Wigan to Pyongyang trip on track to sell out a year ahead of first departure

Exclusive: Tour from northwest England to the ‘hermit kingdom’ is proving so popular that the organisers are laying on an extra trip

Welcome gesture: how travellers to Pyongyang are greeted (James Finnerty)

One is a little-visited location that, for many outsiders, appears an Orwellian enigma shrouded in mystery. The other is Pyongyang. And next April, Wigan and the North Korean capital will be connected for the first time by a railway adventure.

Lupine Travel, which is based in Wigan, has devised a one-month trip, departing 25 April 2020, from northwest England to North Korea.

James Finnerty, the firm’s North Korea destination manager, said: “I’m currently handling around 20 enquiries for people who want to do the whole thing. We may have to lay on an extra trip.”

The tour begins with the tantalising prospect: “Arrive into Wigan. Day at leisure.”

Participants can explore the town of which George Orwell wrote: “Between the mountains of slag, you could see the factory chimneys sending out their plumes of smoke.”

The writer of The Road to Wigan Pier added, however, that he “liked Wigan very much – the people, not the scenery” and even described it as “beautiful compared with Sheffield”.

Travellers are likely to be accommodated in Wigan’s Holiday Inn or local B&Bs.

Drink problem: a sign midway between Wigan Wallgate and Wigan North Western stations (Simon Calder)

The following day, travellers will assemble to begin the rail trip.

There are currently no direct trains to Pyongyang from either Wigan Wallgate or Wigan North Western, so instead the journey begins at the latter station with a Virgin Trains service as far as London Euston.

Participants are told: “For your packed lunch we’ll have the local delicacy of a ‘pie barm’ [a pie in a buttered bread roll] and a can of Vimto all ready to go.”

During the afternoon: “We will take the Tube up to Highgate Cemetery in north London to pay our respects to Karl Marx.”

Then an evening Eurostar train to Brussels marks the start of the international journey.

Travellers will spend time in both Berlin and Warsaw, where they will get a tour of “the Stalinist architecture of the Palace of Culture and Science”. They then board an overnight service to Moscow – the seventh train of the trip so far, and timed to arrive on May Day.

The following day: “In the morning we will make a pilgrimage to visit Lenin lying in state in Red Square.

“Be sure to catch a glimpse of Stalin’s grave as we queue.”

The Trans-Siberian segment of the trip takes in the Ural mountains, the Siberian city of Irkutsk and Lake Baikal.

In the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar, the highlight is a performance involving “contortionists, dancers, opera singers and the bizarre Mongolian throat singers”.

After a visit to the Great Wall of China, Beijing’s Forbidden City and a visit to Mao’s Mausoleum, a four-day trip to North Korea begins, based in Pyongyang but with an excursion to the Demilitarised Zone on the border with South Korea.

The price of £3,195 includes all rail travel and accommodation, but not the cost of visas for Russia, Mongolia, China and North Korea. It can be reduced by £100 for participants willing to travel in third class on the Moscow-Irkutsk leg.

They can also save money by missing out the first segment. Lupine Travel says: “If you wish to avoid Wigan for security reasons you can instead start in London.”

Conversely, the Wigan section of the adventure is available to travellers who consider it the highlight for £155.

Passengers going the whole distance must book separate tickets back from Beijing to Wigan. Again, there are no direct trains, and George Orwell offers only sketchy travel advice from neighbouring Myanmar, observing: “The road from Mandalay to Wigan is a long one.”

Lupine Travel says flights to Manchester should cost £250-£450. The onward rail journey to Wigan North Western on Northern Rail costs £6.40.

All aboard: the poster advertising the jaunt from northwest England to North Korea (Lupine Travel)

If North Korea does not appeal, Lupine Travel can instead offer a 2020 trip to Iraqi Kurdistan or an expedition ship to Rockall – a remote Atlantic island, about 250 miles northwest of mainland Scotland, which is thought only ever to have received 150 visitors.