Mongolia in August

Americans do not need a visa to visit Mongolia, and there are no entrance or exit fees. The best time to travel there is summer, since by September the nights are getting cold. During my trip, Aug. 19-30, 2013, day temperatures were in the 70s and nights in the 60s. Rain was light in the Gobi and heavy in Ulaanbaatar (known as UB) and Hustai National Park.

My trip began in UB. Downtown UB is very small, and it’s possible to walk everywhere. The main street, Peace Street, is about four miles long. Mongolia’s infrastructure is like China’s in the ’80s.

Traffic in UB was very congested, so staying at the Ramada Ulaanbaatar Citycenter(Gandan Peace Avenue 35/1) was convenient. I could walk to the Zanabazar Museum of Fine Arts and the Mongolian Cultural Museum, both of which have excellent exhibits not to be missed. The dinosaur museum was under renovation.

The Ramada’s rates were reasonable; for a nice room, I paid a senior rate of $170 per night. The hotel is located next to a mall with a food court, two banks and a food market. American currency was accepted in restaurants, stores and hotels everywhere. It was easy to exchange money at the banks.

My Mongolian trip was prepared by Soyolbayar Delgerbat of Travel All Mongolia. (Box-157, Post Office-28, UB-14253, Mongolia; phone 976 70152585, fax 70152585) and cost $2,890 per person, everything included.

My tour included Ulaanbaatar; Gorkhi-Terelj National Park for a day; Gobi Gurvan Saikhan National Park for three days, seeing the Yol Valley, the Khongoryn Els sand dunes and the Flaming Cliffs of Bayanzag, a dinosaur area; Hustai National Park, where the Przewalski horses have been reintroduced (they have 66 chromosomes versus today’s horses with 64), and, near Karakorum, the Erdene Zuu Monastery, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

In the national parks, there were no hotels as we know them. Instead, there were groups of traditional gers. A ger is a large, round room covered with canvas with a hole in the top that lets in light and air during the day and which is closed at night to keep out the cold and bugs. Gers at the parks each cost $40 per night*, including meals. Inside each were two or three beds.

A large lodge contained the dining room. Bathrooms, in a structure apart from the gers, had toilets, sinks and showers that were always immaculate and constantly attended to; men’s and women’s facilities were separate.

I stayed in lodges in three national parks: Gorkhi-Terelj, Gurvansaikhan and Hustai. There are private ger facilities outside of the parks, but, with communication a problem, you would need a ground agent to book them in advance. The lodges and dining facilities inside the parks, while not necessarily having English-speaking staff, can deal better with tourists’ expectations.

In Gurvansaikhan National Park, I walked through the Three Camel Lodge and saw its rooms, but, at $200-$250 a night, that deluxe property was too expensive for me.

I did have lunch at the wonderful, 5-star Terelj Hotel inside Gorkhi- Terelj park; it was very costly. I did not see an expensive alternative restaurant in Hustai; we ate lunch at a lodge outside the park.

DONNA PERELMAN

Narragansett, RI

*The print version of this article did not correctly identify where Ms. Perelman stayed. A correction was published in the March 2014 issue.