Korea Hiking on Public Holidays: Dates to Avoid & Quiet Alternatives

A Warning, Not a Welcome

Every year I watch the same thing happen. A foreign visitor lands in Seoul, checks the calendar, sees a long weekend coming up, and thinks: perfect timing for a hike. They book Seoraksan or Bukhansan. They are excited. Then they arrive at the trailhead at 9 a.m. and find a queue of two thousand people stretching back to the car park.

I am not exaggerating. On major Korean public holidays, the most famous mountain trailheads resemble subway platforms at rush hour — except everyone is wearing gaiters and carrying hiking poles. If you are planning to hike in Korea and you have not thought about public holidays, this post is for you.

Why Korean Public Holidays Hit Trails So Hard

Hiking is the single most popular outdoor leisure activity in Korea. Around 40 percent of the adult population hikes regularly, and the country has an extraordinary concentration of national parks within a few hours of Seoul. When a holiday falls on a Monday or Friday, creating a three-day weekend, millions of people head for the hills — literally.

The geography amplifies the problem. Korea's mountains are spectacular but often funnel hikers onto one or two 'main ridge' routes. Seoraksan's Daecheongbong summit trail, Bukhansan's Baegundae peak, Jirisan's Cheonwangbong summit push — each of these has a single obvious line of ascent that everyone follows. A holiday weekend turns these corridors into a slow-moving human chain.

Add to that the Korean hiking culture of starting early and finishing by early afternoon, which compresses thousands of people into the same two-hour departure window. Trailhead car parks (usually the only realistic access point without a private vehicle) fill completely before 7 a.m. on peak days.

The Dates You Need to Know

These are the holiday periods where I would strongly advise against booking any of Korea's headline mountains:

Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving)

Three days in late September or early October (the exact dates shift each year with the lunar calendar — check before you plan). This is the single busiest holiday in the entire Korean outdoor calendar. The autumn foliage is either approaching or just turning, temperatures are ideal, and the entire country has the same three days off. Seoraksan in particular becomes almost unmanageable. I have driven clients past the main Seorakdong entrance at 6:30 a.m. on Chuseok and the approach road has already been closed to private vehicles.

Seollal (Lunar New Year)

Another three-day holiday, usually in late January or February. This one surprises people. Winter hiking is genuinely popular in Korea, especially sunrise hikes on Hallasan and Seoraksan. Expect the same crush of people at these peaks. Hallasan's Gwaneumsa and Seongpanak trailheads have entry quotas on peak days — they fill before midday.

Children's Day / Buddha's Birthday Weekend

Early May is Golden Week in Korea — Children's Day (5 May) and Buddha's Birthday (usually late April or early May, lunar calendar) often create a four- or five-day holiday block. Spring cherry blossoms have usually finished by this point, but the fresh green foliage draws massive crowds to Jirisan, Gayasan, and Naejangsan.

National Foundation Day and Hangul Day

3 October and 9 October. Both are autumn holidays that frequently fall close together and occasionally link with weekends. October is arguably Korea's finest hiking month, which means these dates in particular can produce the same crowds as Chuseok itself.

Regular Weekend Peaks

Even without a public holiday, Saturday and Sunday on Bukhansan and Dobongsan — Seoul's two most accessible national park mountains — are consistently crowded between April and November. If you are in Seoul for a short trip and these are your only options, go on a weekday. Any weekday.

What Happens on the Trail During These Periods

Beyond the frustration of crowds, there are real safety and logistics issues. Car parks charge premium rates and overflow onto roadsides for kilometres. Convenience stores near trailheads run out of water and snacks by 8 a.m. Toilet queues at rest stops stretch to thirty minutes. On popular ridge routes, slow-moving groups ahead of you make it impossible to maintain your own pace.

The environmental cost is also real. Trails on Seoraksan and Bukhansan already show serious erosion from overuse. On holiday weekends, rangers sometimes close certain sub-trails entirely due to dangerous congestion.

Quieter Alternatives: Where to Go Instead

This is where having a driver rather than relying on public transport genuinely changes your options. The trails below see a fraction of holiday crowds because they are genuinely hard to reach without a car. None of them require a guide — a printed route sheet gets you around.

Mindungsan (민둥산), Gangwon Province

Famous for its pampas grass plateau that peaks in mid-to-late October. It draws some crowds, but nowhere near Seoraksan levels, because the drive from Seoul takes around two and a half hours and public transport connections are awkward. The summit plateau at around 1,119 metres feels genuinely open and wild. On a Chuseok weekend when Seoraksan is a car park, Mindungsan is still walkable.

Wolchulsan (월출산), South Jeolla Province

One of Korea's most dramatic smaller national parks — granite spires, a sky bridge between two peaks, and almost nobody on it during holidays because almost nobody outside the region knows it exists. The drive from Gwangju takes about an hour. I have taken clients here on a Saturday in October and encountered fewer than thirty people all day.

Gageodo (가거도), South Sea Islands

Korea's westernmost inhabited island requires a ferry from Mokpo (around four hours each way), which filters out all but the most committed visitors. The ridge walk across the island is genuinely remote. Holiday weekends here feel exactly like holiday weekends should — quiet, slow, and yours. The ferry schedule is limited, so this needs advance planning.

Haeparang Trail Sections, North Gangwon Coast

The Haeparang is a 770-kilometre coastal walking path along Korea's East Coast. The northern sections above Sokcho are almost never crowded because the only sensible way to reach specific trail stages is by car. During Chuseok or the October holidays, while everyone else is pointing their cars at Seoraksan (which is right there on the same coastline), you can be walking an empty sea-cliff path twenty kilometres away.

Juwangsan (주왕산), North Gyeongsang Province

A compact national park of volcanic rock columns, narrow gorges, and waterfalls. Far enough from Seoul (around three hours by car, more by bus) that holiday crowds stay manageable. The main gorge trail is genuinely beautiful in autumn colours and rarely feels overwhelmed even on a long weekend.

Namparang Trail, South Gyeongsang Coast

The 309-kilometre southern coastal trail runs from Napo (near Jinju) to Busan. Most of its stages pass through fishing villages and headland paths that see almost no foreign visitors and only light Korean foot traffic even on public holidays. Access to individual stages without a car is essentially impossible — which is exactly why it stays quiet.

How to Plan Around the Holiday Calendar

The single most useful thing you can do is look up the Korean public holiday dates for your travel year before booking anything. The lunar-calendar holidays (Seollal and Chuseok) shift by weeks from year to year, so what was a quiet October window last year might be Chuseok weekend this year.

Build your itinerary around the less-visited trails first, then add the famous peaks for weekdays either before or after the holiday cluster. If your trip falls squarely on a major holiday and you want to hike Seoraksan anyway, start moving before 5:30 a.m. — before the car parks close — and accept that you will be sharing the ridge with half of Seoul.

As a rule of thumb: the harder a trailhead is to reach by public transport, the quieter it will be on any given holiday. That is the whole premise behind what we do at Off Map Korea.

A Note on Hallasan During Seollal

Hallasan deserves a special mention. The Korea National Park Service operates a quota system on Hallasan's summit trails (Gwaneumsa and Seongpanak) — daily entry numbers are capped, and reservations are increasingly required. During Seollal, these slots disappear within minutes of opening online. If Hallasan is on your list for a winter trip, reserve your entry permit the moment the booking window opens, and check the official Korea National Park website for the current policy, as it has changed more than once in recent years.

My Honest Advice

I have driven the roads to Seoraksan on Chuseok morning. I know what it looks like. I would not wish it on anyone who came to Korea specifically for the hiking experience. The mountains are extraordinary — but they are at their best on a quiet Tuesday in late September when the light is low and you have the ridge entirely to yourself.

The alternative trails in this post are not consolation prizes. In most cases I prefer them to the headline peaks regardless of the season. The holiday calendar is just a useful nudge to go somewhere better.