What is closed when — the days your plan quietly falls apart
Korea has two closing patterns that catch visitors out: national holidays, when a large share of small businesses shut for several days at once, and a fixed weekly rest day. We counted the published opening hours of 8,216 restaurants and cafés listed by the Korea Tourism Organization. 1,350 of them close every Monday. This page is only about opening days — not about visas, money or transport, which we have no data on.
The next long closure: Seollal (Lunar New Year)
February 6 (Saturday) – February 9 (Tuesday). This is the biggest domestic travel period of the year. Trains and intercity buses sell out weeks ahead, and family-run businesses close — 530 of the restaurants and cafés in our data explicitly list national holidays as a closing day, and many more close without announcing it. Palaces and large museums usually stay open; small local restaurants usually do not. If your dates fall inside this window, plan around department stores, chain cafés and convenience stores, which stay open.
Public holidays ahead
28 public holiday dates are scheduled from today onward. Consecutive dates are grouped, because a three-day holiday behaves very differently from a single day off.
| Date | Holiday | Length |
|---|---|---|
| October 3 (Saturday) | National Foundation Day | 1 day |
| October 5 (Monday) | Substitute holiday — National Foundation Day | 1 day |
| October 9 (Friday) | Hangeul Day | 1 day |
| December 25 (Friday) | Christmas Day | 1 day |
| January 1 (Friday) | New Year's Day | 1 day |
| February 6 (Saturday) – February 9 (Tuesday) | Seollal (Lunar New Year) · Substitute holiday — Seollal (Lunar New Year) | 4 days |
| March 1 (Monday) | Independence Movement Day | 1 day |
| May 1 (Saturday) | Labour Day | 1 day |
| May 3 (Monday) | Substitute holiday — Labour Day | 1 day |
| May 5 (Wednesday) | Children's Day | 1 day |
| May 13 (Thursday) | Buddha's Birthday | 1 day |
| June 6 (Sunday) | Memorial Day | 1 day |
| July 17 (Saturday) | Constitution Day | 1 day |
| July 19 (Monday) | Substitute holiday — Constitution Day | 1 day |
Substitute holidays are added when a holiday falls on a weekend. Government offices, banks and post offices close on all of these. Most tourist attractions stay open; small businesses vary.
The weekly closing day
Almost every Korean restaurant has one fixed day off each week, and it is not usually posted in English. Of the 6,318 restaurants in our data, 1,051 — about 17% — close on Monday. That is the single most common closing day, by a wide margin.
Cafés follow the same pattern
Of 1,898 cafés, 299 close on Monday.
Counted from the closing-day text each business registered with the Korea Tourism Organization. Businesses that did not register a closing day are not counted here, so the real numbers are higher, not lower.
The afternoon break — why you cannot get lunch at 3pm
3,857 restaurants — about 61% of the ones we hold — publish a mid-afternoon break or a last-order time. Typically the kitchen shuts somewhere between 15:00 and 17:00 and reopens for dinner. 862 cafés publish one too.
This is the most common way a well-planned afternoon goes wrong: you finish a morning attraction at 14:30, walk twenty minutes to the restaurant you saved, and arrive during the break. Eat before 14:00 or after 17:00, or check the last-order time before you set off.
The good news
3,179 restaurants — 50% — register as open every day of the year, along with 1,230 cafés. Convenience stores are genuinely 24-hour and are everywhere. You will not go hungry in Korea; you will just occasionally not eat the specific thing you planned.
Department stores, large chains and subway-adjacent food courts keep the most reliable hours. Small owner-run places keep the least reliable ones — and they are usually the ones worth going to.
What the sign on the door actually says
Korean shops write their closing day on the door, on a paper sign, or on their Instagram — in Korean, always. We have not translated these away, because these are the characters you will be standing in front of. Counted across 8,216 restaurants and cafés.
| On the sign | What it means | Places |
|---|---|---|
| 연중무휴 | Open every day of the year | 4,409 |
| 매주 월요일 | Closed every Monday | 1,350 |
| 매주 일요일 | Closed every Sunday | 785 |
| 매주 화요일 | Closed every Tuesday | 760 |
| 설·추석 연휴 | Closed for the whole Seollal / Chuseok holiday | 280 |
| 설·추석 당일 | Closed on Seollal / Chuseok day only — open before and after | 185 |
| 격주 / 첫째·셋째 | Closed on the 1st / 3rd (or alternate) week of the month | 204 |
| 준비시간 · 브레이크타임 · 마지막 주문 | Mid-afternoon break, or a last-order time earlier than closing | 4,719 |
Three words carry most of it: 휴무 means closed, 요일 means day of the week, and 매주 means every week. If you can spot those, you can read almost any Korean shop sign.
Counted from the closing-day and opening-hours text each business registered with the Korea Tourism Organization. A blank field does not mean "never closed" — it means no information.
How to check a specific place yourself
Opening hours in Korea are most accurate on Naver Map and Kakao Map, not on Google Maps. Both work better if you search the Korean name, which is why every place on this site is shown with its Korean name next to the romanised one. Copy the Korean text, paste it into the search box, and read the hours line.
Source: Korea Tourism Organization TourAPI — opening hours and closing days for 6,318 restaurants and 1,898 cafés · public holiday dates from the Korean government open data portal. Counted on 2026-10-01. Hours change without notice; confirm before you travel.
Taking the trip home
A small Korean brand called kory puts city names on everyday things — hair rollers, hair ties, claw clips, scarves.
We help make kory, so this is not a paid placement — but it is a link we have an interest in. That is why it sits here at the bottom and nowhere else. Product pages and the shop home are in English; a few other pages there are still Korean only.