🧭 North Korea: good to know
The general-information half of trip planning: how expensive North Korea feels, what is considered polite, what is not, and the everyday practicalities - alongside our 10 written places.
Visits run on a set itinerary with local guides, and courtesy toward hosts shapes every stop.
Cost level: High Costs run at western European levels - planning and a few local tricks keep it sane. Estimate a daily budget →
✓ Considered polite
- Follow your guides' lead - all visits run as escorted tours with a fixed itinerary
- Bow with your group at major monuments when your guides do - it is the expected courtesy
- Ask before photographing anything or anyone - guides will say what is fine
- Bring small gifts for your guides and driver - chocolate or souvenirs from home are appreciated
✗ Better avoided
- Photograph a statue of a leader partially - frame the full figure in the shot
- Fold, crumple or discard newspapers bearing leaders' portraits
- Wander off from the group or leave the hotel on your own
- Turn up at major memorial sites in shorts or flip-flops - neat dress is expected
💡 Worth knowing
- Bring all money as cash in euros, yuan or dollars - cards and ATMs do not work for visitors
- Tours are all-inclusive - meals, hotel and transport are arranged, so cash is mainly for souvenirs and drinks
- Phones can usually be brought in, but there is no internet access for visitors
- There is no independent travel - the only way in is an organised tour booked through a specialist operator, usually departing via Beijing
Plugs and voltage
Type A, C · 220 V travel adapter →
CurrencyNorth Korean won (KPW)
LanguagesKorean
Driving sideright
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Customs are living things - regions differ, cities relax, generations shift. Take these notes as a friendly head start, watch what locals do, and when in doubt a smile and a greeting in the local language cover almost everything.