Young Pioneer Tours
Blog
Welcome to the Young Pioneer Tours Blog, the place where we we keep you informed about everything YPT, from current tours, to future tours and a whole lot of eclectic stuff in between.
YPT first started blogging in 2008 and are considered the best North Korean Travel blog that there is.
But, as Young Pioneer Tours have expanded our locations, so have we expanded our blog. Now we have one of the best travel blogs in the world!
And while most of our content is about the numerous destinations we go, including travel guides and what to pack, we also delve into more serious subjects such as the safety of certain destinations, as well as how LGTBQ+ friendly the places we visit are.
While the vast majority of our content is produced in-house, we are always on the look-out for guest bloggers and writers. Want to write for us? Then simply get in touch.
You can also check out our sister publication YPT Life.
Search For A Topic Here:
Check out and subscribe to the YPT Blog and travel magazine
North Korean celebrities: making it big in the DPRK
27 August 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
When people write – or talk – about North Korea, it would be easy to assume that the country is merely comprised of the first three leaders of the country: President Kim Il Sung, General Kim Jong Il and current leader Chairman Kim Jong Un. But believe …
Samjiyon County – DPRK Guide
27 August 2019 / by YPT Team
Samjiyon County is one of the most important places for tourists and locals alike in the DPRK. Here is the YPT Samjiyon County Guide. Why visit Samjiyon County? The main draw of Samjiyon county is of course the famous Mt Paektu. The highest mountain in …
Abatao Island & village
27 August 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
One of the best (or worst) things about our Least Visited Countries Tour is the sheer unpredictability of Pacific Island life – a level of unpredictability that necessitates a lot of itinerary changes. On our 2017 trip to Kiribati we decided to leave t …
Top 5 Divided Countries
23 August 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
When you visit North Korea (which, believe it or not, we quite often do), you will often be told that Korea is, post-Berlin-Wall, the last of the divided countries on earth. As with anything, however, the truth is a tad more complicated than that. Here …
Mutton and mare’s milk: the very best of Mongolian cuisine
22 August 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
The Mongols may have done a lot of conquering, but they didn’t develop a handy trick that the British would later employ to devastating effect: invading nations and stealing their best food. Whereas the British Empire evolved from boiled potatoes to ch …
Born in the saddle: the thrill of the Mongol horse race
22 August 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
Horses are kind of a big deal in Mongolia – there are three million horses in the country, which is, coincidentally, how many people there are. How many other countries can claim a 1:1 human-horse ratio? You can appreciate, then, just how huge a Mongol …
Mongolian Archery: the way of the bow
21 August 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
YPT recently enjoyed their inaugural Naadam Festival tour, and one of the highlights of said tour was getting to watch Mongolian archery — these historical masters of the bow are truly a sight to behold. Why is archery such a big deal in Mongolia? Wel …
Who are KoryoLink?
20 August 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
It wasn’t all that long ago that cell phones were banned in North Korea for both locals and foreigners alike. Allegedly the ban occurred after an attempt on the leader’s life using a bomb set off via a phone, although this is very much an unconfirmed r …
5 best things to do in Rason
18 August 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
Rason is the Special Economic Zone of North Korea that, if you believe the hype, will be a city of 2 million thriving businessmen within the next ten years. Whilst abstaining from comment on that particular claim, we will say that it’s definitely a YPT …
