Seoraksan Cable Car 2026: When to See Fall Foliage, How to Get There from Seoul, and the 16,000-Won Round-Trip Fare

On an autumn weekend, the line to buy a ticket for the Seoraksan cable car at Sogongwon park in Sokcho can stretch past the ticket booth itself. Plenty of first-time visitors waste time searching for tickets online first, not realizing the cable car sells same-day, walk-up tickets only.

The Seorak Cable Car (1085 Seoraksan-ro, Sokcho-si, Gangwon State) runs about 1.1 km between Sogongwon and the Gwongeumseong Fortress viewpoint, round-trip tickets only — there's no one-way fare. Adults (middle-school age and up) pay 16,000 won and children (age 3 to elementary school) pay 12,000 won, sold only at the ground-floor ticket office. From Seoul, an intercity bus to Sokcho from terminals such as Dong Seoul Bus Terminal takes about 2 hours 10 minutes to 2 hours 30 minutes; from Sokcho Express Bus Terminal, local bus 7 or 7-1 runs to the Sogongwon entrance. Operating hours shift daily with the weather, so check the day's posted schedule before heading out.

Miss your assigned boarding time and you can rebook for a later car, but a 20% fee applies; cancel less than 10 minutes before boarding and you only get 80% of the fare refunded. Ride the last car up and you'll have only about 20 minutes at Gwongeumseong before heading back down, so go up earlier in the afternoon if you want to linger over the foliage.

There's no hiking trail down, so the round trip by cable car is mandatory. Strollers aren't allowed on board — leave them at the storage area outside the station. The restroom at the Gwongeumseong summit isn't a flush toilet, so it's worth using the one at Sogongwon beforehand. There's no dedicated cable car parking lot, so cars use the paid lot at Sinheungsa Temple, and smoking is banned throughout the national park.

By mid-October, Seoraksan's high ridgelines are already turning red, making it one of the few places where a cable car ride alone, with no hike required, delivers a real view of peak foliage. From the Gwongeumseong viewpoint, the rock face of Ulsanbawi and the East Sea horizon spread out below, giving even a short visit a real sense of the mountain's scale.