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
21 March 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
Following a return to the international stage under the stewardship of Marshal Kim Jong Un, the DPRK is reporting an unprecedented boom in the number of Chinese tourists visiting the heretofore-reclusive country. Once considered a niche travel destinat …
20 March 2019 / by Rowan Beard
What is the Ryugyong Hotel? The Ryugyong Hotel, also known as the Hotel of Doom, is the tallest building in North Korea. This 105 storey, 330 meters tall building is an unmissable feature of Pyongyang’s skyline, it is the most iconic building in the en …
20 March 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
It was 11 years ago that I first had the idea of crowdfunding to buy an island, to run as a business and micronation. In fact, I even purchased the domain name www.LetsBuyAnIsland.com back then. Alas, 11 years ago I had a few other things on my mind; t …
20 March 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
When talking about micronations there’s a million and one tangents we could go off on (hence the number of articles we write on the subject), but generally speaking you can split micronations in the following 4 categories: People that genuinely kind of …
18 March 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
UPDATED in MAY 2019 In a move widely seen as a move towards facilitating foreign tourism to the country, Pakistan has recently begun a visa-on-arrival policy to 5 preferred countries. Initially, visas on arrival were available to nationals of the Unite …
16 March 2019 / by Pier Doyon
Our tours of Iraq are amongst some of our most popular tours. As with anything that gathers interest, it also generate a lot of questions, first and foremost being : “What!? You can go to Iraq!?”. Obviously, since we run tours there, this question is a …
16 March 2019 / by Pier Doyon
When it comes to travelling in Iraq, most people would think that it can either be done by car or by plane, with no other options. However, a train can also be taken! As the train enthusiasts that we are, at YPT, we knew that we had to take it! An hist …
16 March 2019 / by Caitlin Graham
The single most common reaction we get when we tell people that we’re travelling to Syria is something along the lines of “is that really appropriate?”, so is it ethical to travel to Syria? They’re just emerging from seven years of war, and while milli …
16 March 2019 / by Rowan Beard
How to get a visa for Syria? To get a visa for Syria is actually very easy if you book your tour with YPT. Every facet of your Syrian visa process is taken care of by YPT. We only need a scan of your passport – must be in colour. That’s it! On your arr …