Travel Destinations

Travel Destinations

Mongolia is roughly the size of Western Europe with fewer than 3.5 million people in it. Distances are real, and the region you choose shapes the whole trip more than anything else you decide.

Central Mongolia

Rolling grassland, river valleys and the old imperial heartland. The easiest region to reach and the easiest place to meet herding families without spending days in a vehicle. Almost every journey passes through it, and several stay entirely within it.

  • Best for: first-time visitors, families, wellness journeys, riding
  • Access: 4 to 8 hours by road from Ulaanbaatar
  • Season: May to October

Southern Mongolia and the Gobi

Not the desert most people picture. Grass, gravel plain, ice canyon and singing sand, with camel herding families, dinosaur fossil country and the widest horizons in the collection.

  • Best for: landscape and photography, camel trekking, big-sky travel
  • Access: domestic flight, or two days by road
  • Season: May to early October

Northern Mongolia

Forest, lake and taiga. Cooler, greener and slower than the steppe, with the reindeer herding culture at its northern edge and some of the finest long-distance riding country in Asia.

  • Best for: horseback expeditions, forest and lake, reindeer herders
  • Access: domestic flight plus road
  • Season: June to September

Western Mongolia

High mountains, glaciers and the Kazakh eagle hunting tradition. The most dramatic landscape in the country, and the longest journey to reach it. Worth the distance if you have the days.

  • Best for: mountains, eagle hunters, trekking, serious photography
  • Access: domestic flight essential
  • Season: June to September, plus October for eagle season

Eastern Mongolia

Open plains and gazelle herds, and the sites tied most closely to the empire storyline. The quietest region in the country and the one fewest visitors ever reach.

  • Best for: history journeys, wildlife plains, genuine solitude
  • Access: long road journey from Ulaanbaatar
  • Season: May to September

Ulaanbaatar

Where every journey starts and ends. Monasteries, the national museums, the performing arts scene, and the workshops where the craft traditions are still practised rather than displayed.

  • Best for: arrival and departure days, museums, music, craft workshops
  • Access: international airport
  • Season: year-round