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.
Check out and subscribe to the YPT Blog and travel magazine
23 January 2020 / by Gareth Johnson
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 …
23 January 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 …
22 January 2020 / by Gareth Johnson
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 …
22 January 2020 / by Gareth Johnson
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 …
21 January 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 …
16 January 2020 / by Gareth Johnson
It’s no secret that the USSR wasn’t exactly a bastion of human rights. Show trials and executions, the mass deportation of political prisoners and the practice of “unpersoning” undesirables – executing them and then effectively erasing them from histor …
16 January 2020 / by Dominic Perry
When asking the question of Korean territorial borders, you’ll find there’s a lot more debate than you’d expect. Of course there’s the question of whether the North or South is the ‘true’ Korea, with each refusing to acknowledge the legitimacy of the o …
16 January 2020 / by Dominic Perry
East Timor/Timor-Leste is one of the world’s newest countries, having only become an independent state as of the 20th May 2002. In all the time leading up to this, they have variously been under colonisation by the Netherlands, Indonesia and Portugal, …
16 January 2020 / by Troy Collings
Last year in Autumn the first ever Chongjin Trade Fair took place. Pyongyang and the Rason SEZ both host bi-annual International Trade Fairs, but the expansion to Chongjin is unique, as it is a provincial capital, not a directly administered city. Its …