Young Pioneer Tours Reviews 9

I had an amazing time on a 5 day trip to Bhutan led by YPT guide Morgan and local guide Tashi. Thanks to Morgan and Tashi’s expertise about the region, I learned so much about the history of Bhutan and modern day Bhutanese culture and society. The tour had a mix of activities, ranging from historical tours and visits to temples, monasteries, and palaces, to physical activities such as hiking to Tigers Nest and exploring a takin (National animal of Bhutan) reserve, to relaxing in a typical Bhutanese hot stone bath. The range of activities felt correctly paced - days felt satisfyingly busy but not over packed or rushed. Bhutan itself is a magical and calming country. Locals met us with such kindness and hospitality everywhere. The food was healthy, tasty and fresh, and Morgan and Tashi selected excellent locals for eating, making meal times efficient. Overall, I highly recommend the trip to Bhutan with Morgan, and am eager to return to Bhutan one day!

#YoungPioneerTours are veteran Scammers! Our tour was filled with Alcoholics, who even vomited on the bus! The Western Tour guide was Drunk 24 hours a day! And the locals hated him! The owners are Hiding in places like the Philippines from Tax evasion, money laundering, and running prostitution tours! Even Scamming their own clients with a Fake Island Scam! (Called "lets buy an island") For 3.5K they give Victims a worthless document from the Cayman islands! And even Charge the clients for tours to the island (their supposed to be owners of) when in fact YPT totally control the island, and do whatever they wish with the investments! without any oversight! They are also responsible for the Death of Otto Warmbier, Whom they encouraged to get very intoxicated in North Korea! Not following any protocols! He was arrested and tortured to death in a NK prison! The Alcoholic , Drug addicted, Scammer YPT Owners went into Hiding in Cambodia! And insulted the Memory of Otto online!
These people are the worst of Society! Do not interact with these global gutter trash!

Racist tour agency Zero Star of YPT tour if you are Asian low income countries this company staff behaviour as a racist with me I don't recommend to anyone tour with this company because of unprofessional and bad attitude after 7 years ago I did tour in north Korea with this company and now this agency behaviour is different . They questioned me 7 years ago tour I did tour with many agencies past 15 years but I found this YPT agency is one most worst Experience ever had. Staff treated me like unlikely behaviour as racist manners. Don't know how to deal with customer. Highly discouraged to everyone

I had, after very positive experiences with YPT in Sudan and North Korea, without any doubt nor further research, chosen YPT for my trip to Afghanistan.

Unfortunately the problems started already in the run up to the trip, once YPT informed us at very short notice about the problem, that our departure day from Dubai was on the last day of Ramadan and might be clashing with the opening times of the Afghan embassy. I had to change my flight at very short notice, thus incurring considerable extra cost.

The recommended visa agent in Dubai did his job brilliantly, but charged ridiculously expensive fees.

Only now I know, how the uninformed/bad decision to travel during the Eid holidays negatively influenced our trip: flights were overbooked, too many Afghanis were frequenting their places of interest, others were closed.

Our “leader” has never smiled, never engaged in friendly small talk, she seemed to be stressed out as from day 1.

To my big surprise I learned well into the tour, that this unknowledgeable tour leader is not employed by YPT. Fact was, that a few participants and myself, clients of YPT, were, without having been informed, added to a group of the Dutch travel company “Culture Road“, who had sent the Australian Guide. This lady had no experience nor information, had never visited Afghanistan before, did also not care to prepare herself for the daily program and was not shy to answer time and again « I do not know ».

The local guide’s knowledge and English were restricted, so I had to get most information out of the internet- quite a strange experience.

Such total lack of experience could also have had disastrous consequences: One lady walked alone, when “forgotten” by the tour leader and only realised later in the Mine Museum, that she had passed a bright red painted stone, which indicated “Stop! Possible mine field!”

On a positive note:
The condition of minibusses for transport and the
quality of hotel accommodation were surprisingly good.
The fact, that our driver was watching tv on his dashboard during a long night’s drive had luckily no consequences.

The situation on the ground would have definitely allowed for a much more interesting program, the bigger part of the promised itinerary (only sent out to some people) was left out, what a pity, that the potential of our stay was cut short.

I can, according to my latest experience, warmly recommend Afghanistan as a destination, but definitely NOT YPT.

More and more Afghani companies are coming up, offering their services to tourists.
Currently foreign based travel companies are cashing in from far (in our case YPT AND Culture Road), but using the services of these start-up enterprises for their tours, meaning, that we paid about three times more than an Afghan Tour Company would have charged us.

As the issuing of visa is improving, I am hoping, that these local companies will be able to build up internationally a good reputation, what could result in « fair travel » to Afghanistan.

PS: YPT‘ s „border stamp collector clients“ , are less critical about the services rendered, than the „precious memory collectors” like myself.
But that fact certainly does not allow YPT’s management to unfairly humiliate unsatisfied clients after having posted a critical review.

I contacted them because I wanted to book a birthday trip to Socotra. I was messaging back and forth with their agent Caitlin for around 1.5 weeks, when she told me I had to send them a form and my passport copy until day x to secure the spot, otherwise it would be too late. I sent everything in time. She asked how I wanted to pay and I had a question about the payment options. It was never answered. She didn't reply for a day, then told me that the time was up and it was too late to book the tour - because I hadn't paid "in time" (I was never sent any concrete payment info). That was not communicated before at all! Why wouldn't you warn me? Why would you only tell me all I needed so send right now was the form + passport copy? Why wouldn't you give me the payment info in time? I don't even understand this from the business perspective. My planned birthday trip is now ruined, which upsets me a lot. I was honestly so thrilled to do this. I won't consider this company for any tour again, that's for sure. This is honestly just sad.

This tour was my second choice due to planned Syria tour didn’t materialize due to a visa problem . But I am so glad we chose to proceed to Iraq as Paris think that this is a good choice in between my Lebanon and Iran tour . This is a private tour that Paris at Young pioneer tour suggested and she was absolutely correct . The Iraq tour with a local guide Raad ( Saddam look alike ) made this tour extraordinary. Eating the fish at the market where they fire grilled for us. Due to Raads connection we were able to eat to places that normally man only can access . Did I mention there was 3 ladies that did this tour ? 🤣. We went to some places that normally it is closed but he managed to make us go in for a private viewing . Went to bazaar and drink street food and local tea. Went to a 7,000 year old religion church that welcomed us so well like we have family in Iraq. The old palace , mural and old sculpture site of Saddam Hussein was interesting. The Babylon. The boat ride in the marshes ( yes there is body of water in Iraq) . The herds of camel moving to green pastures. The people who are welcoming ( people we met wave at us and say “ welcome to Iraq “ ) , the traditional food ( I have learned to eat lamb which I never like before but started to crave for it during my stay there) . The camomile plants on the road . The birthday of Immam celebration in the mosque was very interesting . People gives us candy as a blessing . The wearing of the full gown at the beautiful mosque. Another boat ride watching the sunset . The multiple check points when we travel in other cities. One of the soldier at the check point walk to our bus and offered bottle of water for us. Isn’t he adorable? The package store ( yes beer , wine and alcohol is available for the public) .
I never thought that my second choice of my Middle East journey is my favorite one . Iraq. Come visit and you will be amaze of the people, the culture, the food and the history . Yes Iraq tour is safe and Young pioneer made that happen for me , for us 3 ladies in the group .

Our trip is planned for 30.12. 2018 - 1.1. 2019. I must say that people for YPT are very professional and helpful even before the trip itself. I want to point out that Mr. Rowan and Mr. Lee, which we have experience with are very polite and helpful. I and my two friends are now perfectly ready for the trip.

Actually, I read all the bad reviews (and there is not many), I must say that all the troubles mentioned there are caused by the tourist themselves, NOT YPT agency.

Thank you YPT,
Mark

Just got back from an amazing 5 day trip in the DPRK celebrating the 70th anniversary with mass games.

My experience with YPT has been positive from the start, due to the nature of the country I expected a few bumps along the way, but what ever hurdles the team came across they found a way to handle.

They do not compromise on safety, clear instructions are given to you before you meet in China and the pre tour meeting is really handy. They employ very competent staff, our YPT guide (Matt) and Korean guide (Un Gyong) were extremely professional, knowledgeable and fun. Can honestly say that my visit would not have been the same without them, they went above and beyond what was expected and delivered some amazing experiences (Highlights include access to the military parade and Mass Games), would highly recommend booking with them!

I signed up for their SCUBA divng trip to the DPRK and Russia almost a year in advance after being told that North Korea is safe, even for Americans. I jumped through hoops getting a PADI C-card (I've been NAUI certified for 14 years, but they didn't care) and a Russian Visa. Thirteen days before I was scheduled to leave on the trip of a lifetime, they emailed me stating that they were not cancelling the trip, but they were no longer taking Americans - that is, American tourists. If you worked for them and were American, you could still go to the DPRK (up until the US travel ban took effect).

Even though they sent me my money back, I was stuck with a Russian visa that I no longer needed, a PADI C-card that I no longer needed and airline and hotel cancellation fees - everything totalled over $700. So, I spent $700 and countless hours of my time to NOT go on their tour.

Their reasoning for booting me from their trip was because of the Otto Warmbier incident, which was on going when I originally signed up, but it wasn't an issue during the time they were stringing me along. However, I had never met Mr. Warmbier and have absolutely nothing to do with him, but somehow just being an American was enough to warrant a last minute ban from their trip. I would assume that the same thing could happen to other nationalities under the same circumstances.

Somehow, 800-1000 American tourists a year had visited the DPRK before the US travel ban and made it back out without any problems. North Korea is NOT Disneyland, that should have been made clear to any visitor, regardless of nationality.

I was able to make it to the DPRK in mid-August with another tour group (Koryo Tours) and had the time of my life. I never felt threatened or unsafe and the North Koreans were very friendly towards me. Young Pioneers banning Americans from their tours had to be politically motivated as it was in no way a safety issue. Unfortunately, it cost me a lot of time and money. Beware!