Umnugovi
The Khongor sand dunes
The singing dunes: up to three hundred metres high, twenty kilometres wide and a hundred long, with a green river line at the foot fed from inside the mountains. Camels in the afternoon, the climb at sunset.
Desert and steppe
Gobi and
central Mongolia.
The two halves that make a first trip: dunes, cliffs and fossil beds in the south, then the valley, the monastery and the horses on the way north.
300 mHeight of the Khongor dunes
1920First dinosaur eggs, at Bayanzag
7–13 daysWhat the combination needs
UlaanbaatarStarts and ends
Why almost nobody does only the Gobi.
The desert is the reason people come and the steppe is the reason they stay. Four or five days south gets you the white cliffs, the ice gorge at Yolyn Am, the Flaming Cliffs and the singing dunes — and by then you have earned green country, a river and a monastery.
The route back north runs through Ongi, Kharakhorum and the Orkhon valley, which means the second half of the trip is the opposite of the first without a single wasted driving day. It is why the seven-day Gobi and Terelj is the most booked itinerary we run.
What you'll stop for
Palaeontology
Bayanzag, the Flaming Cliffs
Named for the saxaul whose roots hold the soil down. Roy Chapman Andrews lifted the first recognised dinosaur eggs out of this rock in 1920, along with Velociraptor. The cliffs turn orange an hour before sunset.
Dundgovi
Tsagaan Suvarga
A thirty-metre cliff a hundred metres wide that reads as a ruined city from a distance. It is an old seabed, and the colour bands in the rock are millions of years of sediment.
Middle Gobi
Ongi monastery
Twenty-eight temples on the bank of the Ongiin river, home to about a thousand lamas until the purges of the 1930s. The stupas and parts of the walls are still standing.
Kharkhorin
Kharakhorum and the Orkhon
The imperial capital and the UNESCO valley below it — the green half of the trip, and where the horses and the waterfall are.
Nomadic life
A night with a herding family
A working household rather than a performance: the animals out and back, milk turned into curd and cheese and airag, and more food put in front of you than you can finish.
Tours that go here
All tours →
When to come
April to October, and September is the pick.
April and May are cool and clear in the desert. July and August are hot in the south and busy everywhere. September gives you warm days, cold nights, gold steppe and camps that are emptying out.
Where you'll sleep
Ger campsEvery night except the family stay. Beds, stoves and hot showers, even deep in the Gobi.
With a herding familyOne night in the ger the family live in, usually on the way back north.
Hotel in UlaanbaatarAvailable at either end for an extra charge.
Tell us how long you have.
Tell us your dates and how long you have. We'll shape a route around them, or point you at the group departure that fits.
