Organising tours once in Mongolia

How easy would it be to organise a tour in a group for 2 weeks in Mongolia if I wait until I arrive there. How much would it cost (budget style)? Is it difficult to travel around on your use using buses? thank you. sarah.

Hi there. I'd be interested in any comments on this as well. I am travelling with a friend and we have been quoted around £3100 (as part of a trans-sib trip organised by Sundowners) for the two of us for a night in UB, 2 day 1 night in a Ger in Terelj (including guide), 1 night hotel UB, 5 day Gobi desert tour including flight to Sth Gobi and various treks, meals and accommodation, entrance fees and a guide and then a final night in UB. Seems pricey to us and a good part of the budget for our entire 8 mth trip!

Thanks in advance

Similar trip, a friend of mine had cost them 1900 US$. If you want I can get you the contact numbers/mails

sloughboy - that woul be really helpful if you could give us the numbers

mobile: 9904119 or e-mail at bugghy72@gmail.com

Thanks!

a lot of information to prepare your trip before or on the way by reading my webpage: http://www.terramongolia.com

you can find adresses, good driver and so on and surely you can do somnething cheaper and better??

we go often in Mongolia and will be there for 1 month from friday 11th

hoping this can help everybody

more? contact me

have nice trip

it depends when you arrive in mongolia if during summer better to ahve choose your driver and agency as a lot of people and it's peak of season and so maybe you have to wait a driver some days returning from a tour, or to choose without having the possibility to compare and so have to take the one you find and so amybe not find the right for you, for your project or ideas! or budget!

if you go out season it's easy but some agencies closed.

so the best is in any case to start to contact some addresses and so start to understand the one who can be okay for you and so at the end if you don't reserve first you will ahve some choose to visit when arriving and make the alst decision. agencies aren't so easy to find so soemtimes people have to take the one given by the guest house withoput having as already say the opportunity to compare

and reading my webpages http://www.terramongolia.com you will understand where can be the difficulties as well the things to know to not have bad surprise at the end
for a wonderful driver where yiou will choose all by yourself and where all will done without surprise jsut have a look on http://www.mongoliatours.org
have nice trip

Thanks all - lots of helpful advice

sarahgore75 - if you haven't already, i would recommend getting in touch with mongoliatours and khongor@mongol.net who both responded quickly with great info. Seems like you can arrange a trip around whatever budget you like....good luck!

Thanks again to all who responded with helpful advice and contacts

i would definitely wait til you arrived. if you need to save money, then you would need to go with a group (5-6 people). this would be easier to do once you are in country. or, you can try to find fellow travelers on line so you waste no time on arrival. i would for sure recommend khongor guesthouse also. have done three trips with them and i am very very satisfied. they answer emails quickly, will meet your plane/train and are just fab people. have a great time. mongolia rocks.

I really want to see Mongolia, but the only opportunity that I'll have in the near future will be in December. I've always heard how bitterly cold Mongolia gets in the winter. Would it really be worth it?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you. Brian

Sorry, I accidentally posted my previous message to the wrong thread. My apologies. Please disregard

is there a more convenient place than UB accesable on the line from Beijing to organise South Gobi tours from? Would be great to have a starting place that is 1 hour in a jeep vs 8 hours that you can get to by train.......

i did a tour with golden gobi which was approx USD$40/day including english speaking guide, all food, accom and driver - that was for 3 people. it was a lot cheaper than i thought. you could even pay less if you don't have an english speaking guide and were willing to cook for yourself but i definitely wouldn't recommend it.

loumoo - There is no place directly on the train line between UB and Beijing from which to easily get to the Gobi unless it is prearranged in advance. Look for a post from summer 2007 by manulike in which I believe he discusses this possibility. Basically you would need to get from some town on the train line to Dalanzadgad. From there you could go to the Gobi assuming that you find an English speaking guide with the proper equipment which generally means arranging everything in advance.

Ruth

Thanks all.

I think what we're thinking about now is getting the train to UB and organising a trip that loops back to UB and takes 4 weeks. I've been in contact with a couple of guys based in UB on email about trips and they seem to be willing to build something up around what we want to do for roughly $40 pppd which doesn't seem too bad and much less than the previous quote we had. I think what I need to do now is get my head into the guidebook to figure out exactly what I want to see in a bit more detail than it is currently!

If anyone has any recommendations about tour guides based in UB that they've used recently I'd be all ears....

Thanks again

Louise