Bayan-Olgii Province Travel Guide: 15 Things to Experience in Western Mongolia
The most popular things to do in western Mongolia’s Bayan-Olgii Province. Live with Eagle Hunters, search for snow leopards, climb the Altai Mountains, and more.
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Bayan-Olgii doesn’t get enough recognition as the crown jewel of Mongolia. The westernmost province of Mongolia’s 21 aimags (provinces), bordering China and Russia, has it all.
Let me start with the obvious reason why most people, including myself, usually head here. The Eagle Hunters.
Spending time with them is every bit as wonderful and memorable as you’d expect. Getting to know them, their birds, and be one with nature and the circle of life is a powerful experience. There’s a reason why it makes people’s bucket lists.
This is one of the must-have experiences anyone traveling in Mongolia needs to have.
But that’s not all that this province has to offer. Besides Eagle Hunters, snow leopards are another reason to get here.
Bayan-Olgii is home to a large population of these infamous ghost cats. Living in Altai Tavan Bogd National Park and the surrounding mountains, tracking and spotting these elusive creatures is always a thrilling experience. Just be sure you do it with the right group who has conservation and ethical practices top of mind.
Beyond the stunning landscapes, Bayan-Olgii is different from other provinces because the majority of their inhabitants are ethnically Kazakh. That’s right, 93% of the population in this part of Mongolia are Kazakh, not Mongolian. The remaining populations that make up Bayan-Olgii Province are Uriankhai, Dorvod, Khalkha (Mongolian), Tsengel Tuvans, and Khoshuud.
The main language spoken here is Kazakh, while Mongolian is considered the second language.
That means for anyone who has spent any time in other parts of Mongolia, visiting Bayan-Olgii will be a completely different cultural experience. From the food to the language, the food and the way the locals dress, Bayan-Olgii provice is one of the most unique places to visit in Mongolia for this reason.
Are you planning your trip last minute?
Here are some top experiences to book now:
🛌 Best Places to Stay:
Dostyk Hotel (top hotel in Olgii’s city center)
Bayantsambagarav Hotel (modern and clean hotel close to everything)
👉 Top Things to Do in Bayan-Olgii Province:
7-Day Western Mongolia Adventure Tour (great reviews!)
Altai Tavan Bogd Hiking Tour (adventure tour in this stunning national park)
11-Day Private Eagle Hunter Tour (an intimate look into this ancient culture with homestays)
Golden Eagle Festival Tour 2025 (attend the largest eagle festival the first weekend in October)
15 Things You Have to Experience in Bayan-Olgii Province
Let’s jump into the reasons why everyone should visit Mongolia’s westernmost province.
Live with the Eagle Hunters
It’s no secret that living and spending time with the Eagle Hunters is one of the things most people visit Bayan-Olgii Province to experience.
With the Eagle Hunter Cultural Center making the cover of Time Magazine’s World’s Great Places 2025 issue, and movies like the Eagle Huntress grabbing the attention of cinephiles around the world, it’s no wonder this small population draws big crowds. Now, more than 2,000 tourists flock to western Mongolia the first weekend of every October to watch as around 100 Eagle Hunters compete in the famous Golden Eagle Festival.
Track and Spot Snow Leopards Sustainably
Home to the second largest population of snow leopards in the world, Bayan-Olgii is just the place to get to know these majestic animals. There’s a reason wildlife photographers flock here!
The best time to track and spot snow leopards is in the winter months, when it’s easier to spot their tracks in the snow.
Visit the Potanin Glacier & Friendship Peak
Stretching about 14 kilometers in length, the Potanin Glacier is the largest glacier in Mongolia.
Named after Grigory Potanin, a Russian botanist, ethnographer, and natural historian, the glacier is a highlight of visiting Altai Tavan Bogd National Park. You can visit the glacier year-round, however cars and vans have a hard time getting to the viewpoint parking lot in the snow. This means in the winter months it may take a snowy hike to reach the point where you can see the glacier. We promise it will be worth it.
Just beyond the glacier, look for the famous mountain that stands tall here – Friendship Peak or Nairamdal Peak, which is more commonly called Khuiten (Cold) Peak. The name Friendship Peak is because this is where the borders of Mongolia, Russia, and China all converge. The peak is one of five of Tavan Bogd Mountain, towering at an elevation of 4,082 m (13,392 ft).
In the summer months, technical climbers love the challenge of Khuiten Peak because it’s the highest peak in Mongolia. Climbers need special permits to make this climb and it’s mandatory to have a local guide with you.
Climb the Non-Technical Malchin Peak
For us mere mortals who don’t have the skill to do a technical climb like Khuiten Peak, Malchin Peak is a great alternative. Still, you need to have a local guide with you to make this ascent, but it doesn’t require technical climbing gear.
With an elevation of 4,050 m (13,287 ft), this climb can be challenging because of the weather and lack of trail signs. It requires an insane amount of stamina and determination to reach this peak.
Climbers camp at the base of the mountain each evening, making their way up early in the morning.
Experience the Nomadic Winter Migration
As one of the last nomadic cultures still left in the world, experiencing the winter migration is something you won’t believe still exists.
For those brave enough to do the winter migration themselves, ride on horseback alongside a family as they move their family, all their belongings, and their animals from one camp to the next. Families will travel this way for days, strapping everything they own onto their animals, usually camels or yaks, and traveling sometimes hundreds of kilometers in temperatures as low as -35 C.
Each night of the journey families will unload their belongings off the animals and feed them before setting up a ger (yurt) for the evening. The following morning they’ll pack everything back on the animals and continue again.
Do you think you have what it takes to join this rough and rugged migration? Otherwise, you can follow along by car.
The winter migration usually happens in March and into April, but it depends on the weather.
Embrace Kazakh Culture
With this part of Mongolia being predominantly Kazakh in ethnicity, traditions and cultural exchanges differ from the rest of Mongolia. Two things you’ll notice immediately are that the homes (gers) will look different, with much more decoration. Next, it’s the foods here that will stand out. Because of these differences between Kazakh and Mongolian culture, visiting Bayan-Olgii Province is different from visiting any other province in Mongolia.
Beyond sleeping in a different style of ger, eating different foods, and hearing Kazakh being spoken, it’s also the religion that is different here. The majority of people living in Bayan-Olgii are Muslim, not Buddhist. Women cover their heads for this reason and you won’t see anyone eating pork.
While travelers might notice they aren’t as strict as other Muslim populations, it’s still an important part of everyday life here. You won’t see locals openly pray five times a day, and they do drink alcohol on special occasions, but you will see mosques and also Muslim cemeteries while traveling through Bayan-Olgii Province.
Celebrate Nuaryz Like the Locals
Speaking of celebrating Kazakh culture, Nauryz (or Nowruz) is the biggest and most important holiday celebrated in Bayan-Olgii.
This sacred festival is held in the spring on March 21, marking the beginning of spring. The name Naryz, or Nowruz, literally translates to “new day.”
To start the year, you need a clean house and clean body. You are bringing the year in with a fresh start in all matters of life. Locals dress in colorful attire and gather in central parts of their towns to sing, dance, recite poems, and celebrate this important day. It’s quite the thing to see in person and be a part of!
There are even sporting events, including horse races, wrestling, and other traditional Kazakh games. A special soup of meat broth, boiled meat, and milk is even served.
Hike to the Baga Turgen Waterfall
Located in Tsengel Soum, the beautiful Baga Turgen waterfall is located in the the Turgen Uul Valley of the Altai mountain range.
The hike to the waterfall is fairly easy. But it is important to keep in mind you’re at an elevation, which by now you’ve hopefully acclimated a bit to. Following the trail through the valley back to the waterfall is easy and there are plenty of places to stop and take in the views along the way.
Be sure to also scan your surroundings as you go, red deer, ibex, snow leopard, lynx, and wolf call this area home. Additionally, you can forage rare plants such as golden sage and Altai onion all along the way.
Once you reach the waterfall, you can climb down the boulders to pay your respects to the glacier water that feeds this incredible wonder.
Learn Archery from the Uriankhai People
These Altai people are a small but proud population of less than 25,000 peole who call western Mongolia home. They speak a different dialect of the Mongolian language and they are well known for being fierce archers. Learning archery with a local Uriankhai family is one of the coolest cultural experiences you can have in Bayan-Olgii.
Photograph the Balbal Stones
There are a lot of mysteries surrounding the Balbal stones you come across when traveling through western Mongolia. Why are some of them headless? And what is the circle of stones around them?
These burial stones were carved to honor the dead, usually a general or some other important leader. They are considered to be Turkic statues, and are also described as “obelisks” or “stelae,” and they date back to 6th century.
They typically stand 70 cm to three meters tall, and many of the figures can be see holding a chalice, dagger, or a sword. What’s also interesting is that they are all dressed in traditional deels.
While they are memorials, their function isn’t completely understood. Are they protectors, preservers, and the watchers of the land? Perhaps.
When invaders made their way through these lands, many of the Balbal were decapitated.
However, many remain fully intact today.
Analyze Mongolia’s Best-Kept Petroglyphs
Some of Mongolia’s most famous petroglyphs can be found in Bayan-Olgii Province.
Dating back to as early as 11,000 – 6,000 BC, when hunters and large game ruled these lands, these rock carvings are something to see.
On them, you can see images of snow leopards, crowned hunters leading a team of archers, deer, and even the first signs of domesticated dogs.
Three of the most famous petroglyph sites in Bayan-Olgii Province are:
- Tsagaan Salaa-Baga Oigor in Ulaankhus soum
- Upper Tsagaan Gol (Shiveet Khairkhan) in Tsengel Soum
- Aral Tolgoi in Tsengel Soum
UNESCO recognizes the Petroglyphic Complexes of the Mongolian Altai to be “the most complete and best preserved visual record of human prehistory and early history of a region at the intersection of Central and North Asia.”
3-Day Trek with Camels through Altai Tavan Bogd National Park (Longer Malchin Peak Experience)
Hikers, trekkers, and adventure travelers will all enjoy the 15 km camel-assisted trek to the Tavan Bogd Massif.
To begin this trek, enter Altai Tavan Bogd National Park and specifically the Tsagaan Gol Valley. This is approximately an eight hour drive from Olgii Airport, where you’ll fly into from Ulaanbaatar. Once you reach the ranger’s station, and the entrance to the valley, you set up camp here for the night.
From here, with the help of a local guide, you’ll start the trek the following morning.
To do this trek, you’ll first load up the camels with all the gear you’ll need. Then, you begin the 16 km, roughly five hour trek to the Malchin Peak Base Camp.
After spending the night at base camp, you’ll summit Malchin Peak the following day. The terrain is stiff, rocky, and slippery – so this is no easy task!
Following your big summiting day, you’ll spend another night at the Malchin Peak Base Camp. Now that you’ve successfully summited the peak, you’ll head back through the Tsagaan Gol Valley the next day. This time, from the other side of the mountain, you’ll come across the famous milk-colored river the valley is named after.
From here, you can conclude your trek or continue on. You can easily add three more days that would look like this:
- Day 4: Hike To Shiveet Khairkhan and Khar Salaa Valley
- Day 5: Altai Mountains (3,300 m) Crossing into Bear Valley
- Day 6: Trek to Baga Turgen Waterfall and End
Be aware of altitutude sickness on this journey, while all of the campsites are below 3,000 meters, there are two points during this trek where you’ll climb above 3,000 meters. Malchin Peak towers at 4,050 meters and one of the mountain passes is around 3,500 meters.
You want to hire a local guide to do this for a few reasons. First, they’ll be able to make all the onground arrangements, including coordinating the driver for your departure and return. Second, they’ll have high-quality mountaineering tents and sleeping pads so you don’t have to bring those with you. Three, camels and directions! Without their expert guidance, this trek is hard to manage on your own. Four, if you want to summit Malchin Peak, you’re required to have a local guide anyways. So, go ahead and book a guide and give back to the community by employing the people who live here.
Reach out to me if you want to experience this 3 or 6-day trek through the Altai Mountains →
Fish and Relax at Tolbo Lake
Located 50 kilometers south of Olgii city, Tolbo Lake is a freshwater lake located at 2,080 meters (6,820 ft) above sea level.
Every summer, Tolbo Lake becomes a popular destination for locals and tourists. The water is the warmest in mid-July when the turquoise waters meet the green grasslands for an ideal place to spend a few days.
Bring a fishing rod when you visit, the lake is famous for the abundance of grayling that can be caught here.
Explore Olgii, the Captial City of Bayan-Olgii Province
As the capital of the province, Olgii is the gateway to western Mongolia. There’s a small airport here where several flights arrive weekly from Ulaanbaatar on MIAT or Hunnu Air.
Olgii has about 30,000 inhabitants and it’s a great starting point for any adventure on this side of the country. There are plenty of hotels, grocery stores, banks, restaurants, there’s a large market, and even a few museums.
When I’m in Olgii, my hotel of choice is the Dostyk Hotel. From here you can easily walk to the Museum of Bayan-Olgii Province, the Tirlik Market, and my favorite restaurant – Pamukkale Restaurant. The Jadra Coffee Shop, just on the other side of the square, is another local favorite. It’s a great place to sit for a few hours when you need Wi-Fi or to download and edit photos.
The Olgii Viewpoint is worth checking out on a clear day for sweeping views of the city and the Khovd River.
Most ger camps around Olgii are closed in the winter and only open for the summer season. That means the best time to visit Olgii is June through September.
Author: Breanna Wilson
Hi! Sain uu! I’m Breanna, an American travel writer and adventurer living in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia for more than 5 years. I’ve written for and been featured in Condé Nast Traveler, CNN, Forbes, and the New York Times, among others. Read more of my Mongolia travel articles here.
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