DPRK Private Trip - June 2012

by Sarah & Declan
(Australia)

Hi Rayco,

As promised, here's some feedback that we're happy to share from our recent trip. Hope this helps, thanks again for your help in organising everything.

Best wishes,


Sarah


Our main concerns prior to travelling to the DPRK were safety for foreign visitors and how tightly controlled it would be.

We felt extremely safe at all times and were made to feel very welcome. Our guides were excellent and ensured that we got to see all the major sights, allowed us freedom to walk around these sights and gave us a good insight into the DPRK. In regard to taking pictures, we were advised that we could take any pictures we liked except of the military. This isstandard practice in most countries. In fact, our guides took our camera on a number of occasions and took pictures of us at different sites.

Every day was something different, and we were able to see all the sights on our itinerary and sample a variety of local dishes. Each sight had presentations from local guides that were informative and not over the top. There were many highlights but our stand-out was visiting the DMZ and getting a detailed overview from the military representative.

The DPRK is not on the main tourist trail so if you're looking for a genuine cultural experience, its a great country to visit.
We found our visit to be very personal, especially visiting a local school where some of the children put on a concert just for us. The weather was very warm during our visit, so to have our own mini-van with air conditioning was very welcome

We already have recommended KTG. We have always been interested in travelling to the DPRK, but were unsure what to expect so had many questions. We really appreciated KTG and Rayco who answered all of our questions and provided a briefing pack beforehand that was thorough and helped prepare us for what to expect.

We would encourage any visitors to the DPRK to bring something educational from their own country. We found that our guides were very interested to learn more about Australia and were delighted to try some Aussie chocolate. If you are visiting a school, we would suggest bringing some books or postcards from your home country or some stationery items eg: stickers or about 20 children, as a thank you for the concert. We brought some local sweets and biscuits that were very well received.

In summary, thanks again Rayco and everyone at KTG for organising a great trip. We thoroughly enjoyed it. Please let us know if you need any more details,

All the best,

Sarah & Declan