Nomadic Family Homestay Zavkhan

🚌 Getting There

Transportation from Ulaanbaatar is not included in the homestay price, but it’s straightforward:

• Zavkhan province — you can travel by intercity bus (about 20 hours). A round-trip train ticket costs around $85 USD (350,000 Mongolian tögrög).

Once you book, we’ll send you detailed step-by-step instructions on exactly how to get there.

If you stay at one of our Ulaanbaatar rentals, we will drive you to the bus terminal for free and organize the tickets for you. Even if you are not staying at our rentals, we’ll provide you exact directions and exact words to say to the taxi driver and bus ticket seller, and how to find your bus.

🌊 Optional Add-on: Exploring Zavkhan province: Oasis, Sand Dunes and Rivers and Green Fields in One Spot

If you’re staying in Zavkhan province, you have also the option to visit beautiful oasis in Zavkhan (basically Gobe desert sand dunes are put together with rivers and green field and beuatiful mountains in one place) — an increadible landscape. It makes us think, how creative is Mother nature.  Depending on your host family’s loction you can drive to any of these places 2–5 hours. Visiting those places are organised separately and not included in the homestay price. Ask us and we’ll arrange it for you.

If you stay with Zavkhan nomadic families in August, you can join them for wild berry picking in the forest and mountains.

⏱ How Long Should You Stay?

Minimum stay: 3 nights. But honestly? Five nights or more is where the magic happens. The longer you stay, the more you’ll see, do, and understand about nomadic life. A 3-night visit gives you a taste; a week gives you a real sense of how these families live through the seasons.

🐎 What You’ll Experience

These are working herding families — their horses, cattle, goats and sheep are their livelihood, not a backdrop for tourists. That means the schedule follows the animals, not a tour itinerary. That’s why we can’t give you itineraries by each days. You tell us which activities interest you most, and your host family will do their best to include them.

Daily life you can join in on:

• Sleep in your own ger (yurt) — a circular felt tent that stays surprisingly warm. Every morning you open the roof vent from the outside to let in light and fresh air.
• Traditional nomadic breakfast — think dairy-heavy: dried curd, fresh cream, hand-made bread, and Mongolian milk tea (süütei tsai). No bacon and eggs here.
• Light your own stove — if the weather turns cold or rainy, you’ll learn to start a fire in the cast-iron stove inside your ger.
• Fetch water from the nearest river, carrying it back in two large buckets the traditional way. Consider it a genuine nomadic workout.
• Horseback riding across open steppe — Mongolian horses are small, sturdy, and nothing like riding school horses.
• Help track down wandering horses — horses often roam overnight, sometimes to the mountains or down to the river. If you’re up for it, join your hosts on the morning search.
• Wild berry picking (in August only)

Farm and herding chores (you’re welcome to help):

• Milk cows or goats before sunrise — one of the most memorable parts of the stay.
• Hold the calf during milking — you keep it just close enough to its mother to trigger her milk, but far enough that it can’t drink it. Wear solid shoes — calves are clumsy and will step on your feet.
• Collect dried dung for the stove fuel. Yes, really. It’s odourless when dry and has been used as fuel for centuries.
• Make traditional dairy products — fresh yogurt, homemade cheese, dried curds, and fermented mare’s milk if the season is right.
• Cook Mongolian meals and learn to make süütei tsai (milk tea), the drink that fuels every nomadic household.
• Clean the barn and tend the sheep herd out on the steppe.
• Watch (or help) disassemble the ger — if you stay long enough, you may see the family pack their entire home into two carts in under two hours, ready to move to new pasture. It’s extraordinary to witness.

📋 What Happens After You Book

Once your deposit is paid, we’ll send you a detailed welcome pack covering:

• Exactly how to get to your homestay family, step by step
• What to pack (and what not to bring)
• Cultural do’s and don’ts — small things that matter a lot to your hosts
• Optional gift ideas if you’d like to bring something for the family (completely optional, never expected)
• Answers to the questions every first-time visitor asks

We want you to arrive feeling prepared and confident, not anxious about the unknown.

PS: These are real families, real animals, and a real way of life. You won’t be watching nomadic culture from behind a window — you’ll be living it, at whatever pace feels right for you.