Frequently asked questions

For winter snow leopard and Pallas's cat expeditions, 4–8 months ahead is ideal — field teams, camps and the best trackers are limited and winter dates fill first. Summer journeys and festivals (Naadam in July, the Eagle Festival in October) are best secured 3–6 months ahead. Shorter notice is often still possible — ask, and we will tell you honestly what can be arranged.

Private. Every Soaring expedition is built around your party — your dates, your pace, your interests. You will never share a vehicle or a guide with strangers. Group-size pricing simply reflects that traveling with friends or family shares the fixed costs.

Send an enquiry or a Tailor Made request and a specialist replies within one business day with a day-by-day itinerary and a firm quote. Once you confirm, we hold your dates and send booking details. Secure online payment is coming to this website soon; until then we confirm everything personally by email.

That is our favorite kind of journey. Use the Tailor Made builder on this site — choose the species or experiences that move you, the places, your dates and style — and we shape it into a private expedition. No two journeys we run are the same.

Our full terms are on the Terms & Conditions page. In short: the earlier you tell us, the more we can return — and where local partners allow it, we always try to convert a cancellation into a postponement instead.

Many of our guests do not. Citizens of most European countries (including Germany, France, the UK, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and others), plus Australia and New Zealand, currently enter visa-free for up to 30 days under an exemption running through the end of 2026. US citizens get 90 days visa-free. If your nationality is not exempt, Mongolia's official e-visa portal handles most tourist visas online in a few days. Rules do change — check with your nearest Mongolian embassy or consul.mn before travel, and tell us your nationality when booking so we can point you to the current requirements.

Per Mongolia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs: 90 days visa-free for the USA, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Paraguay, Colombia, Macau and South Korea (tourism, through end of 2026). 30 days for Japan, Canada, Turkey, Israel, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Laos, Russia, Uzbekistan, the UAE, the Maldives and Uruguay — and, under the temporary exemption valid through 31 December 2026, for most European countries plus Australia and New Zealand. Philippines citizens get 21 days and Hong Kong 14 days. Everyone else can usually apply through the official e-visa system at evisa.mn. Always verify against the official list at consul.mn before you fly, as exemptions are updated periodically.

Fly into Chinggis Khaan International Airport (UBN) at Ulaanbaatar — direct connections include Istanbul, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing and Hong Kong among others. We meet you at arrivals; from there, every internal leg is ours to handle.

Yes — comprehensive travel insurance including medical evacuation is a condition of joining our expeditions. Remote is the point; being properly insured for it is non-negotiable.

By domestic flight from Ulaanbaatar — around 2 hours west instead of two long days of driving. MIAT Mongolian Airlines serves Hovd, Ölgii (Ulgii), Ulaangom and Uliastai, typically several times a week per route, with more frequency in summer; exact days vary by season. We book the flights as part of your expedition and confirm your exact schedule with your itinerary — you never have to deal with the airline yourself.

Domestic tickets with MIAT Mongolian Airlines include one checked bag up to 15 kg plus a 5 kg cabin bag. This is the number to pack toward for any itinerary with an internal flight.

Excess weight can almost always be carried for a small per-kilo fee paid at check-in — currently about USD $1.50 per kilo, though the airline can adjust this. Photographers' tip: airlines weigh checked bags strictly but are gentler about cabin baggage — carry your camera bodies and lenses on board, pack the tripod. Tell us your gear weight in advance and we manage the rest.

Between towns, paved roads are increasingly good; into the mountains and camps, expect honest dirt tracks — that is where our 4×4 Land Cruisers and drivers who have done these valleys for decades earn their keep. Transfer times shown on itineraries are realistic, not optimistic.

In Ulaanbaatar you stay in a well-located 3-star or better hotel (4–5 star upgrades available in the Comfort and Premium styles). In western towns — Hovd, Ölgii, Ulaangom, Uliastai — hotels are simple but clean and warm: private bathrooms, hot water (occasionally with town-supply moods), friendly service. They are one-night stepping stones between the airport and the wild, and we always book the best available.

A traditional ger sleeps two on proper beds, warmed by a stove — waking to snow outside the felt walls with the stove crackling is a memory guests keep forever. Established tourist ger camps have shared Western bathrooms and a restaurant ger. Our private expedition camps in wildlife territory are wilder: expedition toilet tents, washing water brought to your ger, meals from our field kitchen — the price of sleeping closer to snow leopards than any hotel on earth.

Yes — tourist camps have mains or generator power (usually evenings); our expedition camps run inverters and solar for camera batteries, which for photographers are treated as mission-critical. Bring a power strip: one socket becomes four.

Tourist ger camps: yes, shared hot showers. Remote expedition camps: washing water and bowls daily, a camp shower where the itinerary allows, and a proper hotel shower bracketing each field section. Mongolia's dry air is forgiving — this is easier than it sounds.

Expedition cooks travel with us on most journeys, preparing hearty meals from fresh local ingredients — and yes, vegetarian, vegan and other requirements are handled well with notice (one of our TripAdvisor reviews praises the vegan cooking specifically). In the countryside you will also be offered nomad hospitality: dairy, and always tea.

In Ulaanbaatar and provincial towns, yes — Mongolian mobile data is fast and cheap. In the deep field, coverage fades, and many guests call that a feature. Our teams carry satellite communication for safety, so you are never truly out of reach.

It depends on the journey. Wildlife watching is mostly vehicle-based with optional walks — moderate fitness is plenty, and we position you rather than march you. Trekking journeys like Altai Tavan Bogd ask for genuine hill fitness. Winter expeditions demand tolerance for cold more than athleticism. Tell us honestly where you are, and we will design around it.

Genuinely cold — daytime often −10 to −20°C in the mountains, colder at night. This is exactly why the cats are visible and their coats magnificent. We provide expedition-grade guidance on layering, our vehicles and gers are heated, and days are structured so you warm up between sessions. Hundreds of guests have done it and call it the trip of a lifetime.

See our month-by-month guide just below this FAQ — typical daytime and nighttime temperatures for Ulaanbaatar, the western mountains and the Gobi, with what each month feels like on the ground. The one constant: Mongolia is a land of blue sky (250+ sunny days a year) and big daily temperature swings, so layers beat bulk in every season.

Think layers, not one heroic coat: thermal base layers, fleece or down mid-layers, a serious insulated parka, insulated boots rated well below −20°C, expedition mittens plus thin liner gloves for camera work, a balaclava, chemical hand and toe warmers, sunglasses (snow glare is fierce) and sunscreen — winter sun at altitude burns. We send a full checklist with your booking.

Light layers for warm days, a real fleece and windproof shell for cool evenings, rain jacket (July–August bring brief storms), sturdy walking shoes, sun hat, sunscreen, and a warm layer even in July if your route goes high — mountain nights dip near freezing in any month. For Naadam, something you're happy to be photographed in.

Yes — every confirmed booking receives a packing checklist matched to your exact route, season and activities, and your PDF itinerary keeps it all in one document. If in doubt about any single item, ask: we live here.

No honest operator guarantees a wild snow leopard. What we can say: our tracking teams live in these valleys year-round, we run camera-trap lines through the winter, and our sighting record across recent seasons is among the strongest in Mongolia — recent guests have seen multiple different cats on a single expedition. We plan enough field days to give the mountains time to give you their gift.

Snow leopards: October to April, when they follow the ibex down. Pallas's cats: year-round, most photogenic in their winter coats. Wolves, lynx and wolverine: deep winter, against the snow. Birds: May and June migration. Gobi bear: June to September at the desert oases. The Tours by Season page maps every journey to its months.

For wildlife: the longest lens you own (400mm minimum for cats; 500–600mm ideal), a sturdy tripod, and triple the batteries you think you need — cold drains them fast. For landscapes and culture, a standard zoom does beautifully. Choose the photography focus in the Tailor Made builder and we will build hides, blinds and golden-hour positioning into your days.

Absolutely. Our photography journeys are about putting you in front of extraordinary subjects in the right light — guides help with fieldcraft, and patient days benefit every skill level.

A few graceful habits: step over the threshold, not on it; move clockwise inside; receive anything offered — tea, dairy, snuff bottle — with your right hand or both hands, and at least taste it; keep your sleeves rolled down when receiving; avoid turning your back to the altar at the rear. Nobody expects perfection from a guest — warmth and curiosity cover everything else, and your guide quietly coaches you.

Don't touch anyone's head or point your feet at people or the altar; don't whistle inside a ger; don't step on the threshold; never refuse offered food outright (a symbolic taste is enough); and walk clockwise around ovoos — the stone cairns on passes — if you join the custom of circling them. Fire is respected: nothing gets thrown into a stove.

Mongolians are generally relaxed and often delighted — but ask first, always, and your guide will translate. At festivals, photography is expected and welcomed. With eagle hunters and herder families we work with, photography is part of the visit; a shared look at the photo afterward is the best thank-you.

Small, useful gifts are appreciated but never required: good tea, sweets for children, useful items from your country, printed photos if you have visited before. Avoid alcohol as a gift. Buying a family's dairy products or crafts is the most dignified gift of all.

Mongolian — with Kazakh spoken in Bayan-Ölgii. Your guide translates everywhere, English is growing in Ulaanbaatar, and herders are patient, humorous communicators with or without shared words. Learning two words — sain baina uu (hello) and bayarlalaa (thank you) — earns disproportionate smiles.

As a rule: all in-country transport (including domestic flights where the itinerary uses them), accommodation, meals in the field, your guide and expedition team, park and permit fees, and conservation contributions. International flights, visas, travel insurance and personal expenses are not included. Every quote we send lists inclusions explicitly.

Currently by bank transfer, confirmed personally with your booking. Secure online card payment is coming to this website soon. Prices are quoted in US dollars.

Because your expedition is private, fixed costs — vehicles, guides, camps, trackers — are shared across your party. Two travelers pay the published rate; larger parties pay less per person. The price shown on each tour is the rate for a party of two.

Yes, listed on each tour page — it covers sole use of rooms and gers that are otherwise shared.

A share of every expedition funds the Wild Cats Valley corridor we run with the MUR Initiative (nature.mn) — rangers, winter camera-trap lines, and partnerships with the herder families who share their mountains with the cats. The tour page of every journey names the exact conservation site your visit supports.

Directly. Herder families host camps, provide horses, staff tracking teams and earn income from every guest — which is precisely what turns a snow leopard from a livestock threat into a livelihood worth protecting.

We follow strict field protocols: distance kept, no baiting, no calls, hides and optics doing the work. Our conservation partners set the rules and our livelihood depends on these animals thriving — the cats' welfare outranks any photograph.