Golden eagle festival
- 9 days & 8 nights
- September and October
- Group size 2 to 6 pax
Price from 2970 USD /2593 EUR
Based on group trip
- All accommodation (hotels, Ger camps and Kazakh family stay)
- All meals (Breakfast - B. Lunch - L. Dinner - D)
- All transportation (domestic flights and private 4x4 car)
- Trip guide (English or German)
- Entertainment fees (museums, concerts and national park fee etc)
- Local support crew ( horse guide and camel guide etc)
- Golden eagle festival event fee
Optional add to list:
- Sleeping bag
- Cook during the trip
Does not include:
- International transports (flight and train)
- Tourist visa (please see here if you need a visa to Mongolia)
- Travel insurance
- Any alcohol expenses
- Anything which is not mentioned in the itinerary
Brief itinerary
- Possible activities: Tour around Ulaanbaatar. Including, Gandan Monastery, Tumen Ekh concert and National Museum.
- Accommodation: *** hotel. Twin room
- Meals: Lunch and Dinner
- Possible activities: Visit to Kazakh family
- Accommodation: Private Gers.
- Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
- Possible activities: Learn about hunting culture by eagle hunting
- Accommodation: Private Gers
- Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
- Possible activities: Two full day of Eagle hunting festival events
- Accommodation: Ger camp. Twin room
- Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
- Possible activities: Visit to Narantuul local market
- Accommodation: *** Hotel. Twin room
- Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
- Possible activities: At your own leisure
- Accommodation: *** Hotel. Twin room
- Meals: Breakfast
Depart for your next destination.
Meal: Breakfast
End of our service!
Day 1. Arrival in Ulaanbaatar
Your guide and driver will pick you up at Airport and transfer to your hotel. After check in and freshened up, we go for city tour. Visit national museum, Buddhist monastery and in the evening we will see Mongolian national folk concert.
Overnight in the hotel. (L. D)
Day 2: To Bayan Ulgii
This morning we catch a domestic flight to Mongolia’s farthest-flung province of Bayan Ulgii. Our drivers will meet us and transport the group to one of the eagle hunter’s homes, where we’ll set up camp as his neighbor.
Overnight with the family. (B. L. D)
Day 3-4: Eagle Hunting Days
During these two days we will live a life of a Kazakh eagle hunter! We will be following our eagle hunter and his bird on horseback for 3-4 hour treks through the Altai Mountains looking for prey. The rest of the time we will be interacting with the family members (Kazakh people tend to have large families) and experiencing their daily life. Kazakh people are known with their warm hospitality so prepare to feel greatly welcome in their home.
Overnights in ger camp. (B. L. D)
Day 5-6: Festival Days
This morning we will depart to the festival venue together with our very own eagle hunter. The festival opens with a parade of all the local people dressed in their traditional clothing followed by the eagle hunters on horseback with their regal birds on their arms. It’s an unforgettable sight. After welcoming speeches the competitions begin, not just with the eagles, but also in tests of horsemanship. There are other amusing contests and games as well as a large market for excellent local handicrafts.
Overnights in ger camp. (B. L. D)
Day 7: Back to Ulaanbaatar
We will leave the ger camp early to catch the local flight to Ulaanbaatar. Upon arrival we will be picked up by our drivers in town. After check in at the hotel we will have a dinner at the hotel and a nice rest to enjoy our memories.
Overnight in the hotel. (B. L. D)
Day 8: Ulaanbaatar
This day is free to explore the city sights and museums and do some shopping. Very few leave Mongolia without taking home some of our excellent, inexpensive cashmere products.
Overnight in hotel. (B. L. D)
Day 9: Departure
Transfer to the airport and depart for your next destination. (B).
To experience an utterly unique Central Asian tradition, the Golden Eagle Festival celebrated in October among the Kazakh people in Mongolia’s remote northwestern province is a must! For more than 2000 years, the Kazakhs have procured and trained the massive Golden Eagle to assist both in subsistence hunting and to apture the foxes and wolves that threaten their livestock herds. Eagles are captured from their nest at an early age – always the females, who are more active hunters and larger in size – and intensively trained for as long as a year. After several years with the hunting family, the eagles are then released back into the wild. For the annual festival, all the eagle hunters and their birds will gather in their finery for three major competitions to determine which eagles are the best trained. Of course there will be local food and drink, and song and dance particular to the Kazakh people.
