Embracing The Steppe: A Nomadic Homestay in Erdenedalai

Erdenedalai is set in the vast desert steppe of Mongolia’s Middle Gobi, within Dundgobi Aimag. Often bypassed by tour companies and groups rushing south to the more famous sites of the Southern Gobi, this rural community remains off the typical tourist trail. Precisely because it isn’t widely featured in guidebooks or itineraries, we believe Erdenedalai is an ideal destination for slow, immersive travel experiences.

Here, you’ll be welcomed by Nergui and Tsegmid, a husband-and-wife herding family who have long been part of our long-term local community partnerships. As nomadic herders, they move two to four times a year, adapting to rainfall and grazing conditions. Though they were unable to have children of their own, they are deeply loved by the local community, and it’s not uncommon to find a child or two from the area staying with them, drawn to their warmth and kindness.

Our Erdenedalai Homestay is ideal for those seeking a deeper connection rather than a bucket-list experience. It’s not about ticking off highlights or chasing must-see sights—it’s about immersing yourself in the quiet rhythm of Mongolia’s "middle" landscapes, where life unfolds in harmony with the changing seasons.

Duration: 5 Days (finishing on the evening of Day 5)

Your Stay, Your Way

Our homestay experiences are flexible—you choose the length of your stay, and we price accordingly. The standard itinerary includes three nights and four days, along with our complimentary 'Intro to Ulaanbaatar' experience on a day to suit you. Your stay includes:

The support of one of our fantastic female trip assistants.
Complimentary use of mountain bikes.
All meals (why not ask your EL trip assistant for a Mongolian cookery lesson?).
Local bus transfers to and from the accommodation.

Beyond that, the experience is

FAQs: We’re a small company, but when you book with us, you can do so with flexibility & confidence

Ulaanbaatar

Day to suit you: ‘Intro to Ulaanbaatar’ Experience
Join us for an informal introduction to Mongolia’s capital through local eyes, a local-style lunch, and a welcome drink

Accommodation: Your choice | Local lunch & welcome drink

Middle Gobi

Day One: Journey to Erdenedalai
Travel by public bus alongside your EL Trip Assistant into the wide, open landscapes of the Middle Gobi. On arrival, you’ll settle into your homestay with the Nergui herding family.

Simple private guest ger provided by Nergui herding family | Outside squat toilet & no showers | Approx 7 hours driving time | L/D

Days Two - Four: Immersive Life in Erdenedalai
Three flexible days to slow down and immerse yourself in rural Mongolian life, surrounded by the expansive beauty of open landscapes and endless horizons.

Simple private guest ger provided by Nergui herding family | Outside squat toilet | Warm shower at local town shower house | B/L/D

Day Five: Return to Ulaanbaatar
Transfer back to Ulaanbaatar by public bus — a truly authentic Mongolian experience — with the trip concluding with a transfer to your chosen accommodation.

Your own choice of accommodation | Approx 7 hours driving time | B/L

During this journey, you’ll experience a variety of accommodation styles, each offering insight into daily life in Mongolia and shaped by the season and setting:

Kazakh Family Homes

Your accommodation during this experience is hosted by Kazakh families with whom we’ve built long-term, community-based partnerships.

You’ll stay in their traditional, single-storey adobe brick homes — hand-built in the classic Kazakh style. These homes are typically located in the family’s winter pastures, often alongside their livestock. Depending on the time of year, you may instead stay in a Mongolian or Kazakh ger, also set up by the family in their seasonal pastures.

As a guest, you’ll likely be given a private room or ger shared with any fellow group members you book the homestay experience with. Sleeping arrangements are simple and culturally authentic — most families sleep on the floor, and you’ll likely be provided with a comfortable mat or mattress, in keeping with local tradition.

Facilities are basic: showers are taken at the local public shower house every 2-3 days, and toilets are traditional outdoor short-drop latrines.

Ölgii

In Ölgii, you’ll be hosted by our trusted Kazakh partners, Jako and Bovka, at their family home. Again, this is a shared space, and sleeping arrangements will be on floor mats. Shower access is at the town shower house, and toilets are outdoor sit-down long drops.

If you would prefer a private en-suite hotel room for your final night in Ölgii, this can be arranged subject to availability and at an additional cost. You would still spend the day with the group and transfer to the hotel in the evening. Please let us know if you’d like to explore this option.

Ulaanbaatar

Accommodation in Ulaanbaatar is not included although we provide recommendations and can help with booking.

Map Of Route Click on the link below to access the map

For all of our trips we offer a sliding price scale. We appreciate your holiday funds are precious and so the more people that book so the price comes down and everyone benefits.

1 Guest US$ 1975 pp

2 Guests US$ 1425 pp

3 – 4 Guests US$ 1360 pp

5 Guests US$ 1265 pp

6 Guests US$ 1195 pp

Where Does Your Payment Go?

We understand that budget is a personal decision, and every traveller has different priorities. While our rates may be higher than some other agencies, it’s not because we offer luxury experiences—but because we’re committed to a form of tourism that is ethical, fair, and genuinely impactful.

As a small-scale company, we intentionally limit our operations to around 150–200 travellers per year. This allows us to focus on delivering personalised, meaningful journeys, rather than generic, checklist-style tours.

We published our first Impact Report in 2025, offering transparency around how your payment supports the people and places you visit. Here’s an overview of where your tour funds go:

Commitment to Mongolia: We’re a registered Mongolian business, meaning your payment directly supports the local economy through taxes, employment, and social security contributions. Your money stays in Mongolia, helping to fund local initiatives and foster economic resilience.

Empowering Employment Opportunities: We provide long-term employment to individuals often overlooked by mainstream tour companies. Our team includes female Mongolian trip assistants, who are breaking barriers and paving the way for more women to thrive in tourism-related roles. We also work with older, experienced male drivers, many of whom face limited employment opportunities due to age or traditional backgrounds. By offering stable, respectful work, we help address both high unemployment and the effects of toxic masculinity.These cross-generational teams form the heart of our operations and reflect the rural and urban communities we’re proud to work alongside. Learn more about our initiatives: Empowering Mongolian Women and Supporting Male Drivers.

Community and Herding Family Support: Our trips are thoughtfully designed to support the projects, families, and communities—both rural and urban—with whom we’ve built long-term partnerships. We do this without disrupting their daily lives or livelihoods, ensuring that tourism remains respectful and mutually beneficial.This ongoing support helps communities navigate challenges such as climate change and urban poverty, while also preserving—or in some cases, improving—their quality of life and cultural resilience. Discover more about us.

Climate Emergency Advocacy: We are proud members of Tourism Declares a Climate Emergency and signatories of the Glasgow Declaration. As part of our commitment, we actively seek ways to minimise our environmental footprint while exploring how our small-scale approach to tourism can leave a positive impact—culturally, socially, economically, and environmentally. Learn about our initiatives: Climate Emergency.

Included in the price

All meals outside of the city of Ulaanbaatar: These are mainly prepared and cooked by your local team so they are fresh and it means we offer more flexibility for any dietary requirements. We also provide filtered drinking water (not bottled), tea, and instant coffee.
You'll be supported by one of our great female English-speaking trip assistant, ensuring an immersive experience. Jess and Tuya are available throughout via WhatsApp.
Our complimentary 'Intro To Ulaanbaatar' experience including a local lunch and welcome drink
Entrance fees to monasteries, temples, and museums are included when you are with the local team. Please note this excludes camera tickets. Festival tickets are provided if listed in the itinerary.

Not included in the price

International airfare to and from Mongolia
Accommodation in Ulaanbaatar: Our trip pricing excludes the price of accommodation in UB though. Why? Everyone is different is the standard of accommodation they prefer at the start and end of a trip. As there is now such a variety of hotels in UB it is easier to exclude this cost. I provide a list of ideas covering varying standards and budgets and I can also help with booking. There’s everything from a homestay through to Airbnb, US$10 guesthouses and the Shangri-La!
Transfers to/from the airport
Passport and visa fees: Let us know your nationality at the time of booking and we’ll confirm whether you need to apply for a Mongolian visa. It is a relatively easy process depending on your nationality and we can help with some of the formalities.
Travel insurance (mandatory)
Gratuities: Each member of the local team receives a responsible but fair salary and none have to rely on receiving gratuities to supplement their income. In addition, we make sure that everyone who works with us or helps us is fairly rewarded for their work and the service they provide. At the end of the tour, if you wish to make a gratuity to the local team then thank you – it is not compulsory but it is appreciated when given. We give detailed information on booking.
Personal Expenses: We provide detailed guidance on booking
Alcohol: Alcohol is available to buy in shops and supermarkets throughout your trip, and your team will make regular stops.

Positive Impact Overview

Helping to create employment and development opportunities for our team of Mongolian female trip assistants.

Supporting the families we work in long-term local community partnership with – helping to supplement their income to help prevent urban migration, face the challenges of climate change and allow them to maintain their fragile herding lifestyle.

We measure the carbon footprint of the experience and balance the footprint of each traveller through the Mongolian Nomad Carbon Project.

A donation is made to theMongolian projects we support and that you will visit such as the Uuliin Nuur Community Project in Ulaanbaatar.

We are members of Tourism Declares A Climate Emergency and a signatory of The Glasgow Declaration which requires us to publish an annual Climate Action Plan. It also means we have essentially signed up to work towards halving our emissions by 2030. We must report publicly on an annual basis on progress against our interim and long-term targets, as well as on actions being taken. We do this in our Climate Action Plan linked above.

One of the five pathways defined in the Glasgow Declaration is ‘measure’ and we have started the process of measuring the carbon footprint of our tours.

We wanted an accurate footprint analysis whilst also keeping the process manageable, achievable, and affordable. Of the limited carbon calculators available to small tourism companies with a restricted budget we have signed up with the carbon calculator tool Carmacal – specifically designed for tour operators and the 2017 winner of the UNWTO Award for Innovation in Research and Technology.
However, there are limitations with this online tool in the fact that – like most online carbon calculators – you can only measure transport and accommodation and a few very specific activities. But, the main contributors to carbon footprints are food, consumption, transportation, and energy, and all are heavily utilised during a tourism experience.
As a result, founder Jess has worked with two postgraduate students from the Responsible Tourism Management Postgraduate Course of Leeds Beckett University in the UK – the only responsible tourism management MSc certified by the UNWTO – looking at how we can measure the carbon emissions of meals on tour as well as the carbon footprint of our office as well as certain tour activities.

Balancing Our Carbon Footprint

We are in the process of measuring the carbon footprint of each of our tours. Once this is complete, we will balance those emissions by purchasing Plan Vivo–certified carbon certificates (environmental service certificates that each represent the reduction or avoidance of one metric tonne of CO₂) through C-Level and the Mongolian Nomad Project, delivered in partnership with the Mongolian Society of Range Management. The Plan Vivo Standard is built on ethical principles that deliver long-term climate, livelihood, and biodiversity benefits.

In the meantime, we have partnered with C-Level to fund a secure carbon calculator (linked below) for our guests. Through this, you can:

Balance the footprint of your flights
Offset a chosen amount of CO₂ (including your annual footprint)
Or make a direct donation to support the project’s work

Each contribution is invested in Plan Vivo Certificates that support the Mongolian Nomad Project

We know this isn’t perfect, but it is a start. As the saying goes: “you can’t manage what you don’t measure.” For us — a small business with limited resources — this approach is both realistic and achievable.