Behind the Media: Itinerary

Key information:

• Tour start destination: Dandong
• Transport to DPRK: Train (included)
• Days spent in the DPRK: Four (Three Nights)
• Maximum Tour Places Available: 20

October 14th- Dandong day

Today we will arrive from our separate ways in Dandong, where we prepare and get in the mood to visit North Korea. Upon making your way there, our guide will collect you and check you into the hotel at various points of the day. During your time here, you will be free to head out to various sites nearby, including the most eastern segement of the Great Wall known as "Hushan". Likewise, you can take a speedboat along the Yalu river and see North Korean life close up, as well as see the "Broken Bridge", which was bombed by the United States in the Korean War. 

October 15th

Today is the big day, it is time to enter North Korea. Our guide will take us to the station for the 10am departure and see us through customs and onto the train, we'll have the opportunity to gifts for our guides at the duty free. The train will then cross into Sinuiju where we'll go through North Korean customs, then we'll head onwards to Pyongyang. On the way, witness the moving scenes of the North Korean countryside and the reality of the country. By evening we will have arrived, where our guides will meet us on the platform and take us our hotel. After checking in, we'll be off for Dinner at a restaurant in downtown Pyongyang.

October 16th

Our first full North Korea day, we'll be up extra early this morning as we prepare for the long journey down to the DMZ and panmunjom! Here we'll witness the military border between North Korea and South Korea which has divided the peninsula since 1953, as well as the huts where the two states hold talks, get some cool selfies here with soldiers. After this, we'll be heading to the nearby city of Kaesong where we'll be grabbing a traditional lunch and then having a look round an ancient museum dating back to the Koryo dynasty.

Afterwards, we'll be heading back on the bus and then heading up to Sinchon County in the North Korean countryside, here we'll visit the Sinchon Museum of American War Atrocities, where we will hear terrifying accounts of alleged American acts in the Korean War. After this it's back to Pyongyang, dinner, then the hotel!

October 17th

Today will be our Pyongyang day, we'll be visiting sites around the changing North Korean capital city. First, we'll head to the Mansudae Art Studio, the heart and core of North Korea's national propaganda machine, the origin of all posters, paintings and statues within the DPRK. After a look around the studio, we'll head down to the Taedonggang brewery, where we'll be able to see real North Korean beer being produced, an increasingly popular commodity for visitors. After having some lunch, we'll then go for a walk around Kim Il Sung square, then hop onto the Pyongyang metro and travel for six stations, riding on the new trains that came out in 2016.

Afterwards, we'll be visiting a real North Korean University, Kim Il Sung University, where we'll have a chance to meet the students! Following this we wills pend the afternoon at the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum and here North Korea's "version" of the Korean War. Following on we'll treat to an incredible performance at the Mangyongdae Children's palace! For dinner, we'll be going to a Korean BBQ restaurant and then afterwards on a walk down the new Mirae Scientist's Street!

October 18th

Unfortunately our time at the DPRK has to come to an end, we'll be checking out of the hotel on the morning and then to Pyongyang station for the train back to Dandong. On the journey back you'll see the same scenes as you came in, but you'll be able to reflect now on the content of our tour and how North Korea is portrayed. Are the stereotypes real? Or did the country surprise you? Do these theme parks, hospitals, streets and lucrative restaurants tell us anything about the reality of North Korean life? Or are they just carefully placed propaganda? We'll be back in Dandong by the evening, where we will part ways.

Disclaimer: The above itinerary may be subject to variation based on North Korea's discretion, which for obvious reasons we have little power over. Whilst we usually get every site we request to visit, North Korean authorities may alter items of this itinerary at will or re-order the sequence based upon their own organisational needs.