Mongolia holidays

Our Chairman, Nick, has recently returned from a Mongolia holiday. Read the account of his adventure in On Location.

Mongolia is a wild and lonely country of flat, seemingly endless steppes, bordered to the south by the Gobi desert and to the north by low mountains. Bitterly cold in winter, any travel to Mongolia is essentially limited to a short window of opportunity between May and September.

Freed from its Soviet chains, Buddhism is slowly reasserting itself as too is the traditional nomadic lifestyle. As the distances are huge and the infrastructure outside the towns and cities non-existent, it makes it the one country in the world where travelling as a group does make economic sense. Everything has to be transported, including staff, food and accommodation, making it expensive to travel as an individual.

Every year, in the first week of July, Mongolia celebrates the Naadaam festival. This three day event is held in every town and city across the country and nomads from miles around congregate to trade, renew old acquaintances and watch the proceedings. Essentially, it is a competition comprising the three manly sports - archery, wrestling and horse riding - although the horse riding involves children as young as six riding flat out, bareback, over a course of several miles. It is a spectacular occasion, a photographers paradise and understandably very popular with visitors. It is essential to book early to secure a hotel room.








From Lake Hovsgol you can now drive north across the border of Siberia to Lake Baikal and fly back from Irkutsk.