Staying in a Yurt (Ger) in Mongolia: What it’s like & What to Expect
Have you ever wondered what staying in a yurt is like? I grew up dreaming about it. Staying the night in a yurt has always been a travel bucket list dream of mine. I just love the idea of being in rural Mongolia living a nomadic lifestyle even if its only for a day or two. I finally got the chance to stay in not one but four different yurts while visiting Mongolia and want to share my experiences of staying in yurts, what its like, and what to expect.
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A Yurt or Ger in the Mongolian language is a circular structure that is portable yet durable to withstand harsh environmental elements.
Yurts have been around for thousands of years and are still to this day, the primary homes for many nomadic people of Mongolia and surrounding countries.
A yurt generally consists of a wooden frame, a type of insulator usually felt or some type of fabric, and support beams.
In most cases, yurts are white in color and the doors are orange or brown. To keep the yurt warm during the colder months, a wood burning stove is placed in the center of the yurt with a chimney that extents outside the yurt.
Yurts can be relatively easy and quick to assemble and disassemble, taking anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours.
In simple terms, a yurt is basically a portable shelter used primarily by nomads in Mongolia and Central Asia as a means of protection and comfort. Families use yurts for cooking, protection, sleep, and many other daily tasks.
What is it Like Staying in a Yurt
In October, I toured around Central Mongolia and had the chance to stay in four separate yurts in four different locations. Two locations, I stayed in yurts in tourist camps while the other two night I stayed with nomadic families.
I stayed in a tourist camp at Terelj National Park and in Kharkhorin. I stayed with nomadic families at the Orkhon Waterfall and near the Elsen Tasarkhai Sand Dunes.
The yurts were all similar in many ways but each night was a completely different experience. I want to share my experiences of staying in a yurt and what I learned.
The Inside
The inside of a yurt is surprisingly spacious. It’s much bigger then what it looks like on the outside.
Each yurt we stayed in had 4-5 beds. Some beds were cushy while others were hard, so I am not 100% sure if they are all for sleeping on. We traveled in the offseason, so Jill and myself had a yurt to ourselves and got to sleep in whichever bed we wanted.
In each yurt we stayed in, the beds were pushed up against the wall. We also had a table and small stools.
Each yurt had a wood burning stove inside with a tall chimney sticking outside the middle of the roof.
We got to enjoy dinner one night with the nomadic family inside their yurt. It was pretty minimalistic for the most part. There were two beds, a table, kitchen area full of pots and pans, and a Buddhist shrine.
Heating the Yurt
It gets cold in Mongolia. I visited in October and it would get down to -6°C or about 20°F. Our guide told us it can get down to -40°C or -40°F.
Although yurts are well insulated, a heating source is needed. Therefore, a wood burning stove is the primary heat source used. The stove is attached to a chimney that extends outside the top of the yurt.
To survive the winter, you need a lot of wood to keep the stove burning, especially at night. The nomadic families we stayed with had a bin full of wood next to the stove to keep fueling the fire, keeping the yurt nice and warm.
Bathroom Situation
Depending on who you are, the bathroom situations can be less then ideal. At this point, you are basically camping. Nomadic families don’t have time to figure out plumbing and running water. Instead, they dig a hole and place a shelter over it. Basically, it’s a squatty potty.
But not all yurt experiences are like that. Our second night, we stayed at a camp called Monkhshuuri Ger Camp Guesthouse in Kharkhorin where they remodeled the bathroom facilities. The bathrooms had new toilets and even showers!
The other three camps I stayed at had squatty potties though. Honestly, I don’t mind it. There was a certain charm to it, waking up at 2 in the morning, the moon shined bright, it was slightly chilly outside, as I made my way to the bathroom shelter, and well you get the point.
Please note, most places in Mongolia, not just the yurt camps, did not have toilet paper. So plan ahead and bring your own toilet paper and wet wipes.
Conclusion
Staying in a yurt is a wonderful experience. It’s like camping but with a larger and sturdier tent. It’s always been a dream of mine to stay in a yurt. I was always curious about nomadic families in Mongolia and what their lives were like. It was a once in a lifetime experience traveling to Mongolia and staying with nomadic families with yurts. To be honest, they were more spacious and comfortable then I had imagined. If you can’t make it to Mongolia, I hope this post at least gives you an idea of what it is like to stay in a yurt and you learned something new.
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