Gobi Desert
Gobi Desert
4.5
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4.5
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maybethestars
Bangkok6 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Oct 2014 • Friends
For our trip to the Gobi Desert the very first thing we were interested in was finding a tour that was both knowledgeable and manageable in price. Travel Gobi Mongolia was one of the first ones we came across on Google that offered a number of different options of varying lengths.

When contacting the tour company, Ganzo who seems to be the main manager of tours gave a very prompt reply about the possibilities of the tours. Due to time constraints we ended up choosing a 6 day tour. Since we were visiting outside of the tourist season, rather than staying in Tourist Camps we spent a night in an extra ger belonging to a nomadic family. Food costs were not included with this arrangement, but came up to about $3-4 per meal with each of the families we stayed at. If you are a backpacker who does not mind missing the comforts tourist gers like showers, then this arrangement is great. We visited a number of families who welcomed us in and shared their food with us, and were provided with blankets and pillows in every ger we stayed at.

Our guide, Zoogi, was absolutely great. He spoke English very well, acting as both a translator for us between the families but also as a tour guide for most of the monuments and museums we went to. He was especially open about a number of Mongolian traditions and would share so much knowledge with us over food. He was also an amazing driver since most of the roads were basically trails in the dirt with absolutely no signs whatsoever. We would've been so hopelessly lost without him. He was an amazingly fun tour guide.

Another thing that was beneficial is that we had some difficulties paying all the cash money up front for the tour, which we could arrange to be paid at the end. Zoogi stayed with us until we boarded our plane back to Ulaanbaatar in Dalanzadgad.

The only negatives that I would mention is that sometimes the schedule of the tour was unclear, we seemed to go about it mostly on a day by day basis. Occasionally when we were at a place we would stay over for the night, we would be dropped and left on our own until the next morning, but this was generally at the end of the day after we have completed much of our sightseeing. I don't know how much the pricing of the tour compared to other companies, since we learned that many hostels offer their own separate tours you can book through them, but I think for the trip and experience we had in the Gobi, what we spent was well worth it.
Written 8 November 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

RJessie
London, UK30 contributions
3.0 of 5 bubbles
I am writing this here as there is not an option to review tour companies and it's an obvious place to start when looking for tours to the Gobi.

The score of average is for the tour company not the Gobi desert which is a great experience.

Let me start with the reasons why we booked a tour with Ganzo at Travel Gobi Mongolia (TGM). We had only planned to spend 7 days in Mongolia while passing through on the Trans Siberian and given our time was limited I wanted to have a tour booked before we left the UK rather than spend time in Ulaan Baatar trying to piece something together. TGM's website was very informative if a little busy. Ganzo was the first person to respond to us and answered our questions promptly. Although, we did find him a little pushy when it came to paying!

We are backpacking for six months so we were keen to keep the cost down. Looking at the prices of other tour companies, advertised online, TGM's price seemed competitive.

We booked the South Gobi 4D3N budget (backpacker) arrangement. The standard arrangement where you stay in tourist camps rather than with herder families is not available towards the end of September when the main tourist season closes.

We booked our flights between Ulaan Baatar and Dalanzadgad independently with Hunnu Air as this worked out cheaper compared to what TGM were charging. The flight was on time and a very pleasant trip.

We visited Bayan Zag (Flaming Cliffs), the Khongor Sands and Yol Am Valley over the three days. A highlight for us was Khongor Sands, a difficult climb up the dunes but so worth it when you get to the top for sunset. We also just enjoyed travelling across the vast plains (or steppe) with nothing in site. The camel ride at the Khongor Sands was a fun experience but two hours is too long (see if you can bargain for a shorter and cheaper ride).
With this package a horse ride through Yol Am valley is included. This is a bit of a catch 22, the ponies (not horses) don't look very well cared for and are left all day with their front legs tied together but by riding the ponies you are giving money to a family who needs it. We chose not to ride and to walk instead, no mention was made of the money to pay for the pony ride and I'm sure our guide happily pocketed it.

On the backpacker arrangement, you stay with herder families in their traditional gers (yurts). They cook lunch and dinner for you and you pay for this separately (arranged through your guide). We took oats for breakfast and were given a flask of boiling water. The experience is rustic but interesting. There are no showers and the toilet is a little tin shack with hole in the ground.

With regards to meals. If you are vegetarian, or fussy and not prepared to take your own cooking equipment and food then the backpacker arrangement is not suitable for you. The food is basic and mostly consists of gristly meat (mutton, goat or horse) and noodles/dumplings.

The positives of our trip with TGM:
• Our transfer between U.B. And the airport was on time both leaving and arriving.
• Our guide and driver were waiting when we arrived in Dalanzadgad.
• Everything seemed to run quite smoothly.
• We always had a ger to ourselves unlike other tour groups who sometimes shared with the family or driver.
• Our driver was pleasant and very helpful.

The negatives
• While our guide was pleasant and her English was basic but understandable, she was not very knowledgeable. She spent a lot of time gossiping with the families and we felt like we were in the way.
• As mentioned above, food is not included in the backpacker arrangement and your guide organises meals with the families. You pay for this separately. The guide and driver should pay for their own food. This worked out to be quite expensive and we felt that we were paying for all the guide and driver's meals as well. Eg. Bowl of noodle soup cost us 9,000 tugriks / c. $5 US which is double what you'd expect to pay (hence the guide insisted we pay her directly and we guess we paid double to cover her and the driver)
• The cost of this package is not comparable to other backpacker groups doing similar trips. We chatted to a few other backpackers we met en route who were paying half of what we did, doing the same thing and had food included!

We finished the tour pleased we'd experienced genuine Gobi desert but feeling like we'd been ripped off. So a few tips.

• If you do book the same trip, make sure you insist on a fixed price for meals in advance (around 4000 and 6000 Tugriks per meal) with Ganzo, not the local guide.
• If you're not interested in riding any of the animals, negotiate with Ganzo to have this charge taken off your fee.
• If you have time (a spare day) in UB organise the trip from there. In September it is reasonably quiet and tours are available. Plus you'll meet other people happy to share the trip and make it cheaper. The average price other backpackers we spoke to were paying was between $55 and $88 per day depending on the length of the trip with meals included. Sun Path, Zaya's hostel and Mongolia Sun? were some of the companies we came across. Most hostels arrange tours.

Lastly take warm clothes and a good sleeping bag. We weren't provided with blankets but fortunately had our own sleeping bags. If you're a coffee drinker, take your own coffee. Buy lots of water in Dalanzadgad before you head out and take wet wipes!

Written 9 October 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

FrenchieTraveler
Paris, France14 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
In august 2010, we (11 young French people) made a 8 days tour with Golden Gobi in the Gobi desert.
Two guides drove us through fantastic landscapes like the Khongorin els sand dunes, Flaming Cliffs, the Gobi steppes …
We had great contacts with people living in the desert, slept in Mongolian yurts, shared excellent diners with nomadic families.
Camel riding and horse riding were also part of the program and we had the chance to attend to a typical local horse-race.
Our guides had a good knowledge of the desert and keen to adapt the tour program to our desires.
We recommend Golden Gobi. If you have a plan and tell them what you want and what you do not want, they will make your dreams come true.
Written 21 November 2010
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Emmanuel V
Brussels, Belgium124 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Oct 2011 • Friends
I've done a trip of three weeks in the gobi desert together with 4 friends; it was the most fantastic experience I've ever had. We've seen nature like i've never seen, we've met the most friendly people i've ever met.... In the Gobi desert you really start to understand how beautiful planet earth is.
Written 24 August 2012
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Chris Q
S'pore374 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
This was a last minute destination as a friend has suggested going to look for snow leopards. We decided not to rough it out and it turn out to be one of my best holidays.

Dispite the weather turning to winter, we were very comfortable as the lodges had heating and our guide arrange for the host to like the fires in the morning.

Our guide was a local herds girl who started riding horses at 3yrs old and got a scholarship to University in Hawaii. So her English was very good.

We had 2 Land Cruisers for the 3 of us and accomodation was much better than we had been warn to expect. Three Camel Lodge is excellent. The drivers were locals and the vast driving terrain was really pleasurable as it was very smooth competent driving. And they even showed us dinosaur bones!

The scenery was pure awesome.

We did the camel rides in the Gobi, horse riding to the glaciers, stayed by the Gobi, climb the dunes and ate and drank with the locals.

Our guide Uka seem to connect very well with the local drivers so we had extra bonus of visiting farmers and discoveries. She definetly make the trip more fun with her entusiasm and passion.

I definetly will go back again and ask Uka(pronouce Okca email : uka_mgl7@yahoo.com) to arrange it.

Lots of wildlife , beautiful scenery and great photo opportunity.

Was just here last week of September and it seems the lodges close in winter as the pipes freeze.
Written 31 October 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

docred
Cambria, CA54 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Jun 2011 • Friends
We recently spent time trekking on camels through the Gobi, from one camp site to the next.

We learned a lot! Our camels were well behaved and led by experienced camel "wrangles", so we were off to a good start. We were fortunate in that the weather, which had been very hot, turned cloudy and breezy.

First things first. The average camel is much wider than the average horse, which means that one's legs are spread further apart. Gobi camels are two humped Bactrian camels so the sitting position is otherwise quite comfortable, but two of the shorter members of our group found the broad back to be too uncomfortable and opted to ride in the back-up van.

There are no saddles,just a thin blanket which means that your butt is in close contact with the camel's bony spine. For several others that was enough to limit their riding to a couple of hours. The rest of the group survived the full 8 hour trip but we were all very stiff and sore by the time we reached camp.

Oh for a cushion or pillow!

We were lead in short "strings", the wrangler leading rider #1, who led rider #2 and so on for perhaps 4 or 5 camels. We felt very safe (if very sore) and the camels' gait was easy to adjust to, although the terrain is pretty smooth.

All in all an excellent adventure, but it was telling that when offered more riding the following day there wasn't a single taker!
Written 14 September 2011
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Grgeous
Johor Bahru, Malaysia66 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Gobi really opened my eyes because at first I thought this place was only about rock formation and sand dune. But when seeing the beautiful sunset in the evening, I was totally in love with Gobi. The sand dune was soft and the weather there was perfect for me. Amazing stars appeared almost every night and they were everywhere.
Written 25 October 2009
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Lali P
2 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
May 2018 • Friends
Hello! I am reading your reviews and I would like to know if you could give me any recommendation on where can I book a 2 days trip to Gobi dessert for an affordable price. We are just 2 but we dont care joining bigger groups. Thank You :)
Written 28 May 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

SLO361
Taree, Australia52 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Jun 2016 • Friends
My friend and I started planning our trip to Mongolia last year and right from the first email enquiry Boggie was prompt with her replies. Boggie was able to work with us to plan a trip to suit our time frame, flights and activities that we wanted to do. We couldn't have been happier with the outcome.
We combined two tours - 'Explore Mongolia Private Tour extended with Yak Cart Supported Trekking' - 21 days.
By including two domestic flights we were able to cover a lot of the country. Boggie organised sightseeing tours in Ulaanbaatar and a tour to see the wild horses in Hustai National Park.
We flew to the Gobi where we were met by our guide Sony and driver Denzka. We spent two weeks with Sony and Denzka and they were fantastic. Most of the roads were 4 wheel drive tracks so it was important to have a confident and capable driver. Sony's English was excellent and we felt well supported at all times throughout the tour.
The Gobi was an amazing experience due to the landscape and isolation. From there we travelled to Central Mongolia where we were blown away by the beauty of the grassy steppes covered in wildflowers and literally thousands of the most beautiful, healthy, farm animals. The Nomad families we visited were always most hospitable and it was great to see how they live, totally in tune with their environment.
We then travelled to the picturesque Lake Khuvsgul before flying back to the city.
From there we headed to the Khan Khentil National Park and Gorkhi Terelj National Park for a short trek with our lovely new guide Bulgamaa.
The accommodation throughout was mostly in Ger camps which varied greatly in standard. On the whole they were a lot more comfortable than we expected. All had toilet/shower blocks with western toilets. The food throughout the tour was pre ordered by Boggie and it was fantastic. Many of the meals at the camps were equal in quality to good restaurants in Australia.
We were so happy that we booked our holiday with View Mongolia as it all went smoothly and was so well organised. June was a great time to travel as we were just before the peak tourist season, but the weather was mild and the wild flowers were beautiful. I highly recommend this company if you are planning on visiting Mongolia.
Written 27 July 2016
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Trvlman333
Seattle, WA108 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Mar 2018 • Solo
Main points:
-Wonderful overall experience, including trekking through the desert on Camelback, being exposed to the lifestyle of the nomad, learning about the country, etc.
-Very helpful, outstanding staff, including a great chef that travels with you in the desert. If you are a large eater, as I am, they will treat you well!
Karen, who sets up the tour, traveled with us. I believe this to be very beneficial, because I have been on a number of tours in which you are promised one thing but delivered another, with a clear miscommunication between people setting up the tour and those actually providing it. With her present, whenever there was a shift in the itinerary, which can happen on any tour, she worked hard to ensure we were provided the best possible experience.

The details:
During the trip, experiences included attending an eagle festival, from a cultural perspective, this was very interesting. We were unable to attend a scheduled camel festival, as it had been canceled. So, we added another day of trekking in the desert and an great hike through this beautiful area on a frozen river. I'm not sure if the same experience will be offered again, but for me it was certainly a highlight of the trip. I'm a bit of an adrenaline junkie and I absolutely loved driving down a frozen river with 4 x 4 vehicles. It was great watching the drivers all get out to see if the ice would hold and at one point one of the vehicles actually cracked through the ice (they were amazingly well prepared and quickly pulled it out and we continued on our way). Also, just to be clear I dont think there was any real depth to the river at that point, so no real danger, but a lot of fun!

Of course, the main part of the trip is in the desert. You were introduced to a man who leads the lifestyle of the nomad. This is not one of those "authentic experiences" in which you are delivered to somebody's village or home for some type of show. This is actually spending several days with him and the wranglers, on the camels, getting to know how they live and watching it all in action. For example, we were given fermented camels milk to drink, as well as a type of vodka that they make, in various strengths, and enjoying some snuff. They also showed us how they work with the camels.

This is not a group of camels that are particularly domesticated, so it would not be any that you would be particularly social with. They are not for petting, but simply for riding. However, they were certainly compliant and did not give anybody any difficulties.

You are generally walking with several other camels in a group, holding onto the ropes for each other to guide the camels. It was only for a brief duration they allowed us to ride individually. Personally, I would have preferred to have had more freedom to ride alone, but, again, they are not particularly domesticated, so I certainly understand the concern.

Living in the desert for several days was quite interesting. You get a real sense of the vast expanse of this tremendous area. You will be sleeping in gers with several other people (About 12 people altogether in our group, in three gers), and we had a tremendous group, with everybody relating quite well with one another.

I strongly suggest bringing a pad along to assist with any saddle soreness. I ride horses and can say that the saddle on a camel is not quite as supportive, so a bit of extra padding may go a long way. We did four days of trekking, and I engaged in as much trotting as I could (certainly harder on the butt than walking, which you could do) and I had a bit of saddle soreness, but nothing too bad. I think some of the other people may have limited their riding a bit because of saddle soreness. I think bicycle shorts with padding are a good starting point, but when I'm riding a horse I also have a piece of foam that I put down underneath the compression shorts to further assist, and having an old man's skinny butt this extra padding goes a long ways!

It is also important to prepare well for the weather. This includes not just the cold, but in the desert it can be very windy. I found a facial cream to be helpful, and I would suggest some eyedrops as well.

Overall I strongly recommend and may do another with them myself.
Written 14 March 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

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