CENTRAL MONGOLIA WINTER TOUR /7 DAYS/

Welcome to Ulaanbaatar, the capital city of Mongolia. Upon arrival, you will be greeted by our driver in the arrivals hall at the international airport and transferred to your hotel. After check-in, free at leisure and have a good rest to recover from the jet lag. If you feel like going for a walk and checking out places nearby, feel free to ask the hotel receptionist for recommendations.

After breakfast, at 9am we will return to the city. Today we wll explore the city and visit “Gandan” Monastery, Mongolia’s largest functioning Buddhist monastery. Listen to the horns calling lamas and monks to temple and capture the monks’ daily rituals while visiting the adjoining Megjid Janraisig and Temples. The temple houses feature a 26-meter-high majestic gilded statue of Migjid Janraisig. Next, visit Sukhbaatar square and Parliament House displayed with Great Khans memorial statue. The square lies at the heart of the city surrounded by theaters, government buildings. After lunch at Modern Nomads restaurant, visit the National Museum of Mongolia for to get an overview of Mongolia’s history and culture including nomadic life, traditional costumes of ethnic groups, sacred religious relics, and Stone & Bronze Age artifacts. Continue to visit Bogd Khan Palace museum – the complex was a residence of 8th Bogd Javzandamba in 19th century, the head of Mongolian religion. The palace consists of seven Summer Prayer temples and the winter palace. Dinner will be served at “Bd’s Mongolian Barbeque” international chain restaurant

After relaxing breakfast, at 10am we will drive to the Hustai National Park. The park is home of last wild horses in their natural environment in the world, known as Perzevalski horse (takhi). The National park has over 450 species of vascular plants, 200 of which are medicinal. After check-in and lunch at Ger camp, we will take short drive and hiking to see the horses. There is great opportunity to take photo for these endangered horses. If you are lucky, you can see fox, deer, marmot, eagle and more wild animals. Besides of the wild animals you can find here beautiful sceneries of the Mongolian nature that features mountain and steppe. Dinner and overnight at Ger camp.

After breakfast, we will drive to Karakorum and Erdenezuu Monastery. Karakorum was not only the capital of the vast Mongolian Empire, but the epic center of trade along Silk Road. However, the Karakorum of today is a small settlement with little focus on tourism. Today there is a museum does show off some of the artefacts they’ve recovered so far, Upon arrival in the village, we will visit museum of Karakorum and learn about beautiful ancient Karakorum. Then we will visit to the magnificent and the oldest Buddhist Monastery complex of Erdenezuu, built in the 16th century, with 108 stupas. Here you can listen to interesting monk chanting Buddhist sutras. Dinner and overnight at hotel in Kharkhorin.

Depart for Bayan Gobi magnificent sand dunes – surrounded by hills with willow trees, streams and bushes, and appear as a small desert in the center of the country. This sand dune is 80km long and the widest part of the sand dune is 9-10 km. There, we will visit local camel herder family in their Ger, explore their unique nomadic lifestyle. A special national food of Khorkhog for lunch at the nomad family. The sand dunes are the perfect place for camel riding. We will discover this magnificent place on camel back. Mongolia is home to 2/3 of the two-humped Bactrian camels in the world. It is a gentle, calm and extraordinary patient animal and can carry on without water for a month. Bet, you never rode a Bactrian camel, riding a Bactrian camel is much more comfortable than the camel in Sahara, India or anywhere else. Its two humps support you from both sides and easy pace will comfort you so much. Afterwards return to the city and transferred to the hotel.

After breakfast, depart for Terelj National Park. It’s one of the most visited national parks in Mongolia. You can see the extraordinary formation of rocks and stones; some of them look quite similar to turtles. We will explore the national park and visit to see Turtle Rock – interesting rock formation looking like a turtle and visit Ariyabal meditation temple – surrounded by scenic mountains with massive rock formations and sits at top of the mountain. This small hike is seen as a ritual to cleanse one’s sins. From the top, you can enjoy the breathtaking view overlooking the Terelj National Park. In the afternoon, we will explore the national park from horse back. Mongolia is the best destination for horse riding trip and especially Terelj national park is the best recommended place for horse trek. After given preliminary instructions, orientation about horse riding, we will discover around nature from horseback for one hour. Dinner and overnight at the hotel in the national park.

Today we will drive to Ongi Monastery ruins through the great steppe which is called Ongi steppe, continues extraordinary 100 km long. Ongi monastery was one of the Mongolian biggest 7 monasteries. There are 2 temple ruins which were built up in 1780s. During repression in 1930s’ these two temples destroyed and many lamas were executed and imprisoned. On the way to Ongi temple ruins we will visit to nomad family and introduced the nomadic life in the Gobi. Stay overnight in Ger camp.

Leave Ulaanbaatar. Our driver drop off to Chinggis Khan international airport. Thank you for visiting our country