Date of Journey: September 2025
Destination: Mongolia
Highlights
- Ulaanbaatar – Mongolia’s vibrant capital and cultural gateway
- Gobi Desert – vast desert landscapes, ancient cliffs, and nomadic life
- Tsagaan Suvarga (White Stupa) – dramatic limestone escarpments
- Yol Gorge – ice-filled canyon hidden deep within the Gobi
- Khongor Sand Dunes (Singing Sands) – Mongolia’s most iconic dunes
- Bayanzag (Flaming Cliffs) – world-famous red cliffs and dinosaur fossil sites
- Three Camel Lodge – award-winning luxury lodge in the Gobi Desert
- Altai Mountains – remote western Mongolia, homeland of the Kazakh eagle hunters
- Altai Golden Eagle Festival – one of the world’s most extraordinary cultural festivals
- Hustai National Park – home of the rare and truly wild Takhi horses
- Gorkhi–Terelj National Park – alpine landscapes and the Aryabal Meditation Temple
- Chinggis Khaan Statue Complex – iconic symbol of Mongolia’s history and identity
Introduction
The Compass Society has just returned from a journey throughout the vast country of Mongolia. The expression from the sublime to the ridiculous comes to mind when thinking about accommodation as we experienced the exotic and world renowned and awarded Three Camel Lodge in the Ghobi Desert, along with many nights at the six star Shangri-La in Ulaanbaatar. But there was the complete opposite at the Golden Eagle Festival which is held high in The Altai Mountains. Here we stayed in traditional gers, with simple mats covering mother nature’s earthen floors and timing the need to make our way over rough terrain to the outhouse with its drop toilets!
Did this take away any of the once in a lifetime experience of visiting a country which is only just opening up to the visiting tourist? Not at all!
The Compass Society experienced a country that few have ever had the privilege to step foot on their soil.
The Mongolian culture is strong, the people are welcoming, the Golden Eagle Festival proved that local events are to be celebrated. We met musicians and dancers, we discovered new styles of cooking and were feted to unanticipated sights and sounds!
— Cathi Burnett-Cosgrove, Travel Designer and Founder of The Compass Society
Tour Group Photos
Tour Videos
This wonderful 5 min 50 second video presentation (beautifully created by Jill, one of our tour participants) highlights our wonderful travels and memories of our tour…
You can also watch the full lunchtime performance by the Kazakh eagle hunters at the Golden Eagle Festival (with thanks to our lovely tour participant Pat), during our time in the Altai Mountains…
A poem inspired by the tour…
Mongolia is one country but
In my mind’s eye, there are many.
How easily the soul becomes intoxicated on the vastness of nothing.
The red of the Gobi is eternal to the human eye.
The never ending plains
And the multi coloured cliffs incite past emotions most have forgotten
The sands of the nomadic dunes which sing in contented whispers whilst edging towards their new destination underfoot
Feelings kept under lock and key, suddenly surface like the proverbial Pandora’s box and yet certain contentment flows.
When your heart beats in time with the sound of the galloping horse’s hooves
And the call of the Eagle creates a familiarity we didn’t acknowledge we knew When they soar with widespread wings
We become the children of Awe!
Snow capped mountains of The Altai envelope the very essence of life.
Watching
Protecting
Forest trees, teach us the art of being humble.
Walk, climb, wander,
Buddhist Temples quietly remain andd the need to explore, learn, grow,
And Autumn adds her touch to our memory.
Birch trees become her creative brushes on the palette as she splashes her season’s colour onto her creative canvas of life.
Leaves of gold, yellow, green and some, white. Some offer a touch of the translucent, as they become the pale moon in the dark of night.
We then enter yet another realm. With landscape akin of three days of unshaven green stubble, whilst polker dotted with plants that imitate fine silver blonde will-of-the wisps of hair atop of a young babe’s head. These are the plants of the Huiste… on which the native wild horses feed.
See it
Feel it
Touch it
Breath it
There is only one Mongolia and yet, there are many.
— Cathi Burnett-Cosgrove
Group Feedback
Why people travel with Cathi
Many travellers return to Cathi time and time again — some having shared more than a dozen journeys with her over the years.
For Cathi, it’s not just about where the group goes, but how they experience each destination. Thoughtful planning, deep local connections, and a genuine care for the people travelling alongside her ensure every journey of The Compass Society feels personal, unhurried, and quietly exceptional.
From first-time travellers to long-standing companions, group members consistently speak of the trust they feel, the friendships they form, and the memories that stay with them long after the journey ends.
Her planning is impeccable, with attention to every minute detail…
“In 2015, some friends introduced us to Cathi – the travel arranger and tour designer extraordinaire. Since then, not only has she arranged private trips for us, but she has taken us on a number of escorted tours in Tasmania, across the Northern Territory and Queensland, and to several countries overseas. Her planning is impeccable, with attention to every minute detail.
Wherever we go, Cathi’s meticulous planning ensures we truly experience each destination – its culture and traditions, its history, its food and wine, its landscapes, and especially, its people. She has an incredible ability to uncover the most interesting and unique places, often including special surprises along the way. Every journey with her has been magical, and our most recent adventure to Mongolia truly was the trip of a lifetime.
Through travelling with Cathi, we have made new friends and created memories to last forever. Thank you Cathi for the care you show to all of those who travel with you. Here’s to many more adventures ahead.
— Gen T & Robert H
The best travel designer with whom I have ever booked and travelled…
“As an experienced traveller, who has visited 48 countries over my lifetime, I can say unreservedly that Cathi Burnett-Cosgrove is the best travel designer with whom I have ever booked and travelled.
She personally escorts her tours, so one has peace of mind knowing that any contingency will be resolved without the angst of you, the traveller.
This year alone (2025), I took three escorted tours with Cathi. Each one was unique. The first tour was in January/February entitled “in Pursuit of the Northern Lights”. The second tour was to Bruges, Paris, Normandy and Brittany. And he third tour was to Mongolia, the land of Genghis Khan. We slept in Gers, rode on two-humped camels, climbed sand dunes in the Gobi Desert and experienced the Eagle Festival of the Kazakhs in the Altai Mountains in the far west.
These once-in-a-lifetime experiences are all arranged with the safety, comfort and sense of adventure of the travellers.
I cannot recommend Cathi Burnett-Cosgrove highly enough.”
— Robyn N
Making every day very special…
“Cathi is a special person for us; this follows two amazing adventures in Morocco and Mongolia. Cathi’s meticulous planning and ability to work with the local guides ensuring something different every separate day, making every day very special. Cathi’s ability to ensure the tour group works as a well organised team with everyone’s wishes catered for is something you don’t often find in a tour leader, this is the sign of a true leader.”
— Pat and Kate O’Dwyer, Maroochydore Queensland and Sandy Bay Tasmania
Places visited on our Mongolia 2025 Tour
Ulaanbaatar (UB)
– Mongolia’s capital
– National Museum of Mongolia
– Gandan Monastery
– Chinggis Khaan International Airport (arrival/departure hub)
Chinggis Khaan Statue Complex
– Iconic monument east of Ulaanbaatar
Gorkhi–Terelj National Park
– Aryabal Meditation Temple
– Nomadic landscapes and rock formations
Gobi Desert Region
- Tsagaan Suvarga (White Stupa) Cliffs
- Yol Gorge
- Khongor Sand Dunes (Singing Sands)
- Bayanzag – Flaming Cliffs
- Khavtsgait Mountain (ancient rock paintings / petroglyphs)
- Three Camel Lodge (luxury lodge in the Gobi)
Dalanzadgad
– Regional hub in the South Gobi (used for flights/logistics)
Bayan-Ölgii Province (Western Mongolia)
– Altai Mountains
– Altai Golden Eagle Festival
– Kazakh eagle hunter communities
– Visit to a local Golden Eagle Master’s family
Ulgii (Ölgii) Town
– Provincial capital of Bayan-Ölgii
Hustai National Park
– Home of the Takhi (Przewalski’s) wild horses
– Forested steppe landscapes and rock formations
