Mongolia with children in 10 days

This route cuts the long Gobi legs and puts the days where children actually get something: Terelj for the rocks and the first ger night, the Orkhon valley for horses, a herder family for the animals, and one flight to reach the dunes without two days in a van. No driving day is longer than four hours and most are two.

Who it suits: families with children roughly six and up. Younger works with more rest days. Teenagers do very well here.

Your specialist: Osnat Angerman or Paz Prosianoy, our Southeast and Central Asia specialists, working with our long-standing partner in Ulaanbaatar.

Day by day

Day 1: Arrive Ulaanbaatar. An hour from the airport into the city. Nothing else.

Day 2: Ulaanbaatar. The National Museum in the morning, which has armour, arrows and a full ger set up inside, and which children get more out of than adults expect. Gandan monastery, where the pigeons are the main event for anyone under ten. Afternoon at the Chinggis Khaan statue at Tsonjin Boldog on the way east: 131 feet (40 m) of stainless steel horseman, with a lift up through the body and out onto the horse’s head. Continue to Terelj, about ninety minutes in total.

Day 3: Terelj. Granite outcrops, meadows and a river. Turtle Rock, which is climbable at the base, the walk up to the Aryabal meditation temple, which is 108 steps and a suspension bridge, and an afternoon of led horse riding on the meadow. First ger night is here on purpose: Terelj camps are the most comfortable in the country and it is ninety minutes from a hospital.

Day 4: Terelj to the Orkhon valley. The longest drive of the trip, about five hours west with a proper lunch stop, mostly on paved road. Stop at Khustai National Park to look for the wild takhi horses, which were extinct in the wild and brought back here.

Day 5: Orkhon valley. Erdene Zuu monastery in the morning, walled by 108 stupas and built in 1586. Afternoon riding in the valley, and a visit to a herder family: milking, the animals, the inside of a working ger, and children who will want to play whether or not they share a language. Archery in the afternoon if the camp has a range.

Day 6: Orkhon valley to Ulaanbaatar. Five hours back east with a stop at the Elsen Tasarkhai dunes for a Bactrian camel ride, which is a walk of about twenty minutes and is exactly as much camel as most children want. Night in the city.

Day 7: Fly to the Gobi. A short flight to Dalanzadgad, then two hours by road. Yolyn Am in the afternoon, a gorge in the mountains with a flat gravel path along the stream, ice in it into July in a good year, and pikas in the rocks. Ninety minutes each way at a child’s pace.

Day 8: The Gobi, dunes day. Three to four hours west to the Khongoryn Els dunes, which is the one long track day and we break it. Camels at the foot of the dunes in the late afternoon, then the climb up the ridge at sunset, which is forty minutes of hard work in soft sand and which children generally beat their parents at.

Day 9: Bayanzag, then fly back. Three hours to the red cliffs where the first dinosaur eggs were found in the 1920s, which is the single best sell for a child on this trip, then to the airstrip and the flight north. Last night in Ulaanbaatar.

Day 10: Departure. Transfer to the airport.

What is included

All accommodation with family gers or two adjoining gers, full board in the countryside and breakfast in the city, a private vehicle sized for your group with a Mongolian driver, an English-speaking guide throughout, both domestic flights, all park and museum entries, the horse riding, the camel rides, the herder family visit, a day-by-day document with real drive hours and the bathroom arrangement stated for every night, and a WhatsApp group with your specialist and our partner’s operations team, network permitting.

What we would change, and when

• Children under six? Cut the Gobi entirely, keep Terelj and the Orkhon valley, and add a second night at each. Ten becomes eight and everyone is happier.
• Teenagers who ride? Add a two or three day horse trek in the Orkhon valley with a support vehicle. It is the best thing in the country for a competent teenage rider.
• Want a private bathroom every night? Possible in Terelj and in the Orkhon valley, harder in the Gobi. We will show you which camps and what it costs.
• Naadam in July? Children like the wrestling and the horse racing, where the jockeys are their own age. Book very early, because the festival fills every bed in the country.

Honest notes

Many ger camps have shared bathrooms. A shower and toilet block a short walk from your ger, with hot water at set hours only. That means a walk across a field in the dark with a head torch. Some families find this the defining fact of the trip and some barely notice it. Either way, it is in the proposal night by night.

Nights are cold and the stove goes out. Even in July, the countryside drops sharply after dark and the stove your camp lights at dusk will die around two in the morning. Warm layers for sleeping, for everyone.

The driving is rough even when it is short. Days 4, 6 and 8 involve real hours in a vehicle. Motion sickness is common. We sit children in the front where the vehicle allows and we stop more often than the schedule needs.

The season is short. Mid-June to mid-September. Outside it the camps close and this itinerary does not exist.

Camp food is repetitive. Mutton, noodles, potatoes and dumplings. Most children are fine with it for a week. Bring the snacks you know they will eat.

Connectivity is patchy to absent in the Gobi and in the Orkhon valley. Assume no screens for stretches, and tell them that before you go rather than on day four.

Medical facilities are in Ulaanbaatar and almost nowhere else. This is one reason we build the first ger night in Terelj, ninety minutes from the city, rather than eight hours out.

Built by our Southeast and Central Asia specialists, with our long-standing partner in Ulaanbaatar.

Related

• Mongolia: the complete guide
• Classic Mongolia in 10 days
• Boutique ger camps in 10 days