Spend a morning in Seoul visiting highlights including Jogyesa Temple, Gyeongbokgung Palace, and the National Folk Museum. You'll also stop for photo ops outside the Presindential Blue House (Cheong Wa Dae) and Gwanghwamun Gate during the changing of the guards. Your 3.5-hour tour includes transportation, entrance fees, guide, and hotel pickup. You will be dropped off at either City Hall or Insadong.

3.5-hour Seoul royal palaces and highlights tour
Visit Jogyesa Temple for insight into Korean Buddhism
Get a look at palace life in Korea while touring Gyeongbokgung Palace
Watch the royal guard changing ceremony at Gwanghwamun Gate
Includes entrance fees, guide, and hotel pickup

What's Included

Professional guide
Hotel pickup in Central Seoul
All Fees and Taxes
Bottled water

Food
Hotel drop-off

Meeting And Pickup

You can head directly to the meeting point, or request pickup

Meeting point

55
55 Ujeongguk-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea
If you don't want us to pick you up, you can meet us at 9 am at the front gate of Jogyesa temple where is the first attractive to visit.

Pickup points

Select a pickup point

Start time

09:00 am

End point

4-3
4-3 Susong-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea
After the tour, we will drop all customers off at the Insadong.

Pickup details

Pick-up is provided at most hotels in Central Seoul or subway stations. Please provide us with the name & full address of your accommodation in Seoul. Then we inform you where & when you can meet us.

What To Expect

After morning pickup from centrally located hotels in Seoul, travel in a climate-controlled vehicle to your first destination, Jogyesa Temple.

At the temple, hear about Zen Buddhism in Korea, and stroll through key parts of the colorful compound. Next, stop in Blue House Square for photo ops of the official residence of the President of the Republic of Korea, Blue House, and Mt Bukak in the background.

Next, go to Gwanghwamun Gate to watch the ceremony of the changing of the royal guards. Then head to the northern palace, Gyeongbokgung Palace, for a tour that details how the royal families and their court attendants lived.   Finally, visit the National Folk Museum of Korea to learn about daily life in Korea from the Goryeo dynasty (918-1392) to the Joseon dynasty (1392-1910).

Stop by the Korean ginseng center on the way to your drop-off location (either City Hall or Insadong), where your tour ends after 3.5 hours.

Jogyesa Temple

30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Gyeongbokgung Palace

2 hours • Admission Ticket Included

The Blue House (Pass By)

Additional Info

Confirmation will be received at time of booking
Not wheelchair accessible
Stroller accessible
Near public transportation
Infants must sit on laps
Not recommended for travellers with back problems
Not recommended for pregnant travellers

No heart problems or other serious medical conditions
Travellers should have a moderate physical fitness level
Not recommended for participants with back problems or heart complaints or other serious medical conditions
This tour is proceeding with minimum 4 people and if the participants number is below it, the tour can be cancelled.
Please note: On Tuesdays, Gyeongbokgung Palace is closed and you will go to Changdeokgung & Changdeokgung Rear Garden (Secret Garden) instead in the morning.
This tour/activity will have a maximum of 15 travellers

Cancellation Policy

You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.

For a full refund, you must cancel at least 24 hours before the experience’s start time.
If you cancel less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time, the amount you paid will not be refunded.

Any changes made less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time will not be accepted.
Cut-off times are based on the experience’s local time.

Traveller Photos

Reviews

5.0

21 reviews

Total review count and overall rating based on Viator and Tripadvisor reviews

Reviews by Viator travellers.

Showing 1-10 of 21 reviews

Great tour

Alexa_K, July 2023

Mr.Young was a wonderful tour guide. Great tour! We have a great time! He was very informative and helpful. The palaces were beautiful and the tour was thorough! Definitely would recommend!

Great tour guide! Very...

Adam_F, July 2023

Great tour guide! Very knowledgeable about the locations we visited. I’d highly recommend this tour to anyone traveling solo.

tour guide was very personable and gave in-depth explanations and historical facts. Could not have been happier.

Colby_B, May 2023

Jogyesa Buddhist temple was the hilight for me and was beautiful in the rain. Korea national museum was also impressive.

Response from Host, May 2023

Pleased to hear that you enjoyed beauty of architecture of Korean Temple even in the rain. And yes, the museum is a very good place to get a glimpse of life during the Josun Dynasty. Thank you for sharing us the review !

Family trip

Sarah_B, Apr 2023

Our guide Sadie was very effective in keeping the group together and moving along. It was very crowded particularly at Gyeongbokgung Palace and she deftly navigated the swarms. She provided interesting pieces of information that gave us context for what we were seeing. Moreover she was extemely attentive to my mother who was moving at a slower pace and was beyond helpful in helping me to secure separate transport because we had to leave the tour early.

The communication and...

Sreevani_S, Apr 2023

The communication and pick up was really good. Somehow the guide was speaking slow and it was kind of boring.

Response from Host, Apr 2023

Thank you for joining our tour. We really appreciate your precious feedback and we're very sorry to hear your concernings. We will conduct immediate in-service training to our guide. We always do our very best to provide better tour programs with meaningful time in Korea. Looking forward to seeing you again, hopefully.

Beautiful tour and...

Erin_C, Mar 2023

Beautiful tour and learned a bunch. The Buddhist temple was georgous, and all the lanterns were stunning.

Great tour value. We loved it.

mike_n, Mar 2023

Tour was well organized, informative and smooth. We did 1/2 day which was enough to get a good overview of the most famous places. Guide was awesome and driver skillful in the new van. Price value is awesome.

We had a great time on...

Nichole_P, Mar 2023

We had a great time on this trip! It's fast paced, but comprehensive to get a quick overview of both the religion and historical culture of Korea. It was rainy the day of our tour, but Miss Sadie (our guide) kept us entertained and we still had a fun time. At the end of our tour, she even dropped us off in a nice central location and told us where to find certain stores we wanted to go to!

We got to see the...

Abby_M, Mar 2023

We got to see the changing of the guard at the palace which was very cool. Our guide was very nice and had lots of information about the different places we went.

Great overview of historic Seoul

Dustin_W, Nov 2022

Great quick overview of the city’s historical sites. Excellent guide in English, and driver taking us to each site. Everyone was kind and personable, which led to a great experience. Our group has two other couples, so the experience was fairly personal and gave a chance to meet other travelers. Half day was perfect for us, getting the highlights and leaving us with the rest of our day to explore.

Very informative day

Janice_S, July 2022

The friendliness of the group and tour guide. We were picked up from our hotel on time and dropped back off at a central location that we knew

Great introduction to korean culture and main sights!

Monse_F, Jan 2020

Peter was an exceptional tour guide. Knowledgeable, approachable, full of cultural insights and helped us to fully appreciate korean culture, society, religion and politics past and present. Highly recommended

Great korean city experience

Trail12774794613, Apr 2019

This is recommended for people who has an interest of knowing korean culture. Need to wear comfy shoes... we went on this tour in springtime and we’re sweating. It could be hotter during summertime as there is a lot of walking inside the temples. Overall it was magnificent. Thanks to Jake our k-pop tour guide for entertaining us.

Palace Tour

Rebecca_A, Apr 2019

Enjoyed the tour, nice walking tour with car service between locations. Disappointed the day we did the tour no changing of the guards at the palace. If I had known that in advance I would have booked something else. That was the main reason for the tour. The guide said the changing of the guards would take place at 2:00pm. We could not make it back for that time. Ms.Shiny was a very pleasant and knowledgeable guide. Clean comfortable car too. The ginseng tour is pretty much just trying to sell you items to take home. Interesting about how it grows but feel time could be used better elsewhere.

We only had a half of a day free...

Bridget R, Aug 2017

We only had a half of a day free during our trip to Seoul, so this tour was perfect for us. Our guide, Judy, was very personable, professional, and a lot of fun. We only had 4 people in our group so we did not have to waste time gathering people together at each point. Our driver was excellent and the pick ups/drop offs at each point were seamless. This was an excellent way to get to see at least some of the few treasures in Seoul.

Rebecca was my tour guide and I...

Salome A, June 2017

Rebecca was my tour guide and I cannot expression my gratitude for this amazing guide in 300 characters. I highly recommend this tour to anyone. I was sad that I didn't book more tours with her. Next time I visit Korea, I will book with her company. -- Thank you Rebecca, you rock!

Had Brian a the guide and he did a...

James H, Jan 2017

Had Brian a the guide and he did a great job. Service oriented.

This short tour was informative and...

Mary C, July 2016

This short tour was informative and had beautiful sites. The tour guide gave good historical and cultural contexts but spoke very quickly and moved from one place to the next very quickly. However she was very helpful and enthusiastic. Would recommend this tour if you want a quick half day tour!