Chuseok 2026: What Most Guides Get Wrong, and What's Open
Roughly thirty million people are on the move during Chuseok — this is what a KTX and Mugunghwa ticket hall looks like during the rush.
Roughly thirty million people are about to move at the same time, and most English-language guides will tell you the wrong dates for it. The claim circulating right now — that Chuseok 2026 runs September 24 to 28, with a substitute holiday on Monday the 28th — is wrong. So is the widely copied line that train tickets go on sale August 20. Both errors originate from a single mistake: assuming Korean holiday rules work the same way every year, and then reprinting last year's arithmetic. If you built a hotel checkout, a domestic flight, or a visa appointment around September 28 being a day off, you have planned around someone else's copy-paste.
Here is what this guide does differently. It gives you the verified holiday structure and the actual KORAIL sale calendar, then answers the question that matters far more and that almost nobody addresses: whether a foreign visitor can buy those tickets at all. The short version is that the Korean holiday train sale runs on a Korean-language, members-only system requiring Korean identity verification, and for most visitors the honest answer is no. What follows is the workaround, plus a day-by-day map of what is genuinely open between September 24 and 27, what the closures actually look like on the ground, and a Seoul plan that assumes you never board a train at all.
Wondering whether the traditional markets are open over Chuseok? Some are, most run at half strength, and the stalls that do trade on a holiday are the ones most likely to quote a tourist price. Our Korea Traditional Market Guide (Seoul & Busan, 2026 Edition) maps six major markets, documents the exact overcharging patterns aimed at foreign shoppers, and gives you the Korean phrase that ends the conversation. 18 pages, $15.
Last verified: August 18, 2026. Facts below are sourced from KORAIL notices, Korean press, and official venue pages. Items marked ⏳ are announced annually and had not yet been published at the time of writing — we say so rather than guessing, and this page is updated in mid-September. Nothing here is inferred from other English blogs.
Three Corrections That Will Change Your Plans
The four errors this guide corrects — the dates, the ticket sale, the fireworks, and the hotels.
Before the detail, the three errors this guide fixes — each of them currently sitting on the first page of English search results.
| What you'll read elsewhere | What's actually true |
|---|---|
| "Chuseok runs Sept 24–28, with a substitute holiday Monday Sept 28." | The legal holiday is Sept 24–26. Sunday the 27th makes it four days in practice. Monday Sept 28 is a normal working day — there is no substitute holiday. |
| "Chuseok train tickets go on sale August 20." | Priority pre-sale is Sept 3–4; the general sale is Sept 7–11. No KORAIL sale window falls in August. |
| "Come for Chuseok and catch the Seoul fireworks festival." | The Seoul International Fireworks Festival is Saturday, September 5, 2026 — moved roughly three weeks earlier, explicitly because of the Chuseok schedule. |
A fourth correction is not about Chuseok specifically but will affect anyone flying: Asiana Airlines moved all Incheon Airport operations from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2 on January 14, 2026. Essentially every English Korea guide still says Terminal 1. Details in the airport section below.
The Correct Dates: Chuseok 2026 Is September 24–26
The full holiday structure. Monday September 28 is a working day — there is no substitute holiday.
Chuseok day itself falls on Friday, September 25, 2026. Korean law designates the day before, the day itself, and the day after as public holidays, which gives you Thursday the 24th through Saturday the 26th. Sunday the 27th is an ordinary Sunday — not a designated holiday, but functionally indistinguishable from one.
| Date | Day | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Sept 23 | Wednesday | Working day, but the outbound exodus begins in the evening |
| Sept 24 | Thursday | Public holiday (Chuseok eve) |
| Sept 25 | Friday | Chuseok day — the only genuinely restricted day of the four |
| Sept 26 | Saturday | Public holiday (day after Chuseok) |
| Sept 27 | Sunday | Ordinary Sunday. Return-traffic peak. Large-mart closure risk (see below). |
| Sept 28 | Monday | Normal working day. Banks, immigration and government offices reopen. |
Why there is no substitute Monday
Korea's substitute holiday system is not one rule — it is several, and they apply to different categories of holiday. For Seollal and Chuseok specifically, a substitute day is granted only when one of the three holiday days overlaps with a Sunday or with another public holiday. In 2026 the Chuseok days land on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Saturday is neither a Sunday nor another public holiday. No overlap, no substitute.
The comparison that exposes the error is Liberation Day in the same calendar year. August 15, 2026 was also a Saturday — and it did generate a substitute holiday on Monday, August 17. Liberation Day is a national day governed by a clause that grants a substitute whenever the date falls on a Saturday or Sunday. Same year, same weekday, opposite outcome, because the two holidays sit under different provisions. Guides that apply one rule to both get Chuseok wrong every time the calendar lines up this way.
Act on this: Korean banks, immigration offices, government services and visa centres reopen on Monday, September 28. If you have a paperwork errand — a residence card appointment, a bank account, a phone contract — the 28th is your first available day, not the 29th. Book it now; the first working day after a holiday is the busiest of the month.
What Chuseok Actually Is — and Why That Closes Businesses
The mechanism predicts which businesses close. Chuseok is a harvest thanksgiving festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month, known by the older name Hangawi (한가위). Three practices drive the shutdown, and all three are tied to a specific place:
- Charye (차례) — an ancestral rite performed on Chuseok morning at one particular family home, traditionally the eldest son's. The ritual cannot be relocated, which is why thirty million people physically travel rather than gathering somewhere convenient.
- Seongmyo (성묘) — visiting ancestral graves, usually in the countryside.
- Beolcho (벌초) — clearing weeds from grave mounds, done in the weeks before Chuseok, which creates a secondary traffic wave through early September.
So the closures are not a national switch being thrown. They are the aggregate of several hundred thousand small-business owners driving to a specific house in a specific province. The restaurant that closes is the owner-operated one in a residential neighbourhood. The one that stays open is in Myeongdong, where the entire customer base is foreign and went nowhere.
The numbers behind the migration
During the 2025 Chuseok transport period the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport recorded 32.18 million person-movements across eleven days — about 7.75 million a day, peaking at 9.33 million on Chuseok day. Expressway traffic hit a record 6.67 million vehicles, against 2.81 million in 2005 and 5.27 million in 2015.
Roughly 7.75 million people move per day during the Chuseok transport period. A shorter holiday concentrates that, rather than reducing it.
But 2025 was a ten-day mega-holiday, and its shape does not transfer. The better analogue is Seollal 2026, and it carries the finding that should shape your planning: across that six-day period total movement fell 13.3% year on year, yet the daily average rose 9.3%, to 8.34 million people a day. Compressing the same migration into fewer days does not reduce disruption. It concentrates it.
Chuseok 2026 is a four-day break with no substitute holiday — the shortest in years. Expect daily movement at or above the 2025 figure in a much narrower window. ⏳ MOLIT's official 2026 forecast is expected around the second week of September.
Is Chuseok a Good Time to Visit Korea?
For a visitor staying in Seoul: yes, and it is arguably underrated. For a visitor planning to move around the country: no, and you should either shift your dates or plan to stay put.
The case for staying in Seoul is straightforward. The city empties out — the domestic population leaves for the provinces, taking the traffic and the restaurant queues with them. The royal palaces are typically free. Late September weather is at its best: warm days, low humidity, the first genuinely clear skies of autumn. Central Seoul during Chuseok is quieter than at any other point in the year, and the things a visitor came for — palaces, the Han River, Bukchon, Namsan, the museums on three of the four days — all operate.
The case against is equally clear. Intercity travel is the single hardest logistical problem of the Korean year, and as covered below, the ticket system is effectively closed to foreign visitors. Regional accommodation sells out weeks ahead. Neighbourhood dining thins out sharply on the 25th. If your itinerary depends on a Busan leg or a Jeju flight, Chuseok will fight you the entire way.
The honest summary: Chuseok is a good time to be in Seoul and a bad time to be in transit. Build the trip around that and it works well.
Do Shops Really Close? The Answer Is More Specific Than You've Been Told
"Everything closes during Chuseok" is the most repeated and least accurate claim in English coverage of Korean holidays. The Korean data says something narrower: in a survey of self-employed business owners, 85.4% said they would operate normally through Chuseok — up from 79.7% the year before.
The closures that are real are largely corporate rather than organic. Department stores and large marts shut by chain-wide decision. Banks and government offices follow the statutory calendar. Those are top-down closures with published dates, and they are the ones you can plan around precisely.
What is unpredictable is the independent small business — and that is where the actual inconvenience lives for a traveller. A specific restaurant you bookmarked may be closed for three days with no notice anywhere online. The correct response is not to assume a dead city; it is to keep alternatives ready and to check live status on the day.
The single most useful tip on this page: use Naver Map or Kakao Map, not Google Maps. Korean map apps carry live "영업 중 / 휴무" (open / closed) status and holiday hours that Google simply does not have for Korean small businesses. Check on the morning of, not days ahead — many owners decide late.
Train Tickets: The Real Booking Calendar
The full sale calendar. You cannot buy every route on every day — the Gyeongbu KTX trunk releases last, on September 11.
The "August 20" claim is off by more than two weeks and points at no real system. KORAIL announced the sale in August; the sale itself runs in early September. Because KORAIL occasionally adjusts the line-by-line allocation after announcement, treat the structure below as reliable and re-check the official notice before acting on one specific date.
On a phone, scroll the table sideways to see every column.
| Sale | Dates | Hours (KST) | Who can book |
|---|---|---|---|
| Priority pre-sale | Sept 3–4 | 09:00–15:00 | Age 65+, registered disability, national merit recipients, and — new for 2026 — pregnant passengers |
| General sale | Sept 7–11 | 07:00–13:00 | Everyone — but registered KORAIL members only |
Trains covered: departures on September 23–27, 2026. Note that the window opens a day before the holiday and closes on the Sunday, so both the outbound and return peaks sit inside it.
You cannot buy every route on every day
Each sale day releases specific lines. Miss your day and you wait for leftovers.
- Sept 3 (priority) — Gyeongbu, Gyeongjeon, Donghae, Jungbu Naeryuk, Gyeongbuk, Daegu, Chungbuk and the Gyoue Line. In plain terms: Busan, Daegu, Ulsan, Pohang and the southeast.
- Sept 4 (priority) — Honam, Jeolla, Jungang, Gangneung, Janghang, Yeongdong, Taebaek, Seohae, Gyeongchun and the Mokpo–Boseong Line. In plain terms: Gwangju, Jeonju, Mokpo, Gangneung and the east coast.
- Sept 7 (general) — all conventional trains on all lines (ITX-Saemaeul, ITX-Maeum, Mugunghwa).
- Sept 8 (general) — KTX from Seoul and Cheongnyangni on the Gyeongjeon, Gangneung, Donghae, Jungang and Jungbu Naeryuk lines.
- Sept 9 (general) — KTX from Yongsan on the Honam and Jeolla lines.
- Sept 10 (general) — KTX departing from or arriving at Suseo on the Gyeongbu, Gyeongjeon, Donghae, Honam and Jeolla lines. These are the former SRT services.
- Sept 11 (general) — KTX from Seoul on the Gyeongbu line. This is the Seoul–Daejeon–Dongdaegu–Busan trunk and the hardest ticket of the entire sale.
Payment deadlines decide who actually travels. A reservation is not a ticket. General-sale bookings must be paid by September 15, priority bookings by September 18. Everything unpaid is auto-cancelled and returned to inventory — which, as you will see, is the foreign visitor's main opening.
The change nobody has covered in English: KTX and SRT are now one system
For a decade Korea ran two high-speed operators on two apps — KORAIL (KTX, from Seoul and Yongsan) and SR (SRT, from Suseo). In 2026 they merged their ticketing. The integrated app KORAIL+ (코레일+) launched on August 3, 2026 as an update to KorailTalk — same App Store listing, new name — and from August 5 it became the only channel for integrated trains departing September 1 or later.
Two consequences. The September 10 sale day covering "Suseo-departing KTX" is the old SRT inventory, now sold inside the KORAIL sale, so you no longer need two accounts. And an SRT-only account does not migrate automatically — SR-only members must complete a manual conversion on the website before booking anything. KORAIL-only members convert automatically.
Where the sale actually happens
- KORAIL+ app — the renamed KorailTalk, with a seven-language interface including English.
- The dedicated holiday-sale page on korail.com — separate from the normal booking flow, live only during the sale window.
- Phone: 1544-8545 — Korean language, priority groups only, September 3–4 only.
Station ticket windows do not take advance holiday reservations. During the sale period they only collect payment for phone bookings made by priority passengers.
Can a Foreigner Actually Buy a Chuseok Train Ticket?
Through the advance sale: almost certainly not. This is the section competing guides skip — they reprint the Korean sale dates as though a tourist could act on them, sending readers to set 07:00 alarms for a system that will not let them log in.
Chuseok ticketing in practice. The advance sale runs on a Korean-language, members-only page — station counters only matter once leftover seats are released.
Why the advance sale is closed to visitors
Holiday ticket sales run on a dedicated page that is Korean-language only and restricted to registered KORAIL members. Non-members cannot book at all, in any language. Membership requires Korean-style identity verification — mobile carrier authentication or an i-PIN — which in practice needs a Korean mobile line in your own name, and therefore an Alien Registration Card. A tourist on a 90-day entry has neither.
The English KORAIL site is an information channel during the holiday window, not a sales channel. The account you create there — email plus a numeric PIN — is a weaker account type that does not unlock the holiday page. And while the KORAIL+ app offers an English interface, an English menu does not change what the holiday module requires. Assume it is unusable in English mode; confirm at a station if it matters to you.
One quieter consequence causes needless panic every year. Because September 23–27 inventory is withheld for the special sale, those dates look unbookable on the ordinary English system through late August and early September. That is not "sold out" — it is "not released yet." Do not buy a panic flight on the strength of an empty search result.
Six things that do work
The decision in one view. Express buses are the strongest 2026 option — kobus.co.kr now takes foreign-issued cards with no signup.
1. Express and intercity buses — the strongest option in 2026. This is the genuine news for foreign travellers, and it sits buried in Korean-language coverage. As of August 2026 the express bus site kobus.co.kr accepts foreign-issued cards with no membership signup, in English, Japanese and Chinese. The intercity equivalent is targeted for September 2026. Note the TmoneyGO app still takes Korean-issued cards only — use the website. Buses also absorb holiday demand far better than rail: during the 2025 Chuseok peak, departures from Seoul rose roughly 17%, adding about 18,000 seats a day.
2. Domestic flights. Gimpo to Busan, Ulsan, Yeosu and Jeju sell through ordinary airline channels with no Korean identity requirement. Prices rise sharply and the Jeju route is brutal (see below), but there is no verification wall.
3. Leftover seats after the payment deadlines. When unpaid reservations auto-cancel, that inventory returns to ordinary channels — app, website, station counters — where a non-member has a realistic shot. On the Seollal 2026 pattern, leftovers went on sale at 15:00 the day after each payment deadline, pointing at roughly September 16 (general) and September 19 (priority). ⏳ Confirm on the notice board.
4. Cancellation seats close to departure. Cancellations cluster about three days before departure and again on the morning itself. One dampener: during the special transport period KORAIL doubles late-cancellation penalties to suppress no-shows, so expect thinner last-minute inventory than usual. A tactic that beats refreshing: split the journey. Seoul→Daejeon then Daejeon→Busan often clears when a single through-seat will not.
5. Station counters. Once leftovers are released, counters at Seoul, Yongsan and Suseo sell normally, accept passports, and handle foreign cards far more reliably than any online gateway. The risk is availability, not payment.
6. Resale platforms. KORAIL has partnered with Klook since March 2026 to sell tickets to foreign travellers with no membership, in multiple languages and currencies. Expect a booking fee and a smaller seat pool, but the checkout works with a foreign card.
The foreign-card problem, stated plainly
Card failures on Korean rail systems are chronic. The usual causes: 3D Secure not activated with your issuing bank; a cardholder-name mismatch (entering "J. SMITH" when the card reads "JOHN SMITH"); an issuer block on Korean merchants; and gateways that silently expect a Korean phone number. The characteristic symptom is a silent rejection — no error, no charge, no ticket, no explanation.
In order of reliability: the English KORAIL site on a desktop browser with 3D Secure pre-activated, then a station counter, then Klook or Trip.com, then the mobile app last. Activate 3D Secure before you leave home — you cannot do it from Seoul at 07:00 on a sale morning.
KORAIL PASS holders: one unresolved question
The KORAIL PASS stays valid during Chuseok — no blackout dates are published — covering KTX, ITX-Saemaeul, ITX-Cheongchun, Mugunghwa and Nuriro. Seat reservations run on the English system, two free per day, opening about a month out. But holiday seats sit inside the members-only sale, so pass holders should not count on a reservation for September 23–27. The realistic scenario is boarding with pass and passport and using standing or free-seating cars.
One point is genuinely unresolved: the pass has historically excluded SRT. With Suseo services folded into KORAIL from September 1, whether they become pass-eligible is documented nowhere we could find, in Korean or English. If your itinerary depends on it, confirm at a station desk rather than assuming either answer.
What's Open, September 24–27
The whole holiday in one grid. Friday September 25 is the only genuinely restricted day.
Start with the structural fact that dissolves most of the anxiety: the holiday window contains no Monday and no Tuesday. Korea's two standard closure days are Monday (most museums and three of the four palaces) and Tuesday (Gyeongbokgung and Jongmyo). September 22, 28 and 29 all fall outside the holiday. So even with zero special announcements, every major palace and most museums operate on at least three of the four days.
The day to plan around is Friday, September 25. Here is the whole picture in one table.
On a phone, scroll the table sideways to see every column.
| What | Thu 24 | Fri 25 | Sat 26 | Sun 27 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Royal palaces & Jongmyo | Open | Open | Open | Open |
| National museums, MMCA, Leeum | Open | Closed | Open | Open |
| Department stores | Partial | Closed | Partial | Open |
| Large marts (E-Mart, Homeplus, Costco) | Open | Many closed | Open | Closure risk |
| Duty-free (city & airport) | Open | Open | Open | Open |
| Traditional markets | Busy | Partial | Recovering | Mostly normal |
| Neighbourhood restaurants | Thinning | Weakest | Recovering | Mostly normal |
| Convenience stores | 24h | 24h | 24h | 24h |
| Subway & buses | Holiday timetable | Holiday timetable | Saturday timetable | Holiday timetable |
| Banks & government offices | Closed | Closed | Closed | Closed |
Palaces and Jongmyo: free, almost certainly
All four royal palaces plus Jongmyo operate on their normal calendars across the entire window. Beyond that, the Korea Heritage Service has waived admission at the palaces, Jongmyo and the Joseon Royal Tombs for every recent Seollal and Chuseok, suspending the usual closed days while doing so — for Seollal 2026, free entry across 22 sites from February 14–18. ⏳ The 2026 Chuseok announcement typically lands one to two weeks out. Plan on free entry; verify in mid-September.
Two caveats catch people out. Changdeokgung's Huwon (Secret Garden) is consistently excluded from the waiver and still needs a paid timed ticket. And when a multi-day free period is granted, sites often take a make-up closure day right after it ends — watch Monday, September 28.
Gyeongbokgung Starlight Night Tour (별빛야행) runs September 2 to October 24, Wednesday through Sunday, sessions at 18:20 and 19:30, ₩60,000 including a royal meal box and pansori performance. The blackout is September 30 to October 4, so it does operate across September 24–27. Tickets went through a Ticketlink lottery in mid-August, with remaining seats first-come from August 28.
Museums: Friday the 25th is the closed day
| Venue | Sept 25 | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| National Museum of Korea | Closed | Its own English page names September 25, 2026 explicitly. Open to 21:00 on Saturday. Permanent galleries free. |
| National Palace Museum | Closed | Free. Also closes Monday Sept 28 (last Monday of the month). |
| National Folk Museum | Closed | Free. Runs a large Chuseok festival on the surrounding days — see events below. |
| MMCA Seoul | Closed | Gave free admission across all branches during the 2025 Chuseok holiday; likely to repeat. ⏳ |
| Leeum Museum of Art | Closed | Open the other three days. Also closed Mondays generally. |
Shopping: where the closures actually bite
Department stores (Lotte, Shinsegae, Hyundai) close on Chuseok day plus one adjacent day, staggered branch by branch. In 2025 most flagships closed the day before and the day of; a minority the day of and after. Expect the same shape, with September 25 the near-universal closed day. Restaurant floors close with the store — a detail that ruins a lot of dinner plans. ⏳ Branch-level calendars publish one to two weeks out.
Duty-free is the exception you can rely on. City duty-free stores run year-round — Shilla's Seoul store lists 09:30–20:00 with no annual closure — and sit outside the department stores' schedule even when physically attached to one. At Incheon, duty-free follows flight schedules rather than the calendar, and the arrivals-hall store runs 24 hours.
Large marts have a compound problem in 2026. A share of E-Mart, Homeplus and Lotte Mart branches close on Chuseok day, and survivors run shortened hours. On top of that — the trap almost nobody flags — Sunday, September 27 is the fourth Sunday of the month, so districts still using the legacy "second and fourth Sunday" mandatory closure rule will force closures on the final day of the holiday weekend. Several Seoul districts have moved to a weekday; many have not. Costco is the strictest case: closed on second and fourth Sundays and on Chuseok, so likely dark on both the 25th and the 27th. Check the branch, not the chain.
Traditional markets and restaurants
A market is not one business that opens or closes — it is a few hundred sole proprietors making individual decisions. Markets peak in the three to five days before Chuseok, when Korean households shop for the ancestral rites, then thin sharply. On the 25th, expect a meaningful share of food stalls trading at tourist-heavy markets like Gwangjang and Namdaemun while the dry-goods, textile and wholesale halls effectively shut. Residential markets such as Mangwon and Tongin close far harder — their customers have left the city — and Tongin's brass-coin lunchbox system depends on participating stalls being open, so it degrades badly. Coverage recovers on the 26th and 27th.
If you are planning market visits around the holiday, our full breakdown of which markets reward a visit and how the pricing games work is in the Korea traditional market guide.
| Category | Reality on Chuseok day, Sept 25 |
|---|---|
| Convenience stores (CU, GS25, 7-Eleven, Emart24) | Effectively 100% open, 24 hours. The single most reliable food source in the country. |
| Global fast food (McDonald's, Burger King, Lotteria, KFC) | Mostly open; delayed opening times are common. |
| Starbucks, Paris Baguette, Tous Les Jours | Central and tourist-district branches largely open on reduced hours; office-district and suburban branches close. |
| Hotel restaurants and buffets | Open, and actively marketing Chuseok menus. Book ahead — this is the guaranteed option. |
| Neighbourhood restaurants (Ikseon-dong, Euljiro, Mangwon, Yeonnam) | The weak point. A large share close for two or three days. Owner-operated shops go home. |
| Malls that stay open (Starfield, COEX, IFC, Lotte Mall) | Open. Your fallback when a neighbourhood plan collapses. |
Getting Around: Subway, Taxis and Roads
The subway runs a holiday timetable on Thursday the 24th and Friday the 25th — not a weekday timetable. This is the operational detail most English guides get wrong, and it costs people connections: holiday timetables mean longer gaps and earlier last trains. Saturday follows the Saturday schedule, Sunday the holiday schedule. Everything runs; it simply runs thinner. City buses likewise.
⏳ Whether Seoul extends last-train service is worth checking. In 2025 the city declined, citing a long holiday that spread travel out. In years with a short holiday — which 2026 is — Seoul has previously pushed last trains to around 02:00 on the nights of Chuseok day and the day after. Announcements land about a week out via Seoul TOPIS.
Taxis: there is no Chuseok surcharge in Korea. The fare structure does not change for holidays. Supply does — many owner-drivers take the holiday off, so hailing on the evenings of the 24th and 25th is materially harder. Standard late-night surcharges still apply: +40% from 23:00 to 02:00, +20% from 22:00 to 23:00 and 02:00 to 04:00, on a ₩4,800 base for the first 1.6 km. A late ride is expensive and scarce at once. Book through an app rather than standing on a curb — the app landscape and its traps are covered in our Korea taxi app guide.
⏳ Expressway tolls are waived for Seollal and Chuseok every recent year by cabinet resolution, roughly one to two weeks out. Expect a waiver across September 24–26, possibly extended to the 27th — though it is a policy decision rather than an automatic entitlement, so it is not guaranteed until announced.
Congestion. ⏳ The official transport plan was unpublished at the time of writing. Given the holiday's shape, expect the outbound peak Wednesday evening September 23 and Thursday morning the 24th, and the return peak Saturday afternoon the 26th and especially Sunday afternoon and evening the 27th. Remember the Seollal finding: a compressed holiday produces worse single-day congestion than a long one.
Money: Banks, Exchange and ATMs
Korean bank branches are closed September 24 through 27, along with government offices and post offices. Every guide says this. Almost none of them says what to do about it, so here is the operationally useful version.
Airports have two different kinds of bank facility with two different holiday rules, and confusing them is a common and expensive mistake:
- Full-service airport branches close on public holidays. Woori Bank's Incheon airport financial centre (basement level) states explicitly that no services are available on weekends or public holidays. If you need a wire transfer or account service, it is not happening over Chuseok.
- Airport currency exchange counters stay open. Several Woori exchange counters at Incheon operate 24 hours; others run 06:00–22:00. Hana Bank's Incheon counters run 06:30–20:30 on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. KB Kookmin also operates Incheon exchange counters. These are unaffected by the holiday.
The practical rule: exchange currency at the airport on arrival, or in the city before September 24. Do not plan to walk into a downtown bank branch on the 25th.
Myeongdong's private exchange booths generally offer better rates than banks and typically operate seven days a week, but none of them publishes a Chuseok schedule and some will close on the 25th. Treat them as a bonus, not a plan.
ATMs. Convenience-store ATMs and airport ATMs are the most consistently foreign-card-friendly and, because the stores themselves run 24 hours through every public holiday, they are available throughout. Look for the Visa/PLUS, Mastercard/Cirrus, UnionPay or JCB logos on the machine and expect to press a "Global" or "Foreign Card" option. One correction worth making: Citibank closed its Korean retail banking business in 2021. Any guide still telling you to find a Citibank ATM is at least five years out of date.
Eating Chuseok Food as a Visitor
There is a timing problem nobody explains, and it costs people the experience they came for: songpyeon is a pre-holiday purchase, not a holiday-day purchase.
Rice cake shops (떡집) and traditional-market stalls sell songpyeon during the peak trading window in the three to four days before Chuseok — for 2026, roughly Monday September 21 through Thursday September 24. On Chuseok day itself most of those shops are closed, because their owners are performing the ancestral rite. Department store food halls, which carry the best selection, are shut chain-wide on the 25th. If you want to try songpyeon, buy it on the 22nd or 23rd, not the 25th.
The four dishes worth knowing, and how hard each is to obtain: 송편 songpyeon — half-moon rice cakes filled with sesame and honey, sweet mung bean or chestnut, steamed over pine needles; easy before the holiday, hard on the day. 전 jeon — pan-fried battered fritters; easy, available year-round at Gwangjang Market and any 전집. 갈비찜 galbijjim — braised short ribs with jujube and chestnut; easy, on menus year-round. 토란국 toranguk — taro-stem soup in beef brisket broth; genuinely hard, because it is a home dish that rarely appears on restaurant menus.
The reliable answer for Chuseok day itself is a hotel Hangawi buffet. Seoul hotels run 한가위 특선 menus through the holiday and are the one channel guaranteed to be open with the full seasonal spread, toranguk included. Book ahead; they sell out.
Can You Still Do a Regional Trip?
Yes — and the answer is much better than the "stay in Seoul or write off the trip" framing you will find elsewhere. Ranked by how well they survive the holiday:
Gyeongju — the strongest option
Gyeongju answers "I could not get a train seat but I still want to leave Seoul," because almost the entire headline itinerary is free and has no holiday closure. Bulguksa runs 09:00–18:00, free, with no annual rest days. Daereungwon's royal tomb park has free grounds open until 22:00, with only the Cheonmachong interior charging ₩3,000. Cheomseongdae is outdoors and free. The Gyeongju National Museum is free and has previously run Chuseok programming reconstructing Silla-era holiday customs. That is a full day out with nothing depending on a business owner deciding to open — and it is reachable by express bus, the one intercity mode a foreign visitor can actually book in 2026.
Busan — solid
Jagalchi Market runs 05:00–22:00, with scheduled closures on the first, third and fifth Tuesday of the month. In September 2026 those Tuesdays are the 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th, so no scheduled closure lands inside September 24–27. Individual stallholders will still close on the 25th, but the building and a substantial share of stalls operate. Gamcheon Culture Village is a residential hillside rather than a gated attraction, so the streets and viewpoints are always accessible — expect the cafés and craft shops to thin out on the 25th. Busan's Gwangalli drone show runs Saturday evenings, and Saturday the 26th falls inside the holiday.
Jeonju — viable, but this is where Koreans go
Jeonju Hanok Village ranks among the top domestic Chuseok destinations, so expect it full of Korean families rather than pleasantly empty. Cultural facilities generally operate through the holiday — the traditional liquor museum, the fan culture centre, the hanji wish-writing hall. A good day out, just not a quiet one. Book weeks ahead or make it a day trip.
Jeju — avoid unless already booked
Gimpo–Jeju is the hardest domestic route of the Korean year. During a comparable short Chuseok, every Gimpo–Jeju flight on the first holiday day sold out, return legs sold out on the final two days, only pre-dawn departures survived, and one-way fares sat around ₩100,000 against a ₩50,000 baseline — with no extra flights added. If Jeju is not already ticketed, pick a different week.
Closer to home, the Korean Folk Village in Yongin runs an annual Chuseok programme with Joseon-era reenactments and ganggangsullae performances, about an hour from central Seoul and requiring no train ticket. ⏳ 2026 dates were not yet posted.
Will Hotels Be Cheaper During Chuseok?
No — and the intuition that they should be is about seven years out of date. The "Seoul empties out, so hotels discount" logic assumed Seoul hotels sold rooms to Koreans. They largely do not any more.
In 2025, Seoul hotel RevPAR reached ₩207,300 — up 67% on 2019 — with occupancy at 79.2% and 71.2% of guests foreign. In Myeongdong, first-half 2026 occupancy ran 85–88% across major properties, with foreign guest shares of 80%, 90% and, at one hotel, 94%. Rates rose 6–12% year on year over the same period, against structurally tight supply of only about a thousand new rooms a year. When 80 to 94 percent of your guests are foreign, Korean domestic outflow removes almost no demand — so instead of discounting, Seoul hotels run premium family packages. Nationwide hotel and resort occupancy approached 90% during the 2025 Chuseok.
Regional and resort areas move the opposite way and spike hard, with 2026 autumn booking pressure concentrated on Sokcho and Seoraksan, Jeongeup, Jeonju, Andong and Damyang. Book Seoul early and do not wait for a dip that will not arrive; book regional accommodation much earlier than that. For hanok stays and guesthouses, message the host directly — they are owner-operated and individually variable.
Flying In or Out Over Chuseok
Start with the change that invalidates most English airport advice on the internet: Asiana Airlines moved all Incheon operations from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2, effective January 14, 2026. Asiana now checks in at Terminal 2, counters G–J.
Two implications. First, Terminal 2 now hosts Korean Air and Asiana, plus Delta, Air France and KLM — which reverses the old "Terminal 1 is the busy one, Terminal 2 is calm" advice that still appears almost everywhere. Second, and this catches people out: for codeshare flights you must check the operating carrier's terminal, not the airline on your ticket. A KE- or OZ-numbered flight operated by a partner may still depart from Terminal 1. Confirm the terminal on your boarding pass, not from a guide written before 2026.
Arrival buffer. Incheon Airport's own guidance during the 2025 Chuseok holiday was that arriving three hours before departure left comfortable margin. On a record 239,000-passenger day, security screening ran about fifteen minutes during the morning rush with no significant delays — the airport designates the holiday a special transport management period and adds screening lanes and staff. For 2026's compressed four-day holiday, treat three hours as the floor and allow three and a half on Thursday September 24 and Sunday September 27, the two peak waves.
Take AREX, not the limousine bus. The airport railroad runs its standard timetable on public holidays, and Express trains are reservation-based and immune to road congestion. The limousine bus shares roadway with the largest traffic event of the Korean year. This is not a close call during Chuseok. If you do take the bus, note that payment to the airport is cash or T-money only — the Climate Card and Discover Seoul Pass are not accepted — and return trips from Incheon require buying a ticket at the airport booth, with no online reservation available.
Gimpo is where the domestic crush actually lands, since it is the gateway to Jeju and Busan. If you are flying domestically over the holiday, treat Gimpo with the same seriousness as an international departure.
Events During the Holiday
The correction first: the Seoul International Fireworks Festival is Saturday, September 5, 2026, at Yeouido Hangang Park — roughly three weeks earlier than its usual slot, moved explicitly in consideration of the Chuseok schedule and autumn inbound-tourist demand. Any post telling you to come for Chuseok and catch the fireworks is describing a different year. The Seoul Street Arts Festival also sits outside the window, on September 19–20.
Running across September 24–27: Seoul Autumn Festa, a city-wide umbrella programme from September 19 to November 9; the Gyeongbokgung Starlight Night Tour; and ⏳ the National Folk Museum Chuseok festival — hanbok dressing, ssireum, ganggangsullae and folk crafts, which in 2025 was scheduled around the museum's closed day, so expect it on the 24th, 26th and 27th but not the 25th. Palace holiday programming (guard-changing at 10:00 and 14:00, folk games, stamp tours) and the free Namsangol Hanok Village Chuseok festival are both annual but ⏳ unannounced for 2026. Seoul's festival calendar lists the Hanseong Baekje Culture Festival for September 26–28, but the host district had not confirmed a 2026 edition — treat it as unconfirmed.
A Four-Day Seoul Plan That Assumes You Never Board a Train
If the rail sale locked you out, staying in Seoul is not the consolation prize. Traffic thins, queues shorten, and the palaces are typically free. This is arguably the best four-day window of the year to be in central Seoul — provided you plan around Friday.
Thursday, September 24 — the palace day. Everything is open and the free-admission period has usually begun. Gyeongbokgung in the morning for the guard-changing ceremony, then Jongmyo, which is normally viewable only on a timed guided tour but is typically opened for free unguided entry during holiday waivers. Afternoon at the National Palace Museum on Gyeongbokgung's western edge — free, and closed the next day. Book dinner ahead: Thursday evening is when the outbound exodus clears the city and restaurant closures begin.
Friday, September 25 — the restricted day, so spend it outdoors. Museums and department stores are shut. Palaces and Jongmyo are not. Morning at Changdeokgung, then the Han River in the afternoon — the river parks, public bike share and the Banpo Bridge fountain are entirely unaffected by holiday closures, and the riverside is where the Seoul residents who stayed in town actually go. Our Han River guide covers the free options and how the bike system handles a foreign card. For dinner, book a hotel Hangawi buffet, or fall back on an open mall — do not gamble on a neighbourhood alley tonight.
Saturday, September 26 — the recovery day. National museums reopen, with the National Museum of Korea and Folk Museum running extended Saturday hours to 20:00–21:00. Market coverage is back up. Gwangjang Market food alley in the morning, the National Museum of Korea in the afternoon, and Insadong or Ikseon-dong in the evening as neighbourhood restaurants restart.
Sunday, September 27 — plan around the mart closure and the return peak. If you need anything from a large mart, buy it Saturday; several districts force closures on the fourth Sunday. Keep today central and car-free. Folk Museum Chuseok programming typically runs. Avoid expressways, Seoul Station and the Express Bus Terminal from mid-afternoon onward — that is the return peak, and in a compressed holiday it is severe.
If You Need a Doctor or Pharmacy
Clinics and pharmacies close in large numbers, but emergency coverage is deliberately reinforced — for the 2025 holiday Seoul kept 70 facilities open around the clock and roughly 17,000 clinics and pharmacies open across the period. The tools that matter:
- E-Gen (e-gen.or.kr) — the national emergency medical portal. Searchable list of open clinics and holiday-duty pharmacies by district, with live emergency-room congestion levels. There is a GPS-based mobile app.
- 119 — ambulance and emergency, and also medical guidance and hospital referral. (The old 1339 medical hotline was folded into 119; disregard any guide still listing it.)
- 1330 — Korea Travel Helpline, 24 hours, multilingual. This is the right number for a foreign visitor who needs interpretation rather than an ambulance.
- 129 — Ministry of Health and Welfare line for open clinics and pharmacies. 120 — Seoul city call centre.
Photograph your current prescriptions before you travel so a Korean pharmacist can identify equivalents.
Frequently Asked Questions
When exactly is Chuseok 2026, and is it five days?
Chuseok day is Friday, September 25. The legal holiday covers September 24–26, and Sunday the 27th makes it four days in practice. Monday, September 28 is a normal working day — posts claiming a five-day holiday ending on the 28th are wrong.
Why is there no substitute holiday, when Liberation Day got one the same year?
Different legal provisions. For Seollal and Chuseok, a substitute day is granted only when a holiday day overlaps a Sunday or another public holiday — and in 2026 they fall Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Liberation Day sits under a clause granting a substitute whenever the date lands on a weekend, which is why Monday, August 17 was a day off.
Is Chuseok the same as the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival?
They share a lunar date and harvest-festival origins, but the observances differ. Chuseok centres on charye ancestral rites and grave visits and drives mass internal migration. There are no mooncakes and no lantern tradition — the Korean equivalent food is songpyeon.
What's the difference between Chuseok and Seollal?
Seollal is Lunar New Year in late January or February; Chuseok is the autumn harvest festival. Both are three-day holidays triggering the same migration and closure patterns, so the advice on this page transfers to Seollal.
Did Chuseok train tickets really go on sale August 20?
No. The priority pre-sale runs September 3–4 (09:00–15:00) and the general sale September 7–11 (07:00–13:00), covering departures September 23–27. The August 20 claim corresponds to no KORAIL sale window.
Can I buy a Chuseok KTX ticket with a foreign passport and no Korean phone number?
Not through the advance sale. It runs on a Korean-language, members-only page, and KORAIL membership requires Korean identity verification that generally needs a Korean mobile line and an Alien Registration Card. Your realistic routes are express buses, domestic flights, leftover seats after the payment deadlines, station counters, or a reseller such as Klook.
The English booking site shows no trains for September 24–27. Are they sold out?
Probably not. Holiday inventory is withheld for the special sale, so those dates appear unavailable rather than sold out. Unsold and unpaid seats return to normal channels after the September 15 and 18 payment deadlines.
What changed with SRT this year?
KORAIL and SR merged their ticketing. The integrated KORAIL+ app launched August 3, 2026 as a rename of KorailTalk, and from August 5 it became the only channel for integrated trains departing September 1 or later. Suseo trains now sell inside the KORAIL holiday sale, on the September 10 sale day. An SRT-only account must be converted manually first.
Are the palaces free during Chuseok 2026?
⏳ Very likely, though unconfirmed at the time of writing. The Korea Heritage Service has waived admission at all four palaces, Jongmyo and the royal tombs for every recent Seollal and Chuseok, suspending regular closed days at the same time. Changdeokgung's Secret Garden is consistently excluded and still needs a paid timed ticket.
Which single day should I plan around?
Friday, September 25. National museums, MMCA Seoul, Leeum and department stores close, many marts close, and a large share of neighbourhood restaurants shut. Palaces, Jongmyo, transit, convenience stores, duty-free, hotels and the larger malls all operate.
Do shops really all close during Chuseok?
No. In a survey of Korean self-employed business owners, 85.4% said they would operate normally. The reliable closures are corporate — department stores, large marts, banks, government offices. What closes near you is the owner-operated shop in a residential neighbourhood. Convenience stores run 24 hours at full coverage throughout.
Are banks open?
No, September 24–27. Airport currency exchange counters do stay open through the holiday, but full-service airport bank branches do not. Exchange money at the airport on arrival or in the city before the 24th.
Does the subway run normally, and do taxis charge more?
The subway runs on a holiday timetable Thursday and Friday — longer intervals, earlier last trains. Taxis have no holiday surcharge; only the standard late-night rates apply. The problem is supply, since many drivers take the holiday off.
Will hotels be cheaper because Seoul empties out?
No. Between 71% and 94% of guests at major Seoul hotels are foreign, so domestic outflow removes little demand. Rates rose 6–12% year on year in early 2026, and hotels run premium holiday packages rather than discounts. Regional and resort accommodation spikes and sells out weeks ahead.
Where can I buy songpyeon?
In the three or four days before Chuseok — roughly September 21–24 — at a market rice cake stall or a department store food hall. On the day itself most rice cake shops are closed and department stores are shut. The reliable option on the 25th is a hotel Hangawi buffet.
Is Busan or Gyeongju worth visiting during Chuseok?
Gyeongju is the strongest choice: Bulguksa, Daereungwon and Cheomseongdae are free, outdoors and have no holiday closures, and it is reachable by express bus. Busan works too — Jagalchi Market has no scheduled closure inside the window. Avoid Jeju unless already ticketed; that route sells out completely and fares roughly double.
Is the Seoul fireworks festival during the holiday?
No. In 2026 it is Saturday, September 5, at Yeouido Hangang Park, moved earlier because of the Chuseok schedule.
How do I say "Happy Chuseok" in Korean?
추석 잘 보내세요 (Chuseok jal bonaeseyo) — "have a good Chuseok" — works almost anywhere. The more traditional greeting is 한가위 잘 보내세요 (Hangawi jal bonaeseyo).
How This Guide Was Checked
Every date, time and closure rule on this page comes from a KORAIL notice, Korean press reporting, or the venue's own published hours — not from other English travel blogs, several of which are the source of the errors corrected here. Where a fact is annual and had not yet been announced at the time of writing, it is marked ⏳ rather than guessed at. Where something could not be verified — such as whether former SRT services become KORAIL PASS–eligible from September 1 — this guide says so instead of filling the gap. The page is reviewed again in mid-September, when the outstanding announcements land.
Written by a Seoul-based global business owner. Follow more verified, no-fluff Korea travel guides at SeoulCut.com.
Written by Seoul Cut, a global trade professional with 20 years of experience across Europe & Asia. I share practical, zero-tourist-trap guides to Korea drawn from years of hosting international visitors.
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