Bluewolftravel

Mongolia is a special place for overlanders. Here are the reasons why:

1. Endless opportunities for remote, adventurous overlanding

​Mongolia is the 18th largest country in the world but its population is only 3 million, making it one of the world’s most sparsely populated countries. 45% of the population is packed into the capital city of Ulaanbaatar. That means you can easily get away from civilization and go on trips where you feel remote like no other place in the world, while still not freezing into an ice cube.

2. Its people. 

Meeting nomads in the Mongolian countryside is a unique experience. They are very friendly and extremely helpful if you’re in trouble. We heard numerous stories where nomads saved not only someone’s day but even their life! You can easily find yourself in a situation where you’re invited into a yurt for a nice yak dinner with the family.

3. The terrain is very diverse. 

From high, snow peaked mountains and dramatic river valleys to hilly grasslands and deserts with great sand dunes, you can find everything here. It’s not only flat meadows everywhere, contrary to popular belief.

4. The country’s roads. 

There are very few paved roads, making it a very special place to overland. Apart from 2 or 3 of the most important highways, roads are generally not paved (even those major highways only partially). Most routes are only dirt tracks which you can easily tackle with your overlanding vehicle. You can choose difficult off-road areas as well, but even if you’re not into that, you can easily drive around for weeks before seeing a paved road.

5. The wide, open space. 

Being so sparsely populated, you constantly have a sense of wide open space. It’s virtually impossible to feel claustrophobic in this country. 

6. The weather. 

The summer is usually hot, and although it’s the wet season, the amount of rain is manageable. Generally, the weather is fantastic during the summer. This season is quite short, but you can do a lot of exploring during those months.

7. The country is very safe.

Wild camping around Mongolia is very safe. Speaking from experience, we never had an issue while we were wild camping around the country. Our overlander friends have had the same experience.

8. Mongolia is clean. 

While the country has its environmental issues like all developing nations, the country is simply too big to be polluted as badly as so many others in the region. Since there are so few people to pollute or litter, basically anywhere you go will be as pristine as most of the planet probably was a few hundred years ago. 

9. Meeting overlanders. 

Mongolia is a top destination for many overlanders. You can meet fellow travelers just by going through the hotspots (such as Altai Point, Oasis Guest House or River Point) or just by chance while roaming the country. While traveling 30,000 miles through three continents, we met most overlanders in Mongolia.

10. Companies  

You don’t need to drive all the way to Mongolia if you want to overland in the country.  You don’t need a 6 month trip to reach the country; you can simply fly and drive. We’re not affiliated with any company & there are lots of companies for renting cars.

11. Freedom. 

Since there’s so much space, you can virtually drive any way you want, anywhere you want. There’s no other place where you can travel this freely.

12. Easy to travel further. 

Mongolia is in the general vicinity of plenty of other great overlanding destinations. Distance is relative but once you’re in Mongolia, you have all the Stans, lake Baikal, Russia’s Altai Region and possibly China only a stone’s throw away.

There aren’t many destinations left in the world that offer unique experiences, traditional culture and authentic festivals. Mongolia is one country keeping its traditions alive.

Bouncing around in an old Russian van for a week, covered in dust, and drinking fermented camel’s milk is one of the most memorable experiences from my travels in Mongolia.

Joining a tour with four other adventurous travelers from France and Germany, we loaded up the van and said goodbye to the comfort of our hostel (and its showers), before embarking on an adventure we’d never forget. Our destination was the Gobi Desert, which spans from northern China to the south of Mongolia.

Leaving the industrial city of Ulaanbaatar, and heading into the countryside, was literally a breath of fresh air. Dotting the lush green landscape were white gers (yurts) and herds of sheep and goats – which would be our primary source of food during the trip.

To my surprise, the landscape continuously changed. Initially, I envisioned the Gobi Desert to be just that – a desolate, parched terrain. However, we found ourselves passing through grassy hills, sandy dunes, towering cliffs and Yolyn Am, a rocky gorge, covered in ice for 10 months of the year. During our trip, the ice had melted and we rode horses alongside the river; something I never expected to do in a desert.

At times, we were the only people around for miles. All we could see was the bright blue sky, rocky gravel and patches of shrubs. As soon as our vehicle’s engine was turned off, the silence was eerie but beautiful. It was at that moment, when we were in the middle of nowhere, that one of the shocks on our van completely gave out.

We couldn’t drive any further.

Thankfully, we had done our research and ensured that our van had a GPS, satellite phone, basic tools, drinking water, and of course, a spare tyre and shocks. Our driver ordered us out of the vehicle, got on his back underneath the van and proceeded to change the part.

Once the vehicle was sorted out, we were able to continue exploring the highlights of the Gobi Desert, all of which were spectacular.

The aptly named Flaming Cliffs were picturesque when the golden sun illuminated the rock, creating a flaming red color. it’s where dinosaur eggs were first discovered in 1923. We also rode double-humped Bactrian camels at the Khongoryn Els sand dunes, at the base of the towering Altai Mountains which was a very memorable experience.

The best part of the Gobi Desert tour wasn’t about these popular sites.

The most memorable part of travel is often the “in-between” bits, and this was especially true in the Gobi. We watched a local family assembling a ger, and pulled over to lend a hand. We asked our guide to find us some traditional fermented mare’s milk to try, and she found a nomadic family who had a barrel full in preparation for the Naadam festivities. We played with inquisitive children, befriended a baby goat, and sat in a circle with a couple of local men and sniffed snuff, scented tobacco inhaled through the nose, which is offered as a greeting in Mongolia.

Mongolia is a fascinating place to visit, and a journey here can be as adventurous as you’d like it to be.

1. The Naadam Festival is not what you might expect.

Lots of people travels to Mongolia to experience the annual Naadam Festival, a mix of pageantry, competition and national celebration that is like no other. The Opening Celebration has a fabulous parade and is reminiscent of a half-time show at an American football game, but from there on, Naadam is a world away from American festivals. The competitions, called the “Three Games of Man,“ may have familiar names – archery, horse racing and wrestling – but they are carried out in a strictly Mongolian fashion (of course). Male and female archers shoot arrows from tall bows that haven‘t changed much since Genghis Khan‘s warriors used them to conquer the known world. School-age jockeys urge their horses along an overland route that can be 17 miles long. And powerful wrestlers in skimpy costumes flap their arms gravely in the ritual Eagle Dance before grappling with each other. They don‘t do it that way in Sioux City. There are Naadam festival in most provinces of Mongolia and the smaller ones might be the better ones, because there will be less crowd and more opportunities to take great photos and feel the Naadam.

2. 4X4s rock.

Literally, one of the things most tourists say is that they should have brought along was pills for motion sickness. There are very few roads in Mongolia, and long off-road drives are fun and exciting – as long as you aren’t seasick. Just pop a pill before getting started on a Gobi excursion or a drive to the ruins of Genghis Khan‘s capital, Kara Korum, and you‘ll be able to fully appreciate the huge bowl of blue sky and the endless vistas of the Mongolian outback.

3. Weather outlook: Sunny and windswept

The steppe has few trees. The Gobi has few trees. There is no shade out there, and nothing that might slow down the ever-present wind. So bring a scarf or bandanna, a windbreaker, a hat that covers your neck, sunscreen and lip balm. They take up so little space and are worth 10 times their weight in gold when you need them..

4. Mongolians love horses

If you have a good local guide, you will most likely be stopping to visit with nomadic herders on your travels across Mongolia. All of them have tough little Mongolian horses. Usually it‘s possible, for perhaps $15 or so, to take one of them for a ride. Even if you‘re not a horse person, one of the kids can lead you around for a while just so you can say you‘ve done it. However, it‘s a good idea to know how to say stop (zogs) – not to the horse, but to the kid who is leading you. (Tchoo means giddy up, and apparently the horse next to you will giddy up too, if you say this.)

5. Ger manners and milk products are important.

As you approach a ger settlement, you should remember that the proper way to greet the inhabitants is to yell, “Nokhoigoo!“ – “Call off your dog!“ Inside a nomadic ger home, do not lean against the ger wall or furniture or remain standing over the threshold. Sitting with your feet out in front of you is considered impolite; tuck them in when seated on a stool, or kneel. If you are offered food, it is best to accept, even if you don‘t finish it. Take food offered with your right hand. Tand bayarlaa means “thank you,” but you don‘t need to say it often – nomadic people far from the city take it for granted that they will be offered hospitality in a stranger‘s ger, and they offer it to you as a matter of course.

Herders out on the steppe eat mainly meat (usually mutton and goat) and milk products. Mongolians have found creative ways to use the milk of all of their domestic animals such as yak, camel, horse, cow, goat and sheep. You may be offered salted tea with horse or camel milk; aaruul, the sour coin-shaped milk curds that you sometimes see drying on top of the ger; airag, fermented mare‘s milk; and sweet or sour yogurt.


Nomad’s hospitality is legendary. Complete strangers wisk you inside like long lost kin, sit you at the place of honor, ply you with food and drink, and treat you like royalty. Yet, to offer a dime would be an offense. Little gifts for the children, pens or crayons, a notebook or coloring book, or dried fruits for the family, are received with such gratitude as can hardly be endured. Be ready to take turns singing songs. Row, row, row your boat…!
If your are still around at dusk, space will be made for sleeping. Your hosts will never ask how long you’re staying. They don’t know you from Adam and they don’t speak your language. It doesn’t matter. Hospitality is not a quaint custom, among these people; it’s a way of life – foundational part of the structure of existence that has enabled them to survive in these rough conditions of millennia.

Join us on a truly groundbreaking journey, travelling through the forgotten lands of Kazakhstan, Russia, Mongolia and China to the heart of the Altai Mountains and a land steeped in shamanism and ancient traditions.
The highlands of Mongolian and Chinese parts are rather dry steppes with snow-capped mountains whereas the lower elevation western parts in Russia are largely forested and spectacular, being part of southernmost Siberia, with its own micro-climate.
The Russian,Kazakhstan parts are significantly more humid and wet. There are excellent apples and many berries of different kinds. Kazakhs, Russians and Altai peoples inhabit Russian Altai and other three sides are also mostly Kazakh, but also Tuvans, Mongols and many other ethnic minorities. The local people in the entire region speak a myriad of local languages such as Slavic, Mongol,Chinese, Turkic and Altai language groups.

We start in Kazakhstan and Russia, driving through the taiga to discover old traditions mixing with the modern, visiting a hidden monastery and meeting local shamans. We head into the mountains to discover the ancient graves and archaeological sites of a forgotten culture, and drive through stunning and utterly remote landscapes, looking out for wildlife and meeting people along the way.
Crossing into Mongolia we meet the Kazakh people of the west, famed for their practice of hunting with golden eagles, and spend the night as guests of an eagle hunter, or berkutchi, to learn more about this fascinating practice. We explore the untamed lands of Tavan Bogd and Tsambagarav, with mountains that are home to isolated populations of Tuvan and Uriankkhai people, as well as the iconic snow leopard.
From here we head south and cross into China to explore the Chinese part of the Altai Mountains, crossing the desert basin of Dzungharia to picturesque lakes and jagged peaks – some of China’s wildest lands and utterly different from the rest of the country. Before finishing we explore the secrets of the old Silk Road at Turpan, a remote oasis that is home to some of the region’s most important archaeological finds.
This is an enchanting journey to a region that lies at the very edge of the countries it overlaps, with a unique culture that is steeped in the practices of days gone by – off the map in more senses than one. Adventure travel at its finest.