Terelj National Park Day Trip

Gorkhi Terelj National Park is an excellent place if you’re looking for a day trip from Ulaanbaatar.You can take the local bus here or book a tour through your hotel, but the best option in my opinion is through taxi ($50 round trip) and I’ll explain why.

The local bus and most tour groups will not stop at the Genghis Khan Statue Complex, which is a must see in Mongolia. Not only do you get to see this enormous 40 meter statue, but there is also a museum inside. Here, you can try on traditional Mongolian clothing.

If you ask, most taxi drivers will take you to both the national park and museum, which seems like a logical choice since tours cost the same and only take you to the park. If you go to the park with just one other person, you already split the cost in half for a day trip ($25).

Terelj National Park

The drive to the park is about an hour and a half. The latter end of the journey is incredibly scenic!

This park has many rock formations with Turtle Rock being the most notable.

There is also a Buddhist monastery in the park, which offers an incredible view of the park once you reach the peak.

After an hour or so at the monastery, we left to grab lunch. My friend Marvin and I gave our taxi driver the honor of ordering for us. When we returned from washing our hands, we saw huge pieces of horse and sheep on the table, which wasn’t exactly appetizing. It wasn’t the meat that was bad, it just lacked flavor. It seems as if Mongolians just sprinkle a little salt on their meat and cook it.

We tried our best to finish the meat out of respect for the culture. I managed to finish most of the horse meat, while Marvin tackled the sheep. We went out for a walk after, which was needed to walk all of that off. Luckily, the weather was perfect that day. Mongolia is nicknamed “Land of the Blue Sky” and it lives up to its name.

Our last stop for the day was the Genghis Khan Statue Complex. To my surprise, this complex is quite new (2008). On a sunny day, the sun bounces off the statue giving it a tremendous glow.

Inside the complex was interesting and pretty fascinating if you like history. The real treat was the giant Genghis Khan statue you can access by climbing up a few flight of stairs. This thing is massive!

Before heading back home, Marvin and I decided to try on some traditional Mongolian clothing. It’s amazing how soldiers were able to travel for long distance with all this armor on, it felt like it was about 20 pounds of extra weight!