Untamed Mongolia | Small Group Tour | 23 Days | June & July Departure

Untamed Mongolia is our ultimate road trip — a journey through the Gobi Desert, the open steppe and the northern landscapes around sacred Lake Khovsgol, combining overland travel with wild camping, small-town life, time with families we work with through long-term local community partnerships, and a dash of culture.

This is one of our Wild Tracks adventures, designed for travellers who want to stay longer, travel further and experience Mongolia beyond a sequence of headline sights. Mongolians often describe their country through three great landscape zones — desert, steppe and mountains — and over the course of the journey you move through all three, gaining a strong sense of the country’s scale and diversity.

Untamed Mongolia is deliberately slower and more immersive. Rather than racing between locations, you have time to see how landscape, distance and seasonal rhythms shape life. You will spend time with rural families we have known for many years, gaining insight into their routines, pressures, traditions, freedoms and challenges.

There is also a strong sense of adventure. You will travel long distances by road, camp wild in remote places, take day walks, spend time in small-town Mongolia and stay in simple rural accommodation. Plans may change with weather, road conditions or local circumstances, and that flexibility is part of the journey rather than something we try to remove.

The result is a journey that offers both scale and intimacy: the freedom of Mongolia’s vast landscapes alongside meaningful time with the people who live within them. It is a chance to experience 21st-century Mongolia as a living, changing country — not as a staged version of nomadic life, but through the places, communities and everyday realities that shape it.

The June departure finishes with the State Naadam Festival in Ulaanbaatar, taking you from the quiet of remote Mongolia into one of the country’s biggest annual celebrations of sport, culture and national identity.

• See Ulaanbaatar from a more local perspective
• The rock formations of Baga Gazriin Chuluu
• Dalanzadgad including Gobi Museum of Nature and History
• Walk through Yolyn Am (Eagle Gorge) looking for Lammergeiers overhead and the cute Mongolian Pika on the ground 
• The singing sand dunes of Khongoryn Els 
• Walk in the footsteps of dinosaurs at Bayanzag (the Flaming Cliffs)
• Khavtsgait Petroglyphs
• Homestay in the wide open desert steppe horizons of Erdenedalai
•  Explore the sacred mountain of Khogno Khan
• Discover the history and culture of Kharkhorin
• Experience the way of like of a yak herding family in the Khangai Mountains
• Walk up the volcano of Terkhiin Tsagaan Nuur (White Lake)
• Enjoy the peace of Zuun Nuur
• Take time out at Khövsgöl Nuuru National Park

June Departure 

• Travel to Khui Doloon Khudag for one of Naadam’s most distinctive traditions — the long-distance horse races and the atmosphere that surrounds them.
• Spend two flexible days experiencing Mongolia’s State Naadam including wrestling, archery, pageantry and the wider festival atmosphere. 

July Departure 

• Camp alongside Mongolia's mighty Selenge River
• Spot wild horses at Khustai National Park

• Final group size of 2 guests:
• Final group size of 3-4  guests:
• Final group size of 5  guests:
• Final group size of 6  guests:

During this journey, you’ll experience a variety of accommodation styles, each offering insight into daily life in Mongolia and shaped by the season and setting:

Mongolian Family Ger Camps

Throughout the experience you’ll stay in a traditional Mongolian gers provided by our partnering families. Each family typically sets up 4–5 guest gers, thoughtfully adapted for the season. While the setup is simple, you’ll always have your own bed and a comfortable personal space.

Facilities: Showers are available every 2–3 days at the local public shower house. Toilets are traditional outdoor short-drop latrines.

Ulaanbaatar

Accommodation in Ulaanbaatar on April 25 and May 43  are not included although we provide recommendations and can help with booking.

Meals

Each EL team travels with a simple mobile kitchen, and most meals outside Ulaanbaatar are either prepared by your trip assistant or eaten in local restaurants along the way. We also stop at guanz — local roadside cafés — and, where appropriate, share meals with the families we stay with.

We deliberately don't expect rural families to provide meals for our guests. Access to shops and fresh supplies can be limited, and dietary requirements have become increasingly varied. Preparing much of the food ourselves gives our host families less work and gives us more flexibility over what we can provide.

Our trip assistants are not trained chefs, but they cook for their own families and know how to keep you well fed on the road. Food is simple, filling and based around ingredients we can realistically buy as we travel. We grocery shop every few days in towns along the route, which helps us keep supplies fresh while also giving you a glimpse into everyday life in Mongolia.

Fresh fruit and vegetables can be limited outside Ulaanbaatar and larger towns, particularly in more remote areas and depending on the season. If five portions of fruit and vegetables every day are essential to you, rural Mongolia may be challenging.

We can usually accommodate vegetarians and a range of dietary requirements, including vegan, gluten-free and lactose-free diets, but please speak with us before booking. Choice can be limited and meals may become repetitive — there may be rather more boiled rice than you are used to! We would much rather explain the realities beforehand than promise a level of variety that isn't always possible once you are on the road.

In Ulaanbaatar, meals are generally not included unless specifically shown in the itinerary. On this journey, the included UB meal is lunch during your Intro to Ulaanbaatar day.

Vegetarian Options in Mongolia

Drinks & Drinking Water

We provide drinking water throughout the journey, collected from the water stations found in towns along our route. Rather than routinely buying single-use bottles, each team carries larger reusable water containers.

We recommend bringing a filtered reusable water bottle. We can provide a 15% discount, with details sent when you book and linked below. Alternatively, bring a standard reusable bottle and some Aqua Tablets for additional water purification.

If you would prefer bottled water, you can buy it yourself in shops along the way.

As well as drinking water, we provide tea and coffee with meals and at various times throughout the day.

Soft drinks such as juice and fizzy drinks are not included but are widely available. Alcohol is also excluded apart from the welcome drink during your Intro to Ulaanbaatar day. Beer, vodka and other drinks can be bought in shops and supermarkets along the route, although the choice becomes more limited in rural areas. Your team makes regular shopping stops during the journey.

Why We Ask Travellers to Bring a Reusable Water Bottle to Mongolia

Transport

Our driving team is made up of experienced Mongolian men we know personally and have worked with for many years. Their English is limited, but their driving knowledge is exceptional — from navigating rough terrain to mongolchlokh, improvising the Mongolian way when a tyre bursts or a vehicle breaks down.

And breakdowns can happen. Mongolia is hard on vehicles, particularly away from paved roads. What matters to us is having drivers who know their vehicles, understand the terrain and can usually deal with problems as they arise.

Each driver owns his own vehicle. Depending on the journey, this may include a UAZ Furgon 4×4 van, Hyundai Starex or Mitsubishi Delica. Because the vehicles are individually owned, interiors and seating layouts vary, including forward- and rear-facing seats. Vehicles are fitted with either lap belts or standard seat belts.

If you are expecting a luxury or high-end 4×4, that is not our style of travel. We choose our drivers first for their experience, reliability and knowledge, and then for the vehicle they own. Using driver-owned vehicles also helps provide long-term work and income for experienced local drivers and their families.

We contribute towards vehicle maintenance, and the vehicles used for our journeys undergo the required annual inspections and licensing for tourism use in Mongolia.

Learn more about our drivers and their tour vehicles here.

Travel Times

Road travel is a central part of experiencing Mongolia. It is a vast country, and getting from one place to another is very much part of the journey.

The daily travel times shown in the itinerary are estimates rather than promises. We deliberately allow generous timings because road surfaces, weather, traffic, river levels and occasional vehicle issues can all affect progress.

Average speeds are usually around 30–65 km/h, depending on conditions. On unpaved routes, the road may vary from relatively smooth gravel to corrugated tracks, rocky sections, mud, sand or uneven ground, sometimes all within the same day.

You really do need to be comfortable with road travel to enjoy this style of journey.

Transportation to and from the airport or train station: on arrival and departure days