Best time to visit Seoul

Seoul is a city of two halves. May scores 83 and December scores 30 — a 53-point swing, which is the difference between a holiday and an endurance test. The month you pick matters more here than almost anywhere. 4 of the twelve months sit within ten points of the best, so there is more than one right answer.

August is the warmest month at 28.5 °C and January the coolest at 0.8 °C — a 27.7 °C spread across the year. At the other end, 109 nights a year fall below freezing: the winter here is a real one.

There is a real wet season here. July to August carry the rain — up to 18 wet days in a month — while January, February, October and December drop as low as 4. That 14-day gap is the biggest single difference between a good month and a bad one in Seoul, and it moves further than the temperature does.

Daylight runs from 9.6 hours in winter to 14.7 in summer, enough to notice on a sightseeing itinerary.

The three strongest months are May, October, June. The one to think twice about is December. Each month below has its own page with rainfall reliability, extremes, daylight and crowd levels.

Seoul month by month