Mongolia Travel Blog & News

Yeah! Such great news! After a change in visa regulation, Mongolia is more accessible than ever. Find out if you need a visa to Mongolia here! Mongolia's immigration department has relaxed tourist visa requirements for 61 nationalities, including Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech, Denmark, and Estonia. Mongolian government just announced that citizens from the below 34 countries do not need a visa to visit Mongolia for up to 30 days. This regulation is temporary and is valid until December 2025 at this point.

Since you have chosen Mongolia as your travel destination, you might be familiar with the fact that Mongolia is a post-soviet country. From 1921 to 1991, Mongolia has been part of the Comintern- a soviet alliance with Soviet Russia in its head. Most of the districts and urban structure of the city has been built during that era with the help of the Russian masters. Ulaanbaatar was mainly designed by Soviet architects, who have employed classicism.

Our managing director Ms. Nyamsuren G. and sales manager Ms. Zolzaya O. successfully presented the company and the country at the 29th PATA Travel Mart 2006 at Asia World-Expo center in Hong Kong on 12-15 Sep. PATA Travel Mart is the premier travel mart in the Asia Pacific region and Selena Travel was the first Mongolian company to ever take part in it. PATA President and CEO Mr. Peter de Jong confirmed the official delegate numbers for PTM06.

Mongolian Tourism Association announced the 2011 bests of Mongolian tourism industry on 27 December 2011, namely, the TOP 10 tour operators, TOP 10 hotels, TOP 10 tourist ger camps and TOP 10 transportation etc. Selena Travel was named as one of the TOP 10 TOUR OPERATORS of Mongolian tourism, and moreover, Steppe Nomads camp of Selena Travel was named as one of the TOP 10 tourist ger camps of Mongolia.

Before human beings came to Eurasia, many varieties of horses roamed in herds over the vast steppes of the continent. In vast herds, with complex societies and feeding on the seas of grass, they lived and died for centuries. Eventually, mankind roamed in and developed a relationship with one particular species. Humans started to domesticate equus ferus around 4000 BCE.   After another thousand years, this species, equus ferus, started to become more widespread. They outcompeted the other wild horse species, and one by one, they went extinct. The domesticated horse was the last horse standing. Except for one species. A hardy, little black and tan horse called Przewalski’s horse, or the takhi, managed to survive in what is now Mongolia. 

We tried to travel to the Orkhon waterfall that first summer I visited Mongolia. It seemed a short distance from Karakorum and we asked about swapping out the customary visit to the Erdene Zuu Monastery for a day trip to the waterfall. However, our guide and driver were quick to say that this was not a possibility as the road to the waterfall was, in their words, “a very bad road.”

It’s the beginning of the end of Mongolia’s short summer season. Today is a big day for our young monk. Let’s call him Davaa, a good Tibetan name. His name means Monday, and his parents may have chosen his name because he was born on a Monday. The name also honors Tibetan Buddhism, which is practiced in Mongolia. He has only been at the monastery for a year, and he’s going to participate in his first Tsam ceremony. The tsam dances, are morality plays. Their purpose is to remove evil from the area and pass along traditional stories and morals. There can be hundreds of participants, usually monks. Davaa is lucky to participate because he’s still a young monk.

Surviving two destructions and centuries of rejection, Erdene Zuu is one of the oldest Buddhist temples in Mongolia, probably in East Asia. The building of the temple was ordered by the Abtai Sain Khan- grandfather of Zanabazar the Great when the Tibetan Buddhism was declared as the main religion of Mongolia in 1586. For Mongolians, who employed nomadic lifestyle, this kind of building or generally anything that stays in one place was not that common. So, the temple has naturally become the religious center, thus the heart of the Mongolia. The geographical situation was carefully thought out too, it’s built in Kharkhorin- near the old city of Karakorum.

Anyone traveling to Mongolia will generally have a couple afternoons or a full day in the Ulaanbaatar during which time they can visit or explore some city sites. Here is a list, in no particular order, of the places I’ve visited and can recommend. I’d select the ones that meet you or your party’s interests.

A trip to Mongolia is not complete without a visit to the Gobi Desert. As travel in Mongolia includes a lot of time in a vehicle, my father and I chose to fly from Ulaanbaatar to Dalanzadgad (capital of South Gobi aimag or province) when we visited the Gobi.