Start Date: August 19th 2025
Duration: 12 Days
Maximum Group Size 6 which is refreshingly small for the travel industry
Accommodation – Homestays – Hosted by families we work in long-term local partnerhsip with
No single supplements for solo travellers
Travel with & experience the friendship of our great Mongolian teams of male driver & female trip assistant as well as the friendship of the families we work in partnership with.
This is a small group trip. However, our maximum is group size is six – which is refreshingly small for the travel industry. These small group sizes mean that our trips are more respectful for your host families that we work in long-term local community partnerships with. It also means you’ll be one of few rather than one of many and this leads to a more genuine experience as well as a more personal and real insight for you as our guest. It also means that no two trips are ever the same as we can keep things flexible. All images used throughout this document were taken either by EL guests or members of the EL team. This is the Mongolia that you will also experience.
Book With Confidence.
Experience the timeless tradition of Mongolia’s herding way of life as you journey alongside Mongol Kazakh herders and eagle hunters during their autumn migration through the landscapes of the Altai, gaining a connection to their resilience, culture, and the land they call home.
Western Mongolia is dominated by the Altai Mountains physically and culturally and these mountains have functioned for thousands of years as a homeland for the nomadic cultures of Eurasia including the Kazakhs – Mongolia’s largest ethnic minority group. Amid these rugged yet strikingly beautiful landscapes, the Mongol Kazakh herders have a way of life that has been shaped by history, geography, and political change as they live with their livestock, moving twice a year between their grazing pastures. And our Altai Migration Trails experience allows you to live alongside the Mongol Kazakh herders and eagle hunters whom we work in long-term local community partnership with as they undertake their annual autumn migration.
We invite you to immerse yourself in a tradition that has been preserved for generations as livestock traverse the rugged terrain, guided by ancient instincts. As you follow in the footsteps of our partnership families, you’ll understand the deep connection the families have with the land, gain respect for their resilience as well as an understanding of the challenges they face. Our Altai Migration Trails promises an unforgettable encounter with the nomadic way of life during the captivating season of change.
For all of our small group 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.
Group Size – Maximum of six. Minimum of four required for a guaranteed departure or pay a surcharge.
** If you’re considering this trip as a private experience for a group, we prefer a maximum group size of 4 as it helps manage our impact but we will increase it for private trips. Get in touch for details.
Final group size of 4 guests - USD 3435 pp USD 3095 pp + domestic flight of approximately USD 300-400 pp (or take the public bus and we’ll cover the cost)
Final group size of 5 guests - USD 3115 pp USD 2805 pp + domestic flight of approximately USD 300-400 p (or take the public bus and we’ll cover the cost)
Final group size of 6 guests - USD 2780 pp USD 2500 pp + domestic flight of approximately USD 300-400 pp (or take the public bus and we’ll cover the cost)
Where Does Your Payment Go?
We understand that budget is a personal consideration, and everyone has different preferences. Our rates may be higher compared to some other agencies, not because we position ourselves as a luxury tour operator, but due to our commitment to a form of tourism that is fair and equitable. By limiting our operations to around 150-200 travelers annually, we focus on delivering personalized and meaningful journeys rather than generic tick-list experiences.
Commitment to Mongolia: We are a registered Mongolian business, contributing to the local economy through taxes, employment, and social security payments. Your tour payment stays within Mongolia, supporting local initiatives and fostering economic growth.
Empowering Employment Opportunities: We offer long-term employment to individuals often overlooked by other tour companies. Our team includes female Mongolian trip assistants who break barriers in the tourism industry, paving the way for other women to flourish in tourism-related roles. Similarly, we employ older, traditional male drivers, addressing high unemployment rates and supporting extended families within Mongolia. Learn more about our initiatives: Empowering Mongolian Women and Supporting Male Drivers.
Community and Herding Family Support: Our trips are designed to benefit Mongolian herding families and local communities that we have formed long-term local community partnerships with without disrupting their lives or work. Our sustained support helps these families face the challenges posed by climate change. Discover more about us.
Climate Emergency Advocacy: As members of Tourism Declares A Climate Emergency and signatories of the Glasgow Declaration, we are committed to finding solutions to the climate crisis. We pioneer regenerative tourism practices that minimize our carbon footprint and contribute positively to our planet’s well-being. Learn about our climate initiatives: Climate Emergency.
Included in the price
All meals outside of the city of Ulaanbaatar. 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 coffee.
In Ulaanbaatar: local lunch and welcome drink on city walking tour
Local team of English-speaking female Mongolian trip assistant and Mongolian male driver
All overland transportation throughout the trip (+ fuel)
Each vehicle has a charger for cameras and phones
Free (informal and relaxed) city walking tour of Ulaanbaatar
Transportation to and from the airport on arrival and departure days
All activities mentioned PLUS any activities offered including
Camel or horseback rides
Entrance fees to monasteries, temples, and museums (when with local team) – excludes camera tickets
Festival tickets if a festival is highlighted 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!
Domestic flight where/if applicable
*If you are travelling by domestic flight, the schedule and cost of the domestic flights have not yet been determined by the Mongolian airlines. Once you have booked this trip, you will be notified directly by us as soon as that info becomes available. Reservations and payment arrangements for any domestic flight will be coordinated by us.
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. If you would like to provide a tip, a tip for the drivers would be roughly equal to what you would give to the tour guides – anything from $20 (USD) per member of staff (driver & tour guide) is a good minimum guide.
The maximum group size is six which is refreshingly small for the travel industry and allows us to manage our impact.
The experience has been built with a focus on Mongolian culture and on creating local benefits for local people & communities including 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 allowing them to maintain their fragile herding lifestyle. We don’t work with an intermediary or agency in Western Mongolia.
We only offer one departure of this experience per year. This means that we don’t create a ‘tourist circuit.’ And although we’re visiting an area considered a highlight, by focusing the entire trip on the area we’re helping to spread our support into the local area.
Our team of female Mongolian trip assistants is breaking down barriers in tourism and leading the way for other Mongolian women from a diverse range of backgrounds to work in and be supported by tourism. Mongolia’s growing economy has not directly translated into better employment opportunities for women and by choosing to travel with us you’re helping us to create long-term development and employment opportunities for our brilliant trip assistants.
High unemployment rates and toxic masculinity are two very real issues faced by older more traditional men in Mongolia. By choosing to travel with us you’re helping us to provide long-term employment for our team of older, more traditional male drivers who have experience and accumulated knowledge but who would otherwise struggle to find employment and provide for their extended families.
We are in the process of measuring the carbon footprint of each experience we offer and balancing the footprint through the Mongolian Nomad Carbon Project. We wanted a high-standard project local to Mongolia where the local community had a positive say in the scheme and its impact. It’s the first project of its kind in Mongolia.
A donation is made to the Mongolian projects that we provide long-term support to (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 and reaching Net Zero as soon as possible before 2050. 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 and achievable. 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, Jess has been working with postgraduate student Kelly Hirschbuehler 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.
- Using the calculations provided by Kelly in her research project we can now better calculate – not perfectly but still better – the overall carbon footprint of each trip we run.
We then balance the footprint for each tour by purchasing Plan Vivo Foundation carbon certificates which are used to support the Plan Vivo Mongolian Nomad Project – working in partnership with the Mongolian Society of Range Management.
It’s not perfect, but it is a start. After all, you can’t manage what you don’t measure, and the way we measure the carbon footprint of our tours is manageable and achievable for us – a very small business with limited finance and resources.
We will be publishing the carbon footprint for each tour on each specific tour page but this will take a little time.
