Horse riding with Mongolian nomads

In this Mongolian horse riding holiday, you get the chance to ride horses through the sublime Naiman Nuur mountainous region of Central Mongolia, and stay with local nomadic families along the way in their felt gers to experience their pastoral way of life, delicious natural foods and culture.



Whilst a mix of hiking and riding is an option, this is predominantly a riding trip and you need to have some basic riding experience. We will also visit beautifully preserved 16th Century Buddhist Monasteries and ride Bactrian camels across the sands of the Gobi Desert.



Mongolian horses tend to be small, but have tremendous stamina and speed, and are well adapted to the harsh environment of the steppe where they have thrived for centuries. They are well used to being ridden as the nomads use them throughout the year as a means of transport and for herding their livestock. Riding freely through the endless horizons of this historical land is an awe-inspiring feeling of freedom, and a complete return to the natural way of life so sorely missing from many modern societies.



We will learn about the history of the areas we travel through; visiting the site where Genghis Khan founded the famed cosmopolitan capital city of the Mongolian Empire in the 12th Century, and riding through the Orkhon Valley where he finally defeated the army of Tayang Khan, leader of the western Naiman tribe, to unite the nine Mongol tribes before conquering Central Asia as far as the Danube in Hungary. We will also pass many ancient nomadic burial sites and one of the mysterious ‘Deer Stones’ scattered across Siberia and Mongolia, dating from the peoples of the Bronze Age. We fully believe in, and practice Responsible Tourism, using accommodation run by locals. We put time and effort into building our relationship with them to ensure you have a a great trip. We choose accommodation based on cleanliness, comfort, safety, proximity to our route (to avoid unnecessary extra travel), and a warm client welcome, as well as reliability in their service to us. Some hotels will be basic, and in modern buildings and or in towns. Wherever we can, we will choose smaller more characterful, individual options, but in areas where tourism is still developing, this may not be available.



An aspect of our adventures is to escape the ‘trappings’ of modern Western lifestyles and to experience new things which is exciting and memorable, and reflects the countries we are visiting.

This is adventure travel and on occasion the advertised services at a hotel (eg wifi, or hot showers!) may not be functional on our arrival. This tends to occur in the smaller, more remote hotels. Very rarely a hotel lets us down and we are required to find alternative suitable accommodation that might not be our first choice.

The accommodation on this adventure involves both hotel stays and camping in gers/yurts. The list below gives information on our first choice of accommodation for this adventure. Where hotels and refuges are fully booked or unavailable, we will use an alternative of a similar standard, and equally well situated. We will provide you with an accurate list of accommodation, with contact information to leave with relatives, prior to departure on your adventure.Ulaanbaatar (2 nights): Khuvsgul Lake Hotel: Baga Toirog, Ulaanbaatar. Tel: +976 37607 8888. City centre location, with Wifi Ger Camping (6 nights): A ‘ger’ or ‘yurt’ is a large felt tent made from sheeps wool, which results in a warm, cosy and waterproof shelter. The centre of the yurt houses a metal wood burner with a chimney for all smoke to escape through the roof.

Yurts house either 2 or 4 simple, but comfortable beds with plenty of extra blankets to pile onto your sleeping bag (please bring a winter season bag), should you feel chilly. If you are travelling with a group of friends then we are happy for friends to share a yurt (4 people), or YellowWood can arrange the rooming for solo travellers to share with others of the same gender.