Mongolia on a motorcycle in november

Hi,

Not impossible but it will be very cold and quite wet for most of November getting worse towards the tail end. Motorcycling without a guide might actually be somewhat risky as there will be a lot of snow in unpredictable flurries all over the country but self driving a jeep should be ok as long as you're well acquainted with your route and have built in safeguards in case of flooding, white outs, etc.

Personally I think it would be better to leave this till spring to get the most enjoyment out of your trip but I guess it depends a lot on how experienced you are, what you're willing to put up with and your level of risk aversion. On the plus side there will be no other tourists at all except for a few die hards and hotels in town will be pretty cheap!

Good Luck!

Hey,

I did a trip in the "spring" last year, and even spring and fall in Mongolia can be bitterly cold.

I would say taking out motorcycles in November is impossible.

W/ motorcycles in Mongolia, two largest questions, imo, are 1) where do you want to go? and 2) what is your experience level?

Much of Mongolia essentially lacks roads, and while that's OK in the summer (provided you have food and water), you can quickly die if you get stuck in the winter or even fall and spring if unprepared (by the end of November it will likely be getting to -30 centigrade at night and never creep past -10 during the day). I did a trip through the Gobi, and much of the trip was just pointing ourselves toward GPS coordinates and driving across endless sand and scrubby brush plains. There is no way this ends well in the winter.

Perhaps a bigger problem is also that, in my experience, anyone who rents motorcycles will simply refuse to rent them out in the winter.

If you rent a jeep or Land Cruiser, a trip is possible. However, even then I would highly advise avoiding serious offroading far from civilization. While it snows infrequently, it sits for a long time and sometimes thaws partially then refreezes (changing the properties of offroading vs. normal driving in snow). Even in the summer it can be quite easy to get stuck out in the countryside in Mongolia if you're an experienced offroader, so having everything blanketed by white will severely increase the odds of encountering some problem. Unless you have serious experience offroading in severe winter conditions, I would suggest sticking to cities that can be reached by road in Mongolia.

The last thing to consider even when driving between cities is that you likely will need to keep the car in a heated garage overnight. Otherwise getting the car started is a big question. This is only possible if you are visiting fairly sizable cities.

If you would like, I can PM you with my contact for renting Land Cruisers or other SUVs -- I am not sure they have any Russian vans or jeeps (without any heating these will be freezing cold to drive in the winter).

A lot of this depends on where exactly you want to go. If you are staying in the desert and the south, renting a jeep could be feasible, as of course there is less snow. It still will be very cold. Anything out west toward the Altai could be hard to do. Something like Lake Khovsgol might be possible, as there is paved road quite close and there are well-worn dirt roads that are passable even in the winter.

Hi,

Thanks for the info. I will spend my winter in Thailand and fly to Mongolia in March. Then I want to buy a (motor)bike and travel West. Leave the country in via Kazachstan. Any clues on if this will be possible? How about carrying food/water? For how many days should one bring at least?

Interesting topic!