--- title: "Mongolia Travel Guide: the Gobi, the Steppe and Naadam | Wimup" description: "Where to go in Mongolia and when: the Gobi, the Orkhon valley, Khövsgöl and the Altai, plus Naadam dates, visas, money and how the roads really work." url: https://wimup.com/country/mongolia type: Country guide updated: 2026-10-05 publisher: Wimup (https://wimup.com) --- # Mongolia, the steppe and the road across it Two people per square kilometre, roughly half the country living in one city, and everything else reached by a track rather than a road. **Mongolia is the rare place where the drive between two sights is the reason to come.** ## Quick answer First trips pair **Ulaanbaatar** with one region, usually the **Gobi** or the **Orkhon valley** around Kharkhorin. Two weeks buys a second: **Khövsgöl** in the north, or **Bayan-Ölgii** in the Altai, reached by air. Come between **June and September**, and build the dates around **Naadam** (11 to 13 July) or the **Golden Eagle Festival** on the first weekend of October if either is the reason you are going. ## Quick facts - **Best months:** Jun–Sep - **Ideal length:** 10–14 days - **Budget per day:** $60–160 - **Language:** Mongolian is the state language, written in Cyrillic and, since January 2025, alongside the traditional vertical script in official documents. Kazakh is the everyday language in Bayan-Ölgii - **Getting around:** A hired driver and a 4x4 for almost everything, domestic flights to Dalanzadgad, Mörön and Ölgii, and the Trans-Mongolian railway north and south of Ulaanbaatar - **3,296,866** People - **1,564,116 km²** Area - **21** Provinces Mongolia covers 1,564,116 square kilometres, which makes it the eighteenth largest country on earth and the second largest with no coast, after Kazakhstan. The 2020 census counted 3,296,866 people in it, the thinnest spread of any sovereign country, and close to half of them live in Ulaanbaatar. Those two numbers decide almost everything about a trip: there are very few paved roads outside the corridors north and south of the capital, almost no scheduled transport to the landscapes people come for, and no way to see the country without committing to long days in a vehicle. Most itineraries are built as loops out of Ulaanbaatar with a driver, a Russian van or a Land Cruiser, and nights in ger camps or with herding families. The capital is the arrival for essentially everyone. Chinggis Khaan International Airport opened on 4 July 2021 in the Khoshig valley, 52 kilometres south of the city, and the Trans-Mongolian railway runs through Ulaanbaatar between Beijing and Moscow, which is the other classic way in. The city itself holds Gandantegchinlen monastery, the Zanabazar Museum of Fine Arts and the National Museum, and it empties into open grassland within half an hour in every direction, with Gorkhi-Terelj national park an easy first night out. From there the country divides into four trips that rarely combine into one. The Gobi runs south to the Chinese border: Dalanzadgad is the flight-in point, and the set pieces are the Khongoryn Els sand dunes, the ice-floored Yolyn Am gorge and the Bayanzag cliffs where the first dinosaur eggs known to science were found in the 1920s. The Khangai and the Orkhon valley sit in the centre, where Kharkhorin stands on the site of Karakorum, the Mongol imperial capital, with Erdene Zuu monastery built out of its stones in 1585 and the whole valley inscribed by UNESCO as the Orkhon Valley Cultural Landscape. The north is lake country: Khövsgöl, deep, cold and ringed by taiga, with Khatgal at its southern tip and Mörön the town you fly to. And the west is the Altai, another world again, where Bayan-Ölgii is majority Kazakh and Muslim, the language on the street is Kazakh rather than Mongolian, and the golden eagle hunters and the Altai Tavan Bogd glaciers are the draw. Three things shape the calendar more than the route does. Naadam, the wrestling, archery and horse racing festival that UNESCO lists as intangible heritage, runs 11 to 13 July and the country stops for it. The Golden Eagle Festival outside Ölgii falls on the first weekend of October, which is also when the west starts to freeze. And winter here is not a shoulder season: Ulaanbaatar is the coldest national capital on earth, the ger camps close, and the roads that are not roads become a specialist proposition. ## Know before you go - **Population:** 3,296,866 - **Area:** 1,564,116 km² - **Density:** 2.1 / km² - **Capital:** Ulaanbaatar - **Major cities:** Ulaanbaatar, Erdenet, Darkhan, Choibalsan, Mörön, Bayankhongor - **Tourism board:** Official site - **Currency:** Tögrög (MNT), and cash once you leave the capital Cards work in Ulaanbaatar and little else. A Gobi or Khövsgöl loop passes days without an ATM, and camps, drivers, fees and herding families take cash. Draw what you need in the capital. - **Language:** Mongolian, in Cyrillic and, since 2025, the traditional script alongside it Mongolian, in Cyrillic, with the traditional script back on official documents since 2025. English is thin outside Ulaanbaatar and the guiding trade. Bayan-Ölgii speaks Kazakh. - **Calling code:** +976 - **Power:** Type C and Type E sockets, 220V Type C and E sockets at 220 volts, so UK, US and Australian kit needs an adapter. Ger camps run on solar and generators with limited charging hours, so bring a power bank. - **Emergency numbers:** Police 102, ambulance 103, fire 101 102 police, 103 ambulance, 101 fire and 105 general rescue, free from a local SIM. Outside Ulaanbaatar hospitals are far and the road is the only way back, so carry evacuation cover. - **Visa:** Temporary thirty-day exemption for some nationalities, e-visa for many more A temporary exemption gives more than thirty nationalities, most of Europe plus Australia and New Zealand, thirty days, scheduled to end in 2025. Others can get an e-visa. Check evisa.mn. - **Getting around:** A driver and a 4x4, domestic flights for the long hops, the railway north and south Beyond the roads north and south of Ulaanbaatar there is little tarmac and no scheduled service, so hire a 4x4 and driver for the loop. Fly to Dalanzadgad, Mörön or Ölgii for the long legs. - **Tipping:** Not traditional, expected in the tourist trade Not a Mongolian habit, except in the guiding trade. Tip guides and drivers at the end of a trip, and camps keep a shared box. Visitor restaurants may add a service charge. - **Altitude and climate:** High, dry and extreme at both ends of the year Most of the country is above 1,000 metres and Ulaanbaatar around 1,300. No altitude trouble, but a fierce sun and cold nights even in July. Pack layers, sun protection and lip balm. - **Connectivity:** Good in towns, patchy to absent on the steppe Data is fast in Ulaanbaatar and works in provincial capitals. Between them it comes and goes, and parts of the Gobi and Altai have none. Buy a local SIM, download maps, share your route. ## When to visit - **Jan** - **Feb** - **Mar** - **Apr** - **May** (good) - **Jun** (best) - **Jul** (peak) - **Aug** (best) - **Sep** (best) - **Oct** (good) - **Nov** - **Dec** ## Fun fact Mongolia is the least densely populated sovereign country on earth: 3,296,866 people in the 2020 census across 1,564,116 square kilometres, about 2.1 per square kilometre. Livestock are not so thin on the ground. The 2024 count came to 57.6 million head, about seventeen animals per person. ## Stereotypes, sorted out - **Myth:** Mongolia is Ulaanbaatar plus some grass. **Reality:** Ulaanbaatar holds close to half the country, a working capital with a mining economy, winter smog and traffic that costs an hour. Almost everything a first trip comes for lies a full day beyond it, and that day is the memory. Plan by the road. Three hundred kilometres of Gobi track is a day. - **Myth:** Everyone here lives in a ger and rides a horse. **Reality:** Herding is a real economy, and staying with a family is one of the honest things a visitor can do. It is also a shrinking share. The 2020 census put close to half the population in Ulaanbaatar, much of it in the hillside ger districts, which are not nomadic at all. - **Myth:** It is basically China, or basically Russia. **Reality:** Neither, as Mongolians say. It is an independent parliamentary republic with its own language, a Soviet satellite in the twentieth century but never a Soviet republic. Since January 2025 official documents carry the traditional vertical script beside Cyrillic, with full restoration due by 2030. - **Myth:** Genghis Khan is awkward here and best not raised. **Reality:** Chinggis Khaan, as Mongolia writes and says it, founded the state and is everywhere: the banknotes, the airport, a forty-metre steel horseman east of the capital. The Soviets suppressed his cult and the 1990 revolution brought it back. What lands badly is reducing the country to one conqueror. - Take what is offered with your right hand, or with both, supporting your right forearm with your left if the bowl is heavy. Sip whatever arrives even if you do not want it. Refusing outright reads as refusing the household. - Do not step on the threshold of a ger and do not lean on the central columns. Move clockwise once you are inside, and let your host point you to a seat. - Roll your sleeves up before you go in. Arriving with sleeves down is old-fashioned bad manners and it still registers with older hosts. - If you knock someone's foot, offer them your hand straight away. It is a small automatic apology, and skipping it is noticed. - Ovoos, the stone cairns on passes and ridges, are shrines. The convention is three clockwise circuits, adding a stone as you pass. Your driver will often stop for it. - Bayan-Ölgii is majority Kazakh and Muslim and the etiquette shifts with it. Greetings, food and the shape of the day are Kazakh there, and the Mongolian phrases you have learned will get a polite answer in a second language. ## Famous Mongolian faces - **Chinggis Khaan**: Founded the Mongol Empire in 1206, and the state Mongolia dates itself from. - **Kublai Khan**: Grandson of Chinggis who founded China's Yuan dynasty in 1271. Marco Polo's Great Khan. - **Zanabazar**: Sculptor and Buddhist leader whose Soyombo script gave the national flag its symbol. - **Damdin Sükhbaatar**: Commander of the 1921 revolution. The central square in Ulaanbaatar bears his name. - **Sükhbaataryn Yanjmaa**: Acting head of state in 1953 and 1954, the first woman to lead a recognised Asian country. - **Dashdorjiin Natsagdorj**: Founder of modern Mongolian literature, author of the 1933 poem "My Homeland". - **Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj**: Democracy leader of 1990, twice prime minister, and president from 2009 to 2017. - **Oyungerel Tsedevdamba**: Writer, rights campaigner and former culture minister, the first Mongolian at Stanford. - **Mönkhbatyn Davaajargal (Hakuhō)**: The 69th yokozuna, with a record 45 top-division championships. Born in Ulaanbaatar. - **Dolgorsürengiin Dagvadorj (Asashōryū)**: The 68th yokozuna and the first Mongolian to reach sumo's top rank, in January 2003. - **Badmaanyambuugiin Bat-Erdene**: Eleven national Naadam wrestling titles from 1988 to 1999, later defence minister. - **Byambasuren Davaa**: Co-director of the Oscar-nominated "The Story of the Weeping Camel". - **The Hu**: Throat-singing rock band whose "Wolf Totem" topped a Billboard chart in 2019. ## Must-try Mongolian food - **Buuz**: Steamed mutton or beef dumplings, pinched at the top. Stacked in hundreds for Tsagaan Sar. - **Khuushuur**: Buuz filling in a flat, deep-fried pocket. The food of Naadam, sold around the stadium. - **Bansh**: Small boiled dumplings dropped into broth or milk tea. The everyday buuz. - **Tsuivan**: Hand-cut noodles steamed over mutton and vegetables. The most common dinner in a ger. - **Guriltai shol**: Salted mutton and noodle soup. The default lunch at any roadside canteen. - **Khorkhog**: Mutton steamed in a sealed churn with fire-heated stones, which are passed hand to hand. - **Boodog**: Goat or marmot cooked inside its own skin with hot stones. A herder's celebration dish. - **Borts**: Meat air-dried through winter until hard as wood, then shaved into soup. - **Suutei tsai**: Salted milk tea brewed from brick tea and poured as you sit down. Never refuse it. - **Airag**: Fermented mare's milk, sour, faintly fizzy and lightly alcoholic. Offered, not ordered. - **Aaruul**: Curd dried hard on a ger roof. Very sour, keeps for months, every child's snack. - **Byaslag**: Fresh unsalted curd cheese, pressed and sliced, eaten with bread or tea. ## FAQs ### When is the best time to visit Mongolia? June to September, and the window is narrow for a reason. The country sits high, dry and far from any sea, so the seasons are extreme at both ends: winter runs deep below freezing for months and Ulaanbaatar is the coldest national capital on earth. Most ger camps open around May and close in September or early October. July is warmest and busiest because Naadam falls on 11 to 13 July. Late August and early September are the quiet reward: still warm in the day, the grass still green in the north, and the roads still dry. October is the eagle festival in the west and the start of real cold everywhere else. ### Do I need a visa for Mongolia? It depends on your passport and the rules have been moving. Mongolia ran a temporary visa exemption for tourist stays of up to thirty days covering citizens of more than thirty countries, most of Europe plus Australia and New Zealand, introduced in 2023 and scheduled to run to the end of 2025, alongside an e-visa open to citizens of around ninety-nine countries. Because the exemption is temporary and has been extended before, the only version worth acting on is the current one: check evisa.mn and the Immigration Agency of Mongolia for your own nationality, and confirm with a Mongolian mission before you book a non-refundable flight. ### How do you actually get around Mongolia? Almost everyone hires a vehicle with a driver, usually a Russian van or a Land Cruiser, and covers the distances by road. There is very little paved road outside the corridors north and south of the capital and essentially no scheduled transport to the landscapes people come for, so the driver is not a luxury but the itinerary. Domestic flights shorten the long hops to Dalanzadgad for the Gobi, Mörön for Khövsgöl and Ölgii for the Altai, and the west is far enough that most people fly at least one leg. The Trans-Mongolian railway runs through Ulaanbaatar between Beijing and Moscow and is the classic way to arrive overland. ### What is Naadam, and can visitors go? Naadam is the national festival of wrestling, horse racing and archery, held from 11 to 13 July, and UNESCO lists it as intangible cultural heritage. The first day is also Revolution Day, marking 11 July 1921. The largest version runs at the National Sports Stadium in Ulaanbaatar and the whole country takes the holiday, but every province and most districts hold their own, and a small rural Naadam is the better experience if you have a driver and can reach one. Visitors are welcome at all of them. Book flights and beds months out, because the capital fills and prices move with it. ### What is staying in a ger camp actually like? A tourist ger camp is a fixed circle of felt tents with beds, a wood stove and a separate shower and dining block, which is comfortable and not remotely wild. Staying with a herding family is the other version: the same tent, no shower block, and the household's routine sets the day. Both are worth doing and they are different things. Expect a stove that needs feeding at night, no lock on the door because there is no door, and mutton and milk tea in some form at every meal. Bring a headtorch, a power bank and warm layers even in July, because the temperature falls hard after dark on the steppe. ## Related countries - [Japan](https://wimup.com/country/japan.md) - [India](https://wimup.com/country/india.md) - [All of Asia](https://wimup.com/asia) Part of [Asia](https://wimup.com/asia.md) ## Sources - [Tourism board](https://www.gomongolia.gov.mn/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - Rankings are Wimup editorial picks. Prices, durations and budgets are editorial estimates, not live quotes; check the official site before you go.