Lake Khövsgöl
Mongolia
A lake with two per cent of the world’s fresh water, larch forest to the shore, reindeer herders in the taiga behind, and no road round it
Photo by Austin Crow on Unsplash
Photos by Sodo Sane, Gandosh Ganbaatar, Sodo Sane and Sodo Sane on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of Mongolia
June to September (the lake freezes solid through the winter, and the ice festival in early spring is the other reason to come)
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 80mm in Jul
Where it is
50.45°N, 100.15°E Open in Google Maps
Things to do
Weeks of it- Ride along the western shore for a day
- Trek to the Tsaatan and their reindeer
- Swim, briefly
- Sleep in a ger on the shore
- Come for the ice festival
Lake Khövsgöl travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget Mongolia
Good valueTögrög, in thousands. Golomt and Khan Bank change dollars and euros at the counter with a passport; the State Department Store has a booth. Cards work in Ulaanbaatar and at the tourist camps and nowhere in between.
ATMs & cards
Khan Bank and Golomt machines are in every town and take foreign cards; in the countryside the machine is in the aimag capital and the ger camp takes cash. Withdraw in Ulaanbaatar before leaving it.
Avoid these
- nothing to avoid; there is simply nothing in the countryside
Use these instead
- Khan Bank
- Golomt Bank
- TDB
Every aimag capital has a machine; between them, nothing. Withdraw in Ulaanbaatar before leaving it.
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of Mongolia
Very safeVery comfortable at the camps. The lake is cold enough to kill in minutes; the taiga trip is real wilderness with river crossings, wolves that avoid you and weather that does not, and needs a guide and a permit. Ticks in early summer.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (4 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa Mongolia visa rules
No visa neededup to 30 days
Thirty days visa-free. The exemption for EU passports was introduced for the tourism push and has been renewed year by year — check it is still in force for the year you travel.
Other passports
No visa neededup to 90 days
e-Visa requiredup to 30 days
Through the government e-visa portal, in a few days.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Health & emergencies all of Mongolia
LimitedRequired to enter
No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Hepatitis A
- Tetanus up to date
- Rabies for the countryside, where the dogs are working animals
- Tick-borne encephalitis for the northern forests in summer
Getting treated
Ulaanbaatar has private clinics used to foreigners; outside it the aimag hospitals are basic and the countryside is hours or days from any of them. Evacuation is a flight out, and the insurance should say so.
Ulaanbaatar’s winter air is among the worst in the world and the coal smoke gets into the chest. Marmots carry plague and are not to be eaten, whatever the herders say. Ger camp dogs bite; call out before approaching. Bottled water everywhere; the sun on the steppe burns.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
GoodFish from the lake — grayling, lenok — at the camps, and mutton everywhere else. The ger camps around Khatgal feed you; the taiga trip is what the guide packs. Bring coffee if you need it.
Getting around
Car needed- UBCabWorks here
- inDriveWorks here
- UberNot here
- BoltNot here
- GrabNot here
UBCab The local app, capital only
- From the airport
- From the new airport to the centre 60,000–90,000 tögrög, or the airport bus for a fraction of that
- Against a taxi
- Any car is a taxi if you hold out a hand, at about 2,000 tögrög a kilometre; the app is the same price without the negotiation.
Nothing works outside the capital, where a driver is hired by the day with the car.
Time zone and your working day
Asia/Ulaanbaatar — 12 hours ahead of you
0 hours of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — — your time, — theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 21:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 21:00–05:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
Internet speedall of Mongolia
Ookla publishes no mobile median for Mongolia, so there is no figure here for what a phone gets.
Why these are Mongolia's numbers and not Lake Khövsgöl's
Home broadband — Fair. Video calls and streaming for one or two people — fine for a holiday, thin for a household working. Broadband here runs at 66% of the global median of 130 Mbps.
Ookla publishes no separate figure for Lake Khövsgöl, so these are medians for all of Mongolia. Cities usually beat the national number and remote islands and national parks fall well below it — treat this as the country's shape, not as a measurement of the street you will be staying on.
A median is the middle of every connection tested there, old copper and new fibre together — so in a country part-way through laying fibre it sits well below what a fibre line actually delivers, and a rental on one can run several times this number. Half of the connections are slower; a fibre flat is rarely one of them. It says what a place can do, not what your rental does, so every listing on Holistay carries its own measured speed and the date it was tested.
Getting online: Airalo or Holafly — a data eSIM for Mongolia, installed before you fly and working the moment you land.
Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured June 2026
Must-see
Nearby day trips
Say a few words
Mongolian
- HelloSain baina uusain bai-NUU
- PleaseGuij bainagwij bai-NA
- Thank youBayarlalaaba-yar-la-LAA
- Yes / NoTiim / Ügüiteem / oo-GWEE
5 more phrases
- Excuse meUuchlaaraiooch-la-RAI
- How much is it?Ene yamar ünetei ve?e-ne ya-MAR oo-ne-TEI ve
- DeliciousAmttaiamt-TAI
- HorseMorimor
- GoodbyeBayartaiba-yar-TAI
Cyrillic script, with the old vertical script coming back on official signs. Little English outside Ulaanbaatar and the tourist camps; Russian helps with the older generation. The sounds are hard and any attempt is met with delight.
Religion
Tibetan Buddhist, with shamanism beside it
About half Buddhist, a large share of no religion after the Soviet decades, and the shamanic customs — the ovoo cairns you walk round clockwise, three times, adding a stone — are followed by everyone. Walk clockwise round the temples too, and do not point your feet at the altar.
Do's and don'ts
Do
- Take what is offered in a ger with the right hand, or both, and at least taste it
- Walk round an ovoo cairn clockwise three times and add a stone
- Call out before approaching a ger, so the dogs are held
- Accept the snuff bottle, sniff it, and hand it back with the right hand
Don't
- Do not step on the threshold of a ger, and do not walk between the two centre poles
- Do not point your feet at the fire or the altar, and do not throw rubbish in the fire
- Do not touch anyone’s hat or head
- Do not whistle inside a ger; it calls the wind
Where to stay in Lake Khövsgöl
No Holistay rentals in Lake Khövsgöl yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Lake Khövsgöl on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Mörön MXV
2hfrom the airport· 100 km as the crow flies
2h by 4x4 to Khatgal on the lake.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
