AN OVERLAND EXPEDITION DEEP INTO MONGOLIA’S GOBI DESERT
The Gobi is one of the largest deserts in the world, and not all of it is sand, whatever a desert is supposed to look like. It runs from the south-east of Mongolia to the foot of the Altai in the west: gravel plains, dry riverbeds, red cliffs carved by wind alone, canyons on a scale that makes you check the map, and the tallest dunes in the country. You drive it, west across the whole of it, flying into the desert to begin and out of the far west to end. Along the way, nomads who move with the seasons as they always have, camps raised from nothing for one night in the middle of nowhere, and a coterie of twelve, chosen carefully, from different corners of the world, who chose the same road you did.
Mongolia is where Nomadic Road began. The Gobi is the part of it most people never reach.
What This Journey Holds
Max 32°C l Min 0°C
Toyota Land Cruiser 200 or similar
Sand dunes, dirt roads, dry riverbeds and tarmac
EXPEDITION DIFFICULTY
Two kinds of expedition. The terrain, the weather and the altitude decide which.
Tough & Challenging: The country sets the pace and the plan bends to it.
– Long driving days, with journey times the road decides
– Trails that ask something of you
– Weather that can turn, and altitude that slows everything down
– Breakdowns, fixed on the road
– Basic stays, with little around them, and shared facilities at camp
Moderate & Comfortable: The same country, an easier line through it.
– Steadier days, journey times that hold
– More road under the wheels
– Beds with walls and doors
– Amenities within reach
Neither is the soft version. The difference is how much the country is allowed to decide.
MAX GROUP SIZE
Small groups, always. Twelve at most on a Signature expedition, fourteen on a Classic.
– Small enough to move as one convoy
– A camp that fits around one fire
– No one becomes a passenger in their own expedition
– Many join solo. No one finishes that way.
Choose Your Edition
William
Head of Mongolia Operations
Seventeen years in the air with Emirates, then the open road. British-born and Sweden-based, William brought a career in global logistics to Nomadic Road and now leads every Mongolia expedition, winter and summer, from the frozen lakes to the Gobi. Precision on the ground, and a long appetite for the far end of the map.
William
Head of Mongolia Operations
Seventeen years in the air with Emirates, then the open road. British-born and Sweden-based, William brought a career in global logistics to Nomadic Road and now leads every Mongolia expedition, winter and summer, from the frozen lakes to the Gobi. Precision on the ground, and a long appetite for the far end of the map.
Prices are per person, in US dollars, and exclude your international flights. Dates and prices are
set in good faith, and two things beyond our control can move them: a domestic flight schedule
that changes can shift the dates by a day, and a sharp move in fuel prices can change the price. If
either happens after you book, we tell you first, and why.
This ground, your dates, your circle? That’s Privé →
Nothing Discovered Later
The Drive
A Toyota Land Cruiser 200 on gravel, dirt, dry riverbeds and the tallest dunes in Mongolia, with stretches where the route is ours to chart. Close to two thousand kilometres, most of them without a road.
The Landscape
Red cliffs the wind has carved on its own, canyons on a scale that makes you check the map, the longest stretch of dunes in Mongolia, and gravel plains that run to the curve of the earth.
The Nights
Traditional gers where the desert begins. Then, deep in the Gobi, most nights in remote camps we raise ourselves, in places where no hotel has ever existed, exclusively for you. Hotels in the towns, when a shower has never felt better.
The Table
Hot breakfasts at camp, packed lunches in the shade of the car, and dinners the field chef has waiting as the sun goes down behind the dunes.
The Culture
Nomads who move with the seasons as their ancestors did, camel herders whose caravans still cross the sand, and a way of life the desert has not managed to end.
Where You’re Headed
Your Journey, in Movements
70% of every Signature expedition is planned to the hour. What follows is the seventy. The thirty, the road decides.
The Beginning · The Gateway into Mongolia
Ulaanbaatar, the capital of the Land of the Blue Sky, and the gateway to everything that follows. The convoy meets over a welcome dinner, the briefing sets the road ahead, and the next morning a flight carries you over the steppe and sets you down in the desert, an hour on dirt from your first night in a ger.
The Dunes and the Canyons
Where the Gobi begins, and where it is at its strangest. Red cliffs carved by nothing but wind, a canyon on a scale that makes you check the map, and the tallest sand dunes in Mongolia, which sing when the wind moves them. Camps raised for one night, then gone.
The Long West and the Open, Empty Steppe
The remotest days of the crossing, on tracks that are ours to find. The desert gives way to open, empty steppe, brown to green as the route swings north-west, and the Altai rises on the horizon. A town, a hotel, and a shower that has never felt better.
The Lakes and the Altai Mountains
Off the tarmac again along the longest stretch of dunes in Mongolia to Durgun, a lake left behind by a sea that dried up before anyone was counting. A day in the Jargalant mountains with the people who live in them. Then the drive to the foot of the Altai: the farewell to the countryside, and the farewell dinner.
The End · The Flight Back to the Capital
A flight back over everything you drove, and a day in Ulaanbaatar that is yours. It is also a buffer: if the domestic flight moves, it moves without touching your flight home the next morning.
The People Who Travel With You
Head of Mongolia Operations. First into every crossing, and the last one to call it a day.
William
Head of Mongolia Operations
Seventeen years in the air with Emirates, then the open road. British-born and Sweden-based, William brought a career in global logistics to Nomadic Road and now leads every Mongolia expedition, winter and summer, from the frozen lakes to the Gobi. Precision on the ground, and a long appetite for the far end of the map.
Rides with the convoy, camera up. Films what happens, not what’s staged, so it comes home with you.
Filmmaker - Mongolia
Filmmaker
Rides with the convoy, camera up. Films what happens, not what’s staged, so it comes home with you.
Behind the convoy with the tools and the backup vehicles. What breaks on the road gets fixed on the road.
Mechanics - Mongolia
Mechanics
Behind the convoy with the tools and the backup vehicles. What breaks on the road gets fixed on the road.
Wherever the route sleeps in the wild: cooking before you wake, and hot food in the middle of nowhere.
Field chef - Mongolia
Field chef
Wherever the route sleeps in the wild: cooking before you wake, and hot food in the middle of nowhere.
Wherever the route sleeps in the wild: the camp raised before you arrive, beds made, and the fire already lit.
Hospitality crew
Hospitality crew
Wherever the route sleeps in the wild: the camp raised before you arrive, beds made, and the fire already lit.
What to expect
Where you’ll Drive
What you’ll Drive
What you’ll See
Where you’ll Stay
The Gobi’s expansive dunes present a relentless driving challenge. Less than 5% of Gobi Desert is covered in sand dunes.
