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Four days when the palaces stop charging Chuseok is the Korean harvest holiday, and most of Seoul leaves town for it. From 24 to 27 September the four palaces — Gyeongbokgung, Changdeokgung, Deoksugung, Changgyeonggung — plus Jongmyo Shrine and the Joseon royal tombs open free of charge. The one that matters most is Jongmyo. Normally you can only enter on a timed guided ticket at a fixed hour. For these four days that rule is off: you walk in and take your own time under the long wooden hall the kings kept their ancestors in. What still costs money Changdeokgung's rear garden — the Secret Garden — stays a paid, separate ticket. Evening programmes such as the palace night tours are also paid and booked in advance. At Gyeongbokgung The royal guard-changing ceremony runs at 10:00 and 14:00, the sentry duty ceremony at 11:00 and 13:00, and at 15:00 the guards patrol inside and outside the palace walls. None of it needs a booking — stand at the front gate and watch. If you are wearing hanbok Hanbok already gets you in free on any day of the year, so over Chuseok the rental shops around Gyeongbokgung Station are the busiest part of the neighbourhood. This is the weekend the palaces look most like the photographs.