Museums Open Late in Jongno, Seoul: Which Evenings, and How to Walk Them

1. National Palace Museum of Korea — inside Gyeongbokgung, south-west corner. Royal seals, protocol records, palanquins, the water clock.
2. National Folk Museum of Korea — against Gyeongbokgung's north-east side, at 37 Samcheong-ro. Ordinary households, not the court.
3. MMCA Seoul — 30 Samcheong-ro, east of the palace. Art being made now.
4. National Museum of Korean Contemporary History — 198 Sejong-daero, across from Gwanghwamun Square. Korea since 1876.
5. Seoul Museum of History — 55 Saemunan-ro, beside Gyeonghuigung. How Hanyang became Seoul.
6. Jogyesa Temple — 55 Ujeongguk-ro, by exit 2 of Jonggak Station. The Jogye Order's head temple, in the middle of the city.

This list is for travellers who have spent the day around Gyeongbokgung or Gwanghwamun and want to give the evening to an indoor exhibition as well. Choosing takes three steps. First cut the list to the places open late on your weekday; then pick one by what you are curious about — the court's own objects at the National Palace Museum, ordinary households at the National Folk Museum, art being made now at MMCA Seoul, the country since 1876 at the contemporary-history museum, the city itself at the Seoul Museum of History; and finally set your order by the last-entry times.

The first five publish visiting hours. The sixth does not: Jogyesa is a working temple with daily services rather than a visitor attraction, and Visit Seoul states only that opening depends on the Buddhist ceremonies and the temple's schedule, printing no times at all. Plan an evening around the other five.

Five of the six run a late opening, and the days scatter rather than line up.

• Wednesday — MMCA Seoul and the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History to 21:00, and the National Folk Museum of Korea to 20:00. The Folk Museum's extended evening runs from March to October only.
• Friday — the Seoul Museum of History to 21:00, and it is the only one of the five that opens late on a Friday.
• Saturday — the National Palace Museum of Korea, MMCA Seoul and the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History, all to 21:00.

Only MMCA Seoul and the contemporary-history museum have two late evenings, and for both they are Wednesday and Saturday. The other three have one apiece.

The detail that actually disrupts a plan is the Folk Museum's seasonal split. From November to February it loses the Wednesday evening altogether, and its daytime closing moves an hour earlier, from 18:00 to 17:00, with last entry at 16:00. A winter afternoon spent on Gyeongbokgung first leaves almost nothing of it.

By weekday alone Wednesday and Saturday look much the same. One day a month they are not.

The National Palace Museum of Korea runs to 21:00 on the last Wednesday of each month as well as on Saturdays, with last entry at 20:30. On that day it joins the museums that already keep a Wednesday evening.

MMCA Seoul marks the same date as Culture Day and opens free for the entire day. That is a wider offer than an ordinary Wednesday, when only the late window is free.

The arithmetic comes out like this: on a last Wednesday between March and October, the Palace Museum, MMCA Seoul, the contemporary-history museum and the Folk Museum make four of the six open in the evening; between November and February the Folk Museum drops out and it is three. Where the dates allow any choice at all, that is the day to give Jongno.

The National Palace Museum of Korea, the National Folk Museum of Korea, the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History and the Seoul Museum of History are free, so there is no ticket to arrange. The Palace Museum states that free admission stands until it announces otherwise.

MMCA Seoul is the only priced entry, and even there no fixed price exists. Each exhibition is priced on its own, so a single "admission to MMCA Seoul" figure is not a thing that can be looked up; the cost of a visit is the cost of whatever is showing that day.

The free windows, by contrast, are fixed:

• Wednesday and Saturday, 18:00 to 21:00 — the late opening, and it is free.
• The last Wednesday of each month — free all day.

So the one entry that costs anything costs nothing in the evening. Jogyesa sits outside this entirely: it publishes no admission price, and publishing nothing is not the same as being free, so its cost is best treated as simply unknown before arriving.

Four of the five cluster between Gyeongbokgung and Gwanghwamun Square, close enough to walk between. The figures below are straight-line distances on the map, so the walking route is longer than each one suggests.

• Palace Museum to the contemporary-history museum, about 0.38 km.
• Palace Museum to the Folk Museum, about 0.66 km.
• Folk Museum to the contemporary-history museum, about 0.86 km.
• Contemporary-history museum to the Seoul Museum of History, about 0.77 km.

MMCA Seoul at 30 Samcheong-ro and the Folk Museum at 37 Samcheong-ro share a street, which makes that the shortest pairing of the set. Jogyesa, at 55 Ujeongguk-ro by exit 2 of Jonggak Station, lies in a different direction from the Gyeongbokgung cluster altogether.

By weekday, the routes group like this:

• Wednesday — spend the day on Gyeongbokgung and the Palace Museum, then take the evening on Samcheong-ro at MMCA Seoul or across at the contemporary-history museum. From March to October the Folk Museum fits between the two.
• Friday — the only late opening is the Seoul Museum of History, so finish the Gyeongbokgung cluster in daylight and move west from Gwanghwamun.
• Saturday — three to choose from, and since the Palace Museum and the contemporary-history museum are under 400 m apart in a straight line, both in one evening is a reasonable attempt.

The thing that most often ends an evening early is not the closing time but the last entry. The Palace Museum stops admission at 20:30 on Saturdays and on the last Wednesday of the month alike, and the contemporary-history museum also closes entry at 20:30 on Wednesday and Saturday. The Folk Museum's Wednesday evening is the tightest of the three, with last entry at 19:00. The Seoul Museum of History is the exception in the other direction: it publishes no separate last-entry time for its extended Friday, so arriving late there is a gamble worth padding.

What to do if you miss a last entry also depends on the day. On a Wednesday, if the Folk Museum has stopped admitting, move along Samcheong-ro to MMCA Seoul, which runs to 21:00. On a Saturday the Palace Museum and the contemporary-history museum share the same 20:30 last entry, so running late for one usually means running late for both — put the one you care about more first. On a Friday the Seoul Museum of History is the only late opening, so there is nowhere to switch to; arriving earlier is the only safeguard.

On Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday, all five museums keep daytime hours only. Four evenings out of seven offer no late opening at all, which is worth knowing before an afternoon is spent slowly: on those days, start early and use the daylight rather than saving a museum for after dinner.

Monday carries a second complication. The Seoul Museum of History closes every Monday, and the Palace Museum closes on the last Monday of each month. Monday is also when several of Seoul's palaces are open, so the otherwise sensible order — see a palace, then get the city's context at the Seoul Museum of History — is precisely the one that cannot be done that day. Anyone wanting that sequence should move it to another weekday.

Holidays are worth a glance too. All five museums close on 1 January, and the Palace Museum, the Folk Museum, MMCA Seoul and the contemporary-history museum also close on the days of Seollal and Chuseok themselves.

Jogyesa is a tempting substitute for an empty evening, but its opening times are not published, so an itinerary must not assume it will be open after dark. It works better as a daytime call-in. For the evening itself, the reliable fillers are the things that need no timetable — Gwanghwamun Square, or the walk along Gyeongbokgung's outer wall.