Ulaanbaatar
Mongolia
The coldest capital on earth, half of it gers on the hillsides, a monastery that survived the purges, and the only city in a country of horses
Photos by Bree Evans, Fadhil Abhimantra and Fadhil Abhimantra on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of Mongolia
June to September (winter is minus thirty and the coal smoke; the Naadam festival is in high summer)
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 70mm in Jul
Where it is
47.92°N, 106.92°E Open in Google Maps
Things to do
Several days- Watch the morning chanting at Gandan
- Stand under the Chinggis statue
- Climb Zaisan hill at sunset
- Eat buuz in a canteen
- Be here for Naadam, or leave for the steppe
Ulaanbaatar 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
Reasonably safeComfortable in daylight; pickpocketing on the buses and around the Narantuul market is the complaint, and drunkenness at night in the ger districts. The traffic is the hazard — cross with the crowd. Winter air quality is among the worst in the world.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (6 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
Worth more attention
- the buses and Narantuul market — pickpockets
- the ger districts after dark — unlit and a drinking problem; not a destination
- the roads on foot — cross with the crowd
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
GoodMutton, in every form: buuz (steamed dumplings), khuushuur (fried), tsuivan (noodles). Airag, fermented mare’s milk, at the ger camps. The city has good Korean and a coffee scene now; the State Department Store food hall for supplies before the countryside.
Nightlife
A small, hard-drinking scene: bars around Seoul street and the Blue Sky tower, and a few clubs.
- Seoul street — the bars
- around Sukhbaatar square — the hotel bars and a couple of clubs
Closing: Midnight on weekdays, 02:00 at weekends.
Getting around
Limited- 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 Ulaanbaatar, so there is no figure here for what a phone gets.
What these numbers mean
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 65% of the global median of 130 Mbps.
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 Ulaanbaatar
No Holistay rentals in Ulaanbaatar 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 Ulaanbaatar 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 Chinggis Khaan ULN
1hfrom the airport· 50 km as the crow flies
1h by taxi or the airport bus.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
