MONGOLIA AT A GLANCE – FAMILY JEEP TOUR

Arrive in Ulaanbaatar and transfer to a 4 star hotel in city center. After a short rest we take a guided excursion to some of the city’s highlights: the Gandan Temple – city’s main Buddhist center, the central square with the memorial complex of Chinghis Khan and Zaisan hill on the city’s edge for a panoramic view of UB. Children will certainly enjoy the museum of Traditional Toys and Puzzles as well as the winter palace of Mongolia’s last king with an odd collection of his ceremonial clothes, items of personal use and a private collection of stuffed animals. A folklore show of traditional music, throat singing and contortion will be followed by a welcome dinner.
(Lunch, dinner / hotel)

Accompanied by your guide travel to central Mongolia. The landscape is dominated by vast arid grasslands with rugged mountains and rolling hills in the background. Circular felt walled tents of herding nomads and their large herds of cattle, horses, sheep and goats are a common sight. Our destination, the “Little Gobi” is a spectacular area of sand dunes and granite rock formations that resemble the Gobi desert proper. Here we visit a nomadic family home, known as the ger. It is a simple but reliable dwelling, perfect in extreme weather conditions and suitable for frequent moves from one place to another. Taste ‘airag’, the fermented horse milk the area is famous for and learn about local life and traditions. Then local cowboys will stage a “Horsemanship show” for you. Nomadic kids start riding at the age of four and develop superb riding abilities by their teens. They will demonstrate lassoing horses, picking tiny items from ground at full gallop and breaking in a horse. For dinner tonight a delicacy of Mongolian cuisine – “khorkhog” or chunks of meat and vegetables pressure cooked with heated rocks will be served. We spend the night in a ger camp, a hotel-like setting where you will be accommodated in gers furnished as cozy hotel rooms.
(Breakfast, lunch, dinner / ger camp)

After breakfast we travel to Karakorum, the site of the Mongol Empire capital in 1200s. Largely an experiment of city building by nomadic people, Karakorum never became a fully functional capital before it was destroyed by invading Chinese armies in late 14th century. Today the main attraction here is the monastery museum of Erdene Zuu established in 16th century by a Mongol khan as part of introduction of Buddhism as the main religion. The monastery then suffered almost a complete destruction during the anti-religion campaign of 1930-ies with just a dozen of temples surviving till present. We visit the monastery and a local museum to take a glance at a few surviving artifacts of the old capital before continuing on to Oginur, a small freshwater lake surrounded by bare hills. The lake is stopover point for migrating water birds such as Relic Gull, Whooper Swan and several species of geese and ducks. We settle in a ger camp right on the lake’s shore for dinner and overnight.
(Breakfast, lunch, dinner / ger camp)

We travel to Hustai NP. It is here that in 1993 a small number of last remaining wild horses known as “Przewalski horses” was brought from several European zoos and re-introduced to their historic homeland after they had been extinct for 5 decades. Today is the most successful wild life preservation project ever seen in Mongolia with over 300 wild horses living in wilderness withstanding predators and harsh climate. Impressively, the park is also home to 220 species of birds, 1200 Red deer and 20,000 marmots. On arrival we get a short introduction to the park’s activities before setting out on a wild life watching hike. We can expect to see Przewalski horses, Red deer, marmots and birds including eagles, vultures and Falcons. Dine in the park’s restaurant and overnight in cozy gers.
(Breakfast, lunch, dinner / ger camp)

After breakfast we return to Ulaanbaatar. The rest of the day is at your own for additional city visits and possibly shopping. Your guide will accompany you until good-bye dinner at the end of the day.
(Breakfast, dinner / hotel)

Transfer for your return travel home.
(Breakfast)