If you are renting a car for Chuseok, the short version is that the expressways are free for the whole holiday. Tolls are waived from Thursday 24 to Sunday 27 September 2026, which is every day off. Monday the 28th is an ordinary working day, so it is only a trip stretched into Monday that pays.
Plenty of English-language explainers get this wrong, and for an understandable reason: the law and the actual practice do not match. The statute allows three days. This year the government made it four.
Why the law says three days and the answer is four
Toll exemption in Korea sits in the enforcement decree of the Toll Road Act. The decree names the day before Seollal, Seollal itself, the day after, and the same three days around Chuseok. Three days per holiday. Chuseok 2026 falls on Friday 25 September, so on the decree alone you would get the 24th, 25th and 26th and nothing more.
Each year the cabinet then extends it. On 1 September 2026 the State Council approved the Chuseok livelihood package, which stretched the waiver through Sunday the 27th. The decree is the floor; the annual cabinet decision sets the actual span. That is why a rule of thumb learned in a previous year tends to be off by a day.
Why Monday the 28th is not a holiday
Korea adds a substitute holiday when Seollal or Chuseok overlaps a Sunday or another public holiday. A Saturday overlap does not count for these two holidays. In 2026 the third Chuseok day, the 26th, is a Saturday, so no substitute day is added. The holiday is Thursday to Sunday, four days, and the 28th is a normal Monday with normal tolls. If you had assumed a five-day break with a Monday off, that is the assumption to fix first.
The days at a glance
| Date | What it is | Tolls |
|---|---|---|
| Thu 24 Sep | Day before Chuseok | Waived |
| Fri 25 Sep | Chuseok | Waived |
| Sat 26 Sep | Day after Chuseok | Waived |
| Sun 27 Sep | Sunday, added by the 1 Sep measure | Waived |
| Mon 28 Sep | Normal working day | Charged |
The waiver covers the national expressway network and the privately operated expressways too, in both hi-pass and ticket lanes. City expressways and some local toll roads sit outside the Toll Road Act, so a route using one of those can still produce a charge on that segment. That is also the usual source of a bill arriving after the holiday. If the driving starts to look like more hassle than it is worth, the rail comparison is in KTX Chuseok 2026 Tickets: Foreigners Book on a Separate Date. KTX fares have also been 10 percent lower since 1 September under the KTX–SRT merger, a standing cut rather than a holiday discount.
What a Monday return actually costs you
Put a number on it. Say the one-way toll on your route is 20,000 won.
- Out on the 24th, back on the 27th: both legs waived, 0 won
- Out on the 24th, back on the 28th: return leg only, 20,000 won
- Both legs on the 28th: 40,000 won
So the whole decision is really about whether you take Monday off. Returning on the 27th is free but lands you in the heaviest traffic of the year; the 28th costs one leg and usually moves faster because most people are back at work. Look up the real figure for your own interchanges on the Korea Expressway Corporation site before you decide.
Standing discounts only matter on a charged day
Korea runs standing toll reductions for certain vehicles and time bands. They do nothing on a waived day, because the charge is already zero. The 28th is the only day in this plan where they apply. Rental cars are usually standard passenger vehicles, so most visitors will not qualify for them anyway.
Worth sorting before you set off: navigation. Korean mapping apps behave differently from what you may expect, and the reasons are in Google Maps Korea: Why Your Directions App Goes Silent.
The same measure made other things free
The 1 September package was not only about tolls. Over the same 24 to 27 September window:
- The four main palaces, Jongmyo Shrine and the Joseon Royal Tombs are free to enter
- The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art is free
- National recreation forests are free
- KTX fares are 10 percent lower, though that one is a standing cut from 1 September under the KTX–SRT merger rather than a holiday special
For a visitor that changes the arithmetic of the holiday considerably: the palaces are the single most popular thing to do in Seoul during Chuseok, and for those four days there is no ticket to buy. Gyeongbokgung Night Opening 2026 runs around the same stretch of the calendar and is booked separately.
On a free day you still take a ticket
A waived toll is not an open gate. You still pull a ticket at the entry plaza, or drive through the hi-pass lane as normal. The system records the trip and prices it at zero. Skip the entry record and the exit side has nothing to match against, which is how people end up with a bill to sort out later.
The same goes for the hi-pass transponder in a rental car: leave the card in it. Pulling it out because the day is free can push the trip into video-based billing, and the rental company passes that on. A 0 won transaction on the statement is the normal outcome.
Points people get wrong
Q. Do I need to register or apply for the waiver?
A. No. Drive on one of the four dates and the toll is calculated at zero automatically. There is no form and nothing to claim afterwards.
Q. Older guides say three days. Which is right?
A. Both, in a sense. The decree provides three days; the cabinet decision of 1 September 2026 extended it to four, through Sunday the 27th. The span is set fresh each year, so check the current announcement rather than reusing last year’s dates.
Q. Is Monday 28 September a substitute holiday?
A. No. Substitute days for Chuseok are added only for a Sunday or public-holiday overlap, not a Saturday one. The 26th is a Saturday, so the holiday ends on Sunday the 27th and the 28th is a normal working day with normal tolls.
Q. I leave late on the 27th and pass the toll gate after midnight. Which day counts?
A. The toll plaza timestamp decides. Clear the gate on the 27th and it is waived; cross into the 28th and it is charged.
Q. Does this apply to rental cars and foreign drivers?
A. Yes. The waiver is tied to the date and the road, not to who is driving or where the car is registered.
Before you book the car
Three checks. First, see whether your travel dates fall inside 24 to 27 September, in which case tolls come out of the budget entirely. Second, if you are stretching the trip into Monday the 28th, price that one leg and plan around the traffic rather than the fare. Third, confirm the rental car has a hi-pass unit and that the card stays in it.
My own read: with all four holiday days free, tolls are close to a non-issue this year. The only variable is a Monday extension, and that is a traffic question more than a money one.
Reference: Chuseok livelihood measures approved by the State Council on 1 September 2026 — Korea.kr policy briefing; 2026 public holiday calendar per the Regulations on Public Holidays of Government Offices (checked 4 September 2026)
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