How we check opening days

Updated November 6, 2026 · from official open data

Korean venues publish their closing days as sentences, not as data: “Mondays, January 1, the day of Seollal & Chuseok”, or “Tuesdays (if Tuesday is a public holiday, closed on the following business day instead)”. We read each sentence, turn it into a rule, and apply the rule to every date using the official public-holiday calendar.

What we read

Sights and museums: 1,320 English listings from the Korea Tourism Organization (VisitKorea open API) — closing days, opening hours, admission and photos.
Holidays: public and substitute holidays from the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, including one-off days such as election days.
Pharmacies and clinics: 25,437 pharmacies and 77,451 clinics from the National Medical Center, with hours for each weekday and for public holidays.

Rules we understand

Weekly closing days (“Mondays”, “Sunday–Tuesday”) — 386 places have at least one.
Holiday shifts: “if Monday is a public holiday, closed the next business day” or “open on holidays”.
Seollal and Chuseok: the whole three-day holiday, only “the day of”, or “the day before and the day of”.
Monthly patterns such as “2nd & 4th Mondays” or “1st Monday of March, June, September and December”.
Seasonal hours (“March–October 09:00–18:00 / November–February 09:00–17:00”) and weekday-specific late opening.

When we say “Check”

If a note can’t be read as a fixed rule — “varies by exhibition”, “closed during exhibition changes”, or simply no closing-day information — we show CHECK instead of guessing. That is 315 places today. Notes such as “may close in bad weather” are shown as a warning tag.

Times are Korea time

Your phone may still be on your home time zone. “Open now” and “today” are always worked out in Korea Standard Time (UTC+9).

Updates

We re-read the sources and rebuild the site every night. Our rule reader is tested against real examples on every update. Found a mistake? Email contact@whatsopenkorea.com.

Rules and fees can change. When in doubt, call the venue or the Korea Travel Hotline 1330 (English, 24 hours).