Winter Mongolia vs Classic Gobi Desert Tour
The shapes a Mongolia trip comes in, compared on days, driving, season and price band. For specific products, use Find a tour.
Typical length
4–11 days
4–7 days
Difficulty
moderate
easy
Driving per day
1-3 hours on the short version; full days on the northern expedition, which drives all the way to Murun and back rather than flying
4-7 hours on transfer days; 8-9 hours on the Ulaanbaatar-Dalanzadgad leg if you go overland instead of flying
Total distance
About 300-500 km on the short loop; well over 2,000 km on the 11-day northern expedition
Fly-in version: roughly 520 km of driving plus about 1,120 km of return flight (Discover Mongolia publishes 60 km/2 h, 200 km/5 h, 160 km/4 h and 100 km/1 h road legs around a 560 km, 1.5 h flight each way). Fully overland loops run considerably longer, in the 1,600-2,000 km range.
Best months
Jan–Feb, Dec
- Jan: a best month
- Feb: a best month
- Mar: not a best month
- Apr: not a best month
- May: not a best month
- Jun: not a best month
- Jul: not a best month
- Aug: not a best month
- Sep: not a best month
- Oct: not a best month
- Nov: not a best month
- Dec: a best month
May–Sep
- Jan: not a best month
- Feb: not a best month
- Mar: not a best month
- Apr: not a best month
- May: a best month
- Jun: a best month
- Jul: a best month
- Aug: a best month
- Sep: a best month
- Oct: not a best month
- Nov: not a best month
- Dec: not a best month
Per person, per day
160 USDPrices as published for 2026-2027
165-200 USDPrices as published for 2026-2027
Stops
6
5
Good for
- travellers who want low-season prices and empty sites
- photographers after snow and ice
- anyone whose leave falls in winter
- people who want the reindeer herders at their winter camps
- first-time visitors to Mongolia
- photographers
- families with older children
- travellers with only a week
Not for
- anyone who has not owned serious cold-weather clothing before
- families with small children on the long northern version
- travellers who want green steppe and long daylight
- anyone who cannot tolerate long unpaved drives
- travellers who need en-suite bathrooms every night
- people looking for mountain scenery or forest
Vehicle
Ground transport throughout; the 11-day northern expedition includes no domestic flight, which is a large part of why it is graded Hard. Winter driving is on packed snow and frozen river ice, so vehicle condition and the driver's local knowledge matter more than in summer. Horse sleds replace vehicles on the lake itself.
Air-conditioned private van or 4WD, typically 4-5 passengers per vehicle. This matters because the Gobi legs are largely unpaved: a 200 km stage is a 5-hour stage. The domestic flight to Dalanzadgad is the single biggest itinerary lever — it removes two 8-9 hour driving days but caps checked baggage at about 15 kg plus 5 kg cabin.
Accommodation
Short version: two nights in a 3-star Ulaanbaatar hotel, one night in a tourist ger camp with shared Western bathrooms, one night in a family ger with none. Long version: 3 hotel nights in Ulaanbaatar, 2 local-hotel nights in Murun, a log-house night at a lodge, 2 nights in a shared wooden house or teepee at the reindeer camp, and 2 ger camp nights at the lake.
Tourist ger camps almost throughout: 2-4 beds per ger, 220V electricity, and shower and toilet blocks shared between gers rather than en-suite. Some operators sell an en-suite ger upgrade — Selena Travel prices it at US$55 per night. One or two hotel nights in Ulaanbaatar at each end are common and are frequently excluded from the headline price.
Typical length
- Winter Mongolia
- 4–11 days
- Classic Gobi Desert Tour
- 4–7 days
Difficulty
- Winter Mongolia
- moderate
- Classic Gobi Desert Tour
- easy
Driving per day
- Winter Mongolia
- 1-3 hours on the short version; full days on the northern expedition, which drives all the way to Murun and back rather than flying
- Classic Gobi Desert Tour
- 4-7 hours on transfer days; 8-9 hours on the Ulaanbaatar-Dalanzadgad leg if you go overland instead of flying
Total distance
- Winter Mongolia
- About 300-500 km on the short loop; well over 2,000 km on the 11-day northern expedition
- Classic Gobi Desert Tour
- Fly-in version: roughly 520 km of driving plus about 1,120 km of return flight (Discover Mongolia publishes 60 km/2 h, 200 km/5 h, 160 km/4 h and 100 km/1 h road legs around a 560 km, 1.5 h flight each way). Fully overland loops run considerably longer, in the 1,600-2,000 km range.
Best months
- Winter Mongolia
- Jan–Feb, Dec
- Jan: a best month
- Feb: a best month
- Mar: not a best month
- Apr: not a best month
- May: not a best month
- Jun: not a best month
- Jul: not a best month
- Aug: not a best month
- Sep: not a best month
- Oct: not a best month
- Nov: not a best month
- Dec: a best month
- Classic Gobi Desert Tour
- May–Sep
- Jan: not a best month
- Feb: not a best month
- Mar: not a best month
- Apr: not a best month
- May: a best month
- Jun: a best month
- Jul: a best month
- Aug: a best month
- Sep: a best month
- Oct: not a best month
- Nov: not a best month
- Dec: not a best month
Per person, per day
- Winter Mongolia
- 160 USDPrices as published for 2026-2027
- Classic Gobi Desert Tour
- 165-200 USDPrices as published for 2026-2027
Stops
- Winter Mongolia
- 6
- Classic Gobi Desert Tour
- 5
Good for
- Winter Mongolia
- travellers who want low-season prices and empty sites
- photographers after snow and ice
- anyone whose leave falls in winter
- people who want the reindeer herders at their winter camps
- Classic Gobi Desert Tour
- first-time visitors to Mongolia
- photographers
- families with older children
- travellers with only a week
Not for
- Winter Mongolia
- anyone who has not owned serious cold-weather clothing before
- families with small children on the long northern version
- travellers who want green steppe and long daylight
- Classic Gobi Desert Tour
- anyone who cannot tolerate long unpaved drives
- travellers who need en-suite bathrooms every night
- people looking for mountain scenery or forest
Vehicle
- Winter Mongolia
- Ground transport throughout; the 11-day northern expedition includes no domestic flight, which is a large part of why it is graded Hard. Winter driving is on packed snow and frozen river ice, so vehicle condition and the driver's local knowledge matter more than in summer. Horse sleds replace vehicles on the lake itself.
- Classic Gobi Desert Tour
- Air-conditioned private van or 4WD, typically 4-5 passengers per vehicle. This matters because the Gobi legs are largely unpaved: a 200 km stage is a 5-hour stage. The domestic flight to Dalanzadgad is the single biggest itinerary lever — it removes two 8-9 hour driving days but caps checked baggage at about 15 kg plus 5 kg cabin.
Accommodation
- Winter Mongolia
- Short version: two nights in a 3-star Ulaanbaatar hotel, one night in a tourist ger camp with shared Western bathrooms, one night in a family ger with none. Long version: 3 hotel nights in Ulaanbaatar, 2 local-hotel nights in Murun, a log-house night at a lodge, 2 nights in a shared wooden house or teepee at the reindeer camp, and 2 ger camp nights at the lake.
- Classic Gobi Desert Tour
- Tourist ger camps almost throughout: 2-4 beds per ger, 220V electricity, and shower and toilet blocks shared between gers rather than en-suite. Some operators sell an en-suite ger upgrade — Selena Travel prices it at US$55 per night. One or two hotel nights in Ulaanbaatar at each end are common and are frequently excluded from the headline price.
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