A Slow Travel Homestay in Gorkhi-Terelj National Park

Gorkhi-Terelj National Park is one of Mongolia’s most popular destinations, often visited as a quick day trip. However, our Terelj Explorer Homestay invites you to slow down and discover a quieter, more personal side of this breathtaking region—allowing for a deeper, more immersive experience beyond the usual tourist trails.

Our homestay is hosted by Naraa and Bujee, modern-day herders with whom we have built a long-term community partnership. Their home pastures offer a stunningly diverse landscape—rolling mountains, winding river valleys, rocky summits, and wildflower meadows—perfect for exploring. As Naraa says, "A herder's life has a very big freedom." During your stay, you'll get a taste of that freedom, experiencing daily life in a way that few travellers do.

This is ideal for travellers who prefer to spend less time in a vehicle or as part of a structured tour. Instead, this unstructured experience allows you to set your own pace, crafting a journey that feels personal and meaningful—offering a deeper connection to the land, the people, and the rhythms of daily life.

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 (must be booked in advance due to logistics!)
All meals (why not ask your EL trip assistant for a Mongolian cookery lesson?).
Local transfers to and from the accommodation.

Beyond that, the experience is unstructured, allowing you to create your own unique journey at a pace that suits you.

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 – A guided introduction to Mongolia’s dynamic capital | | Free transfer | Local lunch & welcome drink

Gorkhi Terej National Park

Day One: Journey to Terelj
Travel to Gorkhi-Terelj National Park stopping to visit the iconic Chinggis Khan Equestrian Statue and the hilltop Aryabal Temple, known for its sweeping views. After a further transfer, you’ll settle into your homestay with the Naraa herding family — a chance to experience everyday life in a rural Mongolian setting.

Simple private guest ger provided by Naraa herding family | Outside squat toilet & no showers | Approx 4 hours driving time | B/L/D

Day Two - Four: Explore Terelj at Your Own Pace
Spend three flexible days immersed in the rhythms of herder life. Discover the diverse landscapes of Terelj — from forested valleys to rocky outcrops — while enjoying the warmth and hospitality of your host family.

Simple private guest ger provided by Naraa herding family | Outside squat toilet & no showers | B/L/D

Ulaanbaatar

Day Five: Return to Ulaanbaatar
With a flexible schedule today, you can choose when to depart before making the journey back to Ulaanbaatar, where your adventure comes to an end.

Your own choice of accommodation | Approx 4 hours driving time | B/L

During this journey, you'll experience sleeping in a traditional Mongolian ger — a window into everyday life shaped by the seasons and rural setting. Sleeping arrangements are simple yet culturally authentic, reflecting the traditions of the host family.

You’ll stay in a Mongolian guest ger located next to the family’s home ger. The guest ger is furnished with beds, mattresses, and basic, functional furniture.

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

Ulaanbaatar

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

Map Of Route

Please click on the link to access a map of the route

For all of our tailor-made 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.

If you are travelling with children, let us know their ages as we do offer free experiences for children under 15 excluding certain costs.

1 Guest US$ 1895 pp
2 Guests US$ 1310 pp
3 – 4 Guests US$ 1270 pp
5 Guests US$ 1160 pp
6 Guests US$ 1090 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.