TESTIMONIALS
My husband and I (both in our 70's) just finished a three week tour with Nomadic Voyages: UB, Karakoram and Hustai National Park, Gobi desert, and Ulgii for the Eagle Festival. Everything they did met or exceeded our expectations, including a wonderful guide (Sarah, ask for her! Great English, very helpful and fun), good drivers (especially Amra for Karakoram and the Gobi), comfortable ger camps (Gobi Nomad Lodge was our favorite) and interesting activities. Our guide understood very quickly what we were interested in and did everything she could to make it happen: many stops while traveling for photography, visits to several nomad families, and flexibility/improvisation when things didn't happen as planned through no fault of Nomadic Voyages (like the Eagle festival being reduced to one day instead of two at the last minute). The hotel in Ulgii was so-so, noisy but clean bedding and with wi-fi, and as I had been told, there is little choice in the town. We are on our last day and could happily spend more time in this beautiful country with amazingly hospitable people. Soylo, the travel agent we worked with to prepare our trip, was very helpful in working with me to figure out the itinerary and dates we wanted. We opted to do it by ourselves (with guide and driver) rather than in a large group, mostly so we could stop whenever we wanted for photographs) and the cost was very reasonable (I compared with other companies). I would absolutely recommend Nomadic Voyages!
Dominique Smith
We have just returned from Mongolia, and I would like to express my thanks to you for the wonderful and unforgettable experience. It is certainly a country that is so beautiful, all of its landscape, history, culture and people.
Simon Loh, from Singapore
Most of all, I would like to thank you for assigning Ms Bulgaa as our guide. She is the best guide I have ever come across, having been a frequent traveler. Although I had filled out the feedback form, it could not fully express how happy we are with Bulgaa. She is very serious about her work, and fully committed to ensuring we are happy with the flexible itinerary. She knows when we needed to rest and how much time we needed for activities. She has good rapport and chemistry with all the drivers, which makes us as tourists at ease, knowing that we were always in good hands. On several occasions, she did not hesitate to defend us against some local people due to over-crowding of events, and we are sorry for that. Along the way, my partner had diarrhea through the trip. She consistently checked on him, and made sure that the kitchen cooked soft meals for him. She also fought for better ger camps with the camp owners so that we are always comfortable. We are sorry for asking her so many questions about Mongolia but it is such a beautiful country that we don't wish to leave without knowing more about it. I am not sure about your company policies, but feel free to share with her this email if it is allowed. We miss her, and wish her all the best in her thesis in her University.
"Three years ago a friend and I had a mid-winter stop-over in Mongolia en route by train from Beijing to St Petersburg. In addition to Ulaan Baator, we stayed at a ger (yurt) camp in Terelji National Park. We were the only guests, and the warmth of the hospitality was the opposite of the temperature (-20 C.) We were as snug as the proverbial bugs in the rug and came away great fans of the ger. The countryside was stunningly beautiful under the snow and cloudless blue skies,and we determined to return sometime to see Mongolia in Spring /early Summer. This time we resolved to handle our own bookings and selected Nomadic Voyages largely on the basis of the itineraries on their web site-we were certainly not disappointed in the service we received or in the itinerary!
D.N. Christie & G. Brook, Australia
We took Nomadic Voyages 17 days tour with front and rear add ones in June 2015. There were a total of 5 of us on the basic tour. Pre trip e-mail queries were answered fully and promptly usually in 1-2 hrs (Australians are not used to this. Our time zones seem to be pretty much the middle of the night for much of the rest of the world. (A former Australian Prime Minister is even reputed to have said while overflying Darwin at 40,000 ft. that the worst thing about Australia is that it "is at the arise end of the world".) The guide and drivers were first class.The guide was knowledgeable and always took the interests (and idiosyncrasies ) of individual members of the group into account. The drivers took obvious pride in their vehicles which were top of the range Land Cruisers, important when much travel outside UB inevitably involves unsealed/off- road excursions. Domestic flights were in modern western turbo-prop aircraft.The ger camps were generally sited in picturesque country, and hospitality and meals is generous to say the least! Even though at this time of year there was no requirement for it, staff would happily light the ger stoves in the evening AND morning.
The itinerary showcased the magnificent Mongolian scenery. Many think of Mongolia as largely steppe and desert but there is much more to it than this, and especially in early summer much of the countryside is still green. The route varied from the fringes of the Gobi, through steppe grasslands, alpine meadows , mountain ranges, and rivers and lakes. In the north there is evergreen forest where the reindeer if not the buffalo roam. We saw the massive nomadic herds of the Mongolian 'big five' ;yaks,camels, horses, goats,and sheep with their herders both on horseback and motorcycles. About 1/3 of the population are still nomadic though UB is growing rapidly. Eagles,falcons and even vultures are reasonably common,though only one wolf was sighted. Monasteries abound,derelict,functioning and as museums. Fossil beds, bone and metal artifacts,replica and original,can be found,and there are outstanding rock painting and carving sites And remember, Chinggis' empire is only the most recent of the four great steppe /cavalry polities which dominated Central Asia and beyond.
