I want to go to one of the Eagle Festivals in Mongolia in September/October of 2024. Looking for a tour company that does small group tours (I am traveling alone). Cost is not as important as the quality of the tour and the accommodations so looking for reputable company that provides "luxury tours". If you have any recommendations, please let me know. Thank you.
We visited Mongolia this summer and I did a lot of research into "luxury" travel. We decided not to do the Eagle festival or Naadam festival and wanted a visit with less crowds. I don't have personal first hand experience with these tour operators but my research found the following US based tour operators who were responsive to my inquiries and had good websites: Nomadic Expeditions (reputedly the founder of tourism in Mongolia and started the Eagle Festival), Geographic Expeditions, and Wilderness Travel. National Geographic also has tours to Mongolia.
We ended up using Nomadic Journeys, based in Ulaanbaatar, which also has tours to the Altai Eagle Festival which was excellent and can arrange for luxury accommodations, and which we found to be cheaper than the US based operators. In our travels we met Mongolian based guides and their visitor clients from Mongolian Luxury Travels and Amicus Travels (while stranded at the airport due to cancelled flights) and the guides seemed to be competent and their clients satisfied with their tours. Google searches can be informative but there isn't a lot of information available about luxury travel in Mongolia because the tourism industry appears to cater to the travel who wants to trek, diy road trips, and camp/backpack. See this interesting recent article: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/13/travel/mongolia-millennials-road-trip.html.
We wanted a private guide and driver and best available accommodations with ensuite bathrooms. Since the tourism infrastructure is still developing, travel in Mongolia is a challenge, but its a wonderful country and the people are friendly.
Last week I visited the Eagle Festival with Selena Travel. It was a small group tour with only 3 people. This is my review.
We stayed in a tourist Ger camp. If you want a more luxury experience, I suggest you contact them to see if there is an option to stay in a hotel instead. I would advise that you do stay at least one night in a ger for the experience. I found Selena Travel to be very responsive to my enquires and customised the tour for my needs.
thank you for your response. Very helpful
Hi! Was there a specific guide/driver from Nomadic Journeys who you would recommend? Thank you.
@Ladybug789, I didn't reply earlier in the hope that you would get answers from the more experienced travellers. My wife and I are leaving in a few days on a 18-day private tour to Western Mongolia. This is a wildlife-focus tour and we hope to see snow leopard, Pallas' cat and the golden eagle hunters. We do not know Nomadic Journeys and are going with Ayan Travel, a local company based in Ulaanbaatar. While we cannot tell you how good it is until after the trip, our experience with Ayan in the booking stage has been good. They have responded well to our questions with answers that were thorough and helpful. You can also find reviews on Ayan in TA.
Good luck with your search!
Thanks!
