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.
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Transnistria’s most famous (and infamous) people
26 February 2019 / by Joel Vostok
Transnistria: a country I have grown to love after many years of travelling and guiding there. However, its status as a ‘country’ is debatable. Born in the wreckage of the USSR, the region burst into a viscous civil war due to Moldovan attempts to ‘Rom …
The Hanoi Summit: US Passport ban overturned?
26 February 2019 / by Nicolas Platt
Today North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-un arrived in Hanoi in anticipation for tomorrow’s much-anticipated summit with American President Donald Trump. Here, over the course of the next two days, both leaders are expected to hammer out a series of …
Everest Base Camp Closure Update
25 February 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
From January 1st 2019 there have been changes at Everest Base Camp on the Chinese side in Tibet. While there are changes to where we can visit, it will not have a major effect on people’s experience at the base camp area. Previously travellers were abl …
Kim’s personal train passes through Dandong en route to Hanoi summit
23 February 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
DPRK leader Marshal Kim Jong Un has just arrived in the Chinese border city of Dandong to what is, for the head of a country that has recently been dominating world headlines, an atypically muted reception. The streets of Dandong are reportedly eerily …
5 Reasons to visit Mt. Kumgang
22 February 2019 / by Nicolas Platt
Located in the south of North Korea and a stone’s throw from the border with South Korea, Mount Kumgang is a gorgeous mountain with breathtaking natural scenery. We list the top 5 reasons for visiting this North Korean national treasure. Off-the-beaten …
Railroad relations: the international train journeys of the Kims
21 February 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
When speaking to a North Korean tour guide a few years back, she recalled the time before the end of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc, telling me how as a little girl she travelled by train all the way from Pyongyang to Romania via Russia. The jou …
How to get from Pyongyang to Hanoi
20 February 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
We were glad to hear that, just like us at YPT, Marshal Kim Jong Un is a long-train-ride enthusiast and will potentially be going all the way to Hanoi for the upcoming summit with President Donald Trump by train. It’s a great way to watch the scenery g …
The Ghostly Remains of Festung Breslau
19 February 2019 / by Joel Vostok
In February, the Young Pioneer Soviet Europe team began our first WW2-focused tour in Poland, covering the country end to end in the footsteps of the merciless German invasion of 1939 and their brutal retreat of 1945. One of our many stops along the wa …
How to Get to Longyearbyen, Svalbard
18 February 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
Svalbard has been the last frontier for a number of nations, from the Dutch and Danish to the Norwegians and, of course, the Soviet Union. Longyearbyen is the foremost settlement in Spitsbergen, the main island of the Svalbard archipelago, with a popul …
