Day-trips into North Korea? Wow!

Young Pioneer Tours seem to have a new tour which isn't an overnighter in North Korea. Dude! http://www.youngpioneertours.com/sinuiju-north-korea-day-trips/

Chinese vs. English tour group

I plan to visit North Korea this summer (during the Mass Games). I speak both English and Mandarin, so I would be open to joining a tour conducted in either language. I will be using a US passport.

Other than the clientele (nationality, perhaps age), is there any difference in terms of quality/experience/stuff seen on the tour if I went with one option over the other?

I read that the whole show is being run by KITC once in country, but in choosing a tour operator, what should I look out for? I presume there must be differences in hotel quality and group size?

A Malaysian wants to visit North Korea from Beijing

Hi All,

I'm just getting very excited about visiting North Korea when I learned moments ago that Malaysian actually don't need a visa to visit North Korea (source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_North_Korea#Visa).

Now, does that mean I can just buy a ticket and hop on a train, or plane, from Beijing to Pyongyang without involving any travel agency like KoryoTours?

Basically, I'm totally clueless how to proceed from knowing the fact 'Malaysia don't need visa to North Korea' to actually get myself in Pyongyang's soil. I'd greatly appreciate if y'all would provide guidance and info about that for me.

Regards,

Brendan

trainticket dandong pyongyang flight ticket PyongYang Beijjing

We will start a tour in Pyongyang ( of course all inclusive) but for the train from Dandong to Pyongyang we can book a ticket at our travel agency for €95/$130 each ticket excluding handling costs at station Dandong of €50,00/$65 for two
Is there an alternative possiblity to buy a ticket at the station at Dandong or??
Flight Pyongyang Beijing is impossible to book on internet but is there an agency whre you can book it??
We have been informed that one way ticket should costs €275,00/$325,00 ?

Tour Companies

Hello All,

I am planning on taking a trip to DPRK later on this year, probably to coincide with the Kim II Sung Birthday celebrations. I was wondering if anyone can recommend a particular tour company? I have been looking through various different ones and Young Pioneers stands out as having a reasonable itinerary at a reasonable price. I am looking for small-medium groups, fairly adventurous. Any other advice most welcome!

Many thanks.

North Korea - Restrictions?

I'm just wondering if anyone knows whether there's been any changes in the rules surrounding foreigners travelling in North Korea. I understand that to date you need to book an expensive tour and will have to be with a guide at all times. Does this still hold or has there been a change? I'm always skeptical of the tour media as if the restrictions have been lifted then nobody is going to tell you. The only way to find out is to apply for a visa and see what happens. This is similar to when Russia was opening up. No entry without a tour and invitation, restricted travel etc. There was no indication that this had changed anywhere. You just had to apply for a visa and see what happened. It's convenient for the tour companies and probably keeps the officials happy.

The reason I ask this is that I've been reading about the Kaesong Industrial Complex (supposedly 10km into the N... more »

OK to Bring a Tripod?

Hello Everyone

I'm planning a trip to North Korea and have been checking out the main tour companies. Almost all of them have a disclaimer on their websites requesting journalists and professional photographers not to arrange tours through them. I'm neither of those but do enjoy taking photos and video of some of the more unique places I visit. So I was wondering if other people have used tripods or small stedicams during their tourthrough the DPRK. Will it look suspicious to bring and use this equipment? I plan on taking a private DMZ tour if it makes a difference.

Thanks
letemspeak

Korea konsult travel agency

I would like to let you know about my travelling experience with korea konsult for a trip i did in september (swedish agency).
I booked through them because they had a long trip to north korea but the travel organisation and the customer service after coming back was not as good as i would expect from a professional travel organisation. We have been accompanied by the husband of the owner of korea konsult. Nothing went as described in the tour descriptif. Hotels changed (which is not supposed to be a problem in most case) most of them had no water going out of tap, we had to take shower in a bucket of freezing water, in an other hotel we had no bathroom at all, we had to go to what they called "sauna" 200 m away from the room at night and early morning outside of the bulding

. When we asked to get a compensation for that ( you dońt expect that when you pay more than 2500 euro fo... more »