10days/9nights
Tour grade: Easy
Style: Traveller
Mongolia indeed is one of the most mysterious places on earth, no one can argue on this. This country has a great to offer with its wonderful nature formations and their renowned nomadic culture; they have kept both of them in a judicious way for centuries. There are no fences on this vast land, horsemen and animals roam free here! Now come, take this wonderful trip, and visit the Gobi and the boundless steppes of Mongolia with us! You won't only tour the Gobi and other sites on the way, but also will witness the unique features of Mongolian nomadic culture & traditions by taking part in the Nomads' Day Cultural Festival in the amazing Gun-Galuut Nature Reserve by the legendary Kherlen River! You will also have the opportunity to admire the renowned Naadam Festival in the middle of autumn. You will visit the vast expanses of the Gobi Desert, where a circuit explores the lofty sand dunes of Khongoriin Els, the glacial canyon of Yolyn Am, and the red cliffs of Bayanzag, where the world’s richest deposits of dinosaur fossils are found.
Arrival in Ulaanbaatar
Arrive in Ulaanbaatar, meet at the airport after custom formalities and transfer to the hotel. The city tour of Ulaanbaatar takes you through some of the principal sights of this unique city. You visit the Gandan Monastery, Genghis Khan Monument on the Sukhbaatar square and the Museum of National History. Centrally located excellent hotel 3* L
Ulaanbaatar – South Gobi – Bayanzag
After breakfast we take the flight to the Gobi. Transfer to ger camp at Bayanzag. Dinner and explore around for dinosaur remains and walking in the rich saxaul forest in the evening. You can even find real dinosaur bones and eggs yourself! Enjoy a short camel ride around the red cliffs. Ger camp B+L+D
Bayanzag – Khongor Sand Dunes
The drive to the dunes at Khongoriin takes between four and five hours. Transfer to ger camp near sand dunes. Ger camp B+L+D
Khongor Sand Dunes – Yolyn Am
Today we take the southern road back through the Gobi Gurvan Saikhan Park in a drive that takes five to six hours, stopping for photography and possibly lunch along the way. Enjoy hiking around the gorge. Transfer to ger camp, dinner and overnight there. Ger camp B+L+D
South Gobi – Ulaanbaatar – Gun-Galuut nature reserve
This morning we take the flight to Ulaanbaatar, arrive and transfer to Gun-Galuut Nature Reserve in the valley of the Kherlen River across the green steppes. Arrive and transfer to Steppe Nomads tourist camp. Ger camp B+L+D
Leisure Day in Gun-Galuut
We hike or enjoy some optional horse ride to Mt. Baits to view the gorgeous Argali mountain sheep and the White Napped Crane, Whooper Swan and other birds. Visit a nomadic family and learn their ways to tend their livestock. Optional fishing or kayaking on the river Kherlen. Ger camp B+L+D
Nomads’ Day Festival
Enjoy the joyful atmosphere and learn the clever nomads' way of life by taking every chance of taking part in the nomadic life activities like a nomad. The nomads will compete in teams. "Mongol Image" competition between beautiful young couples and a wonderful concert by the local nomads will be there. On the second day, enjoy the famous Naadam Festival, a mini version: wrestling, horseracing, and archery. Full board and overnight at the tourist camp. Ger camp B+L+D
Gun-Galuut - Ulaanbaatar
After breakfast, we drive back to Ulaanbaatar for 2 hours with a stop at the Giant Genghis Monument and transfer to the hotel. Then we visit the Bogd Khaan’s Palace Museum – the residence of the last king of Mongolia and the Buddha Park. Enjoy traditional folklore concert by the magical Tumen Ekh ensemble. Farewell dinner. Centrally located excellent hotel 3* B+L+D
Departure from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
You are transferred to the airport/train station after breakfast. End of service. B
| Single supplement Charge | US$200 |
* At the Steppe Nomads ger camp, single supplement is not available.
Included services
DISCOUNT CONDITIONS:
DESTINATION & ATTRACTIONS BRIEF INFO
The Gobi Desert is the most mysterious place on earth The Gobi invites you to reveal its secrets. This region is famous for its unique natural formations, many places where you can dig and find real dinosaur fossils, flora and fauna not found anywhere else in the world. Ride the 2 humped Bactrian camels and discover the Gobi!
Bayanzag (Flaming Cliffs) is internationally famous for its fossilized dinosaur remains. Dinosaur nests with eggs were found here as well as whole fossilized skeletons.
Yoliin Am (Vulture's Gorge) is a narrow valley located in the Zuun Saikhan Mountain range, with thick pieces of ice almost all year around hidden in its depths. This area is home to rare animals such as the Argali (wild sheep) and Ibex as well as Vultures and other large birds.
The Nomads' Day Festival - As nomads start their day with the sun rise early in the morning, we are starting our show at the same time with them. Some of our participants will ride together with the hosts to collect horses or to train the racing horses while some milking the cows with hostesses. Scheduled activities of the show starts at 9.00 and continues till 19.00. We are presenting 5 different types of the nomadic customs and ceremonies due to the limited time. Each activity will be organized at the different real nomadic families. You will be a true nomad only on this day. Under the starry sky of the night you will enjoy watching Mongolian unique culture, such as long song, dancing, horse-head fiddle melody and throat singing as well as ritual ceremony of "Fire and Sky worshipping", reflecting the people's feeling towards Mother Nature.
Mongolian nomads inhabit the entire country respecting the nature, living in gers, breeding livestock- sheep, goat, horse, cow, yak and camel, moving for good pasture and good water for their animals, living from the products they produce, galloping on horseback... This wonderful show takes place in the famous Gun Galuut nature reserve, one of the most popular nature reserves of Mongolia.
The Nature Reserve is truly the marvellous combination of high mountains, colourful flowers, pretty lakes, rivers and wetlands with its famous rare species. Tourists visiting the Nature Reserve have the opportunities to do watching and taking photos of the Endangered species, rafting and fishing in the lakes and rives, camping in a beautiful and peaceful nature, visiting nomadic family, riding horse, yak and camel and introducing with traditional nomadic lifestyle and culture.
Aug 10, 2012. Gobi & Karakorum Explorer tour
Our recent "The Gobi & Karakorum Explorer" tour with you was excellent, everything exceeded our expectations! It was a super trip in our lives and we loved our Mongolia holiday so much. Our guide Joe was kind, well organised, accurate and informative, polite and caring and always provided us with timely information. And our driver Jack is super, very friendly, professional and always on time.
We are wild travelers, having been to many places in the world - but Mongolia is still truly unspoiled and uncontaminated. Selena Travel's services were perfect right from the very first email. We would like to thank Selena Travel, our guide and our driver for having made this Mongolia experience a truly beautiful one with so many wonderful memories.
by Rafaella, Benedetta, Lidia
Sending you some of our nicer pictures. Some are chosen for their beautiful scenery while the rest are just us happily playing and goofing around. There are a couple of shots of us doing some Mongolian wrestling, as suggested by Oyuna since we missed out on the mini-Naadam festival. She said since we missed it, we might as well organise our own festival by playing some Mongolian games. Haha... We had so much fun playing those games!!! :)OK, I hope you like the pictures we send you. Best regards to everyone at Selena Travel and thank you once again for all your assistance.
by Margaret Suganda
Let us design that dream vacation for you
Send us a quick email
Skype us
(+976)-8900-5074
