Preorganised tours! Every experienced budget-backpacker would rather avoid them due to their high costs and restricted day-to-day itineraries. But what are you supposed to do in a country with a limited public transport system? Well, I’m afraid to tell you that a tour in Mongolia is exactly what you need to see the best the country has to offer. Having said that, there is still a way you can keep costs down and avoid the minute by minute itineraries. Here is how to find awesome cheap Mongolia tours.
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Don’t book a Mongolia tour online
First, STOP looking to prebook your tour in Mongolia online before you arrive. We spent forever researching tours online, reading reviews, and sending endless email inquiries. Either the tours were way more expensive than we had anticipated, or we never received a response.
In the end, we gave up and decided to head into Ulaanbaatar (the capital of Mongolia) in the hope of finding a cheaper tour whilst on the ground. Bingo! Tour companies galore lined the streets selling tours at less than half of the price of anything we had seen online. The main point is not to worry if you don’t have a tour scheduled before you arrive in Mongolia. You can easily book one when you get there.
Choosing the perfect Mongolia tour package
Once in the capital city, Ulaanbaatar, you will have tons of options to choose from. You will first need to decide which region of Mongolia you want to explore. Do you want to head north to eventually cross the border into Russia at Lake Baikal? Or do you want to head to western Mongolia to the Alti Mountains and Kazakhstan? After you have chosen which region you want to go to, you will need to have an idea of how many days you want to go. We chose a 13-day tour through the Gobi Desert and central Mongolia. When inquiring about a tour, be sure to ask what is available to suit your preferences.
Find other travellers to join you
When you’ve decided where in Mongolia you would like to go, try to find other travellers that would like to take a similar route. This won’t be too difficult to do, as you will meet people in your hostel. Alternatively, you can use social media to connect with backpackers in your area, or you may even bump into someone who is inquiring at the same tour shop. Luckily, we found 3 fellow travellers in our first few hours of arriving that wanted to take a similar tour to us. Making friends and finding other travellers to split costs with, is easy when you’re on the road, whether that be on a backpacking trip to Thailand or a remote trip through the Pamir Highway in Tajikistan.
Regardless of if you’re a group of 1, 2 or 6, the tour will cost the same because the driver, car, and fuel make up most of the costs. So why not make new friends, share the memories and split the cost of the tour with fellow backpackers? Usually, you can have up to 6 people in your group, but you may be a little cramped and sweaty in the old Russian mini-vans with no air-con, so maybe consider a group of 5. We thought a group of 5 was the perfect number.
Organised tours vs personalised tours
Organised tour
With an organised tour, everything from the sleeping bags, cooking equipment, food, activities, and your nights’ accommodation is included and preplanned. You will be given a set itinerary, and you will often sleep in luxury ger camps and have a tour guide cook meals for you. With this luxury, you will obviously pay more. This is the tour option that is most commonly advertised in tourist shops. The cheapest tour we could find of this nature costs $50 per day, per person based on a group of 5 people. With very hard bargaining skills you may get this down to $45.
Personalised tour
This is the option we went for. With a personalised tour, you hire a driver, choose your route, and choose the duration. However, you will need to fend for yourself, by cooking food and finding a place to stay for the night. This may seem daunting in a country where there are mass open land and no other soul’s insight most of the time, but your driver will help you.
Each night our driver took us to a family ger. Here we had the opportunity to interact with local nomadic families, sleep in their ger tents, and fully immerse ourselves in Mongolian culture. As for food, we stocked up at a supermarket before leaving the city and cooked our own pasta and noodles. Every few days you may come across small settlements where you can refill your supplies at the village shop. This option cost us just $19 per day, per person and covered the costs for the driver and fuel. On top of this cost, we had to pay for our accommodation, food, and activities. Accommodation costs roughly $4, entrance to national parks averaged $2, and the cost of food averaged $3 per day. Combined, this made the daily cost total less than $28, as we did not need to pay entrance fees to national parks every day.
Finding cheap Mongolia tours conclusion
So, let’s quickly recap!
- Wait until you arrive in Ulaanbaatar before booking your tour in Mongolia.
- Find fellow travellers to split the cost with.
- Avoid an organised tour and opt to just hire a driver.
- By following these steps, you can cut the tour costs from $80 per day to less than $28 per day.
Essential resources for travelling in Mongolia
Travel Insurance – No matter where you’re travelling to, it’s a good idea to make sure you’re covered for any accidents or losses. We spent days and weeks searching for insurance, but most insurers would not allow us to take out a policy as we were already abroad. Our personal choice is Safteywing. You can opt for automatic monthly payments, just like a subscription. More importantly, it is available in 180 countries and can be purchased whilst already travelling. There is no cap on the duration of travel.
Visa – Before you travel to any country, make sure to check if you need a visa. iVisa is a fantastic website that is super easy and quick to use. Just type in where you are from. and where you are going. to check if you need a visa. If you do, you can quickly make an application online.
Accommodation – Booking.com is our go-to when looking to pre-book accommodation online. Booking.com tend to almost always have the best rates and a FREE cancellation policy for most properties.
Tours & Activities – If you want to book tours and activities online, make sure to check out Get Your Guide. Get Your Guide takes the stress out of booking activities abroad. You will also find a range of benefits, such as skip-the-line passes, lunch included in your tours, and so much more.
Travel tips ebook -Before you head off on your adventure, make sure to download our free ebook. It has a whopping 109 budget travel tips to help you make your hard-earned cash go further. Click here to download your FREE ebook.
We hope this post will help you find a range of cheap Mongolia tours to suit your needs. Good luck with finding your dream tour. Please check back to let us know about your experience in Mongolia.
After your tour, why not extend your trip and head to Terelj National Park by yourself. It’s super easy to get there from Ulaanbaatar. Find out how here!
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Hi!
We are 2 pax travelling to Mongolia, will be land in Ulanbataar on 29th of september 2018, we want to enquire on a 4 day to-and-fro UB)to the Gobi Desert. And stay at the Ger.
Dates we looking at :
Option 1 : sept 30 to oct 3 (4d)
Looking at Khongoryn & Bayanzag & kharakhom, is Yol canyan far away ??
Any suggestions on whom we can contact?
Hey, I recommend you go to the Golden Gobi hostel when you arrive or email them in advance. We arranged our tour through them and we had a fab time. Would totally recommend. Good luck!
Hello there
I really recommend you packing warm clothing for a late September trip. We have snow in mountains.
Thank you! I have had a nightmare with visas meaning my stay in Mongolia has been extended from 7 days to 14 days and I was freaking OUT when I saw how much all the tours were.
This has calmed me down and I can now be excited again about my trip so thank you. Where abouts did you guys go?
Rosie x
Hi Rosie, Sorry to hear about your visa nightmare. Despite that, I know you will have a great time in Mongolia. It’s one of my favorite countries and it even inspired us to continue the journey along the old silk road into the rest of Central Asia.
We started in Ulaanbaatar and then went to the Gobi desert and central Mongolia. The landscapes are very different each day. Good luck with finding a tour. We fully recommend Golden Gobi and if you get Anh Ba as your driver than you have dropped really lucky 🙂
Interesting article! How did you find your driver? Thanks
Hi Anna, so we booked out driver through a company called Golden Gobi. They have a hostel too and are very popular with travellers. They don’t advertise just the driver and van as they are trying to promote package deals. But if you ask they should be able to do it for you. We had a driver named Anh Ba, and we fully recommend him. He doesn’t speak much English but he knows enough to communicate and was super friendly and really looked after us on out trip and he knows Mongolia very well.
Planning to visit Mongolia soon. This post has great information that helps me to plan my journey. Thanks for sharing
I’m glad that you found this post useful. Hope you have a fantastic time in Mongolia – which I’m sure you will!
Nice tips. Its interesting to know not to book before arriving. Informative article.
This article should save anyone going to Mongolia a lot of time and aggravation. Great tips!
Great tips there! I always prefer free & easy travels as to organised tours. You get to experience more local cultures. And where does the driver sleep in this case?
Yeah me too, but it’s the only way when on a trip through Mongolia. The driver lays down the seats in the van and sleeps in the van. We slept in gers.
This is great information, thank you so much for sharing. I am bookmarking it for future reference.