I always dreamt of the green steppes and vast blue sky of Mongolia. Thus, last June 2026, I completed my travel in Mongolia. The dreams I once had became a magical reality that I will forever cherish in my whole lifetime. ✨✨🥰🥰✨✨

Aside from my love about travelling, Mongolia was a great choice because of my admiration with Genghis and Kublai Khan. They were Mongol rulers who made Mongolia a great empire on their respective times.

I started my journey in Ulaanbaatar – the capital city of Mongolia. Ulaanbaatar holds almost half of the country’s population, making all roads feel smaller because of the heavy traffic everywhere. Ulaanbaatar is also called as the coldest city in the world where temperature drops to -40°C during winter. 🥶🥶🥶🥶 To know more about my travel experiences in Ulaanbaatar, follow my blog here.

While creating my itinerary for Mongolia, I decided that I wanted to join a group tour so I can maximize my time, budget and places that I wanted to travel to. However, my fear to be in a group tour was “what if the other travellers get annoyed at me?” 😰😰😰 I have fear of heights and falling so I was really worried about the camel and horse rides. 😰😰😰

Nevertheless, I wanted to experience Mongolia from a local’s perspective. 😍🥰😍 I found a 4-day tour in GetYourGuide website. However, I did not booked from GTG directly. I contacted the tour company listed in GTG instead and got a cheaper rate of less than $100 from the original price of GTG. 🤑 To try what I did in my tour booking, follow my main blog to get more tips.

In this blog, I will share my 4-day tour itinerary in Central Mongolia. All of the transportations or transfers, ger or yurt and guest house accommodations, camel and horse riding, meals and more were included on the package.

I availed. I was very lucky and blessed too to have tour guides, drivers and co-travellers who made my tour safe, fun, special and unique. 😍🥰😍

After a full day in Ulaanbaatar, on the next day, the tour company picked me up from my hostel. I met my guide Sarah and my driver Baarya. We waited for some minutes inside the car for the tour company’s Manager. She had this card terminal that we used to let me pay. After we dropped off the Manager, we picked up 5 more solo travellers who booked the same tour I had. The van we had was fit for our sizes together with all of our luggages at the back. 👍

While on the road, we had an introduction of our names, where we from and our professions. I met 5 different individuals from different walks of life – 2 Japanese, 1 Singaporean, 1 Taiwanese and 1 German. All of them were fun and nice to be with. 😇🥰😇

We stopped in a grocery supermarket to buy some snacks along the way and had a nice lunch in a local restaurant. We tried the Suutei Tsai. ☕

It is a traditional Mongolian salted milk tea made from water, milk, green tea, and salt. The taste was a bit weird at first because I always tasted milk as sweet not salty. I also had some cups of rice and chicken. My meal together with a hot cup of Suutei Tsai were perfect during that cold day. 👍

After almost 4 hours in the road, we reached the Khogno Tarna National Park. The park is also called as Khogno Khan National Park. It is located in the center of Khogno Khan Mountain and about 60 kilometers east of Kharakorum. The park has many historical sites, including the ruins of a 17th-century monastery and the entire Karakorum City which was the first capital of the Mongolian Empire.

We stopped by for some minutes in a steppe to have some stretching and take photos. From this point, I already felt the vastness of Mongolia. There were too many cows, goats and horses roaming around the field, doing their thing and just being with nature. 🐄🐐🐎

Semi Gobi Desert and Camel Ride

We finally reached Semi Gobi Desert after more than 4 hours of ride. 😍 It is also known as Elsen Tasarkhai or the “Mini Gobi”. It is a scenic strip of sand dunes, rocky mountains, and green steppes located in Central Mongolia.

Semi Gobi Desert and the larger Gobi Desert are interconnected. However, if I will include Gobi Desert in my itinerary, I need to add more days to stay in Mongolia. For this tour, it was enough for me to see Semi Gobi and the cute bactrian camels. 🐫🐫🐫I was freaking out a bit to see the camels as my fear of heights started to kick in.

Bactrian camels are shorter than the camels I saw in Giza last year. Though, camels are still camels for me which are tall and can be overpowering for someone with fear of heights like me. But what I like about bactrian camels is that they have 2 humps which I can use as my back support when riding them. 😁

Riding the camel was easy as they kneel down. However, when my camel started to stand, I freaked out! 😨😨😨😨 I felt like I was falling down. 😨😨😨 My guide, Sarah, calmed me down. I tried to be calm as possible as camels might freaked out too if I will keep on shouting.

Our camel guide started to line us up to walk to Semi Gobi Desert. The other travellers I was with also cheered me up and just kept saying “that I do it”. 🥰🥰🥰 Thus, I felt at ease while riding the camel. 🥰🥰🥰 Some parts of the dunes were a bit rocky so I asked them to slow down for a bit.

We reached a high sand dunes in the middle and take some group photos. I might be smiling but my heart was jumping. 😅😂😭 After the photo taking, we slowly returned to the camp. Wheeew! I survived the camel ride! 😅😂😭

We took more photos in the herd of camels while waiting for our guide and driver. The camel ride in Semi Gobi Desert was an achievement for me! 🥰🥰🥰 It was the longest camel ride that I had! 🥰🥰🥰

We said goodbye to our camel boss guide and returned to the van. 🥰

Kharakhorum Museum

After the Semi Gobi Desert adventure with the camel, we hit the road again. In less than 30 minutes, we reached the Kharakhorum Museum. The museum is dedicated in exhibiting artifacts from Mongolian history. The project the construction of Kharakhorum Museum granted aid from the Japanese as token of friendship and cooperation between Japan and Mongolia.

One of the highlights of the museum was the tomb founded by Mongolia and Kazakhstan research teams. In 2011, both nations were conducting excavation in the area and found a tomb of a prominent individual.

Though the identity of this individual was not yet established, the researchers were convinced that an aristocrat or an important person was laid in this tomb. A virtual representation was shown as part of the museum’s exhibit.

A big part of the museum was the model city of Kharakhorum during the time of Genghis or Chinggis Khan. He declared this city as the capital of his empire in 1220. Overall, I enjoyed the museum due to its intimate set up and visible traces of the old capital. 🥰🥰🥰

Monument of Mongol States in Orkhon Valley

After the museum, Sarah, our guide told us that we will go up on a hill. I was thinking that we will hike but our car really went up on the hill! 😱😱😱 On the top, we saw the Monument of the Mongol States.

It is a monument dedicated to the Mongolian Empire and today’s Mongolia. The architecture was designed by sculptor and painter B. Denzen. It consists of three parts of circular walls. At the center of the monuments stands a tall ovoo-shaped or a shrine formed in to a triangle.

What amazed me the most is the view on the top of the hill! 😍🥰😍😍🥰😍😍🥰😍It was like I was staring a Windows wallpaper or a National Geographic cover page. 😍🥰😍😍🥰😍 The Orkhon Valley was to die for! 😍🥰😍😍🥰😍😍🥰😍😍🥰😍 It was really beautiful and magnificent! 😍🥰😍😍🥰😍😍🥰😍

The Eternal Blue Sky of Mongolia made it more dramatic and perfect for me! 😍😍😍😍I can’t stop staring at this view. 😍😍😍😍 Until today, I am still recalling my self, standing in front of this wonderful scene that God made for us. 😍😍😍😍😍😍

It was truly magical! 😍😍😍😍😍😍 The valley, the sky, the steppes, the clouds, the river, the cold wind, everything felt surreal! 😍😍😍😍 It was an experience I will never ever forget! 😍😍😍😍😍😍

After taking many photos and videos, Sarah advised us to head back to the van.

First night in ger camp

Our first day in tour was almost done. We hit the road again and went to our ger camp. It was just in Khogno Tarna National Park too so the distance was just merely 10-15 minutes from the monument.

We arrived at the ger camp at almost 7 in the evening but the sun was still up. Sarah talked to a local who seemed like managing the camp and she instructed us of our ger number. There were separate gers for the women and men. I and Haruka-san were assigned to the next ger beside the boy’s ger.

A Mongolian ger is a traditional, round, portable dwelling made from a collapsible wooden frame covered in thick sheep wool felt and canvas. It is the traditional houses of nomad families in Mongolia.

Our ger have 4 beds inside, a table and a coal stove that served as our heater. It was cozy and comfortable. However, if you are used to hotel accommodations, gers are different. The typical ger were not that luxurious. Rest rooms are separated. As for me, this was a very different experience. 😇

Sarah told that dinner will start soon. So we just settled down for a bit to lay our bags and returned to the restaurant at the front of our gers. The dinner we had was simple yet a delicious meal. 😋

While eating, Sarah told us that a local group will perform tonight at the restaurant and asked if we wanted to join. I and Haruka-san agreed to watch the performance. We returned to our ger to freshen up and waited for the local group to arrived.

Past 9 in the evening, the show started. The group was comprised of an elder man, two teenagers and a little girl. The men played the instruments beautifully and the little girl danced local songs. 😍😍😍

I was astonished of the elder man whom is a khoomei singer. A khoomei singer is a traditional artist who performs throat singing. The singer produced multiple distinct pitches at the same time using a specialized vocal technique.

The two boys were very good in their instruments as it produced a horse-like sound. While the cute little girl was graceful in her dances. 😍😍😍 It was really wonderful to see younger generation carrying the tradition of Mongolia. 😍😍😍

After the performance, there was a short question and answer portion. One of the guides translated the questions and answers for us. We learned some of the band’s technique in their instruments and on how long they were performing. The payment for the performance was ₮ 40,000 each.

We had some photos taken after the performance and returned to our gers. Hakura-san, one of the Japanese joiner in the tour whom I also shared the ger with tried to go out of gers before the middle of the night. I followed her to see the night sky of Mongolia. ✨

However, the night that time was a bit cloudy. There was too much light in the ger camp too that not let us see enough of the dark black sky. The night was so cold so after some minutes we returned to our ger. We had a good night sleep in our first ger in Mongolia. 🥰🥰🥰

I wrote a series of blog for the Central Mongolia tour that I experienced last June 2026. Click here to read Day 2! 💜