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
10 April 2013 / by Gareth Johnson
On May 1st YPT will be doing our yearly win a free trip to the DPRK. To qualify, simply like our page and share a link to it on your wall, or follow us on Twitter. On May 1st, live from our tour in Cuba marking May Day we will be doing the live draw. T …
10 April 2013 / by Gareth Johnson
Unsurprisingly after our somewhat momentous night in Yanji and our first day in Rason, we started day 2 having all had quite the sleep the night before, and thus fairly bright eyed and bushy tailed. Stop one of the day took us to the Rajin revolutionar …
28 March 2013 / by Gareth Johnson
You could in some kind of weird way separate the DPRK into two parts, the mainland, and the Rason SeZ, in some very small ways vaguely analogous to China and Hong Kong, with one part being Socialist, and the other being (in some ways at least), capital …
13 March 2013 / by Gareth Johnson
Socialismo o muerte!! And the biggest celebration in socialist Cuba. May Day is holiday that has survived the passage of time and is a national holiday in more than 80 countries and celebrated unofficially in many other countries Originating …
28 February 2013 / by Gareth Johnson
It has apparently just been confirmed by Associated Press that Dennis Rodman met Leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang this evening, 28th February 2013, amazingly with Vice magazine. Alas this is not something we anticipate being added to our itineraries for …
13 February 2013 / by Alistair Riddell
YPT have confirmed that tourists and visitors to the DPRK will now be able to use their own cellphones while in country. More over we have prices! By purchasing a Koryolink simcard (available at the airport for now and hopefully soon at foreigner hotel …
22 January 2013 / by Gareth Johnson
We’ve just confirmed with Rason that tourist’s phones will also be allowed into the Rason Special Economic zone, however officially phones with GPS and satellite phones are still banned. Rason was the original testing ground when cellphones were re int …
20 January 2013 / by Gareth Johnson
Richie has just returned from our first group tour of the year and brings some pretty big news! At the moment the DPRK is saying you can bring phones into the country. Satellite phones are still banned, but for now at least the ban on bringing mo …
19 December 2012 / by Gareth Johnson
From January next year, trains are scheduled to run from Dandong to Pyongyang every day of the week, and vice versa too. This is great news for independent tours (Though unfortunately not so much for American citizens who will still need to fly i …