Gift Ideas For Mongolia: What To Bring For When Meeting Families
If you are travelling in Mongolia and staying with or meeting a family, you may be wondering whether you should bring a gift.
The first thing to know is that Mongolian families do not expect gifts in return for their hospitality. You do not need to arrive carrying presents. However, if you would like to offer something, a small and thoughtful gift can be a lovely way of saying thank you.
For families living in rural Mongolia, practical gifts are often the most useful. Shops may be a considerable distance away, household budgets can be tight, and there is little benefit in giving novelty souvenirs or items that will quickly break.
You don’t need to bring lots. A few carefully chosen items are plenty. And remember: you can buy gifts in Ulaanbaatar or a provincial town once you arrive in Mongolia. This saves luggage space, supports the local economy and often means you can buy something more useful.
If you are travelling as part of a group, there is no need for everyone to give separate gifts. We usually suggest pooling a few items together and presenting them as a gift from the group. This keeps the gesture simple and avoids overwhelming the family with lots of individual presents.
Another idea is to bring something that helps break the ice — a game, photographs from home or something you can use together during your stay and then leave with the family when you depart.
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What Are the Best Gifts for Mongolian Families?
Some of the best gifts are everyday things that a household will actually use.
A particularly practical option is a large bag of rice or flour, bought once you are in Mongolia. It may not sound like an exciting present, but it is useful to the whole household and means the family has one less staple to buy themselves.
Other good options include warm socks, moisturiser, sewing supplies, tea, useful household items and simple games that everyone can enjoy together.
Gifts can also be a way of creating a shared moment. A pack of cards, UNO, photographs from home or a simple game can help everyone relax and get to know each other, especially if you and your hosts do not share a common language.
The gift itself does not need to be expensive. Practical, durable and shareable is usually best.
Do I Need to Bring Gifts for Every Member of the Family?
No.
Mongolian households often include several generations, and it may not always be obvious to a visitor exactly how everyone is related. Mongolians generally think of everyone living under the same roof as part of the family.
Rather than trying to identify individual family members and buy a present for each person, we recommend bringing a small selection of gifts that can be shared or used by different generations.
If you are travelling in a group, pool your gifts rather than everyone handing over something separately.
And don’t worry if your host accepts your gift and quietly puts it to one side. This is quite normal. Gifts are not necessarily opened or examined immediately in front of the person who gave them, and your hosts may look at everything properly once you have left.
What Gifts Should You Avoid Bringing to Mongolia?
Try to avoid cheap plastic toys, novelty souvenirs and things that are likely to break quickly.
Waste disposal can be difficult in rural Mongolia. A cheap plastic toy that lasts a few days can quickly become rubbish that the family then has to deal with, so choose reusable, durable items wherever possible.
We also suggest avoiding gifts simply because they look vaguely “Mongolian” or because they seem like something a rural family ought to want. Useful is better than decorative.
What About Sweets and Vodka?
You will see plenty of sweets and vodka in Mongolian shops, and both are commonly given as gifts by Mongolians themselves.
Vodka, in particular, has a strong place in Mongolian gift-giving culture and may be warmly received. However, alcohol misuse is also a real social problem, and as a visitor you are unlikely to know whether someone in the household struggles with alcohol. For that reason, we ask our guests not to give vodka or other alcohol as a gift.
Sweets are slightly different.
If you would like to give sweets, please don’t hand them directly to children. Instead, buy one larger packet and give it to the woman who manages the household. She can then decide when and how they are shared, rather than the children eating everything at once.
Access to dental care can also be limited in rural Mongolia, so we suggest keeping sugary gifts relatively small and treating them as an occasional extra rather than a main gift.
Games and Ice-Breaker Gifts
Games can be some of the best gifts because you can use them with your host family before leaving them behind.
Good options include:
- UNO
- A pack of playing cards — SNAP is particularly easy to play across a language barrier
- Snakes and Ladders
- Jigsaws
- Pick-up sticks
- Twister
You don’t necessarily need a shared language. Sometimes half the fun is working out the rules together.
Gift Ideas for Children in Mongolia
If you want to bring something for children, choose items that are simple, sturdy and reusable.
Where possible, we prefer wooden, fabric or long-lasting items rather than cheap plastic toys.
Ideas include:
- Frisbees
- Footballs, basketballs or volleyballs
- Colouring books
- Plain notebooks
- Colouring pencils or crayons rather than felt-tip pens that quickly dry out
- Mongolian-language picture books bought locally
- Paint-by-numbers sets
- Hairbands and hair clips
- Small, sturdy toy animals or vehicles
- Yo-yos
- Pick-up sticks
- Simple jigsaws
We would generally choose a reusable ball or frisbee rather than balloons, which are fun for a few minutes but quickly become waste.
And, as above, if you want to give sweets, give one larger packet to the adult managing the household rather than handing individual sweets directly to children.
Practical Gifts for Adults
There is no need to divide presents strictly into gifts for men and gifts for women, but these are some items that can be genuinely useful in rural Mongolia:
- Woolly hats
- Good-quality warm socks
- Scarves and headscarves
- Handkerchiefs
- Small battery or wind-up torches
- Sewing kits with needles, thread and small scissors
- Moisturiser and hand cream
- Small mirrors
- Embroidery or tapestry kits
- Good-quality toiletries
- Sunglasses
- Simple over-the-counter reading glasses in different strengths
- Good-quality lighters
- Warm work gloves or over-mitts
- A small pocket knife or multi-tool can also be useful.
Useful Household Gifts
Some of the least glamorous gifts can be the most practical.
Consider:
- A large bag of rice
- A bulk bag of flour
- Loose tea
- Candles
- Basic first-aid supplies
- Hand sanitiser
- Warm gloves
- Household sewing supplies
- Good-quality lighters
If bringing tea from your home country, we suggest something fairly traditional rather than something heavily scented, floral or unusually flavoured.
Candles can also be useful, particularly in places where electricity is intermittent. Choose practical, unscented or lightly scented candles rather than decorative ones.
Bring Something From Home
You don’t have to buy a gift at all.
One of the easiest ways to connect with your hosts is to bring photographs or postcards showing where you live and what your own everyday life looks like.
Photos of your family, town, garden, countryside or workplace can create far more conversation than an expensive present. You can also show photographs and short videos on your phone.
If you would like to leave a small memento from home, possibilities include:
- A postcard
- A photograph
- A good-quality tea towel from your home region
- Coasters
- A sturdy keyring
Again, choose something that has a purpose rather than simply bringing another souvenir.
Are Polaroid Cameras Good for Mongolia?
Yes — if you already own one.
Most Mongolian families now have smartphones and take plenty of photographs, but printed photographs are still less common.
Taking a family photograph with an instant camera and being able to hand over the print there and then can be great fun. It also creates a personal memento of your time together.
You certainly do not need to buy a Polaroid camera specifically for your Mongolia trip, though.
Should I Bring a Solar Charger as a Gift?
We are sometimes asked whether solar chargers, solar lights and similar devices make good gifts for nomadic families in Mongolia.
They can be useful, but we do not routinely recommend bringing them without checking first.
Quality varies considerably, while cables, connectors, batteries and charging requirements may not match the equipment a household already owns. If one component breaks, obtaining the right replacement in a remote area can also be difficult.
An unsuitable solar gadget can therefore end up becoming electronic waste rather than a useful gift.
If you particularly want to provide solar equipment, speak to us first. We can check with the family or community concerned and find out what would genuinely be useful.
Can I Donate Clothes, Toys or Other Items in Mongolia?
If you are considering bringing large quantities of clothing, toys, school supplies or other donations, please speak to us first rather than distributing them independently.
A gift to a host family should remain a small token of appreciation. If you want to make a more substantial donation, there are organisations and community projects that are better placed to understand what is genuinely needed and how items can be distributed appropriately.
We can help connect guests with projects we know and support, including Asral NGO and the Uuliin Nuur community project.
So, What Should I Bring as a Gift to Mongolia?
You do not need to bring anything.
But if you would like to give something to a Mongolian host family, keep it simple.
The best gifts for rural and nomadic families in Mongolia are usually:
- Practical
- Durable
- Useful to more than one person
- Easy to share
- Not heavily packaged
- Not something that will quickly become waste
Remember, the gift itself is simply a small way of saying thank you for welcoming you into their home.
Jess @ Eternal Landscapes Mongolia
