Small-Group Seoul Morning Royal Palaces Tour: Explore Gyeongbokgung Palace and Buddhist Temple

Experience the beauty and cultural heritage of Seoul on a small-group tour of Gyeongbokgung Palace, Jogyesa Temple, and the National Folk Museum.

Duration: 3 hours, 30 minutes
Cancellation: 24 hours
Highlights
  • Jogyesa Temple - Jogyesa Buddhist Temple serves as the heart of Zen Buddhism in Korea and is renowned for its urban location.
    From the bustling streets of Jongno, head towards Anguk Subway Station, and you will come across Jogyesa Temple.
    The first thing to catch your eye at the temple will be the beautiful trees. The locust and baeksong trees in…
What's Included
  • Professional guide
  • Hotel pickup in Central Seoul
  • Bottled water
What's Not Included
  • Food
  • Hotel drop-off
Additional Information

Through this excursion, you’ll get the opportunity to explore the city’s Buddhist temple, the Presidential Blue House Square, and the Gyeongbokgung Palace over a span of 3.5 hours, in the company of a small group. Your journey begins at the Jogyesa temple, a symbol of Buddhism in Seoul, and continues past the Cheongwadae, also known as the Presidential…

Location
55
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.
Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
4.7
(50 Ratings)
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Tandy_d
Apr 15, 2025
Half a day in Seoul at the Palace and More - Experience includes some self-serve some guided touring. The experience at the Buddhist temple is self-guided and can be different depending on the time of arrival since during worship times, access to the inside of the temple is restricted. The temple was interesting, but without guidance from a tour guide, not easily understood. The Palace experience was good, but very touristy. Lots of people and the changing of the guards is a show. The Palace is huge and not easily navigable for the disabled or people who are not sure-footed or cannot climb steps due to the cobblestones, gravel, stairs, etc. Lots of walking as well. This was a guided tour and learning about the history and background was great. Then there was the palace museum, which was also very interesting, but tiring. We spent quite a long time at the palace. An unknown was the GInseng tour. Not sure that this is necessary as it was very heavily a sales pitch for very expensive GInseng products. Overall the tour guide was very good, very knowledgeable and very friendly. He accommodated our needs and was helpful. Overall I would recommend this tour. We only spent 1/2 day, but others spent the whole day.
Review provided by Viator
Goplaces84416
Apr 14, 2025
Best tour guide!!! - Our tour guide and driver were the best. Lua was fun and brought a lot of history to the tour. Loved her personality and friendly attitude. Absolutely loved it
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Sarahog224ng
Apr 9, 2025
Excellent Seoul Tour - Junie was such an amazing guide! So informative, kind, positive, high energy, patient and funny. She spoke excellent English and could answer all of our questions. She really kept the group moving along and it was so nice to be so well taken care of!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Compass14942047430
Mar 28, 2025
Great experience! - Our tour, Junie was amazing! I learned a lot from her! I recommend her to tour me again! She was so knowledgeable and helped me speak Korean as well!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Meander27881157155
Mar 28, 2025
Seoul tour - Juni did a great job explaining the tour stops and keeping the group on track. We had a lovely day seeing Seoul and enjoyed the palaces.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Patrick_r
Jan 22, 2025
Great half day tour of seoul - This was essentially a private tour for our family (maybe there were no other bookings that day) of Seoul. Our guide Young was very knowledgeable and friendly. We saw the main Buddhist temple, a palace, and a ginseng center.
Review provided by Viator
Veronicacloraine
Nov 18, 2024
Great tour! - I booked the half day tour with hotel pick up. Mr. Kim was waiting at our hotel right on time for our short drive to the first stop. We met Junie at the Jogyesa Temple and had a great tour from there! Thanks Junie!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Jcm21
Apr 22, 2025
Overall a good high level tour - Overall a good tour of some of the important historical buildings in Seoul. We just did the morning tour of the temple, palace, folk museum and ginseng centre. This is a fast paced tour and a lot is covered in just 4 hours. The highlight for us was the Folk Museum which is excellent and very informative. We would have preferred spending more time here and skipped the ginseng centre. The Folk Museum is worth a return visit if you have the time. However we would recommend the tour if you are on a tight schedule and want a good overview of the city.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Emma_d
Apr 18, 2025
Good tour - Wild and ver6 wet day. Not the best da6 to do a tour in Seoul. Was fun though and our guide Yung was a giggle. Enjoyable and informative. Would have loved to have seen the palace changing of the guard though.
Review provided by Viator
Tim_o
Oct 29, 2024
Ginseng Factory... - We were really keen on doing a tour like this, however another tour we looked at warned of a visit to the Ginseng Factory, so we picked this tour instead. We arrived and got the run down for our day, which included a visit to the Ginseng Factory that wasn't listed on the website! The morning went well, and our guide was nice and informative. However we then got to the point of the tour where we visited the National Palace Museum. We entered through the rear exit gate (which was a bit strange) and then the turbo button was hit. We rushed through the museum in the space of 15 minutes seeing a couple of displays. Then as many reviews have noted, it was time for a two hour visit to the Ginseng Factory! We spent so much time here, which was really frustrating. This included a walk through their museum and then being put into a room with the door closed. The staff were nice, but if we wanted to buy Ginseng we would do so on our own time not a tour! It's a shame because it detracts from the other sites and the nice tour guide. Would recommend ensuring your itinerary is Ginseng Factory free in writing when booking any tour similar to this one!
Review provided by Viator
From $44
up to 15 guests
2 - Adult
Cancellation: Free cancellation up to 24 hours before the start of your experience (local time).