Young Pioneer Tours
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
Why Afghanistan is my favourite destination
December 9, 2018 / by Ben Crowley
Tourism is a funny old business these days. Famous destinations around the world are becoming packed full of people. Locals are becoming increasingly frustrated at tourists and as the world become smaller, so do our experiences while travelling. Likewi …
Top 5 coolest buildings in Turkmenistan
December 9, 2018 / by Eilidh Crowley
What happens when you put a post-soviet nation and lots of oil money together? Chances are you end up with something like Turkmenistan, where the heads of state have decided to build some of the world’s most incredible pieces of architecture. In this t …
Coolest Buildings in Central Asia
December 9, 2018 / by Eilidh Crowley
Central Asia, with its past of soviet satellite states and frivolous dictatorships, has a wide collection of buildings with incredible architecture. You might not have heard of them before but trust us when we say these are the top 10 coolest buildings …
Big sums of Som: Currency in Uzbekistan
December 9, 2018 / by Eilidh Crowley
Uzbekistan’s currency is the Uzbek Som (UZS), and until September 2017 there were two exchange rates – the official rate and the black market rate. Unlike in neighbouring Turkmenistan though, the black market was for a long time the commonly used rate …
Changing money in Turkmenistan
December 9, 2018 / by Ben Crowley
I’m not an economics expert, but like most people I get the general idea of why black markets exist: A country has a fixed exchange rate which is on the slightly optimistic side, to say the least, but the real value of the currency and the goods it is …
How to get a tourist visa for Uzbekistan, E-Visa Update
December 9, 2018 / by Eilidh Crowley
There is a new evisa system for Uzbekistan which has made the process much simpler, cheaper and generally more accessible compared to the old soviet-era way of doing things. Get up to date with the cool kids and learn how to get this visa online in thi …
Sentinel Island and 4 other places you really can’t go
December 2, 2018 / by John McGovern
YPT have been taking people to places their mother doesn’t want them to go to for ten years now, and one of the most common questions we get asked is “is there anywhere you won’t go?” Well, from Donbass to Iraq and Afghanistan, some of our tours are no …
10 oddities from North Korea that got my attention this month
November 30, 2018 / by Pier Doyon
Hello Dear Reader, Matt here. I’m always on the look out for new DPRK-produced products or interesting little tid-bits while travelling in North Korea. While there’s a load of wonderful souvenirs from hand-painted propaganda posters to DPRK national sp …
