Paju DMZ Tour: Imjingak, Third Tunnel and Dora Observatory by Shuttle

• For an easy trip with no booking, go as far as Imjingak. The site itself is free, and the severed railway bridge, the locomotive and the peace gondola are all there.
• To walk inside the DMZ yourself, book a DMZ Peace Tour departure that includes the Third Tunnel. Everyone in the party needs ID, and the departure decides whether you go down by monorail or on foot.
• To look across the Military Demarcation Line, Dora Observatory on the same tour is the destination. The clearer the day, the more you can see, so it suits anyone who can pick the date by the weather.
• If Monday is the only day you have, the DMZ Peace Tour does not run, so plan around Imjingak and the peace gondola — and note the gondola also closes on the first Monday of March, June, September and December.

Paju City does not publish opening or closing times for Imjingak itself — only that admission is free. The times below belong to the paid facilities inside it and to Dora Observatory's telescopes, not to Imjingak.

Closing days differ by facility too.

• DMZ Peace Tour — closed Mondays, public holidays falling on weekdays, and the day of Seollal and of Chuseok. The rest of those holiday periods it runs.
• Dora Observatory paid telescopes — not in operation on Mondays.
• Peace Gondola — closed on the first Monday of March, June, September and December for the quarterly safety inspection.

And it is easy to misread whose "closed Mondays" is whose. The gondola's fare page lists Camp Greaves alongside it, and the closure on Mondays, 1 January and the Seollal and Chuseok holidays is Camp Greaves'. What closes the gondola on a schedule is the quarterly safety inspection.

"Ticketing ends at 14:30" explains only half of this route.

• You book a departure. Individual shuttles leave ten times a day Tuesday to Friday, from 09:20 to 14:40, and fourteen times at weekends. Online booking opens from the following day through to sessions one month ahead, and same-day online booking is not available.
• That departure decides how you go down. Paju City marks each slot in advance as monorail or walking. What you choose is the slot, not the method. The five sessions marked ‘mono’ on the timetable use the monorail. Online tickets for these sessions are sold at the walking-course price, with the lift charge paid separately on site. Under the notice dated 23 September 2026, the 09:20 session is available only at the on-site ticket office.
• Ticket collection closes before departure. Online bookings close 20 minutes before departure and on-site ticket sales close 10 minutes before departure; sales may end earlier when no tickets remain.

The DMZ Peace Tour checks original identification for every visitor. Its official list includes a passport, Alien Registration Card and US military ID for foreign visitors, while a separate FAQ on the same site specifically tells foreign visitors to carry a passport. Foreign visitors should therefore bring the original passport and check the latest guidance before visiting. Copies, screenshots and photographs of identification are not accepted. Dora Observatory requires ID too.

There is also one stop condition that no timetable can express. Paju City warns that under a security situation or bad weather every departure can be halted without notice and existing bookings cancelled. It has no dates, so it cannot be written as a closure rule — and it cannot be treated as absent either.

Imjingak Tourist Site is free at every age. What costs money is inside it and beyond it.

The Third Tunnel — the price divides by how you descend.

That last row is called exempt and it is not zero. What is waived is the facility fee; the shuttle charge remains.

Dora Observatory — reaching the observatory is inside the tour price. What costs extra is a paid telescope, 500 won for two minutes. There are 34 telescopes, 31 of them for visitors.

The Peace Gondola — round trip, standard cabin 12,000 for adults and 10,000 for children; the transparent-floor crystal cabin is 15,000 and 13,000. Groups of 20 or more pay 11,000 and 14,000 for adults. Adult means middle-school age to under 65; child means over three years old through elementary school.

The Imjingak Tourist Site page gives parking in three bands — 1,000 won for light vehicles, 2,000 for small and mid-size, 5,000 for large.

Paju's Imjingak Pyeonghwa-Nuri guide gives the same car park in four — 1,000 for light cars, 2,000 for passenger cars, 3,000 for mid-size, 5,000 for buses. The 3,000-won mid-size band exists on only one of them.

Only Paju City can say which is right, so both are recorded here. It is a difference that only bites if you arrive in something van-sized.