Nampo is reached only on an organised tour. The standard arrangement is a half-day or full-day excursion by road from Pyongyang, which is about 50km north-east — under an hour each way on the Pyongyang–Nampo Youth Hero Highway, one of the country's better roads.
Some tours combine Nampo with the cooperative farms at Chongsan-ri or with the hot springs at Onchon. There is no self-arranged access; you cannot turn up on a train, despite Nampo having a working passenger station on the Pyongnam line. Foreign tourists travel only with their assigned guides.