Mongolia transport: airport, Beijing train, flights, drivers

From the airport into Ulaanbaatar

On the airport's winter timetable for 2026-2027, international flights link Chinggis Khaan International Airport (UBN) with Seoul, Beijing, Tokyo, Istanbul, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Irkutsk, among other cities. The airport has no rail link: you arrive by bus, taxi or a car you have booked. The airport's own taxi service works from a counter on the first floor of the terminal at fixed fares, and the airport bans touts from approaching passengers inside the building, so ignore anyone offering a ride. City buses leave from outside; buy the ticket at the self-service kiosk on the west side of the first floor or at the bus and taxi counter, or reserve a seat up to three days ahead in the UBcard app.

On the city's airport timetable of 19 November 2025, the 08:05 bus from the airport reaches Sükhbaatar Square at 09:35, and the 05:55 from the square reaches the airport at 07:25.

The same official taxi counter charges MNT 300,000 per vehicle from the airport to Terelj and the Chinggis Khaan Equestrian Statue at Tsonjin Boldog, which suits a first night in a ger camp; our Terelj guide covers day trips there from the city. A private transfer is the alternative: My Mongolia Travel charges MNT 120,000 per vehicle (USD 35 on its own price list) one way for a sedan into the centre, with a driver holding your name in arrivals, and asks for at least 12 hours' notice. It allows 50 to 60 minutes for the drive early in the morning or late at night, and about 1.5 hours or more on weekdays between 07:00 and 21:00.

Getting around Ulaanbaatar

City buses cost MNT 1,000 a ride, paid in cash or with any contactless (NFC) bank card. With a UBcard, sold for MNT 3,600 at the city's ticket kiosks, or a U-Money card, MNT 1,000 buys four rides a day on any route except the airport, Baganuur and Bagakhangai lines; tap the card when you get off as well as on, or the next ride is charged again. A bank card pays each ride separately.

Traffic in the city is heavy, and for short hops a taxi is often simpler. Use a licensed company rather than a car flagged down in the street: VIP Taxi, UBCab, whose app tracks the ride, or the registered companies' hotline 1900-1950. Sit in the back, do not let other passengers join, and after dark ask your hotel or restaurant to order the car. Our Ulaanbaatar where-to-stay guide compares the areas of the city to sleep in.

By train: from Beijing and within Mongolia

The K23 is the classic way in overland: a sleeper that leaves Beijing station at 07:27 and arrives in Ulaanbaatar at 14:35 the next day, about 31 hours later (China and Mongolia keep the same clock). The first day runs north-west from Beijing to the border; after the border the train crosses the Mongolian Gobi overnight, and the morning brings the open steppe north towards the capital. It stops at Erenhot (Erlian) on the Chinese side from 20:18 to 00:59 and at Zamyn-Üüd, the Mongolian border station, from 01:25 to 02:40; the UK warns of a delay of a few hours at the border because the two railways use different gauges. The return K24 leaves Ulaanbaatar at 07:30, calls at Zamyn-Üüd from 18:50 to 20:35 and at Erenhot from 21:00 to 02:00, and reaches Beijing at 14:35 the next day.

China Railway's fares per person, including a CNY 50 handling fee, are CNY 1,310 (Chinese carriage) or CNY 1,361 (Mongolian carriage) for a hard sleeper, CNY 1,881 for a soft sleeper and CNY 2,033 to 2,041 for a deluxe compartment. China Railway names China International Travel Service (CITS) as the seller of K23 tickets, at room 717 of the CITS building, 1 Dongdan North Street in Beijing, open Monday to Friday 09:00-12:30 and 13:30-17:00 and Saturday 09:00-12:00. CITS lists the K23 from Beijing every Tuesday from 1 January to 31 May 2026 and every Saturday from 1 June 2026; the K24 from Ulaanbaatar also runs once a week, so confirm its day with CITS when you book. Discover Mongolia, a local operator, advises booking about two months ahead, as the weekly trains sell out from June to September. In Beijing, be in the international waiting room an hour and a half before departure for the security and border checks.

Book the train before you fix the first countryside day, and keep a night in Ulaanbaatar after arrival: a mid-afternoon arrival leaves no daylight for a drive out of the city.

We do not cover routes from Russia: the Moscow-Ulaanbaatar-Beijing through train remains suspended because of the war in Ukraine (Discover Mongolia's train guide, July 2026), and the UK advises against all travel to Russia. Arrive by air or on the train from Beijing.

Inside Mongolia the same line carries the domestic trains of Ulaanbaatar Railway (UBTZ), from the main station on Teeverchid Street. Southbound they run by way of Choir and Sainshand to Zamyn-Üüd on the Chinese border: on the timetable of Travel China Guide, an agency that sells the tickets (updated August 2025), the overnight train 276 leaves Ulaanbaatar at 16:40 and reaches Zamyn-Üüd at 07:20 the next morning, 606 km in about 14.5 hours. Northbound trains run to Darkhan and on to Sükhbaatar or Erdenet. Carriages range from hard seats and open hard-sleeper cars to four-berth compartments; UBTZ sells seats on its own site, eticket.ubtz.mn, and a hotel can buy the ticket for you. No line goes near the Gobi sights, Kharkhorin or Lake Khövsgöl, so for most trips the train is a way to the border rather than to the sights.

Via Erenhot: a short flight or the border bus

Erenhot (Erlian), the Chinese town opposite Zamyn-Üüd, also has a direct air link to the capital. Hunnu Air's timetable for 1 May 2026 to 27 March 2027 lists a flight every day of the week: MR862 leaves Erenhot at 11:00 and lands in Ulaanbaatar at 12:20 on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, and at 15:00 for 16:20 on Mondays and Fridays. The outbound MR861 leaves Ulaanbaatar at 08:45 (12:45 on Mondays and Fridays).

By road, the National Road Transport Centre lists a bus to Erenhot for MNT 95,000 per adult plus MNT 2,000 insurance from the Bayanzürkh terminal at Tenger Plaza, on Peace Avenue about 4.5 km east of Sükhbaatar Square, and a short hop from Zamyn-Üüd to Erenhot for MNT 25,000 plus MNT 800. China's own entry rules apply on the far side of the border; our entry guide covers the Mongolian side.

From Erenhot, China Railway's timetable gives two ways on by train. The weekly K24 calls there from 21:00 to 02:00 and reaches Beijing at 14:35. A through sleeper also links Ulaanbaatar with Hohhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia, by way of Erenhot: it leaves Ulaanbaatar at 21:59 on Mondays (Chinese carriage) and Fridays (Mongolian carriage), stands at Erenhot from 10:25 to 13:45 and reaches Hohhot at 21:23, with a hard sleeper at CNY 1,220 (Chinese carriage) or CNY 1,311 (Mongolian). Its tickets are sold at the Hohhot, Jining South and Erenhot stations.

Domestic flights to the Gobi and Lake Khövsgöl

Two flights save the longest drives: Dalanzadgad for the Gobi and Mörön for Lake Khövsgöl. Hunnu Air schedules one hour in the air to Mörön; by road, View Mongolia puts the lake 14 to 15 hours from Ulaanbaatar. On the airport's winter timetable, valid from 25 October 2026 to late March 2027, MIAT, the national airline, flies to Mörön on Thursdays and Sundays at 07:25 and to Dalanzadgad on Fridays and Sundays at 17:40. Summer adds seats to Mörön: Hunnu Air flew there on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 15 June to 20 September 2026, and View describes the flights as daily in July and August. The 2027 summer timetables come later. In summer 2026, Travel Gobi Mongolia's flight page listed MIAT to Dalanzadgad on Fridays and Sundays from spring to October, adding Wednesdays and Saturdays from late June to late August, and Chingis Airlines on Wednesdays and Saturdays from May to September, with more days from June to August. The same page lists returns of USD 280 per adult on Chingis Airlines and USD 320 on MIAT, about MNT 1,010,000-1,150,000 per person. No Mörön fare is published, so your operator books those seats with the tour. On Hunnu Air's domestic flights an economy ticket includes one checked bag of up to 15 kg; heavier bags pay excess. MIAT also flies to Ölgii in the far west, among the seven provincial towns it serves.

Fuel shortages can disrupt domestic flights and road travel, so keep a spare day before your flight home. Let your operator meet you at Dalanzadgad or Mörön airport: the dunes at Khongoryn Els and the lake shore at Khatgal are still a drive away. Our Gobi guide and Lake Khövsgöl guide compare flying in with going by road.

Long-distance buses from the Dragon terminal

Intercity buses are how Mongolians travel between towns, and they are cheap. The National Road Transport Centre sells seats online at eticket.transdep.mn, with a field for foreign citizens: pay within 20 minutes of booking, and be at the terminal 30 minutes before departure, because a missed bus is not refunded. Hand luggage of up to 20 kg within 60 x 40 x 20 cm travels with you.

The centre's fares per adult, each plus a small insurance charge, all leave from the Dragon terminal in Songinokhairkhan district, on the main road west about 7 km from Sükhbaatar Square in a straight line; take a registered taxi there and allow for the city's traffic. Distances and car times are tour operators' figures for the same roads; a bus, with its stops, takes longer:

A bus gets you to a town, not to the sights: Khongoryn Els, Yolyn Am and most camps lie well away from Dalanzadgad, so a bus-only trip still needs a local driver at the far end. The bus to Mörön, the airport town for Lake Khövsgöl, costs MNT 78,800 plus MNT 2,000 insurance; Mörön is 102 km and about 2 to 2.5 hours by car short of the lake. The centre's fare pages give no departure times. For Khatgal, iKon reported when the route was restored in December 2025 that buses leave Dragon on Fridays and Sundays at 10:00 and Khatgal at 07:30.

Driver-guides and the roads

Outside Ulaanbaatar, travel with a licensed operator's driver and guide: distances are long, many roads are unpaved tracks, and there is no mobile signal in large areas. The UK puts the paved share at only about 10% of the roads outside the capital, with little signposting, and a good driver reads the tracks, the river crossings and the weather. Even on asphalt the days are long, as the car times in the bus table above show; Travel Gobi Mongolia also allows 6 hours for the 470 km to Tsagaan Suvarga on the way south, and the drive to Lake Khövsgöl is usually broken with overnight stops. The usual way to do this is a private tour for two, in which the car, driver, guide, camps and most meals come as one price; our trip-cost guide prices ten days that way.

If you hire only a vehicle with a driver, Tengri Tours lists USD 120 a day for a Russian UAZ van or a Hyundai Starex (up to seven people) and USD 150 a day for a Lexus or Land Cruiser SUV (up to four), each per vehicle including the driver: about MNT 432,000 and MNT 540,000 at the Bank of Mongolia rate of USD 1 = MNT 3,599.08 (29 October 2026). An English-speaking guide comes on top, at USD 150 a day for one to five travellers on Guru Travel Mongolia's list (USD 180 for French or German), working 09:00-18:00, plus the guide's transport, admissions and lunch. Camps and your own meals are extra again, which is why most visitors book a tour.

Germany advises against overland journeys after dark; in winter, France adds two vehicles with cold-weather survival kit outside towns. Insurance, medical care and the travel advice you should read before you go are in our entry guide.