City guide
48 hours in Ulaanbaatar before the steppe
Published 2 April 2026 · 6 min read
Half the country lives in one city, and most travellers pass through it in a taxi. Here is what to do with the two days at either end of a trip.
Ulaanbaatar holds about half of Mongolia's population, and almost everyone arrives with a flight to recover from and a day to fill. It rewards the attention more than its reputation suggests.
Day one
Gandantegchinlen Monastery in the morning, while the chanting is on. The 26-metre gilded statue of Migjid Janraisig inside was rebuilt in 1996; the original was carted away in 1938. That fact is most of twentieth-century Mongolia in one sentence.
The National Museum is the single best two hours you can spend before going to the countryside — the Bronze Age deer stones and the Mongol Empire rooms will change what you are looking at for the rest of the trip.
Sükhbaatar Square in the late afternoon, then dinner around the State Department Store end of Peace Avenue.
Day two
The Zaisan Memorial for the view over the whole valley — 300 steps, and best an hour before sunset.
The Choijin Lama Temple Museum, a working monastery until 1938 and now marooned among glass towers, is quieter than Gandan and in some ways more affecting.
The Black Market (Naran Tuul) if you want a saddle, a deel, or a felt hat that will be too warm anywhere else. Go with someone, and keep your bag in front of you — it is busy, and busy places attract busy hands.
Practical notes
Traffic is severe between 08:00–10:00 and 17:00–19:00; a 6 km journey can take an hour. Cash is still useful at markets, cards work everywhere else. Air quality in winter is genuinely poor — from November to February, an N95 mask is not an overreaction.
Ask us to build either of these days into the start of your itinerary and we will arrange a guide and a driver for it.
