| Online: | |
| Visits: | |
| Stories: |
| Story Views | |
| Now: | |
| Last Hour: | |
| Last 24 Hours: | |
| Total: | |
Travel to Inner Mongolia: The Complete Guide
Rows of yurts in Xilamuren grasslands
In this guide to travel in Inner Mongolia you will find:
As Inner Mongolia is very big, this guide aims to introduce you to some of the region’s key sights and attractions to help you best plan your trip. If you would like more details about a particular place, please comment below.
For more general information about traveling in China such as visas, vaccinations, flights, food etc. be sure to check out this epic 4,000 word complete guide to traveling in China. Just skip to the sections you are most interested in!
Before you book your trip: agency vs. your own way
Agencies
The first time I traveled to Inner Mongolia I booked myself onto an organized agency tour. My reasoning behind it was this:
- I had very little time to organize my trip;
- I only had a week off and wanted to see as much of Inner Mongolia as possible;
- I had not been in China very long and was not confident in my ability to get by on my own or to communicate in Mandarin;
- I was traveling alone and wanted to meet other people;
- The agency sorted out everything including my travel from Beijing: easy life!
Although I fell in love with Inner Mongolia on that trip, my experience with this agency was very mixed. Here are the pros and cons that I experienced with a Beijing-based agency organizing Inner Mongolia tours:
Pros
- Everything was organized for me which meant very little planning aside from what to pack;
- I was able to discover some of Inner Mongolia’s culture and history through our very knowledgeable guide;
- I made some really awesome friends on the tour.
Cons
- It was a much more expensive option than organizing everything myself;
- We were always taken to the most touristy sites at the most touristy times which made it difficult to experience authentic Inner Mongolia;
- A lot of the tour (as can often happen in China) was based around getting us to buy stuff or paying extra for activities. For example, a lot of Inner Mongolia tours will claim that horse-riding is included in the package but will in fact make you pay more for this when you get there;
- Lack of flexibility to do any of my own exploring;
- My biggest issue with the tour was how much time we had to spend in transport vs. how much time we actually got to see stuff.
My advice
If you have limited time to travel to Inner Mongolia and limited time to organize your trip, booking through a tour agency may be a good choice.
Source: http://www.saporedicina.com/english/travel-to-inner-mongolia/
