Mongolian Gobi Desert Tour – Nomadic experience from the Gobi to Orkhon valley

Your Gobi adventure kicks off today! Leave Ulaanbaatar and drive across the open steppe toward Tsagaan Suvarga, the White Stupa cliffs. Walk among the cliffs, take in the wide-open landscapes, and continue to Gobi Caravan Serai, a remote lodge in the middle of nowhere, where you’ll spend your first night under the stars.

Leave Tsagaan Suvarga and drive deeper into the Gobi Desert toward Yolin Am (Eagle Valley). Walk along the valley floor, surrounded by cliffs and small streams. In the evening, stay at a nearby ger camp and rest for the next part of your journey.

Today we continue our journey deep to the Gobi towards Khongor; the biggest sand dunes in the Gobi. En route to Khongor dunes, you will enjoy the stunning backdrop as we drive around 5 hours west. Once we get there, we visit a camel herder family and experience their lifestyle. We ride Mongolian 2-humped camels along the Khongorin Els dunes and Khorngin River. There will always be time for climbing and exploring the dunes – best at sunrise or sunset. Overnight stay in a ger camp.

We expand our Gobi adventure to Bayanzag, the place is world-renowned for its paleontological remains. Here we explore clay hills and saxaul forest, and you can walk around where dinosaurs once roamed. the Flaming Cliffs, a classic desert of rock, red sands, scrub, and unbelievable emptiness that has became known to the world as the “Cemetery of Dinosaurs”. The red sandstone cliffs and canyons of Bayanzag are where the American palaeontologist Roy Chapman Andrews first discovered fossil beds of dinosaur bones and first-ever recorded dinosaur eggs in 1922 – discoveries that made world headlines. Overnight in a ger camp near the clay cliffs.

Travel to the Ongi Valley, a quiet area along the Ongi River. Visit a nomadic family who live in the Gobi and keep a few extra gers for travellers. Learn about their way of life, share tea, and enjoy the calm of the valley surrounded by open steppe. Spend the night in one of the family’s gers.

Drive north through wide steppe and small villages. Stop to meet nomadic families on migration if in season. Arrive in Orkhon Valley, UNESCO World Heritage area. Overnight with a local host family in their ger — participate in evening herding routine.

Full day with host family: horseback ride to the Orkhon waterfall, picnic by the river, learn felting or dairy-making, and play ankle-bone games. Evening: share songs, traditional vodka toast, and storytelling.

Visit Erdene Zuu Monastery and Kharkhorum Museum with local guide. Lunch in town, then drive back to UB (5–6 hrs). Optional stop at a roadside family for tea. Arrive UB in evening.