Chuseok 2026 in Korea: what closes, what gets packed, and how to stay online

Chuseok is Korea’s harvest holiday and, together with Seollal, the biggest travel week of the year. In 2026 the public holiday runs Thursday 24 September to Saturday 26 September, with Chuseok day itself on Friday 25 September. Because the holiday lands on a Saturday, no substitute day is added.

If your trip overlaps those dates, nothing about Korea gets worse. It gets busier, and a handful of ordinary errands get harder. Here is the honest version.

What actually closes

Banks, government offices and post offices shut for all three days. That is the one that catches people out: if you were planning to change money at a bank counter, register something, or collect a parcel, do it before the 24th.

Many small restaurants and independent shops close so the owners can travel to family. There is no reliable nationwide number for how many, but expect gaps in residential neighbourhoods and to lean more on chains and food courts than usual.

Large marts are a middle case. E-Mart, Homeplus and Lotte Mart typically close on Chuseok day itself rather than all three days, and branches vary. Costco closes on Chuseok day as standard policy.

What stays open

Convenience stores. CU, GS25, 7-Eleven and Emart24 run their normal 24-hour schedule straight through the holiday, usually with seasonal food promotions. For a traveller this is the safety net: food, drinks, cash withdrawals and basic supplies never disappear.

The palaces and cultural sites. Korea’s five grand palaces have a long-running pattern of free admission during major holidays, with royal guard ceremonies and traditional games programmed for the period. Chuseok is genuinely one of the better weeks to see them.

Theme parks and big attractions. Everland and Lotte World keep normal or extended hours and add holiday programming.

Transport runs, but full. Incheon Airport operates 24/7 as always. Subways and buses keep their normal service. The difference is volume: expressways, KTX and stations hit their annual peak as the country moves to hometowns and back. Book intercity trains as early as you can, and give yourself more buffer than usual between connections.

The part that quietly costs you an hour

Airport SIM counters at Incheon and Gimpo stay open through the holiday, so you can absolutely buy connectivity on arrival. Two things work against you during Chuseok specifically:

1. Queues. This is the busiest arrivals week of the Korean year. The counter that takes ten minutes in March can take considerably longer now.
2. Fewer fallbacks off-airport. Carrier stores and small shops are among the businesses that close for the holiday, so if you skip the counter and plan to sort it in the city, you have fewer places to walk into.

Neither is a disaster. Both are avoidable by doing the setup at home.

The setup that avoids it

Install a Korea eSIM on your home Wi-Fi before you fly, and leave the line switched off. Validity starts when you activate, not when you buy, so a plan bought three days early does not lose three days. When you clear customs, switch Korean data on and you are navigating immediately.

That matters more than usual during Chuseok because the holiday is exactly when you need live information: rerouted buses, sold-out trains, restaurants that turn out to be closed, and a taxi app that only works if you are online.

How much data a Chuseok trip needs

For a typical week of maps, translation, KakaoTalk, ticket apps and a moderate amount of photo uploading, 3 to 5 GB is comfortable. Push to 10 GB or more if you hotspot a laptop, post video, or make daily video calls home.

Two practical notes:

• Day passes reset an allowance every day and slow down instead of cutting off when you exceed it. Good if you want daily certainty and hotspot often.
• Fixed data packs are usually cheaper per GB for a single trip. Good if you know roughly what you use.

If you are unsure, start smaller. Adding a second plan later is easy; overbuying a large plan for a five-day trip is money you do not get back.

A short pre-flight checklist

• Confirm your phone supports eSIM and is carrier-unlocked.
• Buy and install the QR on home Wi-Fi, then leave the line off.
• Screenshot your accommodation address in Korean, in case you land with a flat battery.
• Book KTX or intercity buses before the 24th if your plan depends on them.
• Do bank errands before the holiday starts.
• Note that convenience stores are always open, so do not over-stock.

Prices, checked openly

I publish every Korea plan I sell with its price, validity and price per GB, and I compare them against Airalo’s live prices with the check date shown. Where a rival is cheaper for a given size, the table says so.

See the current line-up on the Korea eSIM page, or the full Korea price table if you would rather scan every option at once.