Two hours out of Ulaanbaatar, the map runs out.
Which Terelj day gets you past the coach parks. How many days the Gobi actually needs. What a night in a ger costs, and what it costs to get there. Every tour in Mongolia, reviewed and priced.
The places every Mongolia trip gets built around.
Turtle Rock and the steps up to Aryabal, forty metres of steel Khaan facing his birthplace, the last wild horses on earth at Hustai, and the dunes two days south of all of it.
In Mongolia the length of your trip decides which country you see.
Distance here is counted in days, not kilometres. One day buys the Khentii foothills. Four buys the old imperial capital and the near desert. A week buys the Gobi proper.
Leave after breakfast, be back for dinner. Terelj, the Khaan statue and Hustai all sit inside a single tank of fuel, and most of them combine.
Far enough for Kharkhorin and the near Gobi, short enough that a driver and a camp cover it. This is where most first trips land.
The dunes at Khongoryn Els, the ice in Yolyn Am, the red cliffs. Nothing about the deep Gobi shortens; the only variable is how much of it you take on.
- 1Best 6-Day Gobi Tour Discover Mongoliafrom $750
- 26 Days Tour: Central Mongoliafrom $1,270
- 35 Days Terelj national Park Tour From Central Mongoliafrom $985
Mongolia’s most popular tours.
Every review →The trips more travellers take than anything else in the country, and what each day actually delivers.
1
Genghis Khan Statue NationalPark CamelRide
Review of Ulaanbaatar’s Genghis Khan Statue and Terelj tour, with camel riding, eagle photos, lunch, hiking, costs, and practical tips.
From · $86
Read our review →
2
Genghis Khan Statue Day Tour+National Park+Camel Ride+Eagle
from $49
3
Central Mongolia Guided 3-Day Tour
from $400
4
Small Group 3-Day Best of Central Mongolia Tour
from $425
5
Terelj national park transport /Best price tour
from $36
6
Chinggis Khaan Statue and Turtle Rock Day Tour
from $59
7
Genghis Khan Tour – Mongolia’s #1 Daily Escape
from $49
8
Semi-Gobi Desert Day Trip & Camel Ride
from $175
The Gobi is not empty. It is just very far apart.
Sand that hums when it slides at Khongoryn Els. Ice still lying in the Yolyn Am gorge in July. Red cliffs where the first dinosaur eggs came out of the ground. Getting there is two days of gravel, and that is half the point.
Terelj is the hour that turns a city trip into Mongolia.
Granite weathered into the shape of a turtle, a meditation temple at the top of 108 steps, horses loose between the camps. Sixty-six kilometres from Sükhbaatar Square and the skyline is gone for good.
Three things Mongolia has that nowhere else does.
Deserts and monasteries turn up across Asia. The last wild horses on earth, a forty-metre steel Khaan and a stranger’s stove at the end of the day belong to this country alone.
The Takhi
The takhi is the only horse alive that was never domesticated. It went extinct in the wild in the 1960s and came back from zoo stock, released onto the hills at Hustai a hundred kilometres west of the capital. Stocky, dun-coloured, upright manes, nothing like a riding horse. They come down to water in the last hour of light, which is the hour worth timing the drive around.
- 1Day tour to Hustai national park★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 22 reviews
- 2Day Trip to Hustai National Park★★★★★★★★★★ 3.8 · 21 reviews
- 3Private Day Tour in Hustai Nuruu National Park★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 19 reviews
The Khaan on the Tuul
At Tsonjin Boldog, fifty-four kilometres east of Ulaanbaatar, Chinggis Khaan sits on the largest equestrian statue on earth: 250 tonnes of stainless steel facing the country he came from. A lift runs up inside the horse and puts you out on its head, level with the whip in his hand. Most Terelj day trips stop here on the way through.
- 1Genghis Khan Statue NationalPark CamelRide★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 353 reviews
- 2Genghis Khan Statue Day Tour+National Park+Camel Ride+Eagle★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 261 reviews
- 3Chinggis Khaan Statue and Turtle Rock Day Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 132 reviews
The Night in a Ger
A ger is a lattice of wood under felt with a stove in the middle and the door facing south, and a family can raise one in under an hour. A camp ger comes with beds and a padlock. A family ger comes with airag, salted milk tea and whoever else arrives that evening. The stove goes out around three in the morning, so take the spare blanket when it is offered.
- 1Semi Gobi, Nomads, Ancient Kharkhorin Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 84 reviews
- 2Cooking Class in a Traditional Ger Home in Ulaanbaatar Suburbs★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 84 reviews
- 3MONGOLIAN NOMADS: 2-Day Horse Trekking & Cow Milking Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 23 reviews
What a day in Mongolia costs.
What everything on the site costs, in three bands. A day at Terelj comes in under a night out in most capitals; the deep Gobi costs what a week away costs, because that is what it is.
Day trips out of the capital: Terelj, the Khaan statue, Hustai, a morning walking Ulaanbaatar.
Two to four days with a driver: Kharkhorin, the near Gobi, a night or two under felt with meals in.
- 1Central Mongolia Guided 3-Day Tourfrom $400
- 2Small Group 3-Day Best of Central Mongolia Tourfrom $425
- 3Semi-Gobi Desert Day Trip & Camel Ridefrom $175
Week-long expeditions and private jeeps — the deep Gobi, the Khangai, the routes with no fuel stop.
Nothing in Mongolia is a short drive.
There is one paved road out of Ulaanbaatar in most directions and it gives up before you do. These are the real distances behind the day trips, so a week can be built on something other than optimism.
- 01Chinggis Khaan Statue Tours54 km east on tarmac — the one major sight that genuinely fits in half a day.
- 02Terelj National Park Tours66 km north-east. The road is good; the last stretch in to the camps is not.
- 03Hustai National Park Tours100 km west, then gravel. Worth timing so you arrive for the last hour of light.
- 04Kharkhorin Tours370 km west to the old imperial capital. An overnight, never a day trip.
- 05Gobi Desert Tours550 km and two driving days to the dunes. The Gobi is a trip, not an excursion.
Mongolia still moves at the speed of a horse.
There are more horses here than people and nobody makes anything of it. Half-day rides out of the Terelj camps, two-day treks between families on the Khangai, a Bactrian camel over the dunes at the near Gobi. Experience is rarely asked for, which is either reassuring or not.
Out from Ulaanbaatar
Terelj National Park25 tours
The Khaan Statue16 tours
Hustai National Park6 tours
Central Mongolia17 tours
Kharkhorin4 tours
The Gobi23 tours
Töv Province4 tours- Every tour in Mongolia →
The newest Mongolia tour reviews.
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14 days Combination of Gobi and Central Mongolia
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Mongolia Trekking Tour in the Altai Tavan Bogd National Park
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Wildlife Watching Day Tour at Hustai National Park
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Mongolia Nomad Trek • On-Foot & Horseback ~ 15 Day
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