Mongolia customer reviews

And Liddy – as well as organising the trip so expertly, I want to thank you in particular because we have not been the most straightforward group, especially food-wise. Visiting China with peanut and sesame-allergic children was never going to be easy. But we completely managed, and everywhere we went, the guides and you were prepared for our questions. This curveball was managed like an expert.

Although there were many people involved in making it a success, we’d like to single out two of them and would be grateful if you could pass on our thanks and let their respective bosses know.

The first is Buya, our guide in Mongolia. She was just wonderful. Incredibly thoughtful and caring, we all adored travelling with her. She worked particularly hard to help the children, but as a knowledgeable guide, she was unsurpassed – her deep knowledge, understanding and practical experience of Mongolian life made her a joy to listen to. The precise agenda changed many times, and she worked so hard throughout the trip to make it all perfect, which it was. We will treasure our memories with her. We understand she only had a few days’ notice that she was coming with us, after the original guide got ill – you couldn’t tell. She was inspirational. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend others, particularly families with children, to use her.

The second is Victoria, our main guide in China. Again, just brilliant. She made China work for us – very fun to be around, very knowledgeable, kind and funny. She navigated the complex world of Chinese tourist bureaucracy effortlessly, which is no mean feat, and made a logistically demanding trip run completely smoothly. We loved spending our time with her, and her energy and enthusiasm shone through. She did an enormous amount of hard work to ensure we were allergy safe, which is no mean feat. We wouldn’t hesitate to recommend her to anyone.

Michael, our second guide in China, was also excellent. We spent less time with him than the other two, but we’d highly recommend him too and would happily have spent longer with him.

Improvements? None, really, to be honest. The balance of activities was pretty perfect. Everything to do with the flights and hotels worked very well. We’d give every element five stars.

I’m already flicking through the Stubborn Mule website to work out what’s next?

There were very good horse riding opportunities on our trip. Horses are much smaller than we’re used to and are not particularly tame. But the Horseman look after you, often not letting you off a lead.  Also good opportunities to go camel riding. In contrast the camels are really huge and also lots of fun and were much more comfortable than we’d imagined.

The vans were very good and comfortable. Definitely don’t take any hard suitcases as these would be tricky to find anywhere to fit them in.

We’d recommend taking almost everything suggested on your packing list!

Be warned, toilets, in a word, are rather terrible! Best ones are those when you camp… a hole with a wrap around ‘loo tent’ and trowel.

I am in touch with World Vision (through Ariunaa’s husband) and L and T will sponsor 2 Mongolian girls!

The van added to the Mongolian feeling and somehow time flew in the backseats. It was actually really nice to wind down and read, look at the landscape and have no time stress.