The grass on the steppe turns gold in the first week of September, and the sky stays clear for weeks. If you ask us for one month, that is the answer. But the honest answer is longer, so here is the year, month by month, as we live it.
Winter: November to February
November and December
Winter arrives properly. Journeys are short: Ulaanbaatar and Terelj, where the frozen rivers and the snow on the granite are their own reason to come. Fewer guests arrive in these months than in any other. Those who do have the place to themselves.
January and February
Deep winter. Ulaanbaatar sits under minus 20 for weeks and the countryside is colder. Tsagaan Sar, the lunar new year, falls in late January or February and is the great family festival of the year: three days of visiting, greeting elders, mountains of buuz and dairy, and a formal exchange of gifts. We take a few guests each year to spend it with a family we know. Everything else is closed: ger camps, and most tracks to anywhere remote. Journeys are short, deep and built around one place. Not for everyone. Right for some.
The shoulders: March and April
March
Still winter, but bright. The Ice Festival on Khövsgöl Lake is held in the first days of March, and the Gobi is possible in the second half, with camels calving and the cold easing. Days are cold and dry with hard blue skies. Ulaanbaatar is at its least attractive, so we keep the city short.
April
The shoulder before the shoulder. Dust storms are common, the grass has not come, and much is still closed. We rarely recommend April unless you are here for a specific reason. It is honest to say so.
The core season: May to August
May
The season opens. Camps begin to open mid-month, the first green comes to the steppe, and foals and lambs are everywhere. Nights are cold. The Gobi is at its best: cool days, ice still in Yolyn Am, few other visitors. Big Sky Lodge in Terelj, our lodge running on solar, is the easy first night out of the city. If you want the countryside quiet and can carry a down jacket, late May is a very good time.
June
Green, long days, warm afternoons and cold nights. Khövsgöl comes into season in the second half. Rivers are high from snowmelt, which matters for a few crossings in the north and the Khangai. Wildflowers on the steppe. Fewer travellers than July. One of our two favourite months.
July
Naadam, from the 11th to the 13th, and everything that comes with it: full hotels, full flights, and the country in a festive mood. The warmest month, and the wettest, with afternoon showers in the mountains. Book by the previous autumn if Naadam is the point. After the 15th the city empties and the countryside is in full summer.
August
Warm, still green, still some rain in the first half. Family holidays for Mongolians too, so popular sites are busy by local standards, which is still quiet by most others. Late August is when the light begins to change. The hay is cut. Mornings sharpen.
The golden weeks: September and October
September
Our month. Grass gold, skies clear, air still, nights cold and days warm. Camps are open until the end of the month and then close fast. The larch forests at Khövsgöl and in the Khangai turn in the second half. The Orkhon Valley, where our ger camp sits, is at its best. Herders are moving to autumn pasture and there is a sense of purpose everywhere. If you can come only once, come now.
October
The Golden Eagle Festival in Ölgii on the first weekend, and the far west at its most beautiful, with the first snow on the Altai. Elsewhere, camps close by the first week and the country shuts down for travel outside the west and the capital. Cold mornings, bright days, no crowds. After the festival, the year turns.
What closes when
- Ger camps: open mid-May to the end of September, a few into early October.
- Domestic flights: year round, fewer in winter.
- Roads: paved routes open all year. Tracks in the mountains and the north can be snow-closed from October to May.
- Khövsgöl boats and horse trips: June to September.
- Reindeer families: June to September by horse, harder in the shoulders.
- Gobi: April to October comfortably, and for the hardy, March.
Talk to us
Tell us the month you have and we will tell you the truth about it. We design private journeys only, we live here all year, and a person replies within four hours in office time. No price list until we have talked.
