Short tour

Hi, yes can get a good deal with short tours. Why don't you try "Nomadic Adventures'' at bugghy72@gmail.com. They give you English speaking driver, as opposed to drover and guide (meaning costly) and offer very flexible quote on on 2 - 6 days. Friends of ours did similar trip of which you may be interested last summer going to Karakorum, White Lake and Amarbayasgalant Monastery etc for 345 USS per person or even just hire their english speaking driver only (with him driving his japanese SUV & guiding).

We caught a public bus to Terelj National park & met a family on the bus that put us up for three nights.I know this is very hit & miss but it only cost us US15 a night including 3 meals, horse riding, a mini festival & staying in a Ger.

This is pretty much what we did except with a family.
http://photos.igougo.com/pictures-photos-l233-s1-p235717-Inside_a_Ger.html

To the Polish girl we met there & thought I was really funny, HELLO!!!

HI?

If you travel to Khustai national park, Bayangobi, Kharakhorum, TUvkhan Monastery and Tsenkher hotspring, you need 4-5 days and you are able to see and do gobi desert, home stay at real herders ger with camel and horse riding, the ruin of ancient capital city, the live meditation temple on 9000 feet Mountain, camping in pine tree forest, many different wild lives, lake and natural hotspring etc without much drivings.

The cost will be about $75 USD with good service, $50-60 USD average and $30-35 USD per day per person for cheap budget services including all meals, accomodation, transport, fuel, english speaking driver, tax and fee for National park and museum.

You can get well-priced tours from the Khongor Guesthouse - look them up http://get.to/khongor

3 to 5 days isn't a lot of time - most places worth exploring are a day's drive out of the city and a day back in. If possible, I suggest you plan for something more like 7 to 10 days. You'll have a lot more options then. If you are just stopping for a few days, allow a buffer in case things don't go quite to plan.

If for a few days, you could benefit from limiting your activities - maybe a couple of days around BayanGobi and Terelj or something similar to the itinerary Ganochir posted.

You don't really need an organised tour to see Kharakhorin, Terelj, Kustai and Mansiir Khid.
To see unique countryside you should go to the Gobi, and you could do a 3/4 day tour there and see most of the sights. The main problem is getting there - you will spend 2 days travelling if you go by van but if you can afford it it's better to fly. For tours of the Gobi try looking at www.gobitours.com. Good luck.

Your problem is the limited amount of time. With only three days your options will be Terelj national park and Karakorum. To get to the Gobi and back you need a minimum of 5 days probably more like 6-7 to make it worthwhile as distances are huge.

Most guesthouses can assist with making arrangements for tours. Cost for a full vehicles averages about 45-50 USD per person per day with most things being included in that price. If you can't afford this, then you really can't travel outside the city.

You might want to read this thread: 7 days in Mongolia

Ruth

Thanks very much for all your replies. I'm starting to get a better handle on how much time we need. Unfortunately when I started researching I used tour company itineraries as a rough guide of how much time to spend in each place - most trips doing trans-sib seem to spend 2 days max in Mongolia. Obviously, on closer inspection, it seems worth spending a bit more time. On the other hand, we can't spend 3 weeks in Mongolia as we have a finite amount of time to travel.

I've now discovered the public bus to Terelj NP, so that will be a day trip, and we will do UB ourselves in one day. I guess if we allow 6 days for a tour, that might just be enough. However, we will probably have booked our trains in advance so will have a definite departure date. We therefore have to book a tour quite quickly after arrival in UB - are next day departures generally possible for tours?

I also get the impression with these jeep tours that if you have a full-jeeps worth of people, you can basically dictate the tour and have everything tailor made. Is this the case?

Finally, one more question - is it possible to change departure date of our train tickets to Beijing once we are there? Are there extra costs for changing the ticket if so? We don't speak any Mongolian but do speak basic Russian. We are going in September so are aware that they may be difficulty in getting tickets are short notice.

Thanks very much for your help!

Depending upon when you depart in September there may only be two trains a week from UB to Beijing. One will be the #3 which starts in Moscow and the other the K23 which starts in UB. Tickets for the former are less likely to be available than the latter. There are actually 4 trains that cross the border but only two to Beijing. The other two would require a change but terminate in Hohhot.

I am not sure how easily tickets are exchanged and I would suggest that you wait to purchase these tickets. If for some reason there are no tickets on the direct train, it is possible to take the train to the border, cross and take a train or bus from Erlian to Beijng. While this does take an extra day, it allows for more flexibility.

In September there may not be a tour departing UB the next day. Your best bet with your compressed time table would be to contact guest houses and guides and see about putting something together prior to your arrival. Leaving it until you arrive during the end of the tourist season is a bit chancy unless you have more flexibility in your schedule.

Ruth

I also booked a trip with the Khongor guest house last year for a week, and had a great time.
They have lots of itineries to choose from and you can make your own trip. There were 2 of us in the jeep, and it was $50 each per day. The price will probably have increased this year but it included all travel , food, and lodgings ( gers ) .
Most guest houses will do trips of this kind so you can look around when you arrive in UB and decide then.