Mongolia: Naadam, the Gobi and Karakorum

1. Jour 1 : Arrive in Ulaanbaatar

   Chinggis Khaan International Airport to your hotel in Ulaanbaatar

   • Environ 1 h de route
   • Welcome dinner
   • Nuit : Ulaanbaatar
   Détail du jour 1

   Fly into Chinggis Khaan International Airport (UBN), about 50 km south of the city, where a driver meets you for the hour or so into Ulaanbaatar. You arrive two days before the festival opens, and the capital is getting ready: flags go up on the avenues, families arrive from the provinces, and wrestlers and archers are in town for the last practice. The city spreads along the Tuul River valley at about 1,350 m, with Soviet-era blocks, glass towers, temples and districts of gers climbing the hills at its edges. If you land early, walk to Sukhbaatar Square, a few minutes from the hotel, where the seated statue of Chinggis Khaan looks out from Government Palace. In the early evening your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a briefing on the festival days, the meeting points in the crowds, what to pack in a soft bag for the Gobi flight and which days are long in the vehicle. Then a welcome dinner of buuz dumplings, khuushuur and grilled meat, with vegetarian dishes on request.

   Compris

   • Pick-up at Chinggis Khaan International Airport (UBN)
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Welcome dinner

   Temps libre : Free until the evening briefing

   Activité : Plan to land by about 4 pm to join the briefing; later arrivals are met and briefed the next morning.

   

2. Jour 2 : Gandan, the National Museum and a concert

   Ulaanbaatar: Gandan Monastery, the National Museum of Mongolia and an evening concert

   • Environ 30 min de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Ulaanbaatar
   Détail du jour 2

   A city day to understand what the festival celebrates before it starts. We begin at Gandan, the largest working monastery in Mongolia, in the morning when the monks are at prayer; turn the prayer wheels in the courtyard and see the tall gilded statue of Migjid Janraisig in the main temple. Then the National Museum of Mongolia, a short drive away, which follows the country from its rock art and Bronze Age deer stones through the Mongol empire to the deel robes, saddles and wrestling costumes of the 20th century. Your guide explains the three manly games, wrestling, horse racing and archery, and how a wrestler earns his title, so tomorrow makes sense. Lunch is at a restaurant in the centre. The afternoon is free: rest before the festival, browse the cashmere shops, or watch the crowds gather at Sukhbaatar Square. In the evening we go to a concert of Mongolian music and dance, with khoomii throat singing, contortion and the horse-head fiddle. Dinner is on your own.

   Compris

   • Gandan Monastery with your guide, at morning prayers
   • The National Museum of Mongolia
   • Lunch in the city centre
   • An evening concert of Mongolian music, dance and throat singing

   Option plus facile : Go back to the hotel after lunch and rest before the concert.

   Option plus active : Walk with your guide in the afternoon to the Choijin Lama Temple Museum and the square.

   Temps libre : Afternoon free; dinner on your own

   Activité : Cover shoulders and knees at Gandan, and walk clockwise around the temples.

   

3. Jour 3 : Naadam: the opening ceremony

   Ulaanbaatar: the National Sports Stadium and the festival grounds

   • Environ 30 min de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Ulaanbaatar
   Détail du jour 3

   The first day of Naadam, a festival on the UNESCO list of intangible heritage. We leave the hotel early with your guide to clear the security queues and take our reserved seats in the National Sports Stadium before the ceremony begins. The opening is a big, loud spectacle: the state banners carried in by mounted guards, parades of riders and athletes in deel robes, music, dance and scenes from Mongolian history. When it ends, the first rounds of wrestling begin on the grass, hundreds of men in boots, briefs and open jackets, grappling in pairs until one touches the ground. Lunch is at the festival grounds. In the afternoon walk next door to the archery ground, where men and women shoot at small targets of leather cylinders tens of metres away, and to the tents where players flick sheep knuckle bones at a target. Stalls sell khuushuur and airag, fermented mare's milk. The evening is free: Sukhbaatar Square usually has concerts and celebrations late into the night.

   Compris

   • Reserved seat ticket for the Naadam opening ceremony at the National Sports Stadium
   • The opening rounds of wrestling
   • Archery and knuckle-bone shooting on the festival grounds with your guide
   • Lunch at the festival

   Option plus facile : Return to the hotel with the van after the ceremony and the first wrestling, about midday.

   Option plus active : Stay on the grounds with your guide into the late afternoon for the later wrestling rounds.

   Temps libre : Evening free for the celebrations in the city; dinner on your own

   Activité : A long day on your feet in the sun, with security checks and stadium steps. Bring a hat, sunscreen, water and a rain jacket; bags may be searched.

4. Jour 4 : The Naadam horse races, then Terelj

   Ulaanbaatar to Khui Doloon Khudag, then Gorkhi-Terelj National Park

   • Environ 3.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Gorkhi-Terelj National Park
   Détail du jour 4

   We leave at 7:30, the one early start of the trip, because the races start in the morning and the road west of the city fills quickly. About 40 km out, at Khui Doloon Khudag, the festival horse races run across open steppe rather than round a track, over distances of roughly 10 to 30 km depending on the age of the horses, and the jockeys are children, some only a few years old. Thousands of people camp along the finish, many on horseback. We watch from the finish line as the leaders appear as dust on the horizon, and the winning horses are blessed and their sweat is said to bring luck. Lunch is khuushuur, fried mutton pastries, from the stalls, the classic festival meal. Early in the afternoon we drive back through the city and on to Gorkhi-Terelj National Park, a valley of larch forest and granite outcrops. We stop at Turtle Rock, then walk the stepped path up to the Aryabal Meditation Temple in the late light. Dinner and the night are at a ger camp, quiet after two days of crowds.

   Compris

   • The Naadam horse races at Khui Doloon Khudag with your guide
   • Khuushuur lunch at the races
   • Gorkhi-Terelj National Park entry and Turtle Rock
   • The walk to the Aryabal Meditation Temple
   • Dinner at the ger camp in Terelj

   Option plus facile : Stay at the ger camp with tea instead of the climb to Aryabal.

   Option plus active : Walk on from Aryabal along the valley before dinner with your guide.

   Temps libre : Evening free at the ger camp

   Activité : The race ground is open grass with no seating; you stand at the finish for an hour or two. Festival traffic can add time to the drive. The path up to Aryabal is steep in places, with steps.

   

5. Jour 5 : Fly to the Gobi, walk into Yolyn Am

   Terelj to Ulaanbaatar airport, fly to Dalanzadgad, then Yolyn Am

   • Environ 3.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Yolyn Am
   Détail du jour 5

   Early risers can ride for an hour with local herders on their stocky Mongolian horses before breakfast; everyone else sleeps in. At about 9:30 we leave Terelj for the two-hour drive to Chinggis Khaan International Airport and the flight south to Dalanzadgad, the capital of the South Gobi, about an hour and a half in the air. Flying saves the two days of driving across the Middle Gobi that most trips spend in the vehicle. Our 4x4s and drivers, sent down from Ulaanbaatar ahead of us, meet the plane, and we drive about an hour west to our ger camp at the foot of the Gurvan Saikhan mountains. In the late afternoon, when the day visitors have gone and the heat is easing, we stop at the small museum at the park gate, then walk into Yolyn Am, a gorge that narrows between steep rock walls with a stream along its floor. Look for ibex on the slopes and bearded vultures overhead, then dinner at camp under a very big sky.

   Compris

   • Early horse ride with local herders in Terelj (optional to join)
   • Flight from Ulaanbaatar to Dalanzadgad (DLZ)
   • Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park entry and the museum at the park gate
   • Late-afternoon walk into the Yolyn Am gorge with your guide
   • Lunch on the way and dinner at the ger camp

   Option plus facile : Rest at camp after the flight and skip the gorge, or walk only the wide, level first part of the valley.

   Option plus active : Carry on past the narrows to where the gorge opens out again, about an hour more on the same stony path.

   Activité : If the flight time leaves too little light, we walk the gorge at 8 the next morning instead. About 4 to 5 km on foot in and out of the gorge, on a stony path above 2,000 m. Domestic flights allow less baggage, usually about 15 kg in the hold.

   

6. Jour 6 : West to the Khongor dunes

   Yolyn Am to Khongoryn Els along the Gurvan Saikhan range

   • Environ 5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Khongoryn Els
   Détail du jour 6

   Today is one of the three long days of the trip, and we say so plainly: about 190 km and five hours of driving, much of it on desert tracks. There is no shorter way to the dunes and no scheduled flight closer to them, and stopping halfway would mean a night in a place with nothing to see, so we break the day up instead. We leave at 8:30 after breakfast and follow the mountains west across gravel plains, past herders' gers, camel herds and the odd lone well, with a stop every hour or so to stretch, take photos and swap seats. Lunch is a hot meal on the way, at a camp where one fits the route or set up by our crew with tables and chairs, never a box in the vehicle. By mid-afternoon the dunes rise ahead, a pale wall of sand along the foot of the mountains. We settle into our ger camp for two nights, and the evening is free to watch the light leave the sand.

   Compris

   • Drive west along the Gurvan Saikhan range with stops for photos
   • Hot lunch on the way
   • Dinner at the ger camp by the dunes

   Option plus facile : There is no shorter way on this day. Take a front seat if you get car sick, stay in the vehicle at any stop you like, and rest at camp on arrival.

   Temps libre : Late afternoon and evening free at camp

   Activité : A long day on rough tracks, with no more than four guests per 4x4. Tell your guide if you get car sick, and we put you in a front seat.

   

7. Jour 7 : A day at the singing dunes

   Khongoryn Els, from a herding family to the crest at sunset

   • Environ 1 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Khongoryn Els
   Détail du jour 7

   No long drive today. Khongoryn Els runs for about 100 km along the foot of the mountains and rises to around 300 m at its highest, and when the wind is right the sand slides with a low hum that gives the dunes their local name, the singing sands. In the cool of the morning we visit a camel-herding family nearby to see how they live: the ger, the milking, the Bactrian camels that still carry a family's home when it moves to new pasture. In July the family may have their own small Naadam memories to share, from the local festivals held across the country. Then you ride a camel for about an hour along the foot of the dunes with a herder leading. The middle of the day is free at camp, when the sun is strongest. In the late afternoon we drive a few minutes to the highest part of the dunes and climb, about an hour in soft sand, slow and steep near the top, and from the crest at sunset you see the sand sea on one side and the plain on the other.

   Compris

   • Visit to a camel-herding family
   • Camel ride of about an hour along the dunes
   • Sunset climb of Khongoryn Els with your guide
   • All meals at the ger camp

   Option plus facile : Stay at the foot of the dunes for sunset, or climb only part of the way to the first ridge.

   Option plus active : Climb to the highest crest and walk along the ridge before sliding down the steep face.

   Temps libre : Middle of the day free at camp

   Activité : The climb is about an hour in soft sand, steep near the crest. Bring sunglasses and a buff against blowing sand.

   

8. Jour 8 : Across the Gobi to the Flaming Cliffs

   Khongoryn Els to Bayanzag (the Flaming Cliffs)

   • Environ 5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Bayanzag
   Détail du jour 8

   The second long day: about 180 km and five hours of driving, mostly on desert tracks, north-east across the Gobi. As on day 6, the alternative would be a night in between with nothing to see, so we leave at 8:30 and break the drive with a stop every hour or so and a hot lunch on the way. We reach our ger camp near Bayanzag in the afternoon, with time to rest before the light softens. Then we walk the rim of the Flaming Cliffs, red and orange sandstone that glows in the low sun. In the 1920s expeditions from the American Museum of Natural History, led by Roy Chapman Andrews, found here the first dinosaur eggs recognised by science, along with Protoceratops and the first Velociraptor. Your guide shows you where the finds were made, and fragments of fossil bone still turn up in the sand. We stay until the sun goes down, then drive back to camp for dinner.

   Compris

   • Drive across the Gobi with stops for photos
   • Hot lunch on the way
   • The Flaming Cliffs at Bayanzag from late afternoon to sunset, with your guide
   • Dinner at the ger camp

   Option plus facile : There is no shorter way on this day. Take a front seat if you get car sick, stay in the vehicle at any stop you like, and rest at camp on arrival.

   Activité : About 1 to 2 km on the cliff rim, on crumbly ground; stay back from the edges. Fossils must be left where they lie: removing them is illegal.

9. Jour 9 : Saxaul forest, then north to Ongi

   Bayanzag to the Ongi River and the ruins of Ongiin Khiid

   • Environ 4 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Ongi
   Détail du jour 9

   For anyone who wants it, a dawn walk back to the cliffs while they are empty and the colour returns with the first sun; in July sunrise is early, so this is optional and the rest of the group sleeps in. After breakfast we stop at the saxaul forest near Bayanzag, a stand of twisted, drought-hardy trees that hold the sand together, then drive north for about four hours across the edge of the Gobi to the Ongi River. Lunch is at our ger camp by the river. In the afternoon we walk the ruins of Ongiin Khiid, two monasteries on either bank that were among the largest in Mongolia until they were destroyed in the purges of the late 1930s, when monks were killed and temples pulled down across the country. Since 1990 a small community of monks has come back and rebuilt a temple among the ruins. A small museum tells the story, and the riverbank is good for an evening walk.

   Compris

   • Optional dawn walk at the Flaming Cliffs
   • The saxaul forest near Bayanzag
   • The ruins of Ongiin Khiid and the site museum, with your guide
   • Lunch and dinner at the ger camp

   Option plus facile : Sleep in instead of the dawn walk and join the group at breakfast.

   Option plus active : Join the dawn walk at the cliffs before breakfast.

   Temps libre : Evening free by the river

   Activité : The ruins are spread over rough, stony ground; about 2 km on foot in all.

10. Jour 10 : Arvaikheer, Shankh and on to Karakorum

    Ongi to Arvaikheer, then Shankh Monastery and Kharkhorin

    • Environ 5.5 h de route
    • Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
    • Nuit : Kharkhorin
    Détail du jour 10

    The longest day, and the reason for the night at Ongi: about 300 km and five and a half hours of driving to reach Karakorum. There is no shorter way out of the Gobi to the Orkhon valley, and this route puts the rough part first and the paved road last. We leave at 8 am on tracks north to Arvaikheer, the capital of Ovorkhangai province, and stop there around midday for a sit-down lunch in town. From Arvaikheer the road is paved. An hour or so on we stop at Shankh Monastery, one of the oldest in Mongolia, founded in the 17th century and linked with Zanabazar, the first head of Mongolian Buddhism and its greatest sculptor; it was closed under communism and is active again. The land turns green as we drop into the Orkhon valley, and we reach our ger camp near Kharkhorin, the town beside the old capital, in the late afternoon. Dinner is at camp, and the evening is free.

    Compris

    • Sit-down lunch in Arvaikheer
    • Shankh Monastery with your guide
    • Dinner at the ger camp near Kharkhorin

    Option plus facile : There is no shorter way on this day. Take a front seat if you get car sick, stay in the vehicle at any stop you like, and rest at camp on arrival.

    Temps libre : Evening free at camp

    Activité : The longest drive of the trip, about half on tracks; we stop every hour or so.

11. Jour 11 : Karakorum, Erdene Zuu and the Orkhon valley

    Kharkhorin: Erdene Zuu, the Karakorum Museum and the hill above the valley

    • Environ 30 min de route
    • Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
    • Nuit : Kharkhorin
    Détail du jour 11

    We are at Erdene Zuu when it opens, before the day visitors arrive. Founded in 1585 partly from the stones of Karakorum, it was the first great Buddhist monastery in Mongolia, and its long white wall is lined with stupas, 108 by tradition. Most of its temples were destroyed in the late 1930s; a few survived as a museum, and it has been a working monastery again since 1990. With a local guide we walk the temples and, if they are sitting, listen to the monks chant. Then the Karakorum Museum, where a scale model shows the capital that Chinggis Khaan founded and his son Ogedei walled in the 1230s, and the stone turtle that once marked its edge. Lunch is in town. The afternoon is free: rest at camp or ride with a local herding family across the valley. Late in the day we drive up to the hill above town, where a monument to the empires of Mongolia looks over the Orkhon valley, a UNESCO World Heritage cultural landscape since 2004.

    Compris

    • Erdene Zuu Monastery at opening, with a local guide
    • The Karakorum Museum
    • The stone turtle of Karakorum
    • Sit-down lunch in Kharkhorin
    • The empires monument on the hill above town, late in the day
    • Horse ride with a local herding family (afternoon option)

    Option plus facile : Rest at camp in the afternoon.

    Option plus active : Ride for an hour or two with a local herding family in the Orkhon valley; included.

    Temps libre : Afternoon free

    Activité : Cover shoulders and knees in the temples, and walk clockwise around them.

12. Jour 12 : Mongol Els and on to Khustai

    Kharkhorin to Elsen Tasarkhai, then Khustai National Park

    • Environ 4.5 h de route
    • Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
    • Nuit : Khustai National Park
    Détail du jour 12

    We leave Kharkhorin after breakfast on the paved road east towards Ulaanbaatar, about 285 km and four and a half hours of driving, with the last few kilometres on a dirt road into the park. That runs slightly over our four-hour cap, so we break it near halfway at Elsen Tasarkhai, where a strip of sand dunes, the Mongol Els, runs across the green steppe below Khogno Khan mountain. Walk out onto the sand, then lunch at a camp nearby. We reach Khustai National Park in the middle of the afternoon and settle into our ger camp. Khustai is where the takhi, or Przewalski's horse, often called the last wild horse, came home: it died out in the wild in the 1960s, and from 1992 horses bred in European zoos were flown here and released. At the visitor centre we hear how the project worked. In the evening, when the horses come down to graze and drink, a park guide takes us out to find them.

    Compris

    • A walk on the Elsen Tasarkhai dunes
    • Lunch on the way
    • Khustai National Park entry and the visitor centre
    • Evening takhi viewing with a park guide
    • Dinner at the ger camp

    Option plus facile : Watch the takhi from the vehicle instead of walking out to the viewpoint.

    Option plus active : Walk the last stretch to the viewpoint over the hill with the park guide.

    Activité : Takhi are wild and keep their distance; we watch with binoculars, and sightings are likely but not certain.

    

13. Jour 13 : Dawn at Khustai, back to Ulaanbaatar

    Khustai National Park to Ulaanbaatar

    • Environ 2 h de route
    • Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
    • Nuit : Ulaanbaatar
    Détail du jour 13

    Early risers go out with the park guide at first light, when the takhi are still low in the valleys and marmots sit up outside their burrows; everyone else joins after breakfast for a short walk on the hills near camp. Then we drive about two hours east to Ulaanbaatar, a little over 100 km, back to the hotel where you left your extra luggage. Lunch is in the city. The afternoon is free, and the city is calm again after the festival: visit the Choijin Lama Temple Museum, a group of early 20th century temples now hemmed in by office towers, climb the steps of Zaisan Hill for a view over the Tuul valley, or shop for cashmere and felt at the State Department Store. In the evening we sit down together for a farewell dinner, and your guide goes over the transfers for the next day.

    Compris

    • Dawn takhi viewing with the park guide (optional to join)
    • Short hill walk at Khustai
    • Lunch in Ulaanbaatar
    • Farewell dinner

    Option plus facile : Sleep in at Khustai and join the group at breakfast.

    Option plus active : Join the dawn outing with the park guide.

    Temps libre : Afternoon free in Ulaanbaatar

14. Jour 14 : Depart from Ulaanbaatar

    Your hotel in Ulaanbaatar to Chinggis Khaan International Airport

    • Environ 1 h de route
    • Petit-déjeuner
    Détail du jour 14

    Breakfast at the hotel, then the trip ends. Chinggis Khaan International Airport is about 50 km south of the city, an hour's drive and more at rush hour, and we time your transfer to fit your flight: plan to leave the hotel about three hours before an international departure. July is the busiest month for flights out of Ulaanbaatar, so book your onward flight early. With a later flight the morning is yours for a last walk around Sukhbaatar Square, a visit to the Zanabazar Museum of Fine Arts, or the market stalls for felt slippers and cashmere to take home. If you would like more time in Mongolia, ask us about extra nights in Ulaanbaatar or Terelj before you fly; hotels book up in festival week, so we arrange them when you book the trip. Your guide says goodbye at breakfast and checks that every transfer is booked.

    Compris

    • Drop-off at Chinggis Khaan International Airport (UBN)

    Temps libre : Free until your airport transfer

    Activité : Any flight time works; the transfer is about an hour.

Faune et météo : July is Mongolia's warmest month: Ulaanbaatar afternoons are often in the mid to high 20s C, and the Gobi can pass 35 C, while desert nights still turn cool. July also brings much of the year's rain to the steppe, mostly in short afternoon showers, so the hills are green but tracks can be muddy and the festival stands are open to sun and rain. The takhi at Khustai are seen on most visits at dusk and dawn, but no sighting is certain.

• Ulaanbaatar3 nuits
• Gorkhi-Terelj National Park1 nuit
• Yolyn Am1 nuit
• Khongoryn Els2 nuits
• Bayanzag1 nuit
• Ongi1 nuit
• Kharkhorin2 nuits
• Khustai National Park1 nuit
• Ulaanbaatar1 nuit