Mongolia is a special and beautiful country! It is full of old history about the first emperor of Chinggis Khan who conquered the largest area that ever exist in the world. More characterising is the nature with the wide steppe, the rock formations and the sand dunes of Gobi Desert. You can even see lava stones of a vulcano and a massive waterfall in Orkhon Valley and millions of different animals. The best of Mongolia is getting to know the real culture while living with the nomad families!
TRAVEL TIPS
- You should go with a tour through Mongolia because the public transport is chaotic and difficult to understand, not many people speak English and Mongolian language is really hard to learn
- Plan about 80-120 € per day of travel for the tour budget
- Best time of travel is from June to September, Off-season May and October (which we did) is maybe a bit cheaper but cold, too, and not all the GER camps are open (but tour guide will orgaise everything anyway)
- There are a lot of different tour companies in Ulaanbaatar – we took a bit higher class one called Active Adventure Tours Mongolia, they offer really good tours individually made for you and in different languages (German, French, Russia etc.), but there are ‘lower budget ones’ like Sunpath or Golden Gobi as well
Our first nomadic Family with our German-speaking tour guide on the left
Sometimes difficult to cross
WHERE TO GO
- Central Mongolia: Hustai national park with wild horses, Karakorum with Erdene Zuu monastery, UNESCO World Heritage for Chinggis Khan; Orkhon Valley with 20 000 year old lava stones and a great waterfall; Khognokhaan Mountain
- West Mongolia: more beautiful nature with a lot of lakes, great canyons, best for hiking, chance to go to Gobi desert and see sand dunes
- South Mongolia: typically for Gobi desert (but I already heard a few times that people were more fascinated by nature of Central Mongolia)
- East Mongolia: Teregj National Park (80 km from Ulaanbaatar) also suitable for a day trip
- North Mongolia: river nature from Baikal Lake (Russia), check more details on tour websites
Check more on my articles:
worldtravellerin 