8-Day Naadam Opening Plus Karakorum & the Gobi
Day-by-Day Itinerary
Naadam Festival: Opening Ceremony, Wrestling & Archery
We pick you up from your accommodation (the pickup time is confirmed before the festival) and take you to the Central Stadium in Ulaanbaatar, where the grand opening ceremony is held every year. Expect a colorful spectacle of mounted riders, soldiers in the costume of the Mongol Empire, musicians, and dancers, followed by the first rounds of wrestling. Hundreds of wrestlers in tight jackets and boots compete in a single knockout tournament with no weight classes and no time limits, and each bout begins and ends with the eagle dance. For lunch, try Naadam khuushuur, the fried mutton pastry that Mongolians consider the one food you simply must eat at the festival. Afterward, visit the archery ground next to the main stadium, where men and women in traditional dress shoot at small leather targets laid on the ground, and the judges sing out each score. Then enjoy some free time to stroll around the festival grounds before we take you back to your accommodation ahead of dinner.
Naadam Horse Racing β Khustai National Park β Nomadic Family
We pick you up from your accommodation and drive 35 km on a paved road to Khui Doloon Khudag, a wide open valley outside the city where the Naadam horse races are run. Horse racing is the Mongols' favorite event of the festival: young child jockeys ride bareback over distances of up to around 30 km, and the crowd surges toward the finish as the dust cloud of the leading horses appears on the horizon. After lunch, drive 60 km (1 hour on a paved road) to Khustai National Park, where takhi wild horses have been reintroduced since 1992. Known in the West as Przewalski's horse, the takhi is the last wild horse subspecies to survive into the 21st century, first described in western Mongolia in the late 1870s by the Russian explorer N. M. Przhevalsky. Spend time hiking in the surrounding hills to find the wild horses, and with luck you may also see maral deer and other animals. Then drive 25 km (1 hour on a dirt road) to a nomadic family for dinner in their ger, followed by an hour's horse ride through the Tuul River valley and up a hill for the view. No riding experience is required.
Khustai β Karakorum (Kharkhorin)
After breakfast, drive about 345 km (6 hours on a paved road) west to Kharkhorin, the site of Karakorum, capital of the Great Mongol Empire, where a small township stands today. The city flourished in the 13th century as a meeting point of merchants, envoys, and religions from across Eurasia. About 200 years after it was sacked, builders reused materials from its ruins to found Erdene Zuu Monastery in 1586, the first Buddhist monastery in Mongolia, enclosed by a wall topped with 108 white stupas. Visit Erdene Zuu, where temples are once again home to chanting monks, then the Karakorum Museum, whose models and finds bring the old imperial capital to life, and the other historical sights around the town, such as the ancient Turtle Rock that once marked the city's boundary.
Karakorum β Nomadic Family β Ongi Monastery Ruins
After breakfast, drive about 40 km (1 hour, mostly on a paved road) to a nomadic family. Enjoy their warm hospitality and learn how herders live with their animals by joining in whatever daily tasks are under way, just like a nomad. Then drive about 200 km (5 hours on dirt roads) south to the ruins of Ongi Monastery on the banks of the Ongi River. Founded in 1760, it was once one of the largest monasteries in the Gobi, until it was destroyed in the communist purges of 1937, and the raw violence of that destruction is still visible across the site today. Hike among the ruins, visit the small local ger museum displaying objects saved from the monastery, and step inside the small, active Buddhist temple that has been rebuilt here.
Ongi β Bayanzag (Flaming Cliffs)
After breakfast, drive about 155 km (4 hours on dirt roads) to Bayanzag. American explorer Roy Chapman Andrews named this place the 'Flaming Cliffs' during his Central Asiatic Expeditions of the 1920s, and many important dinosaur finds were made here for the first time, including Protoceratops skeletons and the first dinosaur eggs ever discovered. The red sandstone cliffs are imposing from a distance and glow especially fiery in the light of the setting sun, while the saxaul shrubs that give Bayanzag ('rich in saxaul') its name dot the plain below. Walk around the site and along the cliff edge in the evening.
Khongor Sand Dunes: Camel Ride & Dune Climb
After breakfast, drive about 150 km (5 hours on dirt roads) to Khongor, the largest sand dune field in the Gobi Desert. The dunes stretch nearly 100 km long and 5 to 10 km wide, with crests rising 80 to 300 m above the surrounding land. On windy days, the moving sand produces a deep booming sound that carries a long way, which is why locals call them the 'Singing Sands.' A green oasis fed by the Khongor River lines their northern edge, a striking contrast to the golden sand. Today you ride Bactrian camels to explore the dunes, and the energetic can climb one of the crests for an unforgettable view across an endless sea of sand.
Khongor β Yol Gorge
After breakfast, drive about 190 km (5 hours on dirt roads) to Yol Gorge in the Gurvan Saikhan mountain range. 'Yol' means bearded vulture in Mongolian, and the gorge stretches for more than 10 km. At its narrowest point only three or four people can walk side by side, and the high rock walls shade the valley floor from direct sun, so ice formed by its small stream in winter often survives until mid-July. Enjoy an hour's hike through the gorge, watch for ibex and vultures on the cliffs, and visit the small natural history museum at the park entrance. An optional horse ride is possible here.
Yol Gorge β Ulaanbaatar (by Road, or Optional Flight)
After breakfast, set off on the full-day drive back to Ulaanbaatar, about 600 km on a paved road, watching the desert slowly turn back into green steppe along the way. We drop you at your accommodation on arrival. If you prefer to save time, you can instead take an optional one-way domestic flight: we drive you about 50 km (1 hour on a paved road) to the Gurvan Saikhan airfield for the 1-hour flight to Ulaanbaatar, where our driver meets you and transfers you to your accommodation. Flights usually leave in the morning, and the ticket is not included in the tour price.