Culture and Naadam: Mongolia in 11 days
Naadam is the Mongolian national festival, held on 11 to 13 July, built around what Mongolians call the three manly games: wrestling, horse racing and archery, with ankle-bone shooting added as a fourth. It is a national holiday, it is watched by everybody, and it is not a folklore display put on fo
- Duration
- 11 days
- Pace
- Moderate
- Hotel changes
- 6
- Best months
- Jul
- From
- $2,640 per person
This itinerary does it twice, on purpose. The Ulaanbaatar opening at the national stadium is the spectacle, and it is crowded, ticketed and viewed from a distance. A provincial naadam, held in the days around the national one in a town on the steppe, is the one where you stand at the edge of the wrestling and feel the horses go past. Most of our clients end up preferring the second.
Who it suits: travellers who want the country’s culture rather than only its landscape, and who can book very early. Moderate pace, some long drives.
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. Nothing else, because the next three days are full.
Day 2: Ulaanbaatar. Gandan monastery in the morning with its 87 foot (26.5 m) gilded standing Buddha. The National Museum, which is where the wrestling costumes, the archery and the horse culture you are about to watch are explained. The Choijin Lama temple. Afternoon at a throat singing and long song performance.
Day 3: Naadam, opening day. The opening ceremony at the national stadium in the morning, which is several thousand performers, the state banner brought out by mounted guards, and then the first rounds of wrestling. Afternoon at the archery ground next door, which is quieter and closer, and the ankle-bone shooting hall, which is small, indoors and absorbing.
Day 4: Naadam, horse racing on the steppe. The racing is held at Khui Doloon Khudag, about 25 miles (40 km) west of the city, over cross-country distances of up to roughly 17 miles (28 km), ridden by children between about six and twelve. It is dusty, enormous and entirely unlike a racecourse. Afternoon back in the city for the wrestling finals if you want them.
Day 5: Ulaanbaatar to a provincial naadam. Four to five hours out to a provincial centre holding its own naadam in the days after the national one. Arrive for the afternoon and watch from three feet away rather than from a stand. Ger camp for the night.
Day 6: Provincial naadam, second day, then to the Orkhon valley. The morning at the local festival, which by day two has become a village fair with wrestling in it, then two to three hours to the Orkhon valley.
Day 7: Kharkhorin and the Orkhon valley. Erdene Zuu monastery in the morning, built in 1586 from the stones of the abandoned Mongol capital and walled by 108 stupas. The Kharkhorin museum. Afternoon riding in the valley or walking up to the ridge.
Day 8: Orkhon valley, herders and craft. A morning with a herder family: milking, felt making, the dairy year and airag, fermented mare’s milk, which you will be offered and which is an acquired taste. Afternoon at the Orkhon waterfall, or an archery lesson with a Mongolian bow, which is heavier than it looks.
Day 9: Orkhon valley to Elsen Tasarkhai. Two hours to the strip of dunes on the way back east. A Bactrian camel ride, and an afternoon that is deliberately empty after a busy week.
Day 10: To Ulaanbaatar. Three hours east, with a stop at Khustai National Park for the wild takhi horses. Last afternoon in the city: the cashmere shops, the state department store and a proper dinner.
Day 11: Departure. Transfer to the airport.
What is included
All accommodation, hotel in Ulaanbaatar and ger camps in the countryside, full board outside the capital and breakfast in it, Naadam stadium tickets for the opening day, a private vehicle with a Mongolian driver, an English-speaking guide throughout, all park and museum entries, the herder family visit and the felt making, the archery lesson, the camel ride, 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
- Only want the countryside version? Skip days 3 and 4 and spend the whole week west. Cheaper, quieter, and you miss the ceremony.
- Want the Gobi as well? Add three nights and a domestic flight south after day 10. Eleven becomes fourteen.
- Travelling in July but not for Naadam? Then leave the second week of July alone entirely and travel late July or August. Prices and crowds both fall.
- Want the eagle festival instead? That is the first weekend of October in the far west, and a different trip. The 21 day route reaches Bayan-Olgii.
Honest notes
Naadam fills every bed in the country. Ulaanbaatar hotels sell out months in advance and rates rise sharply for that week, and the effect spreads to countryside camps because domestic tourism peaks at the same time. If you want this trip, book six to nine months out. We are not being dramatic about that.
The Ulaanbaatar festival is crowded and hot. The stadium is full, the seats are hard, the sun is direct and much of the wrestling is watched from a distance across a field of other spectators. Bring a hat and water, and expect a long day. The provincial naadam is the antidote and it is why we build both.
The horse racing is dusty and spread out. The finish is one point on an enormous open plain and the crowd is large. It is worth doing once and it is not a comfortable morning.
Dates are fixed but the exact programme is not. 11 to 13 July are the national holidays, and which events happen when shifts slightly year to year. Provincial naadams vary by province and are sometimes confirmed late.
The season is short. Mid-June to mid-September, and this route is anchored to July specifically.
Ger camps on this route have shared shower blocks on most nights. A short walk from your ger, with hot water at set hours. It is stated night by night in the proposal.
Drives are long and mostly on tracks once you leave the paved corridor. Four to five hours is a normal day here.
Built by our Southeast and Central Asia specialists, with our long-standing partner in Ulaanbaatar.
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