions are for non-Korean visitors; up to two Korean companions may join. The reservation notice lists Visa, Mastercard and JCB cards issued outside South Korea as the cards accepted on the English site.

Booking and paying are two steps. The site’s rule is to pay within 24 hours of booking, or by 23:59 the same day if you book the day before your visit; an unpaid reservation expires on its own. One worked example on the same page allows a longer window, so pay straight away rather than rely on it. Cancelling more than two hours before your session gets a full refund, from then until the session starts the refund is 90%, and once it has started there is no refund.

The fee page warns that in April and May and in October and November both online and on-site garden tickets sell out very quickly. In those months, be online at 10 a.m. on the day your date opens. If online shows sold out, the 50 on-site places for each session are a separate allocation sold from 9 a.m. on the day, first come, first served, up to 10 per person.

What time are the English tours of the Secret Garden?

English sessions run at 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 2:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. from March through November, and drop the 3:30 p.m. session from December through February. There is also a Japanese session at 1:30 p.m. on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays and a Chinese one at 12:30 p.m. on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Each session takes up to 100 people: 50 booked online and 50 sold on site.

How early should I arrive, and what do I bring?

Our recommendation is to reach the palace’s main gate at least 40 minutes before your garden session. The reservation site says garden tickets must be bought at least 15 minutes before entry, and that the walk from the main gate to the garden entrance takes about 15 minutes; the palace’s tour page puts it at 15 minutes or more. The rest is a margin for the queues the site warns of in spring and autumn.

Changdeokgung’s main gate, Donhwamun, is a 5-minute walk from Exit 3 of Anguk Station on Line 3, or 10 minutes from Exit 7 of Jongno 3-ga Station on Lines 1, 3 and 5, according to the palace’s directions page. The palace has no car park, so come by subway or bus.

Bring your passport. The reservation notice says nationality may be checked with a valid ID card or passport, and that a driver’s licence is not accepted for this. You enter with either a mobile ticket or a paper ticket, not both: the mobile ticket appears under My Reservation 30 minutes before your session and is shown at the Secret Garden entrance, and paper tickets come from the ticket office or kiosk. A screenshot of the mobile ticket and a printed booking confirmation are not valid. Once a session has started, no one else is let in.

How long is the Secret Garden tour?

About 70 minutes, according to the palace’s tour page, which also says the Ongnyucheon stream area is closed for conservation work until further notice. The reservation site’s own notice says the same area is closed. Its older route table, which still lists Ongnyucheon and about 90 minutes for spring and autumn, is out of date on this point.

A heritage interpreter leads each session from the garden entrance, but the guided tour is optional: once inside at your time you can join it or walk the open route on your own with the free e-book or audio guide. It is still a set route, not an open park.

Add time for the palace buildings, which have their own free English tours at 10:15 a.m. and 1:15 p.m., Tuesday to Sunday. We would not book a fixed-time lunch right after your garden session.

Changdeokgung opening hours and closing days

Changdeokgung is closed on Mondays. When a Monday is a public holiday the palace opens and closes on the next non-holiday day instead. It is open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. (last entry 5 p.m.) from February to May and in September and October, 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. (last entry 5:30 p.m.) from June to August, and 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (last entry 4:30 p.m.) from November to January.

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