Mongolia Sagsai Eagle Festival

During this tour, you will get to experience the unique and world famous Mongolian eagle festival in Sagsai.



The eagle hunting tradition is engrained in the cultural heritage of Central Asia with several Golden Eagle Festivals in Mongolia celebrating this tradition. On this fantastic adventure we will visit a smaller, privately arranged Golden Eagle Festival to avoid the crowds, which can be particularly appealing for photography enthusiasts.



The festival will take place in Sagsai, in the Altai Mountains of Western Mongolia where many of the population have Kazakh origins. Experience this remote and beautiful region, attend an interview with eagle hunters, and stay with local families in their cosy felt gers to learn about their nomadic way of life.



During the communist period in Kazakhstan, many Kazakhs fled to Mongolia and settled in Bayan-Olgii Province, bringing with them their tradition of hunting with golden eagles. There are an estimated 250 eagle hunters in Bayan-Olgii, which is located in the Altai Mountains of Western Mongolia. Their falconry custom involves hunting with golden eagles on horseback, primarily for red and corsac foxes during the cold winter months, when it is easier to see the gold-coloured foxes against the snow.



We will stay with local families in this community and take an amazing round trip adventure riding horses to the Altai Tavan Bogd base camp amongst the National Park’s stupendous mountain peaks in this vast frontier. We will also explore the capital Ulaanbaatar to see its temples, traditional dancing and feast on delicious Mongolian food. 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): Grand Hill Hotel, Modern 3* hotel in City centre location. Ensuite rooms & Wifi.

Ulgii (3 nights): Makhsum Hotel: small local hotel in the village of Ulgii.

Ger Camping (4 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.