Phenomenal Experience Exploring Central Mongolia - We recently went on the 5 Day Terelj National Park and Central Mongolia Tour. Our guide, Chimba and the driver were both excellent. Chimba (I hope that is spelled correctly) spoke great English and was very informative. The driver was phenomenal, you have to be a great driver to first drive in Ulaanbaatar but then to take all the off road trails. Every day on the tour was unique and the experiences were incredible. It was nice to stay at a mix of travel yurts and nomadic families. Just be warned, the toilet situation can be very limited as is electricity. The locations we visited from the Terelj National Park and Orkhon Valley to Kharkhorin and the waterfalls were all spectacular. We ended up eating a lot while on the tour, I enjoyed everything I tried. Overall, this tour was phenomenal and I have nothing but great stories and memories to share. Thanks again to our guide and driver for showing us around Central Mongolia.

Fun and natural experience - The breathtaking places we visited were like a dream come true! The trip was an unforgettable experience, and I’ll cherish the memories forever. Our tour guide, Zaya, and the driver were incredibly accommodating and laid-back. They had such great vibes, and I’ll definitely miss them. If you’re ever looking to explore Mongolia, I highly recommend this trip. You won’t regret it! The hour-long camel riding and horse riding sessions on different days were so much fun. If I’m not mistaken, people around me said that the duration of horse or camel riding is quite rare for other tour companies, as it usually lasts only 10-15 minutes. So, I really appreciated it. I also got to live in various gers, ranging from high-end ones to normal ones, and even a log cabin. I tried many delicious Mongolian foods, which were truly impressive.

Excellent experience - It’s a fulfilling excellent experience guided by Mary and driver Nascar (I may misspell his name). The tour in 5 days covers beautiful natural and cultural features of central Mongolia. Totally recommend.

A Mongolian Hiraeth - It was my first visit to Mongolia, and how can I put it…poetic, transformative, and awe-inspiring, one of the best trips I’ve made. I had no idea what Mongolia was like before departure, and in China we have little, if not none, mass media coverage of Mongolia due to historical conflicts. But the name “Mongolia” has been planted like a seed inside my mind like the name Caledonia(Scotland) which carries all the nostalgia, poetic sentiments and a sense of belonging to a foreign land that haunted me and led me there. Like the Welsh word Hiraeth for “nostalgia for a land that you’ve never visited”, i was hooked as soon as I landed. Outside the airport, waves after waves of jasper green grassland were at once soothing and serene. It stretched miles after miles, and the quiet, pale colour of the green grass was something that will remained etched on my mind for the following days. What was exactly as I had imagined? unspoiled landscape, honest and soulful people, a blend of nomadic charm with history, temples, museums, and heritage sites all wrapped up in that ancient land named Mongolia. I will remember this trip thanks to this wonderful 5-day trip given to me by chance and by fate.

Amazing adventure! - The tour guide made sure that we got taken care of according to what we want and they even accommodate to our requests if we feel uncomfortable with certain things. The places we visited were amazing. Definitely recommend this tour to everyone who are visiting Mongolia for a short trip. Fun and amazing!

very good - The tour guide was very attentive and answered all questions They would also cover us up in the early morning Every day we are concerned about whether we will get cold while sleeping. The driver is also very good It’s a journey well worth it! bow

Joy in Mongolia - Jagaa, the boss of the tour company, contacted us way before the tour started. He asked us what we were expecting and told us what to be aware. The guide (Biphyun) was the sweetest guide i have ever met. He paid 200% attention to our need and took really good care of my parents who were over 70. The driver was funny and professional at the same time. Regarding the content of the tour, it provided the best we could have experienced in Mongolia. We have seen the most scenic snowy side of Mongolia. We got a chance to get a taste of staying with a nomadic family, seeing how they take care of the herd, spending nights at ger. Definitely a good one.

Good tour - Nice tour with good and special experience in Mongolia, expecially the service of tour guide Bagi and Mr. driver. We all have a memorable journey.

Mixed but enjoyable experience of Mongolia with tour - Did this tour in May 2024 with 3 friends, overall enjoyed it but there were alone notable downsides and easy improvements could be made. Have written below in time-order our experience of the tour, hope you find it helpful. + = positive - = negative + Arranged tour by emailing Danista Nomads for more info and to ask questions: spoke with Jagaa who was very friendly and helpful. Seemed to care that we have a good tour experience and very willing to answer all questions etc. Flexible with how we arranged payment and small adaptations to tour +Jagaa needed to delay start of tour by a short while and emailed us about this many days before, great communication and showed he valued our time and experience + On day of tour starting, tour guide (Saruul) and driver (Tumro) turned up promptly and were very friendly, immediately made us feel at ease and welcomed for 5 days away Day 1 and 2 not much to say besides we really enjoyed things so far. Driving time and activities felt balanced. Day 3 was a loooooong drive but worth it to see Orkhon Valley. Stargazing at night was something we’ll never forget. The waterfall area is beautiful. Day 4 took a big downturn in quality, sadly. We drove for the whole day until about 5pm, and when we arrived at Ugii lake there was no activity and nothing to do besides go on a walk if you want. We’d rather have stayed in Orkhon Valley. Essentially an entire day of driving for very little. Day 5 was a long drive back (as we expected) to Ulaanbaator with a stop to see Hustai National Park. The information centre there is really good. You drive out a short distance where you park up and can look at the surrounding hills, spotting wild horses. Along the way you can see marmots, too, which is fun. It was a bit of a let-down though, as ultimately you drive into a small area of the park and look very far into the distance to see horses. Not really the best experience, especially considering it was the only thing we did for the last day. -/+ On our way back our itinerary had a visit to Tövhön Hiid but on the day we were expecting to go, our guide said we weren’t going to go anymore because the hike is long and apparently very muddy so would be difficult. We understood and thought this was a reasonable change, but in a day of 6 hours driving and one of only two activities this was disappointing. No offer was made of an alternative or to partially refund us even the cost of admission (if there is a cost) or for the cancellation of the activity, which means the cost saved by not doing the activity inherently goes to Danista’s profits. We emailed Jagaa about this and asked if he could compensate us any way. He politely explained some previous group had had a bad time because of the muddiness, which again seemed reasonable, and he offered to refund us the cost of us each to have dinner in the city. The amount we got back was good and we felt this was fair. Overall: What was good: * Driver Tumro was excellent, brilliant driver and control of vehicle, have full faith in his abilities * Staying in gers was a great experience, and at each place the hosts were responsive to our needs, often anticipating them. We once woke up in the morning to realise one of the site hosts had quietly come in to start our fire, which was really kind and appreciated (it can get cold!) * Having contact with the ger families was a highlight, as you get to see and experience (to a small degree) what their lives are like. I think more of this would be good for the tour as they are unique opportunities to get more insight into nomadic life! * Most of the activities/sites you visit are great, we really enjoyed them * The tour guide and driver were happy to be flexible with us if we wanted to stop for a break/make small adaptations to the day which was great Negatives/Things to improve: * More consideration about vegetarian lunches: if it’s been agreed to not be a problem, then a more substantial meal than plain rice and salad everyday (literally) should be expected. 
Mongolia is huge and driving out to such rural areas we explicitly asked Jagaa about if vegetarian food would be a problem, as if it was going to be, we’d have considered if we should go on the tour or not, or bring our own food but Jagaa upon repeated questioning assured us vegetarian food would not be a problem. 
Breakfast and evening meal were always very good only lunches were the problem. At times, it felt that because everyone else ate meat the vegetarian’s choice of food was the least important as long as the others felt happy with their food. This was unfair, especially considering that Jagaa had been so clear it wouldn’t be an issue. When this was communicated to the tour guide she initially said it will always be difficult and suggested instant noodles (that contained meat when translated), however she eventually came up with a better option at a different place. This was after the issue being raised multiple times. Vegetarian meals could have been prepared in advance to avoid this problem. When you’re paying almost $100 a day per person, this isn’t really acceptable. * We appreciated that the comments by our tour guide for the vegetarian in our group to ‘try’ some of the meat dishes was probably her trying to be friendly/hospitable, but was uncomfortable for the individual. People have different diets for all sorts of reasons and it’s better to not try to convince a vegetarian to eat meat knowing their diet * Regarding tour activities: Less see and tickbox exercise, more do and experience. Have a bit more time at each site (especially museums etc.) to enjoy and read through exhibits if customer wants to. We appreciated the need to not waste time at any place when there’s a lot of driving in one day to do, but if you’re driving that much anyway it’s important that each activity is actually worthwhile and enjoyed and not rushed, otherwise why go there in the first place? We felt a bit rushed through a few (not all) of the museums/sites and would have liked to take a bit more time to enjoy each place. * If an activity of the tour is cancelled but has been agreed upon, it would be good for the tour guide/Jagaa to take the initiative to offer either something else instead or a partial refund, instead of waiting for us to raise as a possibility * Day 4 took a real downturn in quality. For this 5 day tour, don’t bother going to Ugii lake with yet more driving, hour after hour and then no activity or anything particularly interesting about the place; instead, stay longer in Orkhon Valley as it was by far the highlight and felt such a shame to not spend more time there. We essentially spent almost $400 on a single day as a group for a day of driving to see a lake; totally not worth it. * Included in the tour were the tickets for each place you visit. However, it seems that in Mongolia most/all museums don’t let you take ANY photos unless you pay an extra fee, which seems ridiculous, and not something we’ve ever experienced in other countries. This isn’t in Danista Tour’s control, but it would have been good of them to buy us these tickets to take photos freely as it was a big negative. Alternatively, Danista Nomads could advocate for the customers they bring to each museum and try to help change this stupid rule * Overall the tour inherently involves a lot of driving which you accept for what you get in return when you start the tour, but I think the balance isn’t right. Day 1 and 2 are fine, day 3 is long but okay if you stay in Orkhon Valley for 2 days but otherwise not. Day 4 is a wasted day if you go to Ugii Lake. Day 5 is obviously a long day going back to UB but could do with better activities. * There were also some problems with the US dollars we paid with. Make sure you give undamaged, unfolded new USD notes * To Jagaa: it would be helpful if you were more specific about the requirements of the USD, for example which year notes Final thoughts: great experience with some notable negatives that would be made much better with some changes. I’d advise researching what you want to do and prioritise minimising driving time where it can be reduced, as there will be lots of driving already anyway. I think the itinerary should be more explicit in describing how many hours of driving per day there will be. Thanks Danista Nomads for an enjoyable tour.

Overpriced and under-delivered. Choose a different tour operator! - This is a tour with little planned by the organizers and suits someone who isn't an experienced traveler, wants to do little, and be in the middle of nowhere. On the first day, the Winter Palace museum is an attraction in Ulaanbaatar that you don't need a tour or guide for. Same with the war monument. I did them prior to my tour starting. You end the first day around 3-4 PM (I ended earlier because we skipped the Winter Palace) but then there is nothing to do except sit outside or walk around the national park for the night. The vehicle that's used is one of the old Russian knock off VW buses. They are prone to break down as mine often did and they generally cannot maintain the speed limit. As such we were consistently passed on all roads by ALL vehicles even old run down cars. Only other similar Russian vehicles struggled like ours. It has no air conditioning so be warned if it's warm. The following day you have to backtrack to Ulaanbaatar which means you need to cross the city during rush hour. So we lost so much time through Ulaanbaatar plus we when we were through traffic we went slower than the speed of traffic that we arrived at the camels/dune with only enough time for a 5 minute ride. From there we went to Kharkorin but the monastery had already closed and so had the museum. This meant we had to do both in the morning which caused the second day to be almost 3 hours behind. The third day we were so behind we had to push the square stone graves to the 4th day. The waterfall was nice but the tour organizer was SO CHEAP. The camp site they chose had no running water. Literally across the path were yurts with running water and toilets. I walked over and asked. The nightly rate there was only 10 euros more. For a 10 euro saving I was forced to use outhouses. They also had no electricity at this camp and relied on car batteries at night for lights. The last day at the lake is a complete waste. We went there and there is nothing to do. There is no sand beach, no monuments, no sites to see, no boats to rent, no restaurants or bars. A single ice cream shake that sells only vanilla (and it's terrible). It was a day that was a complete waste of time. I wouldn't recommend this tour to anyone. It's over-priced. You can rent a car for less and take yourself to almost every place we went using just GPS for significantly less. They have no plan for what you're to do in the evenings. It's just sit there and hope there's a fire you can sit beside in camp. The only good part was the guide was actually knowledgeable.