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Mongolia Photo Expedition
Preferred
Overview
Highlights (Bullets)
- Snap portraits of Mongolian throat singers, camel herders, and traditional nomad families, and learn about their age-old culture.
- Stay in an award-winning ger camp in the Gobi desert, and set off on photo hikes amid nearby gorges and dunes.
- Fill your lens with the vibrant pageantry of Naadam, Mongolia’s most celebrated festival, documenting wrestling, archery, and horse racing competitions.
- Meet with monks on a visit to Gandan Monastery in Ulaanbaatar, and go on a photo shoot in the eccentric Winter Palace of Bogd Khan.
Short Description
Home to sweeping landscapes and a nomadic culture that pre-dates the age of Genghis Khan, Mongolia offers a stunning array of photographic opportunities. Travel through the vast steppe to capture images of Mongolian horses, traditional ger camps, and camel-herding families. Catch the towering dunes of the Gobi at sunrise and the brilliant Flaming Cliffs at sunset, and spend a thrilling day documenting Naadam, Mongolia’s most celebrated festival .
Itinerary
Days 1 & 2: U.S./Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Accommodation: Tuushin Hotel
Depart on an overnight flight to Ulaanbaatar and check into our centrally located hotel upon arrival on Day 2.
Day 3: Ulaanbaatar
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Accommodation: Tuushin Hotel
Spend the morning at a specially arranged photo shoot at the Gandan Monastery, Mongolia's largest functioning Buddhist monastery—one of the few to survive the Stalinist purges during the 1930s. Listen to the horns calling lamas and monks to temple, and capture the monks' daily rituals while visiting the adjoining Megjid Janraisig and Kalachakra Temples. This afternoon, visit the National Museum to get an overview of Mongolia's history and culture. Examine exhibits on nomadic life, including Stone and Bronze Age artifacts, traditional costumes, and sacred relics. Gather for a welcome reception and dinner tonight.
Day 4: Ulaanbaatar/Gün-Galuut Nature Reserve
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
This morning, join a senior U.S Embassy official for an introduction to the current political and economic climate over breakfast. Then drive east to Gün-Galuut, a nature reserve near the Khentii Mountains where the steppe converges with stunning wetlands. Enjoy the rest of the day to explore the area on hikes or an optional horseback ride, photographing stunning vistas and the wildlife of the reserve. Our home here is a camp of a traditional gers, or round, felt-lined tents, set amid lush meadows.
Day 5: Gün-Galuut Nature Reserve
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Spend the day exploring the mountains and wetlands of the reserve on a photo hike or an optional horseback ride, and keep an eye out for endangered Argali mountain sheep and a number of endangered crane species. In the afternoon, pay a visit a local nomadic family for a rare chance to photograph everyday life in rural Mongolia. Against the stunning and simple architecture of the family gers, snap portraits of some of the world’s last nomadic peoples.
Day 6: Gün-Galuut Nature Reserve/Ulaanbaatar
Meals: Breakfast and Lunch
Accommodation: Tuushin Hotel
Enjoy a morning at leisure before returning to Ulaanbaatar. Along the way, stop to frame a 131-foot-tall Genghis Khan equestrian statue, and venture into small villages to document daily traditions that existed during the era of Genghis Khan. This afternoon, visit the Zanabazar Fine Arts Museum, which displays one of the world’s best collections of Buddhist art and artifacts.
Day 7: The Gobi/Gegeet Valley/Khongoryn Els
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Soar over the vast steppe on a flight to the mystical Gobi, site of some of the most important paleontological discoveries of the 20th century. Over the next four days, photograph the wildlife and varying landscapes of the desert, home to Bactrian camels, Argali mountain sheep, and saker falcons, as well as rare species such as snow leopards and Gobi bears. Stop in Gegeet Valley, the habitat of the elusive snow leopard, en route to the Khongoryn Els, a 60-mile stretch of rippling sand dunes that soar up to 600 feet and trace the edge of the Altai range. Catch the sunset on this stunning and remote desert landscape, and spend the night in a nearby ger camp. Ride a camel into the dunes to capture the dazzling sandscape at sunset.
Day 8: Khongoryn Els Sand Dunes
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Accommodation: Three Camel Lodge
After breakfast, encounter the "Singing Sands," dunes known for the uncanny, deep groan the sand emits when the dunes' surface is disturbed. Stop in at the camp of a camel herding family and experience traditional Mongolian hospitality and another chance to photograph the details of daily life here. Take a ride on a Bactrian camel if you wish. After lunch, settle into your deluxe ger at Three Camel Lodge, voted in 2009 one of the "Top 50 Eco-lodges" by National Geographic Adventure magazine. Late afternoon, drive to Havtsgait Valley, site of ancient rock drawings left by early Gobi settlers. Join in a photo shoot and capture these striking petroglyphs in their best light.
Day 9: Yolyn Am
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Accommodation: Three Camel Lodge
Awaken early to capture scenes of the desert infused with glowing hues of sunrise. Travel to Yolyn Am, or Eagle Valley, a dramatic chasm that cuts a narrow path through the foothills of the arid Altai Mountains. Set out on a photo hike through this lush spot, looking for native vultures called lammergeiers, ibex, and gazelles. Later, visit the local natural history museum.
Day 10: Tugrigiin Shiree/Flaming Cliffs
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Accommodation: Three Camel Lodge
Drive to Tugregiin Shiree, where paleontologists discovered the famous “Fighting Dinosaurs” fossil in the 1970s. Continue to Bayanzag, also known as the Flaming Cliffs. Here, brilliant red sandstone harbors a treasure trove of dinosaur fossils and eggs. Hike down into the gorge to photograph the breathtaking span of desert landscape and crimson cliffs, and capture the shifting palette of sunset. Then enjoy an al fresco dinner beside the cliffs.
Day 11: Gobi Desert/Ulaanbaatar
Meals: Breakfast and Lunch
Accommodation: Tuushin Hotel
Fly to Ulaanbaatar this morning, arriving in time for lunch at a local restaurant. Venture into the Winter Palace of the Bogd Khan, home of Mongolia's last theocrat and eighth Living Buddha. Focus on the architectural details of this ornate monument that somehow escaped destruction during the reign of Stalin. In the evening, document a unique art form during performance of traditional Mongolian dance and khoomi, or throat singing.
Day 12: Naadam Festival
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Accommodation: Tuushin Hotel
With your camera in hand, immerse yourself in the spirit and pageantry of Naadam—Mongolia’s centuries-old annual festival and sporting event. Dressed in traditional garb, participants compete in the “three manly sports”: wrestling, archery, and horse racing. Take part in the opening ceremony at the National Stadium, and photograph the ritualized archery and wrestling contests. Then transfer to a field outside of the city to capture the excitement of thundering hooves during the traditional horse race. Celebrate your Mongolian photo journey at a farewell dinner tonight.
Day 13: Ulaanbaatar/U.S.
Meals: Breakfast
After breakfast, transfer to the airport for your return flight, or continue on the extension.
Availability
30 National Geographic Expeditions Travel Reviews & Ratings
Mongolia Photo Expedition
Company Reviews
Inconsistent information, No Refund
How to Ruin a Trip to Norway
TOO MUCH TOO FAST
We arrived in Luxor, were taken to the hotel, deposited our luggage (the room wasn’t ready), had breakfast, and then met our tour guide at 10:00 AM for our first tour. We were exhausted, but mustered our energy for the occasion.
Is there a good reason why Cairo wasn’t the first city on our tour? In retrospect, it should have been for many reasons, not the least of which was the logistics described above.
All right, so now we’re in Luxor, and by afternoon we’re ensconced in a luxurious hotel with a magnificent view of the Nile River. There’s a swimming pool that we’re looking forward to relaxing by the next day during some much needed down time during the free time described in the itinerary; exactly what we expected from National Geographic. But instead, that evening we were told by our guide that we needed to have our luggage ready to check out of the hotel the next morning to relocate to the Nile River ship Minerva (coincidentally, owned by the same company as the hotel). We obliged, and in the morning we were taken on a tour with the luggage in the car, and then brought to the ship in the early afternoon. Our four suitcases were put in a room that was barely large enough to contain the bed, but the view of the river from our room was good enough to overlook this inconvenience, at least for the moment. I looked forward to resting in our cabin in the afternoon because I was exhausted. In fact, I was so tired that I have little recollection of that morning’s tour until I look at the photos to affirm that I was actually where the itinerary said I would be.
We went to lunch in the ship’s dining room and returned to our cabin to find that our view of the Nile was obliterated by a ship that had tied up alongside our own. This is now our view (see photo) and the blackout drapes that were drawn to hide it made the small cabin a crowded, dark dungeon.
Furthermore, that ship’s bunker oil fumes were now in the air conditioning system of our ship and flowing freely into our cabin making me nauseous and giving me a headache. I complained but there was nothing to do about it.
And if this wasn’t bad enough, the sound of the neighboring ship that accompanied the smell was intolerable.
Other issues I had with our cabin on the ship included;
- The bypass closet door wouldn’t stay shut
- There was a leak under the bathroom sink
- The carpet in the area near the bathroom was wet
- The toilet seat lid came off repeatedly
- Wifi on board the ship was only in the main lobby area, and was poor at best
I talked to the ship’s desk clerk, and he assured me that things would be taken care of shortly. They never were.
This doesn’t take into consideration that the buffet style food served on board was repetitive if you didn’t take the offered main course, which was usually meat (I don’t eat meat).
Oh, and I didn’t yet mention that our ship wouldn’t be leaving its mooring until the next day! We had traded a luxurious hotel for this!
With that said, it begs the question of why we were taken out of a luxurious hotel 24 hours in advance of the ship sailing away from Luxor? No pool to sit by, no view of the sunset over the banks of the Nile, no quiet room in which to sleep, and no dinner of delicious food. Certainly not what we expected from a Nat Geo Private Tour for which we had paid a premium price!
Unrelated to these issues, NatGeo’s survey asked if we felt that our health was well-protected. “No” is the short answer. A fuller reply is that we both got Covid on this trip; my husband first, then inevitably, myself three days later. We had avoided catching it for more than 2.6 years, and now we had it. I realize that one takes risks when going out in the world, and I certainly don’t blame NatGeo for our getting sick. But their people weren’t wearing masks until I asked them to, mostly to protect themselves from us. One agent who met us at the airport when we arrived back in Cairo from Aswan, now openly sick with Covid, disappeared for 10 minutes to purchase a mask when I told him in no uncertain terms that he needed to wear one around us.
Overall, NatGeo profited from our illness as we were too unwell to utilize the dining allowance at the Cairo Ritz Carlton or to go to out for most meals offered with our guide. The one restaurant I was taken to for dinner without my husband was a touristy place with fake grapes leaves hanging from fake arbors. When a 35 person tour group trouped in past us it told me all I needed to know. My bowl of pasta with a tomato sauce not much thicker than tomato juice certainly couldn’t have cost more than $10, if that much. Then, the next day I was too sick to go out at all, my husband, who was feeling better by then, went out alone with the tour guide for the day, but it’s my understanding that they skipped all meals.
All in all, there were many aspects of the trip that were memorable for all the right reasons, but also memorable for the above mentioned wrong reasons. For us to have paid as much as we did begs the question, “Was it worth the expense for this private tour experience?” As seasoned world travelers, I’m hard pressed to reply in the affirmative.
Best Part of Trip was Cancelled
Cancel my trip but no refund
DO NOT BOOK WITH NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC - LOST MY TRIP MONEY
They have not refunded any portion of my money. They said the airfare was non-refundable and that I couldn't even have a flight credit. But they are the ones that canceled the trip. However Delta told me that a refund check was sent to the agency. Then they said they would refund the other portion of the trip expense, but it may take 6 months. It is completely unacceptable. The entire 100% of the trip should be refunded and should have been refunded the day they canceled the trip.
The business is not responsive to this. I filed a complaint with the BBB and they did not respond. I sent a 30 day demand letter in preparation of filing in court against them. So far no resolution.
I expect a 100% refund AND I share this story to strongly advise against anyone ever booking a national geographic trip of any kind.
I will be posting this review online in every spot I can find.
Details
Optional Activities
Lake Hövsgöl - Post-Trip Extension, 5 Days
Flight & Transport Inclusions
All internal ground transport
Trip ID#:
monphonat
What's excluded
- Air transportation and related fees (except as indicated in the itinerary)
- Activities noted as optional in the itinerary
- Passport, visa, and permit expenses
- Medical expenses and immunizations
- Baggage, accident, cancellation insurance
- Personal expenses, such as laundry, telephone calls, and alcoholic beverages
- Any other items not specifically noted as included
Meals Included
11 Breakfasts, 10 Lunches and 8 Dinners
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