Tsagaannuur

Tsagaannuur is one of most unique tourist destinations in Mongolia. 1050 km northwest of Ulaanbaatar and 280 km northwest of Mörön, it is the most reindeer farming concentrated sub district. This place has the most beautiful nature in Mongolia with lush green vegetation and big mountains with glaciers.

Understand

For thousands of years the reindeer farmers lived in Tsagaannuur. There are few hundreds of reindeer families who called Tsaatan ethnic minority live there. During winter they come closer to populated areas and summer the farmers go deep into mountains to look for better pasture for their cattle. The farmers mostly live in teepees and yurts. Because the area is mostly permafrost land it is cold year around and especially during winter time very cold. As of 2022 the Tsagaannuur has total 27740 cattles accounted for annual statistics report including 8477 goats, 10244 sheep, 6512 yaks and cows, 2509 horses, 18 camels and 2417 reindeers. The ideal tours can be taken place between June through September.

Get in

By car: From Ulaanbaatar city a daily domestic long-distance bus leaves for Mörön which is the provincial capital. The bus travel lasts around for 12 hr. Then from Moron to Tsagaannuur hire private taxi cars which price ranges from 30,000 to 50,000 tugrik. The car ride can take from 8 hr to 25 hr depending on weather. If rainy day occurs then the dirt roads can become very slippery and some mountain rivers get flooded so car riding gets longer.

Combined: From Ulaanbaatar take plane flight (twice per week two airlines organize total 4 flights) to Mörön city which is provincial capital for 1.5 hr of flight (ticket for one way costs 281,000 tugrik and for 2 ways costs 555,000 tugrik as of Jan 2024) and from Mörön city to Tsagaannuur find various private taxi cars which price ranges from 30,000 tugrik to 50,000 tugrik. The car ride can take from 8hrs to 25 hrs depending on weather. Ulaanbaatar to Moron flight is year round. Plane ticket customer service from MIAT airlines is +976 11 333999. Aero Mongolia airlines flight service usually takes between May to September their customer service phone is +976 70103030, email: callcenter@aeromongolia.mn, reservation@aeromongolia.mn, commer@aeromongolia.mn

Local air ticket agents:

Agents speak moderate to advanced English.

• Air trans: Phone: +976-11-313131, +976-11-323232, +976-11-323232, +976-11-333333, +976-11-303030, +976-11-330101, +976-11-331390. Email: info@airtrans.mn

• Air market: Phone: +976-70105050. Email: info@airmarket.mn

• Air link: Phone: +976–18001818, +976–70141818, +976–70131818, +976-11-311818, +976–70121818, +976–70161818, +976–70151818, +976-70101818 . Fax: +976-11-322350. Email: info@airlink.mn

• Mon Air tour: Phone: +976-11-311001, +976-11-311002, +976-11-311193, +976-70141001, +976-70113313. Email: info@monairtour.com

• Air expert: Phone: +976-11-320910, +976-11-310910. Fax: +976-11-330910

• Air express travel: Phone: +976-77114466. Email: info@airexpress.mn facebook.com/AirExpressTravel

Do

Many activities based on reindeers can be organized like reindeer riding, touring around forest and glacier areas, mountaineering, horse riding etc.

Buy

You can buy various handcrafted souvenirs from locals.

Drink

The local drinks are reindeer's milk tea and airag or fermented mare's milk, which is softly alcoholic. They are rich with vitamins and antioxidants.

Sleep

In the Tsagaannuur center some families offer bed and breakfast kind of yurt staying services. And you can bring your own tent and can sleep anywhere in the area.

Stay safe

The area has wolves, bears and wild boars, and sometimes they attack humans. Traveling alone and not prepared is not advisable.

Tsagaannuur can be very cold: you must bring very warm clothes (see Cold weather). During hottest summer times in July, it can be +25°C (+78°F) in the day and many want to wear only short and t-shirt, but after sunset it very quickly gets colder and by 21:00 you will need long underwear and a sweater. The temperature variation is that extreme there.

Go next

Go to Lake Khövsgöl to sail.

Article Geo different to Wikidata
Wikivoyage: Latitude 49.506944, Longitude 89.731389 (Map, Geohack)
Wikidata: Latitude 51.35444, Longitude 99.35333 (Map, Geohack)
Difference: 710.6km