Any cheap flight options to/from Ulaanbaatar

[RoverAllover]

Hi All,

I am putting together an itinerary and would be interested in visiting Ulaanbaatar -

My starting point would be Astana - and going onwards to Hong Kong possibly via Beijing or another PE in China.

Might be visitng Uzbekistan also on this trip Tashkent and Samarkand.

I'm just using Skyscanner as a resource and it seems there are few flights and they are expensive to and from Ulaanbaatar,

https://www.skyscanner.net/transport/fl ... KC#results

Perhaps there are some local carriers that are not listed on Skyscanner?

Is it possible to travel from Astana/Almaty to Ulanbaataar and then onto Hong Kong or a Chinese PE at a lower cost, has anyone made that trip.

With Thanks

[steven]

There are no direct flights between Kazakhstan and Mongolia. There used to be but then they got into a fight and now they are cancelled.

Edit: Granite below has corrected me. There are now. Otherwise, public transport goes like this: https://caravanistan.com/transport/bus- ... -mongolia/

[thl989]

There are cheap flights from Kazakhstan to Novosibirsk, from which you can travel through Siberia to western Mongolia and then to the capital. Obviously that requires a Russian visa and more time but I found it to be an interesting itinerary that I'll try in the future. You can then cross the border with China and take a flight from a Chinese city near the border (forget the name).

[Lovetheworld]

From Novosibirsk into Mongolia via Tasjanta border is nice but I don't know how public transportation works.
Basically you are going through Russian Altai which is nice and even has signs for most of the touristic sights along the roads! But if you're taking a bus then it is maybe not easy to stop. There are some interesting sights however, like the "Mars" red rocks, and a small geiser lake. Also petroglyphs.

I assume busses are running there but at some point it gets a bit deserted, not so many towns anymore. Kosh Agash seems to be last reasonable town (with tourist information and big supermarket). Maybe from there hitchhike to the border.
However, at the border, once paperwork is done, you have to cross quite some kilometers of nomansland before you actually leave Russia, with final checkpoint. I heard about somebody coming from the other way and was allowed to get a ride from a trucker at the checkpoint (basically one guy counting people in vehicles to see if it fits with what the border posts said).

When coming into Mongolia, there are quite aggressive people at Tsagaannnuur who want you in there guesthouse / homestay (some even mentioned stolen items from there motorcycle)
So it seems that the best is to continue straight to Olgii (road to Olgii is good again)

Or if you have a tent you could also camp a few hundred meters into Mongolia after the border, which locals did (and we as well with car)

[Granite2018]

SCAT Airlines operates a twice weekly direct service between Astana (Nursultan) and Ulaanbaatar, but it ain't cheap. Just checked their website and a flight at the start of June will cost you 240 USD.

[jfdesfosses]

I used Skyscanner, and paid 877$ Canadian dollars for a flight Montreal-Beijing-UB and return between Aug 29th and Sept 23rd. TI don't know what you consider inexpensive, but the Beijing -UB part was 100$ (return) more . than the Montreal-Beijing (I checked because I was thinking of taking the train but time and $$ made me go for the plane)