What is the difference between two palaces?
In SEOUL, there are five royal palaces built during JOSEON DYNASTY.
The biggest & most popular one is GYEONG-BOK-GUNG PALACE. (The official spelling doesn’t have ‘-‘. But, for your convenience, we put ‘-‘ once.)
The second biggest palace name is CHANG-DEOK-GUNG PALACE and CHANGDEOKGUNG is renowned for the real garden (or, called SECRET GARDEN).
But, to enter SECRET GARDEN, you need to join the comsulsory group tour, which is orgarnized by CHANGDEOKGUNG PALACE.
Therefore, we need to call CHANGDEOKGUNG PALACE consists of 1) Building area, 2) Garden area (i.e., SECRET GARDEN).
As of today, CHANGDEOKGUNG PALACE opens 4 slots for SECRET GARDEN for ENGLISH speaking foreign tourists; 10:30, 11:30, 14:30 and 15:30.
Many cases, 50% of tickets are fully booked over the internet. (Another 50% tickets are being sold at the ticket box.)
But, there is no limit for the ticket to the building area.
If you rent HANBOK and enter the palace wearing HANBOK, the entrance fee for the building area is waived.
But, the entrace ticket price (KRW5,000) to SECRET GARDEN is always chargeable.
Which is the better?
That depends on your preference.
If you are first visitor to KOREA, we recommend you visit GYEONGBOKGUNG PALACE because
- This palace has more varieties such as the peformance (i.e., Changing guard ceremony), the pavilion at the pond, the attached museums (NATIONAL FOLK MUSEUM, or NATIONAL PALACE MUSEUM)
- This palace is situated next to BLUE HOUSE, BUKCHON HANOK VILLAGE. (Therefore, you can walk aross each other easily.)
But, if you visit SEOUL in autumn, we recommend you visit SECRET GARDEN because of the beautiful autumn color.
Or, if you have enough time to cover the both palaces, you can combine 1) GYEONGBOKGUNG PALACE, 2) SECRET GARDEN at CHANGDEOKGUNG.