Ultimate Mongolia Travel Guide: What To Do, Where To Go, and Tips for Your Trip
Despite its challenges, Mongolia can be an incredibly rewarding travel destination, with a language, landscape, and culture different from anywhere else in the world. This Ultimate Mongolia Travel Guide will tell you everything you need to know about traveling in Mongolia, and how to plan the trip of a lifetime.
Although the country’s tourism infrastructure still has a long way to go (including language barriers, lack of paved roads, and limited options for accommodation — to name a few), the challenges are worth overcoming to find the treasures that lie in the Monglian Gobi Desert.
You’ll be one of only a few tourists who get to behold these epic desert viewpoints, who get to sleep under the Milky Way every night, and who get to explore the vast and boundless wilderness of Mongolia.
This Ultimate Mongolia Travel Guide will cover everything you need to know about traveling in Mongolia, including tips for your trip and what costs to expect. Read below to see which are the top must-see sites in the Mongolian Gobi Desert, and information on transportation, costs, food, accommodation, and more.
What To Do & Where To Go
If you’re making the trip to Mongolia, I urge you to not stay in Ulan Bataar the entire time. The Gobi Desert is one of the most fascinating places to see in the world, filled with prehistoric natural sites, stunning scenic views and sunsets, rich ancient Mongolian culture, and adventure that you shouldn’t miss.
These are the tops things to do and places to visit on your Mongolia trip.
1) Explore the Coldest Capital On Earth: Ulan Bataar
Whether arriving by plane or train, you’ll most likely start and end your trip in the Mongolian capital of Ulan Bataar. Although I personally didn’t love this city, my favorite area was around Sukhbaatar Square, which has some beautiful architecture, small urban gardens, and museums. It’s really nice at night when all the government buildings are lit up.
In the Sukhbataar area I recommend visiting the National Museum of Mongolia, State History Museum of Mongolia, the Choijin Lama Temple, and the National Academic Drama Theater. Further out, consider visiting religious sites like Dashchoilin Monastery and Gandantegchinlen Monastery (and the smaller monasteries and temples nearby).
For souvenirs or last-minute clothing items for your Gobi Desert trip, stop by the massive Naran Tuul Market — a bazaar and black market with cheap goods and great people-watching (tips: beware pick-pocketers, bring cash, and negotiate!). But my favorite souvenir stop was a place called Mary & Martha Mongolia, which sells beautiful handmade goods all ethically and transparently sourced from local artisans.
My favorite spots to eat in Ulan Bataar were Luna Blanca Restaurant (for yummy vegan food and fresh fruit smoothies), Rosewood Kitchen (for a higher end, hip dining option), and Stockholm Sushi (just don’t ask how they get fresh fish to Mongolia… it’s tasty).
A vegan Asian meal from our favorite restaurant in Ulan Bataar: Luna Blanca. Most meals you’ll have in the Gobi Desert are heavy in carbs and fatty meats, and fried in lots of oil, so you’ll probably want to take advantage of the healthier options in the capital.
2) See the painted mountains of the White Stupa
The White Stupa is located between Ulan Bataar and the Gobi Desert, and will be your first stop on your Mongolia tour. It’s also one of the most impressive sites in Mongolia, so you could also tack it on to the end of your trip instead, if you wanted it to be your last stop.
This nearly 60-meter-tall cliff looks onto a valley of low-lying hills, all of it colored in vibrant reds and pinks giving the impressive that buckets of paint were dumped on the earth. Give yourself plenty of time to take in the views from on top of the cliff, and to climb down and explore the hills and caves up close.
Ten million years ago, this area was completely underwater — strange to think about considering Mongolia is now one of the largest landlocked countries in the world. Each layer of color you see in the cliffs and hills represents a different era in the earth’s history. It’s a tremendously important prehistorical site, containing ancient stone dwellings and tombs, fossils, and cave inscriptions and artwork.
Despite being such a stunning site with such archaeological and geological significance, there’s a good chance you’ll be one of only a few tourists here, as with most of the sites in the Mongolian desert (especially if you’re visiting outside of peak season). Sunset here is pretty remarkable as well, so stick around if possible!
3) Ride horses & hike through Yol Valley
Next stop is the beautiful Yol Valley, which will have a much different feel from the other dryer, more typical “desert” sites you’ll see in Mongolia. This valley feeds into a really impressive and narrow mountain gorge, with sharp pointed mountain tops, and a stream with green vegetation and wildflowers growing in between.
Because of the elevation, this area is much colder, and during most of the year, the stream freezes over into interesting ice formations that rarely see the sun (however due to increased foot traffic and climate change, the ice now melts around September).
You can easily spend a few hours here hiking through the gorge, or riding horses through the valley. It would also be a nice place to bring some food for a picnic! You can often find some little souvenirs at the entrance of the valley here as well, so if you’re looking for very authentic Mongolian craft to bring home, you may have luck finding some treasures here.
4) Climb the highest Sand Dunes in Mongolia
Khongor Els is the largest sanded area in Mongolia, and home to the tallest sand dunes in the country! Some reach as high as 300 meters, and the best thing to do here is to climb to the top to take in the views.
The hike is extremely challenging but should only take around an hour (depending on how often you stop to rest), and it’s probably best done without shoes. Expect to move only a few inches with every step you take, and expect to get one hell of a leg workout. The views from the top are totally worth it, though!
These dunes are nicknamed the “singing sands” after the deep humming sound caused by the wind blowing on the dunes. Listen for it — it’s really beautiful and haunting.
If possible, stay on the top of the dunes for an epic sunset, but keep in mind that winds can pick up to very high speeds. To prepare for this, make sure you have a hat or scarf to tie snugly around your hair, clothes to cover your skin (sand pelting bare skin is not comfortable), and a bag that zip to store any camera equipment, phones, or other items you don’t want ruined by the sand.
5) Search for dinosaur bones at the Flaming Cliffs
Bayanzag, also known as the “Flaming Cliffs,” are large area of red sandstone cliffs looking out onto a vast flat desert landscape. Hundreds of dinosaur bones have been found here, including a nest with eggs discovered nearly 100 years ago that actually led to the identification of a new dinosaur species. Specimens of velociraptor and dinosaur-age mammals have also been found here… truly incredible!
You can spend several hours here exploring the area, hiking down the cliffs to explore the valley below, searching for caves (and dinosaur bones!), or just sitting and soaking up the peaceful scene and amazing views.
These cliffs are definitely best to see at sunrise or sunset, when they light up in the most fiery orange and red color. However, they are still beautiful and impressive at any time of day!
*Of course, you should never remove any artifacts, fossils or other items from this (and other sites in Mongolia or around the world) without a permit. If you love what you see, please help preserve it for the generations after you.
6) Visit a local Desert Nomadic Family
I definitely recommend finding a way to meet a local nomadic family while in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia. This was the best thing we did on our Mongolia trip! We were lucky enough to have a guide with friends who live in the desert, and when she went to deliver some tomatoes and sausage to this family, we were invited in for some snacks and drinks.
Inside a beautifully decorated local family’s yurt. Photo by Andrea Munoz (@destinationchaser)
Seeing the way local people live is such a great experience in any country, but especially when the lifestyle is so different from what you’re used to. The family we met invited us into their ger (a Mongolian “yurt”), showed us how they make Aaraag (a drink of fermented horse milk), and then fed us some traditional snacks they made, including pastries and cheese and bowls of Aaraag.
A local family strains a batch of fermented horse milk — a delicacy in Mongolia. Photo by Andrea Munoz (@destinationchaser)
If at all possible, try to get the experience of visiting a local nomadic family! Ask your driver or tour guide to help set this up for you. You won’t want to miss this experience while in Mongolia.
Travel buddy Andrea Munoz (@destinationchaser) sips a bowl of Aarag (fermented horse milk) with a local family.
Tips For Traveling in Mongolia
With a shocking lack of tourism infrastructure, it’s no surprise that traveling in Mongolia can be a challenge. However, it’s certainly not impossible to plan an incredible trip! Here are some tips to make the planning process easier, and to help set your expectations for your trip to Mongolia.
Transportation:
It is possible to rent a car and drive yourself, but once in the desert, the roads are unmarked and unpaved, and sites are often marked incorrectly on Google maps. There is a good chance you’ll get lost or struggle to navigate the really rough roads, so I definitely recommend hiring a local driver who knows the area and the “roads” well.
If you decide to drive yourself, be sure you have plenty of time and a flexible schedule to account for the many hours (or days) spent trying to find your way. Bring snacks and extra water in case you get lost or have car trouble.
Language:
Once outside of the capital city, Ulan Bataar, you’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone who speaks a word of English. Unfortunately Google Translate does not have any offline version of the basic Mongolian language, so when you don’t have cell service in the desert (which will be the case 90% of the time), you won’t be able to rely on that for translation. Prepare for this and remember to exercise a lot of patience, and lots of pointing and hand gestures.
You can try other offline Mongolian translation apps, such as Mazaalai and iTranslate Translator, but reviews are mixed.
Inside a local yurt with local family and our guide. Photo by Andrea Munoz (@destinationchaser).
Food:
It’s likely that you’ll be preparing your own food along the trip, so stock up at a large grocery store on the way with snacks, meal bars, fruits, vegetables, and bread. For meals, canned soups are always good or other non-perishable items that you can heat up with simple camping cooking tools.
Our guide/driver had a gas stove that we used to prepare meals, because most of the time you’ll truly be in the middle of nowhere and there certainly won’t be any restaurants where you can stop for food. If you hire a driver through a tour company, you should ask if they will be providing and preparing food for you.
Enjoying a typical camp-style lunch near the Flaming Cliffs: vegetable soup and cucumber/tomato salad with mayonnaise
If you find guesthouses that will prepare meals for you, or restaurants in small towns (don’t expect many of these), expect meat-heavy meals, including buuz (traditional Mongolian dumplings usually filled with mutton or beef), khaashor (deep fried pastries stuffed with mutton), or other kinds of soups and stir fries with sheep, goat, cow, or even horse meat.
Note For Vegetarians/Vegans:
If you’re a vegetarian/vegan, be sure to bring your own food and don’t expect local places to accommodate your dietary restrictions. Most likely, they won’t even understand what it means to not eat animal products, so save yourself the frustration and bring your own. In Ulan Bataar, you’ll actually have a few vegan restaurant options — our favorite was Luna Blanca!
A vegan take on a traditional Mongolian dish of dumplings and buuz. Don’t expect people to accommodate a vegetarian or vegan diet outside these vegan restaurants in Ulan Bataar — despite telling people I don’t eat meat, I’d regularly get chicken or chopped up hot dogs in my meals.
A bowl of local snacks, including “boortsog” (a semi-sweet deep fried dough), cow cheese, and “aaruul” (a hard block of dried curds from yak, cow, or camel milk).
Weather:
The weather in Mongolia fluctuates drastically, from extremely high temperatures in the desert summers to well below-freezing snowy climates in the winters.
Summer is the most popular time to travel to Mongolia, with more manageable evening temperatures especially if camping or sleeping in local yurts. Shoulder season will give you warm-to-chilly daytime temperatures with much fewer tourists, but cold nights, so be sure you have lots of warm layers and a sleeping bag. Winter will be freezing with lots of snow, so beware.
I traveled in mid-September and the days were warm and nice, but nights were extremely cold. Local yurts and guesthouses won’t have very warm blankets so if you can, bring a warm sleeping bag and warm layers for the nights!
Cell Service:
There are several different local prepaid SIM cards you can get in Mongolia, including MobiCom, Skytel, G-mobile, and Unitel. My friend and I both purchased Unitel SIM cards for about $10 for 20GB for 2 weeks, which was plenty.
Her SIM card worked much better than mine, despite us having the same network, SIM card plan, and iPhone systems. Even with varying degrees of success, we were still disconnected about 85-90% of the time. Definitely don’t expect to find WiFi anywhere outside of Ulan Bataar. If traveling with a friend, you might want to each get a SIM card for a different network and using each others’ hotspots when one works and the other doesn’t.
Visas:
As always, visa information will vary from country to country. U.S. passport-holders like myself do not need a visa to enter Mongolia, but many other countries in Europe and elsewhere do. Be sure to check the visa information for you own country prior to your trip and give yourself plenty of time (at least 2-3 weeks, but possibly more) to submit the application.
Comforts:
If you’re looking for a luxury, leisurely vacation with multi-course Michelin-starred meals and infinity pools, this is probably not your destination. Even in the nicest of vehicles, the roads are dreadful and the drives each day take hours and hours. Even at the luxury desert camps, food will be limited do to availability in the desert, and language barriers still exist.
If you’re staying in local yurts as we did, expect no electricity, no running water, no Western toilets, and some little desert critters making a home with you at night.
However, you’ll be rewarded with a different kind of luxury: nights filled with the starriest of skies and brightest of moons you’ll ever see, scenic viewpoints that look like they’re from a different planet, the personal growth the comes from navigating different cultures and languages, and a wild and enriching adventure that you will truly never forget.
Out in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia was the first time I ever saw a “moonrise” — a phenomenon where the orange & glowing moon slowly creeps above the horizon after dark, lighting up earth almost like a sunrise.
Inside a local family yurt. Most yurts you’ll find in guesthouses and campsites are a bit more simple, but some can be beautifully decorated like this one. Photo by Andrea Munoz (@destinationchaser).
Costs
Costs will of course vary depending on whether you purchase a full tour package, or simply hire a driver; whether you travel during summer months or off-season months; whether you stay in luxury accommodation or local yurts/guesthouses; and other factors. Regardless, Mongolia is not exactly cheap, especially because of the tremendous amount of driving required and the factored-in-costs of vehicle maintenance.
You should expect to pay for everything in cash, especially out in the Mongolian Gobi Desert. Some hotels and restaurants in Ulan Bataar will accept international debit/credit cards, but many still do not. You can find ATMs in Ulan Bataar (you won’t find any in the Gobi Desert) but many won’t work or won’t accept international debit cards, so you might need to try a few before finding one that will give you cash. Exchange offices are few and far between and often have long lines, but your best bet is to try the train station (but note that you’ll get the worst exchange rate here, rather than an ATM withdrawal).
The exchange rate at the time of this post (January 2020) is about 2,750 MNT (“Mongolian Tugrik”) to 1 USD.
Here’s a general overview of the costs you’ll encounter on your Mongolia trip.
Transport/Local Driver:
This is not exactly a budget trip, and car rentals or hiring a driver, as well as the huge amounts of gasoline you’ll need, is expensive. Expect to pay around USD$50/day for a driver, plus an additional USD$300 in gasoline for a 5 day Gobi Desert trip. It’s not uncommon for the costs of vehicle maintenance to be factored into you driver or car rental fees, because the unpaved desert roads cause a ton of wear and tear.
Accommodation:
Accommodation can range to free (if you stay with a local family… but you should always offer a tip as a “thank you”), to around USD$20 for a 4-bed yurt (also called a “ger”) at a local guesthouse, to USD$200+ for one of the few luxury desert camps scattered around the Gobi Desert.
I highly recommend staying in yurts in smaller yurt camps to get a full and more authentic experience, and to have those nights away from other tourists/light pollution. It’s a magical experience and despite some discomforts and inconveniences, sleeping in yurts was one of our favorite experiences in Mongolia!
Food:
Meals at restaurants are cheap — around USD$2-3 per meal. If you cook for yourself, you will also only be spending whatever the cost of that food was at the grocery store, so expect food to be the lowest cost factor in your trip.
In Ulan Bataar, food can be a bit pricier, and you can even find some high-end restaurants in nice hotels, on fancy rooftops, or in the swankier areas near Sukhbaatar Square.
Typical Mongolian meal of stir fried rice with vegetables and egg, and a salad of cucumber and tomato with mayo
Guide:
I can’t stress enough the importance of having an English-speaking (or whatever language you can understand/speak fluently) guide for your trip. You’ll not only need assistance understanding the logistics of the trip, food, etc., but you’ll also likely have a million questions along the way about the history, culture, and significance of the places you’re seeing.
Without cell service, you can’t easily run a Google search, so you’ll want a guide on hand who can explain to you all these things and help you get the most out of your Mongolia experience. This will of course come at an additional expense (factor in USD$200-500 for a week), but I promise it’s worth it.
Let's Go.
It’s possible that Mongolia has never been on your travel radar, and may not be at the top of your bucket list. But this vast, fascinating country will certainly surprise you. From breathtaking natural landscapes, to prehistoric relics and dinosaur fossils, to unique nomadic cultural heritage, it’s sure to be an adventure unlike any other.
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