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
29 May 2019 / by Joel Vostok
Transnistria is one of the most obscure countries on the planet and didn’t earn the nickname ‘Europe’s North Korea’ for nothing. This secretive state still holds a sinister air of the unknown, with strong, often false stereotypes being thrown around ma …
28 May 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
When I tell people that I work in North Korea, more often than not they hit me with ‘facts’ about North Korea. One that comes up a lot is “did you know that weed is legal in North Korea?” Long story short: Pyongyang is unlikely to become the next Amste …
28 May 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
Lebanon is definitely a big favourite of the Young Pioneer Tours team, with us usually running a group tour there at least once per year. As with any country we like, we are always looking at other options for tours there. We thus bring you our Lebanes …
28 May 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
As a primarily online company we have, as you’d might expect, more than a passing interest in the website of both our competitors and friends. It’s particularly heartwarming when one of our customers begins a website that blossoms into a pretty big dea …
28 May 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
Young Pioneer Tours are famous for taking people to ‘places your mother would rather you stayed away from’, but there are some places that, regardless of what your mother thinks, you really shouldn’t go to. North Sentinel Island is one of those places. …
23 May 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
In the West we can often have a snobby view of world wines. Obviously there’s French, Spanish, Italian, Spanish, and New World wines – but there’s a tonne of great Eastern Bloc stuff that generally gets left off the list. One of the best is Crimean win …
23 May 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
Celtic/Gaelic domination of the whiskey market scotched as North Korea unveil their first distillation! May 23rd 2019 North Korean whiskey is here! Young Pioneer Tours was today given access to the first ever batch of North Korean whiskey — the locall …
22 May 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
Che Guevara was the ultimate revolutionary and mainstay of our tours to Cuba. We take a look at his extraordinary life. Is there anything more ironic than the ultimate legacy of Ernesto “Che” Guevara, who is less known for his revolutionary socialist a …
22 May 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
After a five-year hiatus, last year saw the triumphant return of the DPRK’s Mass Games — the world’s largest coordinated mass gymnastics event and a spectacle like no other on earth. The revival of the event proved hugely popular, with tours to North …