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 August 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
When you visit North Korea (which, believe it or not, we quite often do), you will often be told that Korea is, post-Berlin-Wall, the last of the divided countries on earth. As with anything, however, the truth is a tad more complicated than that. Here …
22 August 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
The Mongols may have done a lot of conquering, but they didn’t develop a handy trick that the British would later employ to devastating effect: invading nations and stealing their best food. Whereas the British Empire evolved from boiled potatoes to ch …
22 August 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
Horses are kind of a big deal in Mongolia – there are three million horses in the country, which is, coincidentally, how many people there are. How many other countries can claim a 1:1 human-horse ratio? You can appreciate, then, just how huge a Mongol …
21 August 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
YPT recently enjoyed their inaugural Naadam Festival tour, and one of the highlights of said tour was getting to watch Mongolian archery — these historical masters of the bow are truly a sight to behold. Why is archery such a big deal in Mongolia? Wel …
20 August 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
It wasn’t all that long ago that cell phones were banned in North Korea for both locals and foreigners alike. Allegedly the ban occurred after an attempt on the leader’s life using a bomb set off via a phone, although this is very much an unconfirmed r …
18 August 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
Rason is the Special Economic Zone of North Korea that, if you believe the hype, will be a city of 2 million thriving businessmen within the next ten years. Whilst abstaining from comment on that particular claim, we will say that it’s definitely a YPT …
18 August 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
Rason is a special economic zone (SEZ) located in the north-east of North Korea. Being an SEZ means it plays by different rules to the rest of the country, and it’s a very unique little corner of the DPRK. One major difference is that it operates outsi …
16 August 2019 / by Pier Doyon
What do you think of when someone says Egypt? Obviously, the Pyramids will come to mind. Perhaps the Nile River, the longest in the world? Or how about the Pharaohs of Egypt, many whose tombs have been discovered and great riches unearthed. In a countr …
16 August 2019 / by Joel Vostok
Transnistria is a land we know and love. YPT have been pioneering travel there for almost a decade and have experienced almost everything it has to offer. The rebel republic broke away from Moldova as the USSR fell and today stands as a land where the …