Busan in November 2026: Fireworks, Peak Foliage and Ten-Hour Days

Two dates decide November in Busan. Part of the complete Busan travel guide.

1. Busan is still in autumn when Seoul has moved on

The case for Busan in November becomes obvious the moment you put it next to Seoul. Korea Meteorological Administration climate normals give Busan a November daytime high of 16.6C. Seoul gets 11.9C.

The last three rows matter more than the temperatures. Seoul records frost on nearly nine days in November. Busan records it on 0.2 days. If you are building a Korea itinerary that ends in the south, that is the practical difference: warm enough to sit outside in the evening, dry enough to walk all day.

Autumn colour follows the same lag. Peak foliage around Busan and South Gyeongsang province falls between 5 and 15 November, roughly ten days after central Korea has finished. Travellers who assume they have missed Korean autumn have usually only missed it in Seoul.

The one thing Busan does share with the rest of the country is the loss of daylight. That is the next two sections.

2. By 30 November the day is exactly ten hours long

The constraint that shapes a November itinerary in Busan is daylight, not cold. These are the official sunrise and sunset times from the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute.

Daylight shortens by 45 minutes across the month. Sunrise slips 27 minutes later, sunset moves 18 minutes earlier. On 1 October the sun had still been up until 6:08 pm, so two months take 56 minutes off the evening.

In planning terms that means outdoor time runs from about 9 am to 4:30 pm and no later. By 5:40 pm there is not enough light for photographs, and on a mountain trail it goes earlier still. When you pick from the things to do in Busan, put the outdoor items in the morning and keep the indoor ones for the dark end of the afternoon.

The daylight column is simply the difference between the two official times. The sunrise and sunset figures themselves are the published values.

3. What gets shorter is the day, not the good weather

Busan’s skies do not deteriorate as the daylight goes. On three measures November is better than October.

At 37.8 hours, November has the second smallest amount of actual rainfall time of any month in Busan, behind December. Cloud cover of 3.6 is third lowest. Mean wind speed of 3.1 m/s is the lowest of the year, level with October.

Only the sunshine total goes the other way, 16.6 hours below October. Cloud cover fell, so that is not the reason. The sun is simply above the horizon for less of each day. The daylight table in the previous section is the explanation for this one line.

Those 37.8 hours are 5.25% of November’s 720 hours. October’s 39.8 hours were 5.35% of its 744. Those percentages are our own arithmetic on the published normals, not a field measurement. The source is the Korea Meteorological Administration climate normals for Busan station 159, 1991 to 2020.

4. Saturday 7 November: the Busan Fireworks Festival

The 21st Busan Fireworks Festival is one day only, Saturday 7 November 2026. It runs across Gwangalli Beach📍Map, Haeundae and Igidae. Busan Metropolitan City hosts it and the Busan Festival Organizing Committee runs it.

There is no second night. If the fireworks are the reason you are coming, fix that date first and build the rest of the trip around it.

The scale of it

These are the figures Busan Metropolitan City published for the 20th edition in 2025. Detailed plans for the 21st have not been released.

There is no drone show that night

The Gwangalli M Drone Light Show runs every Saturday. In 2025 the Suyeong district office posted that “the drone show will not take place on Saturday 15 November because of the Busan Fireworks Festival held at Gwangalli Beach that day.” The same conflict applies on 7 November 2026, although the 2026 notice has not been published yet. If the drone show is what you want, our Gwangalli drone show guide covers the schedule and you should pick another Saturday.

November 2026 has four Saturdays: the 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th. One of them is taken.

Getting out afterwards is the harder half

A million people start moving at the same moment. In 2025 crowd control began at the stairs down into Suyeong, Gwangan and Millak stations. Walking to Millak or Centum City station is often faster than queueing at Gwangan, and the metro ran extended last services. Our guide to getting around Busan has the routes.

5. Thursday 19 November: two things land on one date

Thursday 19 November 2026 is both Korea’s national university entrance exam and the opening day of G-STAR. The overlap is coincidence, but both affect anyone travelling to Busan that week.

Gimhae Airport stops for most of an hour

The Suneung, Korea’s college entrance examination, falls on 19 November 2026 by Ministry of Education decision. Aircraft movements are suspended nationwide during the English listening section so that no exam room hears an engine.

Individual airports hold longer than the national window so that fewer aircraft end up circling. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport gives that as the reason Gimhae and Incheon both run 55 minutes.

Across the city that morning there are also noise restrictions near schools and staggered office start times to clear the roads for candidates. Traffic behaves differently from a normal Thursday.

G-STAR runs 19 to 22 November

G-STAR is Korea’s largest video game trade show, the equivalent of Gamescom or the Tokyo Game Show, and it has been held at BEXCO📍Map in Busan every November for two decades.

Prices and the booking window for 2026 are not out yet. The detail worth knowing in advance is that in 2025 there was no way to buy a ticket at the door.

6. Korea has no public holiday at all in November

April and November are the only months of 2026 without a single public holiday in Korea. Domestic travel demand is therefore thin for most of the month, and the two dates above are the exceptions.

For a quiet trip with the colour still on the trees, the second week is the answer. For atmosphere and crowds, the whole question reduces to Saturday 7 November.

The Japanese and Taiwanese calendars change the maths

Busan hotel demand is not set by Korean travellers alone. Fukuoka to Busan is under an hour in the air, and Osaka not much more.

• Japan has a three-day weekend from Saturday 21 to Monday 23 November, with Labour Thanksgiving Day falling on the Monday. Those first two days overlap the closing weekend of G-STAR.
• Japan also has Culture Day on Tuesday 3 November, which becomes a four-day break for anyone taking the Monday off.
• Taiwan has no public holiday in November at all. The Retrocession Day substitute holiday falls on Monday 26 October, so that break ends on Sunday 1 November.

The result is that 21 to 23 November is busy in Busan despite no Korean holiday, because G-STAR and the Japanese long weekend share the same three days. Avoid that window and late November is as quiet as the month gets.

7. Autumn colour peaks between 5 and 15 November

Peak foliage in Busan and South Gyeongsang province falls between 5 and 15 November, with the first colour appearing around 25 October. The Korea Meteorological Administration counts first colour when a fifth of a mountain has turned, measured down from the summit, and peak when four fifths have.

Central Korea and Jirisan finish in late October. Busan runs about ten days behind, which makes it the last place in the country worth planning an autumn trip around.

Where to go

Geumjeongsan became South Korea’s 24th national park on 3 March 2026. It is the first national park in the country that sits entirely inside a city, and the first new designation of land that was not already a protected area since Sobaeksan in 1987. The park covers 66.859 km2 across six Busan districts and into Yangsan in South Gyeongsang. It holds 1,782 wild species including 14 that are endangered, and the copy of the Samguk Yusa held at Beomeosa is a National Treasure.

The peak shifts by a few days each year with the weather, so check the meteorological agency’s foliage forecast shortly before you fly.

8. After 5 pm you have five hours to fill

The sun goes at five and the evening runs long. Busan concentrates its outdoor night events in November because the conditions suit them: the lightest winds of the year at 3.1 m/s, cloud cover of 3.6, and thunder on half a day.

The winter illumination season starts in the last week of November. An early-November trip and a late-November trip give you completely different evenings: autumn colour and fireworks at one end, lights at the other.

On nights with nothing scheduled, Gwangan Bridge is lit anyway, and with humidity down to 56.3% the view from a tower carries further than it does in summer. If the forecast turns, we have a list of what to do in Busan when it rains.

9. This is the month ice first forms in Busan

November is the first month of the year in which Busan records ice at all. October records none.

At 7.4 days, November has the widest daily temperature swings of the second half of the year. Even the averages are 8.3 degrees apart, from 8.3C in the morning to 16.6C in the afternoon. You will change what you are wearing twice a day.

Grass minimum temperature, measured just above the ground, averages 4.1C in November. That is 4.2 degrees below the air minimum of 8.3C, which is why a pre-dawn start on a mountain or a long sit by the water feels colder than the forecast reads.

Fireworks night and the drone show both involve sitting still outdoors for a couple of hours. Dress for standing around, not for walking.

10. All seven beaches are closed, which changes how you use them

Every official swimming beach in Busan is shut in November. Haeundae📍Map stayed open latest, to 15 September; the other six closed on 31 August.

Closed does not mean fenced off. It means there are no lifeguards on duty and the showers and changing rooms are not running. The sand itself is open.

What the coast is good for instead

• Coastal walking. The Igidae📍Map cliff path keeps Gwangan Bridge in view for most of its length. It is unpleasant in August heat and comfortable at 16C.
• Surfing. Songjeong📍Map keeps running lessons all year. November means a wetsuit, and it also means a short wait for a wave because the water is nearly empty.
• Photography. Humidity of 56.3% and cloud cover of 3.6 give long visibility, and with sunset at half past five you can fit the golden hour in before dinner rather than after it.

What is in season

Falling water temperature brings yellowtail into season from mid November through to February, the months when the fat sets into the flesh. November is also the month for large prawns.

At Jagalchi market📍Map you choose downstairs and eat it cooked upstairs. Gijang fish market and the haenyeo stalls work the same way at source. Prices move daily, so treat anything you read online as out of date and check on the spot. There is more in our guide to what to eat in Busan.

11. How it comes out, depending on what you want

For the months either side, see Busan in October and Busan in December. To choose a district before you book, start with where to stay in Busan.

Busan in November: common questions

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