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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30 July 2019 / by Troy Collings
Learning complex sentences We are now nearly two weeks in to our Korean Language Study tour and already we’ve learnt some pretty complex sentence structures, such as “I’m a foreign exchange student studying Korean at Kim Hyong Jik university in Pyongya …
29 July 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
As a veteran of travel to North Korea, it is fair to say that I have seen a hell of a lot of changes in the country. OK, so China might be modernizing at breakneck speed and changes in the DPRK might be a little more subtle, but the country has seen a …
29 July 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
When I was a kid, I remember the song “Eternal Flame”, and yes I am old enough to be talking about the version by the Bangles, not the musical abortion brought forth by Atomic Kitten. Now I know that an Eternal Flame is much more than a great tune from …
29 July 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
As of last month, Young Pioneer Tours officially purchased a full share in IBG Inc, the company behind LetsBuyAnIsland and thus became officially involved in the world’s first project to crowdsource trying to buy a tropical island. So! What is this Let …
29 July 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
Of course the most verbal of the country collectors are the zealots at the 193 club, but for many of us searching out weird and wonderful political anomalies is what floats our boat, and as anomalies go, you really cannot beat Svalbard. Here’s everythi …
26 July 2019 / by Rowan Beard
The Changgwangsan Hotel was first opened in 1975 to celebrate the nation’s 30th Anniversary of defeating the Japanese during World War II also known as Liberation Day. The hotel is classed as a budget hotel with a North Korean three-star rating. The ho …
23 July 2019 / by Troy Collings
After arriving in Pyongyang on Saturday and spending the night in the Changwangsang Hotel, we headed to Kaesong for the usual DMZ visit. Daily life studying Korean in the DPRK Monday was when things got interesting on our first day at Kim Hyong Jik Uni …
19 July 2019 / by Nicolas Platt
While the idea of “North Korea customs” might conjure intimidating imagery of strict, intense checks by stone-faced North Korea soldiers, most visitors to North Korea are struck by the reality that some of the first interactions they have with North Ko …
19 July 2019 / by Pier Doyon
Hamhung is the capital of South Hamgyong Province and the second biggest city in the DPRK with a population of approximately 800,000. The city serves as an important industrial center and port on the east coast of the DPRK. Being an 8-hour drive away f …