By Nora Lindqvist · Updated · Affiliate links, explained in my disclosure
VIP Travel
Seoul Highlights: Gyeongbok Palace, Insadong & N Seoul Tower
4.8 (987) · from $26
N Seoul Tower tickets start at $21.73 for the observatory entry, and the most reviewed option is the $26 Seoul Highlights palace tour, rated 4.75 from 987 reviews, which does not include the observatory. The observatory sits 168.3 m above ground, on top of Namsan mountain. I’d go about an hour before sunset.
| Tour | From | Rating | Length | Free cancellation | Book |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seoul Highlights: Gyeongbok Palace, Insadong & N Seoul Tower | $26 | ★ 4.8 (987) | 4 - 8 hours | Yes | Check availability |
| N Seoul Tower Observatory & Cable Car Combo Ticket | $33 | ★ 4.6 (561) | 24-hour ticket | Yes | Check availability |
| N Seoul Tower Observatory Entry Ticket | $21.73 | ★ 4.4 (180) | 24-hour ticket | Yes | Check availability |
| N Seoul Tower & Myeongdong Night Tour | $104.13 | ★ 5.0 (7) | 4 hours | Yes | Check availability |
| Gyeongbok Palace, Insadong & N Seoul Tower | $35 | ★ 5.0 (2) | 3 - 8 hours | Yes | Check availability |
I compared all five N Seoul Tower tickets and tours that GetYourGuide sells right now: a plain observatory ticket, an observatory and cable car combo, a night tour, and two palace tours that stop at the tower. Every price, rating and inclusion comes from the listings, checked in October 2026, in US dollars and as starting prices. Only some of the five include the observatory, and I say which ones below. Links open GetYourGuide in a new tab, and I earn a commission if you book, at no extra cost to you.
The tower is a communications and observation tower on the summit of Namsan in central Seoul, and it opened in 1980 according to Wikidata. Before you pick among the N Seoul Tower tickets, here are the numbers with their sources.
The first love locks appeared at the tower in 2006
Wikidata gives the structure 236.8 m, and the Wikipedia article rounds it to 236 m. The 168.3 m figure for the deck is the height of the observatory above ground, so the tower stands on the mountain and the view starts well above the city. Wikipedia lists an enclosed observation deck on level T5, another on T4 and an observation deck on 5F, and says the open-air level T6 has been closed to the public since 2005. So expect to look through glass, with the love locks on the terrace outside.
| What | Detail |
|---|---|
| Observation levels | Enclosed decks on T4 and T5, plus 5F, per Wikipedia; open-air T6 closed since 2005 |
| Address | 105 Namsangongwon-gil, Yongsan District, Seoul, per Google Maps |
| Opening hours | 10 AM to 10:30 PM Monday to Friday, 10 AM to 11 PM Saturday and Sunday, per Google Maps |
| Google Maps rating | 4.5 from 68,547 reviews |
| Time to allow | About 1.5 hours at the tower on the night tour; the observatory tickets are valid for 24 hours |
Hours change with the season and with events, so before you buy N Seoul Tower tickets check the official site for your date.
The first thing to say about these N Seoul Tower observatory tickets is that this card is not a plain observatory ticket. The Seoul Highlights tour from VIP Travel costs $26, runs 4 to 8 hours and is rated 4.75 from 987 reviews, which makes it the most reviewed of the five. It has an English-speaking guide, coach or minivan transport and admission to the attractions in the itinerary, with stops that include Gyeongbokgung, Insadong and Gwangjang Market, and N Seoul Tower is one of them.
The inclusions list is clear that N Seoul Tower observatory admission is not included. If what you want is the view from the deck, N Seoul Tower tickets for the observatory are a separate purchase and you would pay for that separately, so I’d treat this as a day out in Seoul that passes the tower. It is a private option and the listing offers a full refund up to 24 hours before. Reviews single out the guides, and one says the ginseng museum stop was long and sales-driven, which is worth knowing before you book.
VIP Travel
My pick: Best reviewed here at 4.75 stars from 987 reviews and $26, but it is a guided city tour and does not include the observatory.
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$26
For the deck itself, my pick among the N Seoul Tower tickets is the WONDER TRIP combo. The N Seoul Tower observatory and cable car combo ticket costs $33, is rated 4.56 from 561 reviews and includes admission to the observatory and a round-trip Namsan Cable Car ticket. Of all the N Seoul Tower observation deck tickets here, it is the one that names both parts of the visit and the way back down.
You collect the ticket at the Rednow Studio booth in Myeongdong (the inclusions mention Myeongdong Sola Spa as the pick-up), the ticket is valid for 24 hours, and cancellation is free up to 24 hours ahead. The listing shows operating hours of 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM, which is shorter than the tower’s own evening hours, so check the time window for your date. Padlocks for the terrace are an optional add-on and are not in the price.
The view was gorgeous, lucky it was a clear night.
WONDER TRIP
My pick: My pick for a first visit: $33, 4.56 stars from 561 reviews, observatory plus a round-trip cable car.
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$33
Some people search for North Seoul Tower tickets, and it is the same place: this keyword is the biggest of the group, at about 2,270 searches a month in the data behind this site. The card here is the Cosmojin Tour Consulting palace tour, which visits Jogyesa Temple, Gyeongbokgung Palace, Insadong, Namsangol Hanok Village, N Seoul Tower and Gwangjang Market, and costs $35.
Like the first tour, it does not include the observatory admission fee. The Namsan Cable Car ticket is included only on the Full-Day option. It rated 5.0, but from only 2 reviews, so I treat that score as a sign, not a verdict. The guide meets you at City Hall Station Exit 7, and the listing runs 3 to 8 hours depending on the option. If you want the palaces and the tower in one day and you will add the observatory at the door, it works; if you want a ticket for the North Seoul Tower deck and nothing else, buy the combo above.
Cosmojin Tour Consulting
My pick: A $35 palace and Insadong day that stops at the tower, 5.0 stars from 2 reviews; the observatory is extra.
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Seoul looks best from Namsan after dark, and the Korea Sourcing night tour is the only one of these N Seoul Tower tickets built around it. It costs $104.13, runs 4 hours in a small group, and walks through Myeongdong, the Namsan Cable Car, the tower, a viewpoint and the Myeongdong night market. It is rated 5.0 from 7 reviews, a small sample, so judge it on the itinerary.
The listing includes an English-speaking guide, a one-way cable car ticket and photo stops, and it lists the N Seoul Tower observatory ticket as optional, paid on site. The meeting point is in front of the Seoul sculpture at Exit 3 of Myeongdong Station, and you finish at the night market. About 1.5 hours is planned at the tower. It is the most expensive item on this page, so I’d choose it for the guide and the walk back down, not for the deck.
Night tourKorea Sourcing
My pick: The after-dark option at $104.13: a guided 4-hour walk with the cable car and the night market, 5.0 stars from 7 reviews.
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$104.13
I have no restaurant listing for the tower in the data, so I won’t name one, and none of the N Seoul Tower tickets here include a meal. What Wikipedia does say about the decks is that level T5 has the N Sweet Bar for coffee and snacks and a gift shop, and that level T4 has the dessert cafe A Twosome Place. The tour inclusion lists mark meals and drinks as extra. For a sit-down dinner, the night tour ends at the Myeongdong night market, and the official site is the place to check what is open on the tower’s own floors.
With N Seoul Tower tickets in hand, you go up a tower that is 236.8 m tall according to Wikidata, and the observatory is 168.3 m above ground, per Wikipedia’s list of public observation decks. Both numbers are measured from the tower base, and that base sits on Namsan, so the view is from a lot higher than either number suggests. I could not confirm the mountain’s elevation above sea level from the sources I checked, so I leave that figure out rather than guess it.
On a clear day the horizon from the deck is about 46.3 km away by the standard formula, and I come back to what you can see below. The height does not change which N Seoul Tower ticket you need: every observatory ticket reaches the same enclosed levels.
Per Google Maps, the tower is open from 10 AM to 10:30 PM on weekdays and from 10 AM to 11 PM on Saturday and Sunday. That gives you a long evening window for N Seoul Tower tickets, and it is the reason I book for the hour before sunset, then stay for the lights. The combo listing shows operating hours of 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM, so the ticket and the tower do not necessarily share a window.
Two things I would check on the official site before you go: the cable car’s own operating hours, which are separate from the tower’s, and any notice about closures on your date. I have not confirmed the last entry time, so assume it is earlier than closing.
Google Maps rates the tower 4.5 from 68,547 reviews, which is a large sample for a single attraction. On GetYourGuide the picture is similar for the N Seoul Tower tickets that include the deck: the combo is 4.56 from 561 reviews and the cheaper observatory entry is 4.37 from 180. The praise in the snippets is about the views, the forest setting and the information printed on the windows that helps you orient yourself in the city. The complaints are crowds on holidays.
Amazing views and a nice if short cable car ride. It was very busy but so well organised everything proceeded at a very acceptable pace.
The lowest-priced of the N Seoul Tower tickets is the CJ Foodville observatory entry at $21.73, rated 4.37 from 180 reviews. Its inclusions list the observatory ticket and a cable car ticket, with nothing excluded, and it is valid for 24 hours with free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead. The listing does not say whether the cable car is one way or round trip, and it names no meeting point. The WONDER TRIP combo adds $11.27 and spells out a round-trip ride and a pick-up point.
With N Seoul Tower tickets this close in price, I’d pay the $11.27 if you are not sure you want to walk back down. If you are happy to take the cable car up and the path down, the cheaper ticket does the job. This calculator works out the total for the product you pick and links to the booking page.
Calculator
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from per person, before any child or group discount
Prices are the lowest per-person prices on GetYourGuide when I last checked; the final price depends on the date, time slot and age.
CJ FOODVILLE
My pick: The cheapest at $21.73: observatory plus a cable car ticket, 4.37 stars from 180 reviews; check whether the ride is one way.
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$21.73
Buying N Seoul Tower tickets online means picking a date and getting a voucher or QR code, and the two observatory tickets here are valid for 24 hours. Tickets for the N Seoul Tower on your phone save time at the entrance on a holiday evening, and reviewers of the combo ticket mention a very busy day and a well-organised line.
Both observatory-entry N Seoul Tower tickets here have free cancellation up to 24 hours before, so booking early costs you nothing if the weather turns. I’d book N Seoul Tower tickets the evening before if the forecast is clear.
Weather matters more than the clock when you buy N Seoul Tower tickets, because the whole point is the view. The table below is a year of Open-Meteo data for the tower, which tells you when to use your N Seoul Tower tickets. In 2025 February (26% cloud cover) and November (38%) were the clearest months. September (73%) and October (72%) were the cloudiest, and August had 20 rainy days. Sunset moves from about 17:14 in December to 19:55 in June.
| Month | Sunset (Seoul time) | Cloud cover | Sunshine a day | Rainy days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Janclearest | 17:37 | 42% | 7 h | 6 |
| Febclearest | 18:11 | 26% | 9.1 h | 2 |
| Mar | 18:39 | 51% | 8.9 h | 8 |
| Apr | 19:07 | 47% | 9.7 h | 11 |
| May | 19:34 | 61% | 8.4 h | 11 |
| Jun | 19:55 | 70% | 8.5 h | 12 |
| Jul | 19:53 | 65% | 9.3 h | 14 |
| Aug | 19:24 | 66% | 9.7 h | 20 |
| Sep | 18:40 | 73% | 7 h | 12 |
| Oct | 17:55 | 72% | 5.7 h | 13 |
| Novclearest | 17:21 | 38% | 8.3 h | 3 |
| Dec | 17:14 | 45% | 7 h | 10 |
Sunset planner
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book this entry time (50 min before sunset)
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sunset, Seoul time
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typical cloud cover that week
Sunset and cloud cover for the same dates in 2025 at the deck (Open-Meteo historical weather (ERA5), 2025); sunset moves by about a minute between years.
Whatever the month, I’d arrive 45 to 60 minutes before sunset. The tower is at its best then, with daylight on the palaces and the city lit up afterwards. Source: Open-Meteo.
From 168.3 m up, the horizon is about 46.3 km away on a perfectly clear day, and the calculator shows how the figure changes with height. In practice, haze decides how far you actually see in Seoul.
Calculator
168 m · 551 ft
km
to the horizon ( miles)
km
with typical atmospheric refraction
Geometric horizon d ≈ 3.57 × √h (km, h in metres); refraction adds about 8%. Haze and clouds usually limit the real view first. Formula: Distance to the horizon.
The distances below are straight-line from the tower, computed from Google Maps coordinates.
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Open in Google MapsNamsan Mountain Park is 0.2 km (0.1 miles) away, since the tower stands in it. Deoksugung Palace is 2.0 km (1.3 miles) away and Cheonggyecheon 2.2 km (1.3 miles). Gwanghwamun Square is 2.6 km (1.6 miles) off, Changgyeonggung Palace 3.1 km (1.9 miles), Gyeongbokgung Palace 3.3 km (2.1 miles) and Bukchon Hanok Village 3.4 km (2.1 miles). Lotte World Tower is the far one, 11.0 km (6.8 miles) east across the Han River.
The other big deck in the city is Seoul Sky, in Lotte World Tower. The rest are viewpoints on Namsan or by the river. Google Maps ratings and distances from this tower are in the table, and the tickets for the other big deck are on my Lotte World Tower tickets page.
| Deck | Google rating | Reviews | Distance from N Seoul Tower | Free or paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| N Seoul Tower | 4.5 | 68,547 | n/a | Paid |
| Seoul Sky (Lotte World Tower) | 4.6 | 6,612 | 10.9 km (6.8 miles) | Paid |
| Namsan Octagonal Pavilion Park Observatory | 4.7 | 109 | 0.1 km (0.1 miles) | Not confirmed |
| Namsan Photo Island (South Point) | 4.5 | 398 | 0.7 km (0.4 miles) | Not confirmed |
| Jeongdong Observatory | 4.6 | 126 | 1.8 km (1.1 miles) | Not confirmed |
| Han River Observation Deck | 4.5 | 174 | 13.9 km (8.6 miles) | Not confirmed |
If you have time for one paid deck, I’d buy N Seoul Tower tickets for the mountain setting and the cable car, and Seoul Sky for height in a modern skyscraper. The two are 10.9 km apart, so they fit into different days.
On GetYourGuide the cheapest N Seoul Tower ticket I found is the observatory entry at $21.73, rated 4.37 from 180 reviews, and its listing also names a cable car ticket. The observatory and round-trip cable car combo is $33. The tower's own price list is on the official site, which is the number to compare against.
I'd arrive 45 to 60 minutes before sunset, so you see Seoul in daylight and then lit. Open-Meteo data for 2025 shows February (26% cloud cover) and November (38%) as the clearest months, while September and October were the cloudiest at about 73% and 72%. Sunset runs from about 17:14 in December to 19:55 in June.
For a first visit I think yes, mostly for the setting. The tower stands on the summit of Namsan, so you are already high before the observatory at 168.3 m above ground. Google Maps rates it 4.5 from 68,547 reviews. The $33 combo with the cable car is the version I would pick.
The listings here let you book a date online, and the observatory tickets are valid for 24 hours, so you can buy ahead without fixing a slot. Reviewers of the combo ticket mention busy holiday days. I'd book ahead for a weekend or sunset visit and check the official site for your date.
Yes. Wikipedia says the Namsan Cable Car opened in 1962 and gives a three-minute ride from the northern edge of Namsan Park to the tower. The $33 combo includes a round-trip cable car ticket with observatory admission, and the $21.73 ticket lists a cable car ticket as well.
Wikipedia says the nearest car parks are a 30 to 40 minute uphill walk from the tower entrance. The cable car itself takes about three minutes. If you would rather skip the climb, the combo ticket covers the ride up and back down.
The Namsan Cable Car base is at the northern edge of Namsan Park, and the night tour here meets at Exit 3 of Myeongdong Station before walking to the cable car. I have no walking time from a source, so I won't quote one. Allow time for the cable car queue.