BootsnAll Travel Community

Hello

I'm going to Mongolia this summer and am trying to figure out if it's possible (and how) to get from Ulaan Baatar to Bayan Olgii by bus, train, or car (and any combination of). The flights are super expensive and booking is tight. Before I make a final decision on flying, I need to investigate this overland option.

If anyone has experience, tips, or advice about making the trip overland (round trip), I would be so so grateful!

You can catch a bus easy from UB to Moren. From there, it becomes a roll
of the dice. If you are going with a group of 4, 6 people, your best option
going west is to hire a Russian jeep and negotiate the price ahead of time.
It is possible to try to catch a petro truck, but you have to have a lot of
time waiting around and your guest house is not going to be as eager as you
in terms of hooking you up with a truck driver. So perhaps waiting by the road
is a better/quicker solution than waiting in the guest house. As for our own
experience, after a week of waiting we finally took things into our own hands
and bought a motorcycle. It became a great adventure after that. People we
met who had gone the truck and/or shared jeep route had mixed experiences.

We flew back to UB. Getting the tickets again involved waiting and getting
physical at the ticket counter.

So, if you have time and are looking for an adventure, go overland, we
had *amazing* experience along the way but it also comes with agony and
frustration; Fly if you are restricted on time.