Hotels in Ulaanbaatar, Before and After the Gobi

Stay in central Ulaanbaatar the night before a Gobi tour. Danista Nomads Tour’s 6-day tour picks you up at your hotel at 9:00, and the 3-day Mini Gobi and Central Mongolia trips collect from the centre between 8:00 and 9:30, so a room near Sukhbaatar Square makes the morning simple. The tour itself, Best 6-Day Gobi Tour: Discover Mongolia, is from $1,250 a person when two adults book (checked November 2026).

The calendar above is the 6-day tour; one adult alone paid US$2,300 on 27 November 2026, 15 January and 26 March 2027.

Where the tours start

• The 6-day South Gobi tour picks you up at your hotel in Ulaanbaatar at 9:00 and drops you back there on day 6.
• The 3-day Mini Gobi and Terelj trip meets between 8:00 and 9:30 at the front gate of the State Department Store or the bus stop in front of Sukhbaatar Square. It does not include an airport pickup; a private transfer costs extra.
• The Central Mongolia trips of CentralMongoliatour .com, the 3-day budget tour and the 2-day Semi Gobi and Kharkhorin tour, pick up one by one in the city centre between 8:00 and 9:30, and not at the airport.

So the centre is the place to be. A hotel near the airport only makes sense for a late arrival or an early flight home: Chinggis Khaan International is about 48 km by road from Sukhbaatar Square.

Before and after

Plan at least one night in the city before the tour, and leave a day spare at the end. The UK government’s travel advice for Mongolia notes reports of fuel shortages, aviation fuel included, which may affect domestic and international flights and road travel (checked November 2026), and the drive back on day 6 of the South Gobi tour is long.

Out in the Gobi the tours sleep in ger hostels and ger camps that come with the price; only MJ Travel LLC’s transport-only Kharkhorin trip leaves the night to you, and Kharkhorin and Elsen Tasarkhai covers that. For the tour itself, see the Mongolia Gobi tour and when to book a Gobi tour.