• Join our July 6th departure for the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to participate in Mongolia’s Nadaam Festival celebrations. Enjoy parades, the opening ceremony, wrestling, horse riding, and archery over the course of a culturally illuminating day
• On all other departures, you’ll attend a “mini Nadaam Festival,” a Vantage-exclusive cultural performance by local children celebrating Mongolia’s traditional sports, music, and dance

Life in the desert was typically centered on survival — but on this adventure, you’ll simply enjoy the ride. A camel ride, that is! Here are a few other ways you’ll stay active on this sojourn across Mongolia:

• Stay in a traditional ger, just steps from the rugged desert landscape
• Ride across magnificent dunes on a two-humped Bactrian camel
• Enjoy some light trekking around Gobi National Park

• Peer back at 600 years of Korean culture at Bukchon Hanok Village in Seoul, which dates to the Joseon dynasty. Bukchon lies between two royal enclaves and is a colorful network of alleys, teahouses, crafts shops, and typical, low-slung wooden hanok houses with curved tiled rooftops. It was not built to be a tourist attraction, but is a genuine neighborhood whose residents have, over the years, successfully resisted various urban renewal projects to preserve this picturesque piece of traditional Korean culture.
• Get acquainted with an ancient but still vibrant way of life when you visit a camp outside Ulaanbaatar for a Mongol nomadic show. You will see how a typical Mongol family lives in a ger (wood and felt tent) dwelling, raising livestock such as oxen, yak, horses, goats, amd sheep. Your visit features a demonstration of traditional horsemanship, livestock management, domestic crafts, and distilling; it also includes a traditional Mongolian lunch.
• Admire a superb collection of paintings, carvings, sculptures, and thangka scrolls at the Zanabazar Museum of Fine Arts in Ulaanbaatar. This acclaimed museum, which is named after a 17th-century master of Mongolian religious art, boasts 12 galleries featuring more than 300 exhibits, spanning ancient and modern art forms. It is considered the best collection of its kind in Mongolia, and most of the exhibit captions in the museum are in English.

• See the “Flaming Cliffs” of Bayanzag, a sparsely beautiful region of sandstone cliffs where the American paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews made the world’s first discovery of dinosaur eggs in 1923. The area has yielded many other important fossil finds, including remains of dinosaurs like the Velociraptor and Protoceratops
• Seek out unique Gobi Desert wildlife, like Mongolian wild ass, Bactrian camels, the rabbit-like pika, and Siberian ibex; and the incredible raptors such as golden eagles, lammergeier (bearded vultures), and saker falcons

Be mesmerized by the costumes, dances, and hypnotic harmonies of Mongolian throat singers during a spectacular Farewell Dinner and show. You will never forget the remarkable vocal feats of the Tumen Ekh Ensemble’s singers, who perform an ancient style of overtone singing, which is variously called Tuvan throat singing or Khoomei. It is a technique that enables an individual singer to produce a single fundamental pitch, and simultaneously emit one or more tones over that. The technique was inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2009.

You’ve traveled across the globe to get here, so it’s essential to preserve your memories of the journey as authentically as possible. Here are a few tips to help you along the way:

• Make the most of the “golden hour,” the time frame before dawn and dusk that offers warm, camera-friendly lighting that’s flattering for everyone
• Embrace street photography. Yes, nature is beautiful, but so is this region’s culture and people. Photographing everyday life here is one of the best ways to authentically memorialize your experiences
• Change your perspective. Try shooting from a different angle and enjoy the adventure. For example, climb a stairwell and shoot a landscape from up high or, alternately, get low and shoot a scene from the ground. Wherever you are, embrace this artistic challenge by getting out of your comfort zone!/li>
• If you embark on our July 6 departure, ready your camera lense in the celebration of Mongolia’s Naadam Festival. Naadam, which literally means “games”, refers to Mongolia’s traditional wrestling, horse racing, and archery. In reality, however, Naadam is a nationwide celebration of the country’s history, culture, and independence. Snap photos to keep for a lifetime as it quickly becomes clear why UNESCO included this festival on its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity

Both South Korea and Mongolia have rich religious histories (though religion was outlawed for much of the 20th century), and you can see it firsthand on this adventure.

Here is one of the experiences you’ll have:

• Visit Gandan Monastery, where 600 monks maintain long-standing Buddhist traditions in Mongolia

• See the pretty woodlands, gardens, gates, and pavilions of the UNESCO-listed Changdeokgung Palace Complex, a 600-year old royal residence that is one of Korea’s “Five Grand Palaces”
• Visit the Korean DMZ (demilitarized zone) and learn how the Korean War led to the separation of North and South Korea
• Visit Sukhbaatar Square and the National History Museum in Ulaanbaatar, where you’ll learn about Mongolia’s transformation from massive land empire to modern democratic republic

• Savor a delightful picnic dinner, as light of the fading sun paints the famed Red Cliffs
• Sit down for a delicious, traditional Korean barbecue meal — getting to know the renowned flavors while also learning about its preparation

Your land adventure has been enhanced with special features catering to independent travelers, including:

• Solo-friendly social activities, including a Solo Connection mixer to get to know your fellow travelers
• Explore and make more intimate discoveries in a small group of just 24 or less like-minded travelers
• The services of a complimentary worldwide Destination Manager to enhance your adventure with added sightseeing excursions, hotel stays, restaurant reservations, and more

Customize your Mongolian adventure with these top Concierge suggestions:

• Visit Kharkhorin, the ancient capital of the Great Mongol Empire
• Visit Hustai National Park, which is renowned for its Przewalski’s horses and other fauna
• Visit Gorkhi-Terelj National Park for alpine landscapes, active adventures, and Buddhist monasteries