Mongolia Among Women: Nomadic Life & Infinite Steppes

Welcome to Mongolia. A local representative meets you at Chinggis Khaan International Airport and takes care of the transfer to the hotel, allowing the group to arrive without worrying about logistics after a long journey.

The city may feel surprising after the vast landscapes imagined before departure: traffic, new buildings, Buddhist influences and traces of Soviet history all coexist in Ulaanbaatar.

The rest of the day is intentionally gentle. Rest, settle in and prepare for the adventure that will soon carry the group far beyond the capital.

Enjoy a free morning to recover from the journey before meeting the women who will share the next two weeks. The welcome lunch is relaxed and warm: names become stories and the first sense of travelling together begins.

In the afternoon, enter the artistic and spiritual world of Zanabazar, the first Bogd Gegeen and one of Mongolia’s most important artists. The museum’s sacred sculptures, paintings and objects reveal a level of refinement that contrasts beautifully with the apparent simplicity of the steppe.

The celebrated Twenty-One Taras invite a different gaze at feminine sacred imagery. By evening, Mongolia no longer feels like a distant idea — it has begun to take shape through art, conversation and the women around the table.

Leave Ulaanbaatar and watch the landscape open into the immense calm of the steppe. Elsen Tasarkhai is a remarkable meeting of golden dunes, green valleys and mountain silhouettes — a gentle first encounter with the Gobi.

Davaasuren’s family welcomes the group at the foot of the dunes. Here you meet Doljin, whose traditional silk embroidery carries patience, creativity and family memory. She guides you in creating a small handmade keepsake, turning the afternoon into an intimate exchange rather than a demonstration.

Later, climb onto a camel and move slowly across the dunes. At the top, the sunset paints the sand and sky orange, rose and violet. Back at the family camp, songs and conversations continue beneath a sky filled with stars.

This first night in a ger is simple and unforgettable: the sound of the wind outside, the warmth of the stove and the feeling of having truly entered nomadic Mongolia.

At sunrise, women who wish may join Doljin for the morning tasks. Milking cows in the traditional way brings an immediate understanding of how early and physically demanding nomadic life can be.

The afternoon leads to Erdene Khamba Monastery, a seventeenth-century spiritual retreat hidden in the Khögnö Khan Mountains. The setting carries silence, history and a sense of protection from the surrounding rock.

A guardian who has watched over the site for many years shares the monastery’s stories and Buddhist heritage. The visit is unhurried, allowing the group to listen, ask questions and absorb the atmosphere before returning to the family.

Travel towards the UNESCO-listed Orkhon Valley, where history, pastoral life and broad natural beauty exist in the same landscape. The route itself is part of the discovery as herds and distant gers appear across the grasslands.

Togtokhoo welcomes the group with contagious warmth. Rather than observing from outside, you are invited to understand the rhythm of her household and help with suitable daily tasks around the animals and ger.

Later, visit Ulaan Tsutgalan Waterfall, dropping approximately twenty metres through a volcanic landscape. Walk, breathe and take time beside the water; confident swimmers may bring a swimsuit if local conditions allow.

The evening returns to the family ger, where food and conversation make the valley feel less like a place visited and more like a home temporarily shared.

Begin beside the river with a creative pause. Paint a mandala on a stone, choosing colours and patterns inspired by the landscape. The activity is simple, meditative and a chance to create without needing to produce something perfect.

Back with Togtokhoo, the kitchen becomes the heart of the day. Learn to prepare khuushuur: knead the dough, season the meat, shape each pastry and fry it until golden.

Cooking side by side naturally opens conversation. Recipes lead to family stories, laughter and questions about how women organise work, hospitality and daily life across the seasons.

This second day in the valley deepens the connection because there is no rush to move on. You begin to recognise faces, gestures and routines rather than simply collecting experiences.

Today’s path rises through a forested mountain towards Tövkhön Monastery, set at around 2,400 metres. The two-to-three-hour walk asks for steady effort but rewards every step with clean air, birdsong and wide views.

At the monastery, discover a sacred place associated with Zanabazar and the creation of the revered Taras. Those who wish may approach the local ritual known as the Mother’s Womb rock, understood as a symbol of spiritual rebirth. Participation is entirely personal.

The day also brings a memorable conversation with Bolor, an English-speaking guide from Hawaii who married a nomadic herder. Trained as a social worker, she shares what it meant to enter Mongolian culture and how she now supports local communities.

Her story makes the afternoon deeply human: identity, adaptation, love and service become part of the journey alongside the mountain and monastery.

After several active days and nights with nomadic families, this stage is deliberately slower. Travel to Tsenkher, where naturally sulphurous hot water rises from the earth.

The tourist camps channel and regulate the water so it can be enjoyed comfortably. Let muscles relax, feel the warmth on tired legs and allow the mind to become quiet after days filled with new impressions.

An optional massage may be available at additional cost. Whether you choose it or not, this is a day for rest rather than achievement — reading, talking softly and restoring energy for the next part of the route.

Arrive in Kharkhorin, the site of Mongolia’s thirteenth-century capital. The museum helps reconstruct the scale and importance of the city founded under Chinggis Khan through archaeological objects and historical interpretation.

Continue to Erdene Zuu, Mongolia’s oldest Buddhist monastery. Walk among its white stupas, temple courtyards and sacred buildings while the guide explains how Buddhism survived periods of extraordinary change.

At the calligraphy centre, local artist Gerlee introduces the vertical Mongolian script. You will practise its elegant lines and create a personal piece to take home.

The night is spent in a guesthouse run by a local woman, another reminder that hospitality and cultural preservation are often inseparable from women’s work.

Travel deeper into Arkhangai towards Ulziit and the archaeological area of Lüncheng, associated with an ancient Xiongnu royal palace. The private camp is set where the view seems to continue without interruption.

In small groups, visit nearby nomadic families and spend time observing and joining suitable daily tasks. The aim is not a rehearsed performance, but a respectful encounter in which gestures, curiosity and presence matter as much as language.

Later, a local teacher leads gentle yoga in the steppe. With no walls and almost no sound, breathing becomes easier and the body feels very small within the vast landscape.

The evening settles around the camp, preparing for another day devoted to local women, spiritual traditions and shared time beneath the open sky.

Begin with another gentle opportunity to stretch, breathe and experience the stillness of the steppe before the day unfolds.

Meet Tserenkhuu, a Mongolian woman shaman who shares the cultural meaning of her spiritual practice. The encounter is approached respectfully as an opportunity to listen and understand; a personal stone-divination session may be requested separately and remains entirely optional.

In the evening, local women join the group to prepare and share a meal. Cooking together removes formality and allows stories, humour and questions to pass naturally between everyone.

After dark, the steppe becomes an open-air cinema. Watching a film beneath an enormous field of stars is simple, unexpected and likely to become one of the journey’s most joyful memories.

Travel towards Khustai National Park, known for the successful reintroduction of the Przewalski horse, locally called Takhi. Enter the park with patient eyes: wildlife sightings are never guaranteed, but the search itself sharpens attention to the landscape.

Alongside wild horses, the park may reveal deer, marmots, birds of prey and traces of other animals. The guide explains how this ecosystem is protected and why the Takhi occupies such an important place in conservation history.

Later, meet Siilegmaa, who introduces traditional Mongolian dairy methods. Learn how curds, butter and yoghurt are made from the milk that sustains nomadic families and preserves food across the seasons.

The practical lesson becomes another meeting between women, linking taste, survival, labour and hospitality in one family ger.

Today focuses on women whose weaving, embroidery and other crafts carry both cultural identity and economic independence.

Meet artisans, observe their techniques and ask how they learned, adapted and organised their work around family and rural life. The objects are beautiful, but the stories behind them are what give the visit depth.

The encounter also reveals solidarity between women: knowledge is shared, work may be organised collectively and craft creates income without cutting ties to place and tradition.

The final rural evening offers time to look back at how many different women have shaped the journey — each with her own skills, responsibilities and way of moving between tradition and change.

Return to the capital and feel the contrast after days of open steppe and ger life. Visit a cashmere factory and local craft shops, with time to choose meaningful souvenirs and understand one of Mongolia’s best-known materials.

In the evening, attend a traditional performance bringing together khöömii throat singing, the morin khuur horse-head fiddle, folk dance, long song and contortion.

The final dinner is more than a formal farewell. It is a chance to remember Doljin, Togtokhoo, Bolor, Gerlee, Tserenkhuu, Siilegmaa and the many unnamed women whose homes and work gave the route its soul.

After two weeks together, the group has its own stories, jokes and silences — proof that the journey has created connections both within Mongolia and between the travellers themselves.

After breakfast and according to your flight schedule, a private transfer takes you to Chinggis Khaan International Airport.

The landscapes may be the first thing people ask about when you return: dunes, waterfalls, horses and endless grasslands. Yet the memories that stay closest are often smaller — learning a stitch, folding dough, warming hands around a bowl and listening to a woman explain her life.

You leave Mongolia with photographs and handmade objects, but also with a different relationship to time, space and the strength of women who create home in the middle of an immense landscape.