19 Things We Wish We Knew Before Traveling to Mongolia

19 Things We Wish We Knew Before Traveling to Mongolia

We recently spent 3 weeks traveling around  Mongolia and we wanted to make this video to   share with you all some of what we learned about  traveling in Mongolia because before we arrived   in the country we actually had a hard time finding  a lot of good information about how to travel this  

Country online why is no one here doesn’t everyone  know this place is awesome during our time in the   country we did the whole gamut of travel Styles  we explored Ulan Batar the capital city on our own  

We hired a private driver to take us around the  surrounding areas and then we also even joined a   group tour to do the GOI desert and then after all  of that we did our own self-led adventure through  

Central Mongolia camping and driving by ourselves  we learned a lot by exploring the country in these   different ways so we’ve gathered a bunch of  questions that we had before we traveled to   the country and we also asked you guys to send  in questions as well so we’ve collected all these  

Questions and we are going to spend this video  answering them all so let’s Dive Right In cuz   there’s tons of good information to share when  is the best time to visit Mongolia uh so we went  

In June which I think was really awesome weather  not too hot and not too cold but I know a lot of   people usually try to time their visit so that  they can align with some of the festivals that  

Are happening I think there’s a big Festival in  I think it’s mostly in July the NAD Festival yeah   our experience in June was incredible weather and  uh I’ve also heard from some folks online who’ve  

Commented on our videos that we were really lucky  to have gone in June because July and August a lot   of um the places that we went to like on our own  like oie Lake get a lot busier with locals cuz  

The kids are out of school I think so I do think  the June was a prettyy wicked time to go um and   that was just lucky for us but it was wonderful  what was your budget in Mongolia so we’ve got a  

Couple different categories here we had to look  at our notes to see what we spent on average uh   we spent about $30 us a day on accommodations we  sit in like four different places in almatar over  

Our time there I would say it was like the nicest  places but it was mostly airbnbs and it for niai   and a little bit outside like the main areas  sometimes yeah so um yeah you could definitely  

Go like luxury and get like super nice beautiful  hotels with breakfast and all that stuff we just   we we for airbnbs so that’s what we stuck to most  of the time food honestly in the capital city of  

Lumara we found food to be really affordable yeah  it was actually really really nice yeah it’s like   a couple of dollars to buy a dish at most of the  like you know just kind of local eateries for the  

Two of us to eat like a lunch or a dinner was like  10 or something like that total total total to be   fair we don’t really buy drinks like we’re just  we go in we buy two plates of food and we leave  

But um you can make it really affordable oh my  gosh so interesting he transportation is another   budget category to chat about so taxis were really  really affordable within the city do you remember   that yeah it was only well we used we used an  app that like made sure that we didn’t have to  

Negotiate like in person yeah so it’s a lot it’s  kind of like an Uber it’s like their version of   uber I think it was called UB cab or something  like that and it was only like three or three  

Or four doll to go anywhere around UL Batar  to we were in the car 45 minutes Monday Batar   traffic is terrible so bad all right tours a lot  of people have asked about the cost of Tours so um  

As we said earlier we only have done we did just  one tour went all the way to the goby desert it   was a 5j tour the cost of that tour at least when  we went is 650 us per person um obviously pricing  

Will change with the years but yeah and we also  had five guests on that tour so most times people   will um when you sign up for tours it’ll get a lot  cheaper when you have more and more people if you  

Basically fill the car the more bodies in the car  the better the price we filled the car the car we   have officially left the road like the PA Road  we’re on what they call the natural roads here  

In Mongolia which pretty much means there are no  roads it’s like a washboard man activities one day   we went out and we hired a driver for the day to  take us around like a rural Part near UL Batar and  

We paid 110 us for the driver for the whole day  we it was 80 US 80 US 0 which was actually I think   really affordable yeah because we connected with a  guy um on Facebook he was like private driver yeah  

We talked to him on Viber I think Viber was like  the way to get a hold of people a lot of the time   there we’ve discovered yeah um yeah I talked to  him on Viber and booked with him and he just used  

Like his personal car took us around for the day  he didn’t guide us he was just a driver um but he   was wonderful and lovely and like we were able to  like make up the itinerary whatever he wanted want  

Suggestions along the way but like we made our  itinerary yeah his contact info is in our video   about that that’s true we’ll L that I think it’s  like a side thing so I don’t know if he’s actually  

Doing it so maybe we’re just bringing people to  him and he’s like I don’t do that anymore and then   the other activity that we can talk about cost for  is we rented a l Cruiser like a 4×4 with a pop-up  

Tent and all the camping gear and that cost us 110  us per day for the rental we’ll talk a bit more   about the rental later on because I know a lot  of people have asked about that and I got to say  

I’ll tell you right now the $110 that was probably  the cheapest we found and say it’s worth it 100%   worth it but it’s probably the cheapest we found  compared to other rental companies yeah that was   the most affordable we could find we’ll talk about  that later okay how much time would you recommend  

In Mongolia M I would say like one day in one  to two days in UL Batar and then a tour of some   sort definitely to go to the go I think to go to  the GOI GOI was so cool because it’s so far away  

Yeah I wouldn’t want to do the GOI desert like  solo yeah no it would just be honestly we spent   so much time on natural roads where there is just  nothing like how would we have got there on our  

Own I have no idea like you need a local driver  who’s familiar with the area and the landscape I   think we did our goby day our GOI desert tour in  5 days most are six I think I think I’ve seen some  

Of at 8 cuz like on our 5 Day Tour like the last  day was literally driving all the way back all the   way back so if you do like a six or seven I think  they might do like more of a loop break it up and  

Then you kind of have more driving like stops  along the way back to the latar so let’s say 7   days for a tour of one of the regions like you can  do so many cool things in Mongolia but we would  

Recommend the GOI oh and also I want to say a day  the day trip that we did to ter National Park is   awesome actually I would say that had we had a bit  more foresight and planning and all these things  

I would recommend staying in trell National Park  for a night or two there is some really beautiful   tourist camps there you can go like luxury to  budget there and I think it would have been   stunning to spend a couple of nights there so if  you have the time a couple nights inia National  

Park a day in Newan Batar maybe two um a week long  tour yeah and then I mean if you’re down for it   renting the Land Cruiser was our favorite thing we  did to Mongolia hands down so if You’ got the time  

For it what is that I mean really that probably  comes to like no to 14 days like somewhere in that   range yeah would be Stellar it would be Stellar  once the food like man we’ve had this question  

A lot like a lot of people the food the food is  good for me cuz I like meat heavy stuff because   Filipino and Mongolian food and Filipino food had  some similarities in terms of meat to everything  

Else ratio there’s a lot of meat in Mongolian  food yeah I I wish we could be here like saying   like yeah vegan a vegetarian you’re going to  be fine I actually wouldn’t say that if you’re  

Joining a tour I would I would think you need to  make it very like explicit to your tour operator   that you’re vegan or vegetarian to make sure they  can accommodate that and I’m pretty sure they all  

Can um you’re probably just going to eat a lot of  pasta or something yeah there’s there’s a really   good restaurant we recommend it’s called con booze  it’s like a chain like local Mongolian food very   affordable yeah it’s not like kind of fast Foody  but like it sit down actually not really you order  

At the front and they just hand you a plate and  then you sit you sit yourself down like it’s   nothing nothing high class but it’s a cool way to  try some Mongolian food yeah cuz they got like a  

Big oh the one we went to they had a big like  menu was all lit up and you could see what the   food looks like with pricing right beside it very  important cuz the Mongolian language is cerlic so  

We read it and we can’t understand anything how  was the process of arriving into the country uh   Mongolia has one airport one like major airport  and that’s in an barar or an Bas I know we’re  

Saying that wrong but it’s a nice airport it’s a  great airport yeah but it’s like in the middle of   nowhere an hour away from the city it feels like  so for us when we arrived we had pre-arranged a  

Transport from the airport to the city with our  um accommodation yeah host um because it’s quite   expensive to get a we looked into like getting a  cab and stuff yeah you can get like ax expensive  

Yeah yeah we yeah we recommend if you have like  your book your hotel book hopefully you do when   you when you arrive them like see if they can do  like a some sort of Transport service or transfer  

Service because it was so much easier you can if  you arrive at the airport and you have nothing   no plans you can pick up a taxi dare or like a  shuttle bus like you you can’t miss the people  

That like are like to bring you to the city  they’ll be there assuming you arrive like in   the normal part of the day yeah like the normal  major times of the day visas was also a question  

That we got about the process for entering into  the country and visas were simple we didn’t have   to get anything ahead of time as Canadians we  were allowed to be in the country for 30 days  

Visa free I think for Americans it’s 90 days and  I took a quick look online it looks like pretty   much everybody is allowed in for like a minimum  of 2 weeks without a Visa but obviously just  

Take a look based on your own country ATMs when  we arrived in the country so the currency in in   Mongolia is called tugrik and I think it would  be hard to get tugrik in a lot of the world so  

If you aren’t able to get it in your home country  don’t worry when you land in limitar you can just   head to an ATM you’ll pay some fees but you can  get cash out easily SIM cards and data so at the  

Time of our visit to Mongolia we had really  old phones that only accepted physical Sims   we couldn’t do eims which was really unfortunate  so when we landed at latar airport we were able   to go to like a telecommunication company at the  airport thankfully they were open and we were able  

To get a physical SIM from them but had we had  the capability to do an eim we would have much   preferred to do that and just like have it all  figured out before we arrived into Mongolia so  

If you’re like us and you prefer to have your data  figured out before you arrive in the country then   we would highly recommend olly who is the sponsor  of today’s video If you’re not familiar with with  

What an eim is it’s basically a SIM card that you  can download straight onto your phone so that you   have data like when you’re abroad and you can  actually start all that process up before you  

Even jump onto the plane so that when you are  uh finally arriving at the airport you can just   activate it and then boom data you have data  it’s like it feels like the future but I know  

This technology has been out there for a long time  it has to the point where I know a lot of phones   now don’t actually even accept physical SIM cards  we’re just like slowly catching up over here and  

If you’re wondering if you need data at all in  Mongolia the answer is 100% yes you are going so   far like such long distances and a lot of times  we found that like it’s beautiful to take in the  

Scenery but at the same time I also want to be  able to like take some photos send it to people   like back at home listen to a podcast while I look  out the window or a book on my yeah and also of  

Course navigating like we absolutely needed data  when we were navigating Central Mongolia and the   Land Cruiser ourselves and then also I remember um  you even had a phone call at the top of the sand  

Dunes with your family yeah I was like I mean the  sand dunes are the like one of the most incredible   things we saw in Mongolia so I like called my  whole family up so yeah obviously we’re able to  

Use datas to stay connected um and enjoy things  like podcast but also for safety features right   like being in the middle of nowhere by ourselves  when we were in the Land Cruiser like we obviously  

Needed data to make sure that we had some way to  get a hold of people if something went a Ry and   why we recommend Olly is just because that they’re  so easy to set up you buy it and you get a QR code  

Code and then you just scan um that QR code with  your phone and then I think in like 2 or 3 minutes   you have data yeah and on your phone ready for  your phone you just click activate when you’re  

Ready to use it and you’re done it would be like  it just it helps us cuz like like we don’t have   to Fumble around figuring out where the Telecom  centers are at the airport if they’re open yeah  

And it’s honestly such a hassle to get physical  Sims so our preference is definitely eims now   that we are our phones are actually capable of  it we’ve upgraded if you want to check out allly  

You can use our code Nicole and M we’ll put it  somewhere on the screen for 5% off or you can   click the link down the description below and  that’ll automatically give you the discount   code right away next question is how far in  advance did you book Things uh so for us not  

Very far considering we had no idea we were going  to Mongolia up until like 5 days before yeah yeah   you got to watch that video if you want to see  the full story but basically we kind of messed  

Up our visas going to Vietnam and eventually ended  up going to Mongolia Mongolia and it was actually   probably the best travel mistake we’ve we’ve made  we’ve like ever made at the time we were so bummed  

And now I’m so stinking glad that we got to go to  Mongolia so we did not plan anything in advance um   once we knew we were going to Mongolia we started  to reach out to different tour companies cuz we  

Obviously started doing research on what to do  there um and discovered that going on tours to   for for us the goldby desert was like a big bucket  list item so um we started looking at that and to  

Do that we really just messaged people on Facebook  that was easy that was definitely the easiest way   to find tour operators um so we started doing  that literally a week before we left I think   I would say like so obviously exploring Alum  vatar you kind of do that on your own so you  

Don’t really need to book anything the day trip  that we did to Terrell with a private driver we   did that we booked that two days in advance yeah  and that was pretty easy um the tour I would say  

Um that is probably what you would want to start  off with with booking as early as possible yeah   whenever you book your trip to Mongolia start  doing that yeah the tough part with tours in  

Mongolia is the fact that you like there’s not a  ton of Tours happening like not a ton of people   like filling up these tours cuz Mongolia tourism  isn’t super developed yeah so there’s not a ton  

Of people there well yeah like tourists visiting  yeah so what we found that was really um like the   easiest way to go about it is to join the Facebook  group I think there’s like a I forgot the name of  

The Mongolian search Mongolian travel Facebook  groups and then we found a lot of people would   uh like post that you know they’re going on this  date they want to see this who else wants to join  

And then they kind of form like a larger party so  it’s not just like solo and couples and then when   you have a bigger group like we had eventually  we got a group of five together and then we were  

Able to connect with a tour operator and say hey  we have five people who want to do this tour uh   can you make it happen once the price so I think  that’s a good way to go about it if you approach  

A tour operator with a larger group you’re going  to get better pricing so I think yeah in terms   of planning it’s almost that connection with  other people who have similar travel dates to   you that’s almost the most important part  of planning bigger Expeditions on your on  

Your travels scheduled departures that’s the word  I’m looking for of words I’m looking for because   sometimes the tours don’t have schedu departures  because there’s not enough people like filling up   the vans so you have to like once they get enough  people they can kind of create a tour so you can  

Do that really early but then it might be hard to  get people to fill that van um so the sooner like   the the closer you get to the date that might be  a little bit easier might be a little better yeah  

Just start your research early yeah and for our  truck rental we only figured all that out within   a week of renting an actual truck probably less  than that oh how do you go about booking your tour  

Oh that’s what we did we we kind of just answered  that question if you want to know I guess like our   private driver for Tage national park that’s in  the video um remember the I can’t even remember  

The guy name I think it was like name zorig or  something like that something like that and then   uh for our goby desert tour U just if you’re  looking for recommendations uh we went with   Mongolia Four Seasons travel y they were awesome  they were really really lovely great people and  

Then for our truck rental for Truck Rental we did  a company called Eternal Nomads and again in the   description of each of the videos about those  things they’re contact if it was in there so  

If you guys want to use the same people go ahead  and do that what are some things you wish you knew   before doing a tour oh my goodness so many things  what he thinks I think something that I wish I  

Had known is like I’m not a huge meat lover and I  think in retrospect had I brought like a hot sauce   or a ketchup or something that would have been  amazing maybe some more salt and pepper um the  

Is really meat heavy in Mongolia so if you’re not  like a massive meat lover like me uh maybe bring   one of your favorite spices extra condiments yeah  cuz you’re really like you’re being cooked for in  

The middle of nowhere right so um yeah so you’re  going to get camping food also I would add that   if you are going to be driving across Mongolia on  a tour be prepared for some really long distances  

Yeah m is huge it’s huge and like we were spending  anywhere between like 2 hours in the car a day to   like 6 or 7 hours in the car there’s lots of braks  in between and but you’re driving for a lot of it  

So prepare for that download some podcasts or some  music ahead of time some shows whatever you like   to do bring some snacks bring some snacks you  can get snacks in the road you can get snacks  

In the road that’s right yeah we stopped at lots  of yeah we stopped at lots of little shops along   the way and we’d pick up whatever snack any  of us needed chips and chocolate and whatever  

Coffee extra water yeah take a look at what your  tour provides in terms of water I think ours was   about a liter and a half per person per day so  we also just stocked up and we brought extra 4  

Liter jugs we just kind of bought them as we went  through the tour and needed them so that’s those   things are easy to get and we found that you could  actually uh even pay a lot of that stuff by card  

In the middle of nowhere uh but bring cash but  bring cash for your for sure as definitely bring   cash uh we also found there was a lot of downtime  even outside like you know once you arrive at your  

Gir that’s true um there’s lot there’s a lot of  downtime to just like enjoy the scenery and get   to know your tour mates like obviously it’s a  social thing so it’s really fun to be able to  

Just like hang out with your the new people you  get to meet we brought a deck of cards which is   awesome yes hi recommend bringing something  like that deck of cards frisbee whatever I   know you’re into there’s that fun bone game they  is a Mongolian game they use animal bones which  

Is kind of cool too uh another thing is get ready  to pee in the wilderness oh that’s a big one pee   in nature um so in between like G sites we rarely  had proper toilets we were and and there’s nothing  

In Mongolia right like you’re in Step so it’s  just it’s l there’s no trees there’s no bushes   even there’s no bushes if you’re wondering where  in Earth you would pee when you’re out here and   there’s nothing around you the easy answer is  anywhere around you it’s pretty easy to just  

Find a spot but it can be a little bit awkward  if you time it wrong and someone does Roll On by   as a woman I brought with me like a long sleeve  button- up shirt and I honestly would just wrap  

That around my waist and like let it fall behind  me because that is as much cover as you’re going   to get in the middle of nowhere guys so bring  a scarf for something that you can wrap around  

Yourself and give you a little cover if you want  be prepared for that I know in some places like   in some tours like more luxury tours there’s  a lot more access to like nicer camps with the  

Yeah well we had toilets in our camps yeah oh  yeah yeah yeah yeah no we to our camps what we   didn’t usually have was showers at our camps um  the luxury tours you’re going to get showers and  

Yeah and I guess our toilets were like mostly squ  yeah was out house style so if you go in the more   expensive nicer um ones you’ll get like flushing  toilets and running water out of a sink we didn’t  

Get those things uh so bring wet wipes if going  on the budget end like we did that wet wipes   are must because showers yeah are rare every day  yeah exactly that’s exactly it in terms of like  

Electricity on the tours so some places like some  girls we stayed at you had access to an outlet but   it was kind of rare not like just relying on  it so bring battery Banks and then also like  

Really where we charged most of our devices was  on the drives like during the driving through   the car through the car or like even like at a  restaurant we like try to use one of the plugs  

Especially cuz we were filming and stuff too so  like charge but yeah just be prepared to like not   have a lot of like electronic like electricity  access yeah yeah so bring definitely bring some   battery Banks another question we got is in which  part of Mongolia is it better to have a guide and  

Which is okay to do alone so I think I would  really recommend having been on the goby desert   tour I would highly recommend getting a guide for  that because you’re going really into the middle  

Of nowhere if you got into like you popped a tire  or something out there or your car broke down and   you’re by yourself I like you might not see people  for days and I I know a lot of people were talking  

Like on the Facebook groups asking how it’s  possible to do that by themselves never been   to Mongolia before and they want to go driving  in the desert iend doing it without a guide and   honestly specifically without a driver because  you are just on natural roads forever there’s  

Like there’s like no signs sign no can’t even like  navigating it’s like oh just stay on this road   it’s like navigating out there’s like I swear the  driver just us that mountain and that mountain and   there’s a pass between that somewhere between that  is where we need to go so wouldn’t recommend doing  

Anything goby related by yourself no it’s just  the distances are too far and the space is too   vast you’re going to get lost what we did do by  ourselves was the central Mongolia driving um and  

Like we went from latar to Korum and then to UGI  Lake and and we did that all by ourselves and then   back I think it was like 800 km something um over  3 days that was great on our own because mostly we  

Had we had quite a lot of paav roads which was  obviously helpful and easy for navigating for   navigating and for like risk of breaking down  we had people around if something happened to  

Us yeah yeah and we were never like far away from  like a town or from a city but we were still able   to do it all ourselves and we even did some a  little bit of like off-roading by ourselves in  

The Land Cruiser um but like not not off-roading  in a sense that like you’re on this open field   with like no sign of a road and you’re making your  own path we kind of did our off-roading like more  

Like dirt Trail and like it was easy to navigate  yeah so that area was really good for yeah and   then you’re so close toar so if something really  does happen like you can get help yeah within the  

Day whereas like going to GOI you’re 5 days away  from the major city like it’s a far I I remember   looking at the map and calculating like at our  the worst possible spot for us to like break  

Down without like a paved Road nearby was like  30 km away we would have been so we would have   like it would have been walkable in a day I will  say I think just in general terms having done a  

Tour first to see what is Mongolia like what are  our amenities like once you really leave a litar   that to me was the most important learning that  allowed us to then feel confident to get the truck  

And do it by ourselves have we not had the goby  desert tour first to get acquainted with Mongolia   would have been a little reckless I don’t think we  would have been a very smart decision um but once  

We knew what that was like it was easy to then go  in like create our own route um so that’s I think   the that’s a good balance yeah yeah how easy is  it to rent a car this is an excellent question  

I would say not that easy easy if you have the  money not so easy if you’re on a budget yeah so   we really looked into like going with like budget  or Avis or whatever and renting like a proper car  

Yeah but they’re so expensive they’re so expensive  I don’t know why like redonkulous expensive and   redonkulous it’s like it’s like not even something  we would entertain it was not an option for us   so that’s why we went with a local tour operator  and we rented their vehicle from them that comes  

With a lot more risk in my opinion yeah so the F  firstly they uh wanted to do um with that local   tour operator they had asked for an ,000 damage  deposit which could be like in cash cash and that  

Could be like really scary for a lot of scary for  us too we were able to negotiate down to like 500   us um damage deposit which was still like super  scary scary to hand someone 500 USD and be like  

I hope you don’t like I hope you give this back  to me like were going to return the truck um but   we were a little scared that maybe they’d be like  oh no like here’s this this and this and that’s  

Wrong and that was your fault and then they just  keep our money and like a happen and a lot can   happen too like even like if stuff that would be  our fault a lot could happen when you’re on those  

Roads cuz the roads are kind of not so great with  Pooles yeah there’s a lot of potholes in Mongolia   so yeah but we like we decided to take the risk um  did and it worked for us and it worked out really  

Really well and the car that we had was a toyoto  Land Cruiser it came with like a whole bunch of   stuff like camping and the sleeping equipment  like that Rooftop tent with like sleeping bags   came with all the things you needed for that I  know I think we mentioned earlier it was like  

$10 us a day which is like such a steal um I  mean compared to renting a car it was such a   steal I think renting a car is going to cost us  like over 1,000 USD for 3 Days days like wild  

Amounts of money um we did they also said like  hard to confirm this cuz we can’t read Mongolian   script but they the car also had insurance and I  don’t know if that was just the car insurance or  

Is like insured for us too we have our own travel  and health insurance on the side separately that   we made sure we had but like the car company they  had all these things but again yeah we couldn’t  

Read the contract very well yeah some of it was  in English um so we did our best but I would   say renting a car can be challenging if you want  the super safeer of like using Enterprise you’re  

Going to have to pay for it you just pay for it if  you are comfortable with trying out uh like more   Local Company and it’s more like U more of like a  private like exchange um then you could try with  

A company that Eternal nads that we used um we  had a good experience other people online like   they do have problems with with renting a car  from some local operators so keep that in mind  

We have seen some people say stories of like the  car is breaking down all the time and they’re not   getting great help from people so that definitely  could happen so I would just or recommendations is  

Do as much research as you can yeah I would make  sure that like the company that you’re renting   from like it it’s nice to to know if they have  like a fleet of vehicles that they rent so like  

This is really their business and this is not just  like you know my uncle’s car he’s not using it you   can go use it I mean you can if you want to like  it’s probably affordable yeah okay someone asks  

How are the roads and how did you navigate on  your own so the roads we’ve said I think before   potholes are very common depending on the part  of Mongolia you’re in um the road conditions I’d   say were like decent but not great I remember  thinking that like it’s so beautiful out there  

But it’s so hard to take take it in while you’re  driving because you have to look at the Pooles so   that is a like a plus when going on a tour someone  does all the driving you just look up the window  

Yeah um and navigation so we downloaded the map  for the region before we left because another   question actually we have here is um how is your  data connection in service so data comes in and   out in Mongolia just depending on where you are  outside of litar of course at the capital city  

It’s wonderful and great um so as a result we made  sure we downloaded the Google Maps offline version   before leaving and then we used Google Maps for  the whole thing when we were like doing our own  

Our own tours and within the city and stuff  we just Google Maps yeah it was perfect and   like like we said earlier like it was easy in the  section of central Mongolia that we were traveling  

In because I could see all the roads I can tell  you right now that when we were on the GOI desert   tour there was absolutely no roads mentioned on  Google Maps where we were driving that’s why we  

Recommend you get a driver so there like there  so you cannot use Google mouse for navigating you   wouldn’t know what you’re going to be up against  at all which are the places to avoid as there is   nothing to see or do I thought this was a really  interesting question honestly everything we did  

We would recommend doing the only thing that I  that did come to mind when I saw this question   is that we had at one point debated going to  Korum which is like the ancient capital of  

Mongolia we had debated going there as a trip from  UL matar like taking a local bus which you can do   uh but honestly we did end up visiting Korum and  I wouldn’t say it’s worth its own trip from yeah  

I would say like you have to bundle carum with  like yeah it was a great stopping point on our   on our journey like through Central Mongolia but  I wouldn’t make the trip there just to go there  

Because we obviously heard of Korum it’s like such  a big part of Mongolia big part of Mongolia and we   were thinking like going there specifically for  that but no I’m glad we didn’t in the end I think  

To get there it’s like a long local bus ride and  I think it would like it would have taken like 3   days although to get there I will mention I think  in our last video or when we saw Korum I think we  

May have like understood it wrong like we that  the Temple part was the city was the whole city   so yeah we’ve had some comments from some of you  guys thanks for commenting that I think yeah I  

Think we thought that the temple complex was the  whole city like the whole ancient city CU it’s in   ruins the city you can’t actually really see it  um so maybe we missed something there was also a  

Small Museum there actually and we never even went  into because we went into some some museums on our   gby desert tour and like let’s just say there’s  not that much to see or learn yeah so it wasn’t  

Museum it wasn’t like super engaging the museums  and we’ve seen a whole bunch and we’re like uh I   don’t know if I want another Museum yeah I’m sorry  we’re human I’m sorry just wasn’t our preference  

Um but if you love history maybe that museum is  for you what kind of clothing should I bring this   is a great question because man did we get this  wrong so going to Mongolia we expected that going  

To the GOI desert would be cold at night I don’t  know why we expected that I every time we go to   the desert we’re always freezing at night so cold  hot during the day very cold at night anyways we  

Could not have been more wrong so we had brought  all this like warm clothes and we didn’t need it   at all in June um so obviously depending on the  time of year you go Mongolia is one of the coldest  

Countries in the world so bundle up if you’re  there in Winter if you’re not it was Lov yeah I I   think I think I’m not sure if I would have packed  any different though like I would have made sure  

Like still make sure that like we have all the  cold stuff just in case we did cold stff I had too   much cold stuff but you never really know honestly  the GS themselves I feel like they weren’t they   were good at temperature regulation but not  like excellent so if it’s really hot outside  

It can be pretty stuffy the yeah and you sleep  with the door closed which was too bad I kind   of wish we could have just opened it but then you  sand and bugs and stuff at night would it come in  

Yeah yeah night was pretty hot night nights were  warm like I expected to be freezing at night and   we weren’t so you don’t need anything wild I mean  if you go in June like we did um but mongolia’s  

Temperature changes so drastically from season to  season and month to month so definitely just take   a look at when you’re going should I bring all  of my camping gear or can I get things there you   could definitely get things there um we visited  the black market in bitar when we first arrived  

Nar Market it’s cool Market cool market and you  can get anything honestly you can get anything   so that like you could definitely arrive and buy  stuff um you can buy like a whole camping equip   yeah the whole Sleeping beds you want to barbecue  yeah everything there you know I’ve never been  

Inside an Amazon fulfillment center but I kind  of feel like it would look like this where they   literally have have everything um you’re probably  going to pay tour pricing uh just as a heads up  

If you’re a foreigner uh so but yeah if you need  to get your Camp equipment you can again though   with our truck rental we had everything included  so we didn’t purchase anything can you get by with  

English only I would say yes it’s kind of yes  I would say yes in the city in matara is it’s   easier it’s easier um it was still tough in some  restaurants ordering definitely was pointing and  

You know like hand sign was definitely the way  to go yeah and but like our hosts for airbnbs   and hotels and Stu we usually able to find at  least one person who spoke English I think if  

You’re yeah anybody in Hospitality it’d be easy  yeah easier um easier but in some places it was   it was challenging and outside of the capital  then you definitely like it’s most most people   just speak Mongolian um so we would recommend  downloading the Mongolian language like we just  

Use Google Translate so we download the Mongolian  language before leaving service um but I will say   like Google translate isn’t awesome in terms  of Mongolian to English and we still really   struggled like I would use my phone and like um  use the picture option on Google to try and like  

Translate let’s say a menu um and it didn’t it  didn’t work that well so it was difficult and   actually you know what’s funny the hardest part  was when you have Google translate it and you  

Want to like say the words it was like in cilx so  like it’s hard to even understand like what sounds   do I make to say this word yeah to try and like  if we wanted to say a word in Mongolian like it  

Was just challenging to to figure out how to say  anything um so yeah it was a little harder but   obviously totally doable we don’t speak Mongolian  and we are fine yeah H cash or card so cash is   accepted everywhere and I would highly recommend  getting some chg grip cash is yeah definitely you  

Need it definitely need but in UB in latar um card  was accepted like everywhere yeah and um outside   of UB honestly there was it was still accepted  a ton yeah yeah especially like the like the  

Restaurants like the more like yeah I felt like I  felt like they always accepted uh credit card yeah   even like the little convenience stores that we’d  stop at on our goby desert trip uh to buy water   and snacks whatever they almost always accepted  card I honestly thought it was going to be like  

More of a cash culture than like solely cash  culture but like it was actually outside of UB   outside of UV yeah but it was it was fun no but I  would still like have cash for sure what are some  

Final tips for planning a trip to Mongolia do it  yeah actually you know what that’s the that’s the   best tip is like I think um I feel like Mongolia  doesn’t get enough like time in the spotlight for  

Being like how like amazingly beautiful I knew  that I remember thinking that like I knew mol   is going to be beautiful but like when we were  actually there I like it it didn’t even register  

Like this is like way above where the bar was or  I thought the bar was going to be from molia and   there’s no real way to like understand it unless  you’re like there we’ve never been to a place like  

Mongolia like truly it was one of a kind um it  was just exceptional I guess maybe some other like   generic tips are that um you know because it’s  huge and there’s such expanse um you know be ready  

For like not too many amenities or maybe like  you know we did a lot of squatting we did a lot   of like ouses um a lot of baby wipe showers and  it’s fine with us you’re definitely more roughing  

It yeah it’s yeah for sure you could pay you could  pay to not R not rough it um but even like at our   at our budget which I think does does pretty well  in different parts of different countries around  

The world in particular our budget applied  to Mongolia we felt like it was a bit more   roughing it than I was initially expecting yes I  agree with you especially considering the cost of   like living in il matara I felt really affordable  and then we left there and I was like wa it’s  

A lot more expensive to be out here when we were  filming that someone did ask um if it was possible   to travel like how was it for traveling getting  around for seniors okay and around Mongolia I’m  

Not sure if that’s really a final tip but like  yeah that’s good question just a quick question   I would say yeah totally fine cuz a lot of it is  sightseeing Omar obviously super sightseeing um   so if you have a senior with mobility issues  or just like yeah like an older adult I think  

Probably the hardest thing would have been going  up the sand dunes yeah that was so hard so that   might not be something you literally have to just  physically get yourself like a kilometer up a sand  

Dune and it was very challenging that honestly I  think would be the only thing I’d say that would   probably be on my radar for something that an  older adet would have a bit of a harder time yeah   other than that like enjoying the expansiveness  enjoying the sightseeing enjoying the GS enjoying  

Like the camels I guess maybe Comfort wise so  in the vehicles you know you’re you’re a little   squishy we were for our goby desert tour we were  a little squishy um so maybe Comfort wise for that  

That’s something going to think about you’re in  a car for many many hours in a day generally in   Mongolia um and the GS were pretty hard I will  say like the beds sorry the beds and the G I  

Found them to be like it’s it’s you’re on like a  board and then there’s a small mattress above it   but like I get sore and I remember waking up sore  um the first day and like I feel like I slept on  

Like a piece of of hardwood with a Topper I’ve  heard some people like bring like an air mattress   to put on that and maybe that’s a good way to do  it I mean if you need that to be comfortable if  

You want to stick to a budget but like want to  have a decent sleep maybe get an air mattress to   put on top of like the G CAU thingy and again  this is because I think our budget like made  

That we were in the like the G that matched our  budget but you could absolutely get nicer GS so   I think that maybe maybe as a senior it might  be better to just put a little bit more money  

Into your tours and get maybe a little bit more  comfortable vehicle and a bit more comfort for   your bed at night yeah yeah we hope we convince  you guys that Mongolia has got to be on your   bucket list because it’s such an it’s amazing  it’s a beautiful country we are 1,000% be back  

One day like I’m so sure we’re going to be back  one day I’m kind of glad that we didn’t do the   North and I also didn’t really do much of the Far  East or Far West because we have so much more to  

Explore yeah yeah get like the Toyota L Cruiser  again and then go do some more within you know   within reason with with good caution we back one  day um if you guys have more questions something  

That we didn’t answer feel free to pop them in  the comments and we will do our best to respond   to any more questions you have down there uh and  if you book a trick a trip to Mongolia like just  

Have the most amazing time then know that we are  very jealous okay thanks for watching you guys bye

If you’re wondering “what is traveling in Mongolia like” then you’ve come to the right video! If you’re interested in getting data for your trip to Mongolia (or anywhere, really) click this link for 5% off an Holafly eSIM https://esim.holafly.com/?ref=zdvhzwn&discount=NICOLEANDMICO&utm_source=nicolemadamesila&utm_medium=affiliation

Traveling in Mongolia is such an incredible experience, but it can be hard to find good information about how to travel in Mongolia. Tourism isn’t a huge industry in this country, so when we started researching how to travel in Mongolia, we found very few resources. To remedy this, we’ve made our own video filled with tons of tips for traveling in Mongolia after spending three weeks in the country!

In this video, we answer questions like: where to go in Mongolia? What is Mongolian food like? Can you travel on your own or do you need a tour, how far in advance should you book things? How do you book tours? What is a good budget for traveling in Mongolia? How much time should you spend in Mongolia? Do you need a visa? When is the best time of year to visit Mongolia? How do you rent a car in Mongolia? What are the roads like? Can you use credit cards or is it cash-only? and so much more!

During our visit to Mongolia, we explored the country in quite a few ways. We went around Ulaanbaatar on our own, we hired a private driver for a day to visit Terelj National Park, we joined a tour for 5 day to see the Gobi Desert, and we rented a truck and drove around Central Mongolia by ourselves while camping in our rooftop tent. By the end of our trip to Mongolia, we felt like we had the chance to test our many different ways of seeing the country, which is why we feel capable of sharing lots of good information about how to travel in Mongolia.

We made video about each of these adventures:
Arriving in Mongolia: https://youtu.be/JwszRMwkcvY
Exploring Ulaanbaatar: https://youtu.be/vKuMF6fKTaQ
Day Trip to Terelj National Park: https://youtu.be/tlpDi8c37yE
5 Days in the Gobi Desert: https://youtu.be/2u3JzwUFnRI
Unguided Road trip (Camping): https://youtu.be/Z53j2QjJhK4 and https://youtu.be/mD_VVX04nds
Mongolia Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSSlYnwzYFH4RR1lvd2blVpQic5wjGfw-

We talk about what to pack for Mongolia in this video, but if you want to see everything we pack for full time travel, you can check out our latest packing video here: https://youtu.be/zGIvjkpL3Mo

This was our first time in Mongolia, but we are certain it will not be our last!! Now that we know how to travel in Mongolia and feel comfortable with the best way to see the country, we are certain we’ll be back again to explore more of this amazing country.

If you enjoy our videos and want to give us an extra special thank you, we would love to have you become a channel member! Check out the perks here https://www.youtube.com/nicoleandmico/join
If you choose to support us in this way, THANK YOU so much!

SafetyWing is our favourite travel insurance provider (including health insurance): https://tinyurl.com/2p87ewbr
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https://wise.prf.hn/l/OqnMl4Z

Want to work with us? Email: info@nicoleandmico.com

== Connect with us! ==
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== OUR FAVOURITE TRAVEL GEAR ==
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== Chapters ==
0:00 Why are we talking about Mongolia?
0:51 When is the best time to visit Mongolia?
1:36 Budget for Mongolia
5:10 Mongolia itinerary
6:49 What’s Mongolian food like
7:57 The process of entering Mongolia
12:07 How far in advance should you book things?
15:05 The companies/people we used
15:42 Tips before going on a tour in Mongolia
19:41 Tour or solo?
22:28 Car rentals (or truck rentals)
25:41 Roads and navigation
29:50 Camping gear
30:34 Do people speak English?
32:03 Cash or card?
34:18 Accessibility