Tours
Great Gobi desert tour

Destination:
Ulaanbaatar-South Gobi
Duration:
8 days
Hotel:
Price:
1450$
Dates:
10.25.2022
Price includes
  • Airport / hotel / airport transfers
  • hotel** in Ulaanbaatar, breakfast included
  • Domestic flights
  • Full board during the excursion
  • Mineral water
  • camp of comfortable yurts with hot shower
  • nights at homestay, under yurt of hosts
  • Travel by car + driver
  • Essence
  • English-speaking guide
  • Horseback riding
  • Camel ride
  • Local guides during hikes
  • Entrance fees to the parks and museums mentioned
  • Traditional show
  • Kitchen equipment (camping tables and chairs) and sleeping equipment (down)
Price excludes
  •   Transport international
  •   Passport & Visa Fees
  •   Repatriation insurance
  •   Travel insurance
  •   Extra drinks / alcohols
  •   Meals in Ulaanbaatar
  •   Calls
  •   Any excursion not mentioned in the program
Itinerary
Itinerary

Day 1 Ulaanbaatar

Arrival on Ulaanbaatar. Transfer to the hotel. Lunch in a Mongolian restaurant  to discover local dishes. In the evening planned a traditional show.

Ulaanbaatar (in Mongolian: "Red Hero") is the capital of Mongolia. It is at the same time the political, economic, industrial, scientific and cultural center. Administratively, it has the status,unique in the country, of municipality, comparable to that of province.

The city, which stretches from east to west at the bottom of the valley of the Tula River, over twenty kilometers, brings together more than a million inhabitants, more than a third of the country's population.

The city changed its name several times in its history; at its creation in 1639, örgöö  which gives the famous translation Urga, in 1651 Nomyn khüree, in 1706  Ikh khüree, in 1912 Niislel khüree and finally in 1924, the current name, Ulaanbaatar.

Ulaanbaatar is located 522 km south-southeast of Irkutsk, Russia,1,170  km northwest of Beijing,1,557 km east-northeast of Ürümqi,China and 4,635  km  east-southeast of Moscow. The city is built along the Tula River, a stream belonging to the Selenge sub-basin. To the southeast of the city is the Choybalsan Uul,a small regional massif culminating at 2,261 m and belonging to the Khentii Mountains.The latter mountainous set, more important, limits the Tula Valley to the north and continues to Russia. Ulaanbaatar is the coldest capital of the world, it benefits a continental climate cold and dry. Winter is cold and long while summer is short and cool. Almost all precipitation occurs in summer.

Day 2 Ulaanbaatar-Baga gazriin chuluu

Departure for the region of Central Gobi /Dundgovi/ to come to the famous site of Baga Gazriin Chuluu.

Baga Gazriin Chuluu – located in Delgertsogt sum, Dundgovi province and surrounded by plain. The highest is 15 km long and 10 km wide, a granite stone mountain raised to 1768 m above sea level. There are also more than 20 kinds of medicinal herbs like burnet, many species of animals rare in the world like the marmot, ibex and mountain sheep. You can also see the Bolort Cave, an eye treatment spa, rock images, petroglyphs, burial mounds, many other tourist sites. There is a ruin of the Monastery of Choir which was established by "Zava" Damdin, a famous ancient historical, religious and scientific researcher. This monastery had  a few monks who translated, printed, explained and advertised books in Tibetan languages and researched religious philosophy and medical science.

Visit the place and overnight in a yurt camp.

Day 3 Baga gazriin chuluu-Tsagaan suvarga

Departure for  Tsagaan Suvarga "White Stupas". These colorful cliffs were part of an ancient seabed millions of years ago. Nowadays, it is a natural wonder with fantastic color combinations. Stroll through Tsagaan Suvarga and enjoy the fantastic views. Good place to take pictures of sunset, sunrise and night stars with these colorful cliffs.

Night yurt camps

Day 4 Tsagaan suvarga-Yol canyon

Departure for the Yoliin am canyon located in the South Gobi region.

The Gobi Desert is of historical importance, not only for its belonging to the Mongol Empire, but also because it was one of the crossing points of the Silk Road. Part of the desert as well as fossils located in the desert were inscribed on theTentative List of UNESCO World Heritage in 2014. The Gobi stretches 1,600 km from southwest to northeast and 800 km from north to south. Its area is estimated at 1,300,000km2, making it one of the largest deserts in the world. Contrary to images frequently associated with deserts, the Gobi is more covered with stones than sand. The landscapes are diverse: there are vast plains of steppe,earth, stone or sand, imposing mountain ranges such as the famous Flaming Cliffs or smaller dunes. This heterogeneity of landscapes gives the Gobi Desert an important variety of colors.The sunshine is about 250 days a year. Nomads inhabit some areas. They travel on camels,  small horses (Mongolian horse) or inmotorized all-terrain vehicles depending on the region and the means. Mongolian nomads live as a family and sleep under yurts, traditional Mongolian circular houses. Wild animals include Przewalski's horse, snow leopard, Mongolian hemione or Gobi's bear. Humans have long domesticed sheep, goats, including the  cashmere goat,famous for the unique quality of the cashmere fiber it produces, yaks, camels or Mongolian horse.

The Nemegt Basin,located in the northwestern part of the desert, is known locally as the "Valley of the Dragons" because it is a source of many fossil species, including dinosaurs, dinosaur eggs, and fossil foot prints. The continental climate of the Gobi Desert experiences extreme temperature differences that make it very hostile. Despite this, grasses as well as some small shrubs feed a large number of small animals such as the desert hamster and the wild donkey. The climate of the Gobi has significant variations depending on the season: scorching in summer (38 ° C), it is freezing in winter (−25  ° C), making it the coldest desert in the world after Antarctica. This plateau is swept by powerful winds. Between night and day, a thermal amplitude of 32 °C can be observed. In Yolyn Am Canyon, you can see blocks of ice in June. The Gobi Desert is growing by more than 10,000  km2  per year.

The canyon of Yoliin Am is part of a protected area at 2500 meters above sea level. During this discovery, you will certainly meet the animal that gave its name to these places, the bearded vulture, "Yol" in Mongolian. Inside the gorges are some small waterfalls, a frozen lake and permanent glaciers... Unique creations of nature!

Overnight in a yurt camp

Day 5 Yol canyon-Dunes of Khongor

Heading to the Khongor Dunes of Gobi Gurvan  Saikhan National Park,  in the south of the country, you will listen to the Khongor dunes sing due to the noise that the wind makes as it moves the sand. An unforgettable camel ride will make you discover the pale yellow hues of the dunes and the green vegetation that is in these 180 km long. Certainly one of the unforgettable moments of your trip!

Yurt camps

Day 6 Dunes of khongor-Bayanzag

The Bayanzag cliff, nicknamed "the cliff of fire", became famous thanks to the discovery in 1923 of the first eggs of protoceratops by the American paleontologist Roy Chapman.

Direction to Bayanzag The  Flaming Cliffs of Bayanzag  are ochre cliffs carved by erosion. When we find ourselves in the middle of these formations, we think we are the space of a moment back in the landscapes of  the American West. However, this place has not always been so desert. Morethan 70 million years ago, it looked like a tropical rainforest in which dinosaurs roamed. The place reveals a special beauty during the sunset. When the rock catches fire under the last rays of the sun. The nickname of flamboyant cliffs is therefore not usurped!  

Yurt camps

Day 7 Bayanzag Ulaanbaatar

Bayanzag-Ulaanbaatar

Day 8 Return

 
Map

Reviews