Mongolia Travel Blog & News

Mongolia is a country filled with gorgeous sites and memorable adventures. From dry deserts to snow capped peaks, and historical museums to cultural interactions, there’s so much to see and do while visiting here that will help you grow as a traveler and as a person.   It helps to know the best attractions in Mongolia before you plan your trip. That way, you can be sure you’re hitting all the right marks on your journey, and you can come prepared for the activities.   So, here are the five best tourist attractions in Mongolia and what there is to do there.

I don’t mean any offence here, but Mongolian winter is not for the weak hearted. But it is no reason to shy away from the astonishing landscape that makes you feel like you’ve stepped into the wonderland. Even though Mongolian weather seems to be too cold to travel in numbers, it’s actually not that cold in real life since our weather is really dry. It means that even though the air temperature can get pretty low in numbers, with lack of water particles in the air and strong wind, you’ll be fine as long as you bundle up enough. However, it might not be the wisest idea to stay in the city while you’re staying here since the capital city- Ulaanbaatar’s air pollution is quite bad.

Since the establishment of Gun Galuut Nature Reserve in 2003, Selena Travel has been profoundly engaged in conservation efforts of the Nature Reserve. During the last weekend, in collaboration with the local conservation team and Steppe Nomads Ger camp, Selena Travel team visited the Gun Galuut Nature Reserve and distributed salt blocks at the mineral lick of Mountain Sheep population in the area. Providing essential minerals for the Mountain Sheep will help them to survive the harsh winter and get into the spring in a better health. On this day, we were lucky enough to sight 67 Mountain sheep!

Buddhism and monasteries are one of main attractions for many while traveling to Mongolia, and average tourists visit at least 2 monasteries when traveling in Mongolia. Most popular monasteries include Erdenezuu Monastery in Karakorum, Amarbayasgalant Monastery in the northern Mongolia, Gandan Monastery in Ulaanbaatar and Tuvkhun Khiid in Orkhon Valley area. As you most likely will visit handful monasteries while on your Mongolian tour, it is useful to know few things that you should keep in mind while visiting.

It’s the beginning of the end of Mongolia’s short summer season. Today is a big day for our young monk. Let’s call him Davaa, a good Tibetan name. His name means Monday, and his parents may have chosen his name because he was born on a Monday. The name also honors Tibetan Buddhism, which is practiced in Mongolia. He has only been at the monastery for a year, and he’s going to participate in his first Tsam ceremony. The tsam dances, are morality plays. Their purpose is to remove evil from the area and pass along traditional stories and morals. There can be hundreds of participants, usually monks. Davaa is lucky to participate because he’s still a young monk.

Among the skyscrapers and shopping malls, there sits a white building and a temple in a small clearing. The mountain stands behind it, protecting the city. Not far behind is the mighty Tuul River. The white building is by todays standards, a modest building. The temple is beautiful, but dwarfed by the 6-story mall nearby. However, if you were a lucky visitor to Ich Khirie, as Ulaanbaatar was known then, you would be standing near the largest building in town, if you could even get close enough. This is the home of the Bogd Khan.

Khoomei or Throat singing is one of the most representative traditional arts of Mongolia. Khoomei was originated when people started imitating the voice of nature and animals many thousand years ago, and around 19th century, Khoomei was first developed as an art. Mongolian throat singing was registered in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO, as an art native to Mongolia in 2010. At its meeting in Nairobi, the UNESCO Council inscribed Mongolian Khoomii in the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of mankind.

Imagine riding a horse over the Eurasian steppe, winter’s cold embrace around you and an eagle on your arm. You feel the bird twitch, and know that it’s got something in its sights. With a flick of your arm, the bird takes off and flies toward an unlucky rabbit. Before you know it, the eagle dives down and in its talons is lunch for your family.

Surviving two destructions and centuries of rejection, Erdene Zuu is one of the oldest Buddhist temples in Mongolia, probably in East Asia. The building of the temple was ordered by the Abtai Sain Khan- grandfather of Zanabazar the Great when the Tibetan Buddhism was declared as the main religion of Mongolia in 1586. For Mongolians, who employed nomadic lifestyle, this kind of building or generally anything that stays in one place was not that common. So, the temple has naturally become the religious center, thus the heart of the Mongolia. The geographical situation was carefully thought out too, it’s built in Kharkhorin- near the old city of Karakorum.

Since you have chosen Mongolia as your travel destination, you might be familiar with the fact that Mongolia is a post-soviet country. From 1921 to 1991, Mongolia has been part of the Comintern- a soviet alliance with Soviet Russia in its head. Most of the districts and urban structure of the city has been built during that era with the help of the Russian masters. Ulaanbaatar was mainly designed by Soviet architects, who have employed classicism.