Blog

Welcome to the Young Pioneer Tours blog about everything North Korea, and all of our other special off the beaten the track destinations.

Since starting in 2008 we have seen blogging about North Korea and our other great destinations as a great way to engage with our customers and to show the world a slice of life in the great destinations we visit.

Due to the mass amount of great content we create, as well as receive from our Pioneers we have since started our travel lifestyle magazine “The Young Pioneer”.

We’re always looking for contributors to our sites, so feel free to browse through our blogs, and , get in touch if you’d like to write for us.

Check out and subscribe to the YPT Blog and travel magazine

Maunsell Forts: Knock John

January 24, 2020 / by Gareth

Maunsell Forts We’ve previously written about Roughs Tower/AKA Sealand as well as Red Sands, both of which fall under the weird category of Maunsell Forts. Now whilst Roughs became its own country and Red Sands has a group trying to preserve it, Knock …

Birobidzhan: the Soviet Zion

January 23, 2020 / by Joel Gallagher

Of all the stops of the famous Trans-Siberian railway, there are few as little-known as Birobidzhan – the only officially Yiddish-speaking republic that has ever existed. Located in Siberia near the Russia-China border, Birobidzhan is the center of Rus …

The Battle of Stalingrad

January 23, 2020 / by Joel Gallagher

The Battle of Stalingrad was the most brutal and bloodthirsty battle in human history. With our upcoming tour to Chechnya and Stalingrad, we decided to provide a proper look into this hellish fight between the Soviet Union and the Third Reich that clai …

Travelling with Children to North Korea

January 23, 2020 / by John McGovern

Here at YPT we get quite a lot of questions about travelling to the DPRK with children, so here are our handy answers to some of these questions! What is the age limit to join one of your tours? To sign up individually for one of our group tours you ha …

Maunsell Forts – Redsand

January 23, 2020 / by Gareth

Maunsell Fort If you are somehow reading the Young Pioneer Tours blog, then I will go all out and assume that you have heard of the Principality of Sealand. In case you have not, and I will keep it brief; Sealand was previously a WW2 fort off the Briti …

Flights to North Korea May Run From Qingdao Airlines

January 23, 2020 / by Dominic Perry

Qingdao Airlines plane Shandong-based airline Qingdao Airlines has recently been announced as the third airline company with permission to launch flights to north Korea. People flying from the cities of Qingdao, Zhengzhou and Quanzhou will be able to f …

The coronavirus panic: has North Korea closed its borders before?

January 22, 2020 / by Gareth

With the news that the DPRK has closed its borders following concerns about the latest coronavirus strain discovered in central China, a great many Spring Festival travellers have been forced to alter their travel plans and either cancel outright, or m …

Football in Tuvalu

January 22, 2020 / by Gareth

Tuvalu is basically my new favorite country on earth, you can read a few things I’ve written about the place here, and here. I am most famous for, aside from travel, liking street food, and drinking, I also like football. Tuvalu needs no help from me o …

North Korea temporarily closes border until further notice – Coronavirus precaution

January 21, 2020 / by YPT Team

As of Wednesday the 22nd of January, 2020, the DPRK will temporarily close its borders to all foreign tourists as a precaution to the Coronavirus. Whilst the current border closure time is undefined we have been reassured by the Korean authorities that …