London to Mongolia from £570

🌍 About Mongolia

Most people fly into Ulaanbaatar to leave it — the steppe and Gorkhi-Terelj National Park are an hour out, and the giant 40-metre stainless-steel Genghis Khan statue (the world's largest equestrian statue) stands about 50km east. In town, Gandan Monastery is the real anchor: a working Buddhist monastery with a 26-metre gilded Migjid Janraisig statue and resident monks chanting at dawn. Eat buuz, the steamed mutton dumplings locals make by the dozen, or khuushuur, the fried version. Time it for Naadam (11-13 July), the wrestling-horse-racing-archery festival that takes over the city. Come June to August for warmth; the cheap-fare winter months are brutal — Ulaanbaatar is the coldest capital on Earth, and ger-district coal smoke makes it one of the most polluted from November to February.