The Adventure of learning Tongil Tours empowers university students, life-long learners, and adventurers everywhere to examine the world in which they live through educational learning tours to the DPRK, Asia, and beyond.
Why Tongil Tours?
Tongil Tours creates North Korea tours that will not only bring you the adventure of a lifetime, but also help you gain a more nuanced understanding of North Korea.
BEST PRICES: TONGIL TOURS URGES YOU TO COMPARE PRICES
We are committed to making it economical to go to the DPRK. We urge you to compare prices with other operators. You’ll find significant discounts.
FREE: DPRK CULTURE SEMINARS
Free online seminars for all of our travellers–introductions to the history, culture, and background of the DPRK, as well as other topics. These seminars will help you prepare for your learning adventure with Tongil.
STUDY TOUR EXPERTISE
Tongil Tours is committed to building, managing, and providing academic-grade expertise for university course field trips and delegations that are academically excellent, and also safe, exciting, and fun.
Academic Study of the Region
Tongil Tours is the only DPRK tour operator staffed by Korean-speaking academic specialists who have studied the region formally at the graduate and undergraduate levels. We’ve partnered with North Korea-focused academics to provide curriculum support, lectures, and readings that help contextualise the trip.
In-country experience
Tongil tours partners and guides all have years of experience traveling to North Korea, some as early as the late 1990s. We understand the system well and have formed lasting relationships and connections over time. We know how to get in on last-minute opportunities that periodically come up.
Language Ability
A huge part of navigating the North Korean culture is understanding the language. Because all Tongil Tours staff speak and read Korean, we’re able to help travellers catch cultural nuances which would otherwise be difficult. Our staff have completed university degrees in Korean, been on Korean talk shows, and translated Korean short stories into English.
Quick FAQs
Is it safe?
This is an important question, and you can rest assured that Tongil Tours would never bring our friends, family, and customers to the DPRK if we were not convinced that it is completely safe. Learn more here.
Who can go?
Anyone with a valid passport, young and old alike, including Americans, Canadians, and citizens of other European countries, can go to the DPRK. Unfortunately, South Korean passports holders are not allowed to go to North Korea.
What about a visa?
Tongil Tours handles everything in the visa procurement process, and you conveniently receive your visa directly prior to departure in Beijing or Dandong. No need to send your passport ahead, either. Just a scan needed.
Is it ethical?
It is the belief of Tongil Tours that tourism and travel to the DPRK is a positive moral and ethical act that can help bring unity, cross-cultural understanding, and peace, between the DPRK and the outside world, through grass-roots, person-to-person connection and friendship.
Is everything just a performance?
Tongil Tours has been travelling to the DPRK for a long time. It is our experience that, even though the government does of course try to put its best foot forward, the everyday scenes you will experience are simply people going about their daily lives.
What about photos?
You are free to take photos in the DPRK, unless the subject contains soldiers or military facilities, contains a close-up of a North Korean without their express permission, or the guides themselves ask you to refrain from taking photos.
Featured Upcoming North Korea Tours
Pyongyang Summer Language Program 2017 at Kim Hyong Jik University of Education
> JULY 1 – 22, 2017
Study the Korean language in Pyongyang next summer and make friends with your Korean teachers, language partners, and tour guides all while seeing the most important sights both in Pyongyang and elsewhere in the country. Both academically rigorous and led by the best language professors in North Korea, it will be the most meaningful and memorable summer learning experience of your life.
EUR €3175
The 6-Day Classic Journey – BUDGET
2017 DATES
> JUL 24-29 | Victory Day, JUL 27
> AUG 12-17 | Liberation Day, AUG 15
> SEP 9-14 | National Day, SEP 9
> OCT 7-12 | Foundation Day, OCT 10
> NOV 11-16
> DEC 30-JAN 4 | New Year’s Edition
2018 DATES
> JAN 20-25, 2018 | Ski Edition
> FEB 15-20 | Kim Jong-il BD, FEB 16
> APR 14-19 | Kim Il-sung BD, APR 15
> APR 28-MAY 3 | May Day, May 1
The 6-Day Classic Journey is a perfect mid-length, budget, North Korea travel experience, offering a thorough overview of some of the DPRK’s best natural, historical, and cultural attractions in less than a week. Be sure to compare pricing. We believe it’s the best deal for a budget 5 night, 6 day tour. Train in and out from Dandong. Beijing train and round-trip flight options available.
> From €1139
THE AESTHETICS OF JUCHE: ART, ARCHITECTURE & URBANISM
OF THE DPRK
> SEPT 7 – 14 2017
The Aesthetics of Juche: Art, Architecture & Urbanism of the DPRK is a fascinating look into the politics of aesthetics in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Rooted in the legacy of the Soviet Union as they came to support the young DPR Korea when it was first divided, the socialist realist art and architecture of North Korea is famous for its bold style and its combination of many different historical styles, mediated through the Soviets.
EUR €1800
WHAT FORMER CUSTOMERS SAY
We’re confident that we can deliver a great DPRK tour experience.
But don’t take our word for it. Here’s what former customers say.
“I went on a trip to the 14th Pyongyang International Film Festival organised by Tongil Tours, and I can honestly say that it was one of my best (and most surreal!) holidays ever.”
—George Martin, London, United Kingdom
“I went on a Tongil Tours’ trip to North Korea in September 2014. It was superbly organised and the trip was an experience I will never forget…I would highly recommend this to anyone who is curious about the Hermit Kingdom or has an eager sense of adventure… Would definitely go again!”
—Oliver Murrell, Sydney, Australia
“Tongil tours offers an incredibly fun, professional, safe and intrepid program. I enjoyed a remarkable and unforgettable trip, and would happily recommend it for anyone wanting to see the DPRK and have a real out-of-the-box travel experience!”
— Crispin Rovere, Canberra, Australia
Tongil Tours go beyond standard North Korea tours. As the only North Korea tour operator staffed entirely by Korea experts who speak the language, Tongil Tours is uniquely qualified to offer a deeper, more insightful experience. Tongil Tours is perfect for any traveller with an intellectual interest in the country’s history and culture, from students to life-long learners.
—Andrei Lankov
Professor of Korean history, Kookmin University
Travel to North Korea with Tongil Tours
North Korea tours with the expert Tongil Tours staff are safe, educational, and impactful. Our focus from the outset is to make sure that your tour is not only a special travel experience that you will remember fondly for the rest of your life, but also an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of this much stereotyped but little-known country.
Our partners and guides all share a few key characteristics. One, all speak Korean at an advanced level; two, all have studied the DPRK and Northeast Asia at the university level; and three, all have extensive on-the-ground experience in North Korea.
Some Tongil Tours staff have experience with travel to North Korea since the late 90s.
Because of this, we bring unique insight into the cultural nuances of this fascinating country that we share before, during, and after each tour. In the end, because of our backgrounds, networks, and language ability as a team, we create opportunities to understand and connect with North Koreans that you will appreciate for the rest of your life.
We also partner with world-renown academic specialists on North Korea to deliver insightful lectures and rich readings to help you get that little bit extra out of your trip.
Ultimately, our goal is to create safe, educational, and unforgettable North Korea tours of the highest quality. From the monumental ensemble of Pyongyang, buttressing the Taedong River, to the historically charged Panmunjom on the DMZ, where the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed in 1953, we build unforgettable North Korea travel experiences that you will not forget for the rest of your life. We’ve designed all kinds of itineraries, from classic overviews to specialist adventures such as educational excursions into the agricultural system, studying Korean in its universities or learning about its history and politics. Whatever your interests are, Tongil Tours has the perfect itinerary for you.
