Places to see in Mongolia
From the monasteries and museums of Ulaanbaatar to the Orkhon Valley, the lakes of Naiman Nuur and the dunes of the Mini Gobi: the places our tours take you.
In Ulaanbaatar
Most of our tours begin with a city tour of Ulaanbaatar and end there with an evening of traditional music and dance.
National Museum of Mongolia
Central Ulaanbaatar
A good first stop: Mongolia's history from prehistory to today in some 15,000 objects. The first floor has petroglyphs, deer stones and finds from Hunnu and Uyghur burial sites; the second, the costumes, hats and jewellery of Mongolia's many ethnic groups.
The third floor covers Chinggis Khaan's empire, with a copy of Güyük Khan's 1246 letter to Pope Innocent IV, and traditional nomadic life, from a furnished ger to saddles and musical instruments.
On our tours: Winter Horse Riding Tour with Nomads, Across the Orkhon Valley, Yurt Comfort, Hiking & Horse Riding
Gandan Monastery
Ulaanbaatar
Gandantegchinlen, Mongolia's largest and most important monastery. Its first temple was built in 1809 and moved here in 1838, and it grew to nine colleges, a library and some 5,000 monks. Closed in 1938, it reopened in 1944 as the country's only working monastery; worship has been free again since 1990.
Its great statue of Avalokiteśvara, first raised for the Bogd Khan and taken down in 1938, was rebuilt in 1996 with donations from the Mongolian people: 26.5 metres tall, gilded and set with 2,286 precious stones.
On our tours: Winter Horse Riding Tour with Nomads, Across the Orkhon Valley, Yurt Comfort, Hiking & Horse Riding
Tumen Ekh ensemble
Ulaanbaatar
Mongolia's best-known folk song and dance ensemble, founded in 1989 and since invited to more than 40 countries. Its name, 'leader of ten thousand', comes from the long song that opens ceremonies and festivals, and is also the title given to the fastest racehorse.
A show brings together the morin khuur (horse-head fiddle), long songs, epic and praise songs, a shaman dance, an ancient palace dance and the Tsam mask dance.
A traditional folk show in Ulaanbaatar is included on: 9-Day Express Horse Ride, Across the Orkhon Valley, Yurt Comfort, Hiking & Horse Riding
On our tours
The heart of Mongolia, west of Ulaanbaatar, where our riding tours go.
Orkhon Valley and the Orkhon Waterfall
Övörkhangai, about 360 km from Ulaanbaatar
A UNESCO World Heritage site along the Orkhon River at the foot of the Khangai Mountains. People have lived here for some 60,000 years, and the valley is often called the cradle of the steppe's nomadic civilisations. Nomad families still set up their camps here every summer, near monasteries such as Erdene Zuu and Tuvkhun, and it's wonderful riding country.
Upstream, the river drops 20 metres over a basalt cliff at Ulaan Tsutgalan, the Orkhon Waterfall, carved into old lava flows.
On our tours: Winter Horse Riding Tour with Nomads, 9-Day Express Horse Ride, Across the Orkhon Valley, Yurt Comfort, Hiking & Horse Riding
Naiman Nuur
Khangai Mountains, Övörkhangai
Eight lakes high in the Khangai Mountains, formed behind ancient lava flows, in a national park of alpine meadows, larch and Siberian pine forest and valleys strewn with volcanic rock. Shireet is the largest and most beautiful; look out for black-throated loons, bar-headed geese and whooper swans.
At 2,400 metres it stays cool even in summer, and snow can fall in June or August. No road reaches the lakes, about 35 km from the Orkhon Waterfall: you come on horseback or on foot.
On our tours: 9-Day Express Horse Ride, Across the Orkhon Valley, Yurt Comfort, Hiking & Horse Riding
Kharkhorin and Erdene Zuu
Orkhon Valley, Övörkhangai
Chinggis Khaan founded his capital, Karakorum, here on the Silk Road in 1220; his son Ögedei walled it in 1235, and the empire was ruled from here until Khubilai Khaan moved the capital to Beijing. Ming troops destroyed the city in 1380. Little is left but a few relics, among them stone turtles, symbols of long life, set out to protect it from floods.
Beside the old city stands Erdene Zuu, built in 1585 partly from Karakorum's stones: Mongolia's oldest surviving Buddhist monastery, inside a wall of 108 white stupas.
On our tours: Winter Horse Riding Tour with Nomads, 9-Day Express Horse Ride, Across the Orkhon Valley, Yurt Comfort, Hiking & Horse Riding
Khogno Khan and the Mini Gobi
About 250 km from Ulaanbaatar, on the road to Kharkhorin
The granite peaks of Khogno Khan, a sacred mountain, rise where steppe meets taiga, among birch and poplar woods and springs; the area has been protected since 1997. In its valleys lie the ruins of Ovgon Monastery, and beside it run the dunes of Elsen Tasarkhai, the 'Mini Gobi', where you can ride two-humped Bactrian camels.
Mongolians honour sacred mountains with offerings and a wish to the mountain's spirit, and never climb one without good reason.
On our tours: Winter Horse Riding Tour with Nomads, 9-Day Express Horse Ride, Across the Orkhon Valley, Yurt Comfort, Hiking & Horse Riding
Khustai National Park
About 90 km southwest of Ulaanbaatar
Wild Przewalski's horses, takhi, were brought back to the steppe here from 1992, and the reserve became a national park in 1998 to protect them and the forest-steppe around them. Its name means 'range of silver birches'.
Red deer, Mongolian gazelles, wolves, lynx and foxes live here too, and more than 200 kinds of birds, from golden eagles to black storks.
On our tours: Winter Horse Riding Tour with Nomads, 9-Day Express Horse Ride, Yurt Comfort
Somewhere else in mind?
We plan private trips to any of these places, or combine them with a riding tour, on your dates and at your pace.