Guides
Realistic daily budgets in USD
Information as of 2026-09-21
The building blocks of a Mongolian daily budget, taken from published prices, are unusually lopsided: food and local transport are very cheap, while transport to and around the countryside is the dominant cost, because a vehicle and driver are effectively unavoidable.
Set of six buuz 1,200-2,000 MNT; tsuivan 2,000-4,000 MNT; city bus flat fare 500 MNT plus a 3,000 MNT travel card; taxi about 1,000 MNT per km; airport shuttle bus 15,000 MNT
Accommodation prices span two orders of magnitude, from a shared room in an Ulaanbaatar guesthouse to a commercially run ger camp.
Ulaanbaatar guesthouse under 10 USD per night, shared room from about 3,000 MNT; family guest ger about 5,000 MNT per person including some meals; tour-company ger camp about 35 USD per person including three meals
A budget day: guesthouse or family ger, guanz and market food, public transport in the city, shared minivan or a seat in a shared jeep for countryside legs. This is achievable but slow, and the shared-transport element is the part that is hardest to arrange without Mongolian.
About 30-55 USD per person per day, covering bed, three simple meals, local transport and one modest entry fee
A mid-range day: mixture of ger camps and family stays, a shared 4WD with driver and an English-speaking guide split between four to six travellers, meals included, a mid-range hotel in the capital.
About 90-150 USD per person per day, covering accommodation with meals, a share of vehicle, fuel, driver and guide, and entry fees
A comfortable day: four or five-star hotel in Ulaanbaatar, upmarket ger lodges, a private 4WD with dedicated driver and guide, some domestic flights to cut long drives, and set-menu restaurant meals.
About 200-350 USD per person per day, rising above 400 USD where domestic flights or luxury lodges are included
Two costs sit outside the daily figure and should be budgeted separately: international flights, and insurance with medical evacuation cover, which is not optional in a country where evacuation is expensive and hospitals want payment up front.
Hospitals require 80% of treatment cost in advance
Budgets quoted on older web pages understate real costs because the currency depreciates steadily, so add a margin to anything written more than a year ago.
Roughly 8-10% annual depreciation
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- The single biggest lever on cost is how many people share the vehicle; a group of four pays roughly half per head what a couple pays for the same 4WD and driver.
- Days spent in Ulaanbaatar cost a fraction of days in the countryside, so front-loading city time is a cheap way to lengthen a trip.
- Naadam in July raises accommodation prices and fills Ulaanbaatar; September delivers similar weather at lower cost and with fewer people.
- Domestic flights buy back two or three days of driving on western itineraries but are the fastest way to push a mid-range budget into the comfortable bracket.
- Set aside a contingency of roughly 10% for a lost day, a vehicle repair or an unplanned hotel night; unpaved routes make this normal rather than unlucky.