Chuseok's Four-Day Holiday: When Should You Pack an Umbrella?

If you're traveling in Korea during Chuseok (Korea's major harvest holiday, when families gather for ancestral rites and hometown visits) or moving around over the next four days, it helps to know the day-by-day forecast. According to the Korea Meteorological Administration's forecast released on September 23, the holiday will be mostly cloudy with rain moving southward day by day, so what you should pack depends on where you're headed.

For the Seoul metropolitan area, rain is expected from the evening of September 25 (Chuseok day itself), so plan outdoor activities for daytime and keep an umbrella handy by evening. Fog along the west coast and some inland areas from dawn to morning on September 24 may reduce visibility, so if you're taking a long-distance bus or driving a rental car during those hours, leave extra time. With morning lows near 12°C and daytime highs up to 29°C, the daily temperature swing is around 10°C, so a light jacket is worth packing.

If you're heading south to Busan or Jeju, note that rain is concentrated on September 26. Thick clouds are also expected to make the Chuseok full moon hard to see on the night of the 25th, so if you had plans to view it from somewhere like a Han River park, it's worth having a backup plan.