Mongolia winter holiday

Planet

As a company focused solely on Mongolia, we’ve witnessed firsthand the accelerating impact of the climate emergency on this vast and fragile land. Rainfall patterns have become increasingly erratic, annual precipitation is declining, and the country now faces more frequent extreme weather events, rising desertification, and biodiversity loss. Mongolia’s average temperature is rising at nearly three times the global rate.

As a profit-making business grounded in the values of a social travel enterprise, we’re committed to operating responsibly—ensuring our work benefits local people, projects, and communities just as much as it benefits our guests and our business. Our immersive tours prioritise women’s empowerment, inclusivity, and community engagement, aiming to create lasting, positive social impact while keeping our environmental footprint as light and considered as possible.

We build long-term partnerships with local families and grassroots initiatives that support enterprise and resilience. And we remain flexible in that support—continuing to work with our partners even as their personal circumstances change—because deep, ongoing relationships are at the heart of everything we do.

That said, responsible and sustainable travel come with many labels—often used more as marketing tools than meaningful practice. We’re a very small business with limited financial resources, which affects both what we’re able to do and the pace at which we do it. But this is our home, not just a place we operate tours in. That means our commitment goes far beyond collecting rubbish, asking before taking a photo, or being aware of local customs. Those are the basics. That’s simply what respectful travel should look like.

Below are some of the elements of our responsible travel philosophy for this specific experience—areas where we can show tangible evidence of our values in action:

Carbon Reduction: Domestic Flights | Local Transport | Electric Vehicles | Human Powered Transport

It’s well documented that the tourism industry is a significant contributor to global carbon emissions, which are a major driver of the climate emergency. That's why we are a signatory of the Glasgow Declaration (a commitment to take action to halve tourism’s emissions by 2030 including our own, and to report on progress made each year) as well as a member of Tourism Declares A Climate Emergency – a collective of travel organisations that have declared a climate emergency and are and taking purposeful action to reduce their carbon emissions and coming together to find solutions and to help build a new, regenerative tourism.
As a tourism business – particularly one working exclusively in Mongolia, a country the size of Western Europe with a limited road network – and one where the majority of our guests must fly to reach us, we have a moral responsibility to ensure that the way we operate is as responsible as possible. It’s a long road with no simple answers, but below are the achievable steps we’re taking to reduce our carbon emissions.

We are not a global or multi-destination operator. We focus solely on the country we know, live in, and love – Mongolia. We research, design, and run every experience ourselves and do not outsource our itineraries from other agents. Because of our local knowledge and deep-rooted connections, we’re able to craft experiences that move away from ticking off the ‘highlights’ and instead focus on reducing our overall impact while giving meaningful support back to the local community – a community we’re part of.

The Trans-Siberian Railway – once used by many of our guests to access Mongolia – has been impacted by the war in Ukraine. While Mongolia’s national train network is limited, we use it wherever possible and integrate domestic train routes into our itineraries. Currently, electric tour vehicles are not available in Mongolia, and charging infrastructure doesn’t exist beyond the capital. However, their future use forms part of our long-term sustainability goals, should they become viable. In the meantime, our current tour experiences provide long-term employment for our team of female Mongolian guides and male Mongolian drivers, and support our community partners.

We are continually looking for ways to reduce our overall impact. As a very small team with limited time and financial resources, we’re taking a gradual, realistic approach. With the support of postgraduate students from the Responsible Tourism Management MSc at Leeds Beckett University in the UK – the only UNWTO-certified course of its kind – we’ve developed both an Environmental Management Plan and a Climate Action Plan.

We’re now working with responsible tourism consultant Léa Jacquot Benson to identify the most practical and effective way for us, as a small company, to measure the carbon footprint of each tour we operate. This includes the emissions generated by our tour vehicles – one of the reasons we also design experiences that incorporate cycling, horse trekking, and hiking. We're currently in the process of assessing the carbon impact of each journey we offer, with the aim of publishing annual updates through our Climate Action Plan.


While many travellers are put off by the idea of long, bumpy road journeys, a majority of our experiences do not include domestic flights – even though this decision limits our income in the long run. Our experiences are designed around overland travel rather than air travel, as part of our commitment to more sustainable tourism. In the few cases where a domestic flight is included in the itinerary, we offer the option of travelling by public bus instead – and we cover the cost – to encourage this lower-impact alternative.

The number of international airlines flying to Mongolia is limited. However, we use Atmosfair to track and highlight the emissions of those listed that do fly in, and we share this information with our guests as part of their pre-departure guidelines.


Carbon Reduction: Meals On Tour | Locally Sourced Food | Vegetarian & Vegan Food

The majority of meals on our trips are prepared by our own local team using a compact mobile kitchen that travels with us in the back of the tour vehicle. We choose to prepare our own meals because of the flexibility it gives us. It allows us to carefully select the ingredients we use – prioritising seasonal, locally sourced produce to reduce food miles – and it also helps us to minimise both food waste and packaging waste.

Mongolia has a strong nomadic heritage, with a traditional diet based around meat and dairy, reflecting a herding lifestyle closely tied to livestock. By preparing our own meals, we’re able to offer vegetarian and vegan options – something that’s become more feasible in recent years, even in remote areas. That said, the isolated nature of many of the locations we visit means there are still natural limitations. For those who choose to try traditional Mongolian dishes, any meat we use is always locally sourced.

Environment & Wildlife: Reducing Impacts On Nature

We offer a limited number of departures for each of our itineraries. Unlike many operators who focus on one or two high-profit routes, we don’t concentrate our trips in a single area. Mongolia is home to incredibly diverse, yet fragile ecosystems, and by limiting our presence in certain regions and at specific times of year, we help reduce tourism pressure and protect these landscapes from long-term environmental change.

When you book with us, you’re also directly supporting our annual two-day community rubbish collection event in one of Mongolia’s national parks. Organised in partnership with local communities and protected area rangers, we’ve been running this initiative every year since 2014—even during the pandemic, despite a complete loss of income. Mongolia’s national parks operate on limited budgets, and with rising numbers of domestic and international visitors, small teams of rangers struggle to manage the growing environmental impact. While environmental awareness is slowly increasing, more support is still needed. Our clean-up event is not just about collecting rubbish; it’s about raising awareness and giving back to the communities and landscapes we work within.

Our founder, originally from the UK—one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world—has also established a grassroots wildlife group in her hometown. The group works to bring people together to protect local wildlife and its habitats. In Mongolia, we also launched an urban wildlife club for children in Ulaanbaatar. After completing two successful projects, we’re now pausing to find the most suitable community location to continue the club’s activities.

Unlike many larger tour companies, where “small group travel” can mean groups of 12 to 18 people, we genuinely keep our group sizes small. For this trip, the maximum group size is six. This allows for more personal and meaningful experiences for you, and ensures that we remain a respectful presence—both to the local families who host us and to the environments we visit.

Environment & Wildlife : Entry Fees To Parks/Protected Areas | Environmental/Wildlife NGOs

Every multi-day experience we offer includes visits to at least two or three of Mongolia’s protected national parks or nature reserves, with paid entry fees contributing directly to their upkeep.

Our team of trip assistants receives seasonal training—when available—from one of the wildlife NGOs we collaborate with. This helps ensure that our presence has minimal impact on the natural environment and the wildlife our guests come to see.

For our specialised conservation or wildlife-focused experiences, we work in collaboration with expert Mongolian nature guides—either employed by NGOs and wildlife projects or with backgrounds and qualifications in environmental protection. This means that knowledge is central to every experience: not only knowledge of the wildlife and their habitats, but also an understanding of the potential impacts our visits might have. Wherever possible, we aim to support smaller, underfunded NGOs whose work often receives less visibility and backing.

People

Local Economy: Locally Owned Accommodation

A high percentage of the accommodation we use is ger accommodation provided by local families—simple, low-impact homestays. We currently partner with 28 families in 12 of Mongolia’s 21 provinces. Naturally, the small scale of these stays helps to limit the overall environmental footprint. However, with increasing visitor numbers, and given Mongolia’s vast size and limited infrastructure, the country is facing mounting waste management challenges. This is one of the driving forces behind our Sustainable Tourism Strategy, which outlines 11 key focus areas we’re committed to continually improving.

For example, Mongolia is already under pressure when it comes to freshwater resources—a challenge made more urgent by tourism. In response, we’re actively working to reduce our own impact on Mongolia’s water supply. One practical step we’ve taken is eliminating bottled drinking water from our tours. Outside of Ulaanbaatar, there’s little to no recycling infrastructure, making single-use plastic bottles an unsustainable option. Instead, we provide fresh drinking water from local supply points known as water stations, carried in two 20-litre containers in each tour vehicle. Each vehicle is also equipped with either a Lifesaver carbon filter or an Adventurer Steripen.

To further reduce reliance on single-use plastics, we’ve partnered with Water-To-Go, offering our UK-based and international guests a 15% discount on reusable filtered bottles—an option that supports both sustainable travel and long-term change.

In terms of accommodation, we avoid the standard tourist ger camps that often include flush toilets and private showers—facilities that place significant strain on local water and waste systems. Instead, we use local town shower houses, which are a longstanding part of rural Mongolian life. While this may not appeal to every traveller—and may impact our income—it’s one way we actively reduce our footprint.

Rubbish disposal, particularly plastic waste, is a growing issue in Mongolia. As part of our Sustainable Tourism Strategy, we’re working to reduce our general use of plastic. To support this, we created our Mini Plastic-Free Mongolia Challenge, which we invite both our team and guests to take part in.

Another major challenge is the lack of toilet facilities, especially in rural areas. This leads both domestic and international travellers to use the open countryside, often without proper waste disposal. One of our long-term goals is to help finance compostable toilets for our partner families. In the meantime, we recognise the importance of education and awareness. That’s why we train our team of trip assistants to be confident and proactive in delivering what we call "the toilet talk"—an essential part of our responsible travel approach.

Local Economy: Creating Local Economic Opportunities

While we sometimes visit areas with concentrated tourism, we also offer itineraries that venture into less-visited regions, often overlooked by other tour companies and guidebooks. By diversifying our focus, we help support communities that might not otherwise benefit from the tourism industry.
Our experiences emphasize Mongolian culture and aim to create local benefits for the people and communities we partner with. These long-term partnerships help supplement incomes, prevent urban migration, address the challenges of climate change, and sustain the traditional herding lifestyle.

A key part of our philosophy is promoting low-season tourism in Mongolia such as with this specific tour experince. Alongside mining and agriculture, tourism is a primary income source for the country. With a peak tourist season of just three months, many Mongolians struggle to make ends meet, especially during the costly winter months when families need to purchase warm clothing, food, and coal. By encouraging low-season tourism, we help create economic stability within the Mongolian tourism sector.

We also form long-term partnerships with local projects in Mongolia, currently partnering with 6 community based proitects in Mongolia’s rural provinces and four projects in Ulaanbaatar, its capital city . These grassroots initiatives provide significant opportunities and benefits for local communities. For instance, our complimentary ‘Intro To Ulaanbaatar’ tour of Mongolia's capital, includes a visit to the Uuliin Nuur community project, which we have supported since 2016. We donate per guest, contributing to the maintenance of their community center. Another example is our collaboration with the Mongolian Quilting Centre, which creates fabric tote bags for our guests. These bags serve as welcome souvenirs and support disadvantaged Mongolian women involved in the project.

Employment, Inclusivity and Diversity: Creating Opportunities

We’re a Mongolian-registered business, and our entire team lives and works in Mongolia. Approximately 17% of our team is from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia’s capital. Around 45% are originally from one of the country’s 21 provinces but now live in the city, while 38% continue to live in provincial areas.

Our office-based management team and all of our guides are Mongolian women. Over 60% of our overall team is female—and of those, 93% are mothers, with 53% being single mothers.

Rather than recruiting the ‘top’ guides already working the tourism circuit—those who often have guaranteed work with other companies—we focus on creating opportunities for women who are typically overlooked in the industry. We offer free, long-term training and development to Mongolian women who want to work in tourism—whether for professional reasons, personal growth, or economic empowerment—but who are often deemed unsuitable by other operators.

Our female trip assistants are dynamic, motivated women who are simply seeking a chance. We provide that chance—along with support, mentoring, and long-term employment. These women are breaking down barriers in tourism, helping to open the door for other Mongolian women from diverse backgrounds to enter the industry and thrive. Although Mongolia's economy is growing, it hasn’t translated into equal employment opportunities for women. By choosing to travel with us, you’re directly supporting the development of meaningful careers for our brilliant female guides.

In recognition of this work, we were proud to be awarded the Gender Equality Champion award in 2024 by Equality in Tourism International.

Our support doesn't stop with our female team members. Most tour drivers in Mongolia are male, and older men in particular face high rates of unemployment alongside the pressures of entrenched gender roles. We provide long-term work to older, more traditional male drivers—men with a lifetime of experience and knowledge, who might otherwise struggle to find employment and support their extended families. All of our drivers own their own vehicles, giving them greater flexibility during the off-season.

Although we’re a small company, we’re immensely proud of the strength of our team culture. Many of our team members have been with us for over a decade, and our intergenerational team and long-standing community partnerships reflect a vibrant cross-section of modern Mongolia—blending tradition, change, and a shared sense of purpose.