Guides
Ger camps versus staying with a nomad family
Information as of 2026-09-21
There are three different things a traveller might mean by staying in a ger. A tourist ger camp is a commercial operation run by a tour company, with a fixed row of gers and a central building. A guest ger is a spare ger that a rural family sets up for paying visitors. A family homestay means sleeping in the family's own ger alongside them.
Tourist ger camps set up by tour companies are the expensive option and are often positioned away from the places independent travellers pass through, but they do sometimes sell beds to walk-ins.
About 35 USD per person per night including three meals
A guest ger run by a local family is dramatically cheaper and commonly includes breakfast and dinner. Staying in one also waives the usual gift-giving expectations that apply to a social visit.
About 5,000 MNT per person per night (roughly 1.40 USD)
Camps vary enormously in comfort. At one end are camps with hot showers and a fridge of cold beer; at the other, camps that offer home-cooked food and a wood-burning stove and nothing else. There is no reliable way to tell from a name, so ask specifically about showers before booking.
Mongolia grades its hotels from one to five stars, and accommodation rated three stars or above must obtain permission to operate for tourist service. Grading is decided by a committee drawn from the ministry, industry associations and researchers.
More than 300 graded hotels; 1-5 star scale
Two booking portals list ger camps for independent travellers.
A ger is heated by a central stove burning wood or dried dung. The stove is lit in the evening and dies down in the night, so the coldest hour is just before dawn even in summer, when Ulaanbaatar's average July low is already 13.5 C and the Gobi and mountains run colder.
Ulaanbaatar July average low 13.5 C; May 3.5 C; September 4.1 C (1991-2020 normals)
Beds in a tourist ger are usually simple single beds arranged around the wall, typically two to four per ger, with blankets and a duvet supplied. Camps do not normally provide towels at the cheaper end.
Outside the cities almost all land is publicly owned, which makes wild camping legal nearly anywhere, as long as you keep clear of existing nomad encampments and stay off roads.
Read more
- Ask three questions before you book a camp: is there a hot shower, is there a flush toilet, and is there power in the ger.
- Bring a silk or cotton sleeping-bag liner; it solves bedding you are unsure about and adds warmth for nothing.
- Bring your own towel and soap, and a head torch for the walk to the toilet block at night.
- Stoke the stove before you sleep if the camp lets you, or accept that the ger will be cold by 05:00 and sleep in a base layer.
- Mixing one or two nights with a herding family into a camp-based itinerary gives a far truer picture than camps alone, and costs less.