Hey there, and welcome to my second post in my blog series about North Korea, the most isolated country in the world.
Please upvote this post and subscribe to my blog if you want to be updated about this series! Any questions on North Korea, ask below and I will try to answer :)
As you may know by now, I have been in and around North Korea for a while and love to share my stories and insight to the wider world. There are many news events around North Korea throughout the year, and one has popped up most recently:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/13/world/north-korea-otto-warmbier-rodman.html?_r=0
I might cover a few of these events in my coming blog posts, so stay tuned.
As for today, I will cover one of the most frequently asked questions regarding North Korea: how on earth do you get there? What is the way to see as much as possible, for the lowest price?
Contrary to popular belief, the process of obtaining tourist visas for North Korea is actually very simple. The only requirement is that you are booked on a pre-planned tour with two North Korean guides for company. The guides have to be specially appointed by the country’s Ministry of Tourism. For Westerners, currently it is not possible to travel independently in North Korea. However, every year new cities and villages open up for tourists, and what you could see ten years ago in a tour is not what you can see today.
Tour operators/travel agencies that organise their own tours to North Korea include:
- Koryo Tours - one of the largest groups around
- Young Pioneer Tours - one of the cheaper around
- Adventure Korea
- Uri Tours
- Pyongyang Travel
- Tongil Tours
Special tip (not many know about): A very good alternative for the price-sensitive traveler is to fly/travel into Dandong, at the Chinese-North Korean border. Here you can book a Chinese tour (with English guide) for much less than what you pay at the other (Western-oriented) tour agencies. It is surprisingly affordable!!!
Who knows you will soon be waiting in line at the airport for your flight to Pyongyang, just as I did a few times in the past few years?!
This post is also meant for an open discussion / Q&A for those who want to know more about the possibilities to visit North Korea, in any sort of way!
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See you later! :)