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Coverage / Mongolia

Mongolia

East Asia

Where Mongolia earns a visit: 5 activities across 6 curated destinations.

5 activities · 6 pairings · 11 verified providers

What you can do in Mongolia

Horse Riding / Equestrian

UlaanbaatarJun Jul Aug Sep Mongolian nomadic horse culture is not a theme park version of horse riding. Multi-day circuits from Ulaanbaatar put riders into working steppe landscape, staying with nomadic families in ger camps, navigating by features rather than roads, and covering 25-35km per day on Mongolian horses that are small, hardy, and accustomed to terrain that would exhaust most breeds. The horse-to-human ratio in Mongolia is among the highest in the world; these animals have been the primary mode of travel for 800 years and it shows in how naturally the culture around it functions. Specialist operators handle the logistics, guide services, and ger accommodation. Without a specialist, this is not viable.

Overlanding / Expedition Driving

Gobi DesertMay Jun Jul Aug SepThe Gobi is where Mongolian overlanding earns its name. There are almost no sealed roads across the south, so a Gobi expedition means days of driving braided tracks between gers and seasonal camps, navigating by land and local knowledge. The route strings together the singing dunes of Khongoryn Els, the ice-filled gorge of Yolyn Am, and the red Flaming Cliffs of Bayanzag, where Roy Chapman Andrews found the first known dinosaur eggs in the 1920s. Nights are in ger camps or under a sky with no light for hundreds of kilometres. This is expedition travel: long distances, self-sufficient vehicles, and camel- and horse-herding families as your only neighbours for days at a time.

Trekking / Hiking

Altai Tavan BogdJun Jul Aug SepAltai Tavan Bogd is the roof of Mongolia. The five sacred peaks give the park its name, crowned by Khuiten at 4,374m, the country's highest point, above the Potanin Glacier, the longest in Mongolia. Trekkers walk in from the Tsagaan Gol valley or the Khoton and Khurgan lakes to a base camp under the glacier, with the option of the non-technical Malchin Peak at 4,050m for a summit and a view into three countries. The valleys belong to Kazakh eagle hunters and Tuvan herders, and the walk passes Bronze Age petroglyph fields and grazing yaks and camels. Argali sheep, ibex and, rarely, snow leopard live in the high country. This is remote, high and cold, and the reward is Mongolia's grandest mountain landscape.

Wildlife Safaris

Hustai National ParkMay Jun Jul Aug SepHustai National Park is where the takhi came home. The Przewalski's horse, the only horse species never domesticated, went extinct in the wild in Mongolia by the 1960s; in 1992 sixteen horses were brought back from Dutch reserves to these hills, and the herd now numbers around 380 in more than thirty breeding harems. At dawn and dusk they come down to the valleys to graze and drink, stocky and dun with upright manes, and you watch them from the ridgelines with the park's rangers. Red deer, marmot, gazelle and marsh eagles share the reserve, and Bronze Age burial mounds dot the grassland. It sits close enough to Ulaanbaatar for an overnight from the capital, which makes it the surest wild-horse encounter in the country.

Witness / Attend

Best months at a glance

	J	F	M	A	M	J	J	A	S	O	N	D
Horse Riding
Overlanding
Trekking
Wildlife Safaris
Witness / Attend

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