Our one joinable expedition: the classic loop south into the Gobi and back through the heart of the country, run twice a year with our full crew and never more than sixteen guests.
Join a departure
Early summer12 to 23 June 2027Green steppe, long light, the eight lakes full. Sixteen places. First departure.
Late summer14 to 25 August 2027Warm Gobi nights, the larches just turning, herders moving to autumn pasture. Sixteen places. First departure.
Your expedition leaderA senior Rara Avis guide who has run this loop many times, named to the group ninety days before departure, with a second guide and our own drivers and cook.
Why this price. Sixteen guests travel in five Land Cruisers with two senior guides, a cook and a support vehicle, and sleep in the best camps on the route including two nights at Three Camel Lodge. Nothing is shared with other groups and nothing is subcontracted. That is the difference between this price and a bus.
Discover Mongolia is the trip we would send a first time visitor on if they could only come once and did not want to plan anything. Twelve days in a single loop: south across the steppe to the Gobi, along the great cliffs and dunes, then north through the Ongi ruins into the Khangai lakes and the Orkhon Valley, and home past the old capital at Kharkhorin and Ugii Lake.
It is joinable. You book a seat, not a private vehicle. Sixteen guests at most, two senior guides, our own Land Cruisers, drivers and a cook, and the best camps on the route including two nights at Three Camel Lodge. We set the pace together and nobody is left in the dust.
It runs twice a year, in June when the steppe is greenest and in August when the Gobi nights are warm and the larches are just turning. A deposit of USD 1,500 holds a seat; the balance is due sixty days before departure. If a departure does not reach eight guests we run it anyway, in fewer vehicles, at the same price.
A starting point. Every day is rebuilt around your party, your pace and the season you travel in.
Day 1: Ulaanbaatar
Arrive, meet the group and the guides over dinner. Briefing and a first look at the map.
Day 2: South to the caravanserai
Leave the city on the Gobi road. Lunch with a herder family, night at the Gobi caravanserai on the steppe edge.
Day 3: Tsagaan Suvarga
The white stupa cliffs, a sea bed turned to colour. Camp beneath them.
Day 4: Dalanzadgad and Yolyn Am
Into the Gurvan Saikhan mountains and the ice gorge, lammergeier overhead. Two nights at Three Camel Lodge.
Day 5: The Flaming Cliffs
Bayanzag at golden hour, where the dinosaur eggs were found. Lodge night.
Day 6: Khongoryn Els
The singing dunes, camels along the ridge, a sunset climb. Ger camp under the sand.
Day 7: Ongiin Khiid
North along the Ongi river to the monastery ruins. Night by the river.
Day 8: Arvaikheer and the Khangai
Into the mountains, the land greening by the hour. Ger camp.
Day 9: The Eight Lakes
Khuisiin Naiman Nuur, volcanic lakes in larch forest, on foot and horseback.
Day 10: Orkhon waterfall and Tuvkhun Khiid
The falls, then the climb to Zanabazar's hermitage above the valley.
Day 11: Kharkhorin and Ugii Lake
Erdene Zuu at the old capital, then the lake for a last evening with birds and fish.
Day 12: Home
Back to Ulaanbaatar for the farewell dinner.
