Dream Trips: Horseback Riding on the Mongolian Steppe

Welcome back to the series of posts where I talk about some of my dream trips in the hopes of learning more about them and deciding if they are feasible or not. My past posts were about journeying on the old path of the Japanese Tokaido road and visiting the remote island of Socotra. Something that I’ve also always wanted to do is go horseback riding in Mongolia. Of course the image of Mongolian warriors comes to mind, but I have seen that tours on horses are fairly common for visitors to Mongolia and an important part of their tourist industry.

There are a ton of interesting locations and landscapes in Mongolia to visit for horseback riding. When you think of Mongolia, the first type of landscape that comes to mind are the endless rolling grassy hills of the steppe. Mongolia also has the Gobi desert, more arid grasslands as well as forests (though these are few and far between). Looking into popular areas further, the Orkhon valley jumped out at me. It features the classic hills that come to mind when one thinks of Mongolia, but it is even more strikingly beautiful with large hills that are more jagged and look more like mountains as well as many ponds and waterfalls. The Orkhon Valley National Landscape is a UNESCO world heritage site, another testament to the uniqueness of this area. Another reason that I am interested in visiting the Orkhon valley is because it is located just 360 miles southwest of Ulaanbaatar, the capital city. This makes the journey there much easier than other places located further across the vast expanses of Mongolia. Something I hadn’t realized until just now looking more closely into the Orkhon valley is that Karakorum is located there. This was the capital of the Mongol empire. Other interesting sites include monasteries and the Orkhon waterfall.

Thanks to the Orkhon valley’s status as a national park, there are many guesthouses and Airbnbs located there. As I’m sure you’re aware Airbnb’s can be hit or miss when it comes to pricing, but I found one in the area that costs $750 for a month long stay with the option of paying an extra $250 for a four day guided ride on horseback to a waterfall and $500 for a different weeklong trip. This may seem expensive but I really don’t think it’s too bad for a month-long stay and a week and a half of guided horseback riding. I’m sure costs can be brought down significantly by staying at a cheaper guesthouse and arranging horseback rides directly with locals. For the purpose of this post, and my own knowledge, this seems like an approachable cost for a trip to Mongolia and less than I would have expected.

Mongolians love to eat a ton of meat and milk including horses, which I respect but am a little apprehensive about. One thing I definitely want to try if I go is airag, which is a fermented horse milk drink that is slightly alcoholic.

Since the prices for this trip would not be as insanely expensive as I thought, maybe I will try to make a Mongolian adventure happen soon, so look out for posts about it in a year or so.