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Ulaanbaatar
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Photo by Bernard Gagnon, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Best time to visit Ulaanbaatar

Mongolia · East Asia

All twelve months scored on daily temperature, rainfall, humidity and holiday crowding.

The year in Ulaanbaatar

Tap a month for its page

  1. Ulaanbaatar in January: avoid
  2. Ulaanbaatar in February: avoid
  3. Ulaanbaatar in March: avoid
  4. Ulaanbaatar in April: good
  5. Ulaanbaatar in May: sweet spot
  6. Ulaanbaatar in June: good
  7. Ulaanbaatar in July: good, busy
  8. Ulaanbaatar in August: good, busy
  9. Ulaanbaatar in September: good
  10. Ulaanbaatar in October: ok
  11. Ulaanbaatar in November: avoid
  12. Ulaanbaatar in December: avoid
  • Sweet spot
  • Good
  • OK
  • Avoid
  • Busy
Go in May — 17C max, 4 rainy days. Jun is the next best.

Things to do in Ulaanbaatar

  • Sükhbaatar Square The big open space in the center of the city with an equestrian statue of Damdin…
  • Gandantegchinlen Monastery The main monastery in the city has services around 10:00 every morning.
  • Zaisan Memorial A huge Communist-era monument on a hill near the city depicting the Russian and…
  • Bogd Khan Mountain The mountain ridge south of town, is a great place for a hike.
  • Choijin Lama Monastery These five temples and five arched gates are a unique showcase of religious art and the…
  • Bogd Khan Winter Palace Museum Built between 1893 and 1903 by Mongolian masters…
  • Chinggis Khaan National Museum This modern museum covers the broad sweep of Mongolian imperial history from early…

Tours and tickets in Ulaanbaatar

Each site opens on its own search: choose your dates there. A few open on their home page, where you type the place too. Links marked Ad pay us a commission if you book, at no extra cost to you; most pay nothing, and what a site pays never decides whether it is listed or where. How we rank

Sights and their lines from Wikivoyage (Ulaanbaatar), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; in order of how often each one's Wikipedia article was read on phones in the last 12 months.

Month by month

No fare history for this route yet, so this ranking is climate and crowds only — the price column will fill in as the scanner collects.

MonthMax °CRain days HumiditySun h/day VerdictWhy
Jan -13° 0d 70% 7.9h avoid bitter cold: -13C daily max
Feb -9° 1d 67% 9.3h avoid bitter cold: -9C daily max
Mar 2° 1d 48% 10.6h avoid bitter cold: 2C daily max
Apr 10° 3d 42% 11.3h good 10C max, 3 rainy days
May 17° 4d 43% 11.9h sweet spot 17C max, 4 rainy days
Jun 22° 6d 54% 12.0h good 22C max, 6 rainy days
Jul 24° 10d 64% 11.2h goodbusy busier than usual
Aug 21° 10d 70% 11.1h goodbusy busier than usual
Sep 16° 5d 62% 9.9h good 16C max, 5 rainy days
Oct 6° 2d 56% 8.9h ok 6C max, 2 rainy days
Nov -4° 2d 60% 7.8h avoid bitter cold: -4C daily max
Dec -13° 0d 67% 7.5h avoid bitter cold: -13C daily max

Rain days are the days with at least 1 mm of rain, as a weather station counts them.

Weather read at the centre, 31 km from the airport (UBN): ten years of ERA5 and ERA5-Land reanalysis, through Open-Meteo's open data.

A busy month is a crowded one, not a bad one — usually it is crowded because the weather is good. It is flagged rather than scored down, and crowds alone never make a month “avoid”: that is reserved for weather worth skipping.

How busy it gets

Busiest in July and August; quietest in February and March.

Then and now

Ulaanbaatar's March days now average 2.1°C, 4.8°C warmer than in 1981–1990. 7 of 12 months are clearly warmer.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
1981–90-13.4°-10.1°-2.7°7.2°15.4°19.3°21.5°19.6°13.9°5.5°-5.8°-11.5°
2017–26-12.9°-8.6°2.1°9.6°17.0°22.2°24.3°21.2°16.2°6.4°-3.7°-12.6°
Change+0.6°+1.5°+4.8°+2.5°+1.6°+2.9°+2.8°+1.6°+2.3°+0.8°+2.1°-1.1°

The average daily high, month by month, for the nearest ERA5 grid cell. Bold is a clear change; grey is within the ordinary spread between years. Every destination, ranked.

Getting there

How far Ulaanbaatar is, and what it costs, depends on where you set off from — the months above do not.

Before you go

Cost of livingvery cheap — prices run about 34% of the United States' (World Bank, 2025)
CurrencyMongolian tögrög
LanguagesMongolian
PlugsType C and E, 220 V
DrivingOn the right
Calling code+976
Travel advice No advice against travel — UK Foreign Office, updated 2026-08-07
HealthUK Foreign Office health advice

Facts from Wikidata (CC0), the UK Foreign Office (Open Government Licence) and the World Bank, refreshed 2026-10-08. The advisory is written for British travellers; entry rules depend on your passport.

Being there

On arrival

  • Paying — The currency is the tugrik (MNT). US dollars and credit cards are taken in hotels and some restaurants, mainly in Ulaanbaatar, so carry tugriks, especially outside the city.
  • UPI, for visitors from India — Not accepted for paying here; bring a card that works abroad.
  • Tipping — Rarely expected except by tour guides; waiters, taxi drivers and hotel staff do not expect tips, and some better restaurants and hotels in Ulaanbaatar add a service charge.

Getting around Ulaanbaatar

At Chinggis Khaan airport (UBN), buy a city-bus ticket at the self-service kiosk on the first floor or at the bus and taxi counter. Route X19 runs to Sukhbaatar Square in about 1½ hours, 20 times a day from 8:05am to 11:10pm, with night runs (ShU4) at 00:50 and 04:05, for 15,000 MNT an adult; X20 runs six times a day to the 5 Shar bus stop, in about an hour, for 10,000 MNT. Official airport taxis, from the counter on the first floor, charge a fixed 120,000 MNT to the city centre. In the city, buses take a U card, sold at many kiosks and shops: load it with credit and touch it to the reader as you board.

  • Apps — Rides: UBCab. Maps: Google Maps. Use only licensed taxis with meters, or have your hotel or the UBCab app book one (UBCab's rides can be tracked), and avoid shared taxis; at the airport, ignore drivers who approach you.

Street names are rarely known by Mongolians, and they usually only appear on maps and official addresses. More on Wikivoyage

From the Wikivoyage article on Ulaanbaatar, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Help

  • Emergency — police 102 · ambulance 103 · fire 101. From a foreign mobile, the police can also be called on +976 102, where someone should speak English.
    TravelCharika is not an emergency service: we cannot call for help or send anyone. Numbers can change; if one fails, ask someone local or your hotel.

Put together by hand from the sources listed, checked 8 October 2026. Apps, cards and rules change, so check before you rely on one.

Sources (15)

Ulaanbaatar in pictures

View of Ulaanbaatar 03
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Bernard Gagnon, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

View of Ulaanbaatar 01
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Bernard Gagnon, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Narodowy Teatr Dramatyczny w Ułan Bator
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Marcin Konsek, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Festiwal Naadam na stadionie narodowym w Ułan Bator 04
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Marcin Konsek, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Ulaanbaatar
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Alexkom000, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

What Ulaanbaatar is like

Ulaanbaatar (Улаанбаатар) — also Ulan Bator, UB, or in the local language, Khot ("the city") — is the capital and the largest city of Mongolia. More on Wikivoyage

Worth seeing
Most tourist sites have a separate camera/video fee (typically 5000-10,000₮) in addition to the entrance fee. Choijin Lama Monastery (Чойжин ламын сүм). More on Wikivoyage
Worth doing
National Garden Park, Bayanzürkh. Ulaanbaatar Park, corner of Narnii Road and Chinggis Khan Avenue. Yavuuhulan Garden, Noyon Hutagt Danzanravjaa Street. Korea-Mongolia Friendship Forest, Dambadarjaa Street, Sükhbaatar. More on Wikivoyage
Getting in
Chinggis Khaan International Airport (UBN IATA, Чингис хаан олон улсын нисэх буудал, New Ulaanbaatar International Airport) (52 km south of Ulaanbaatar). More on Wikivoyage
Staying safe
While crime rates in Ulaanbaatar are said to be among the highest of any Asian city, this generally applies less to the city center than the underdeveloped ger districts on the outskirts of town… More on Wikivoyage

From the Wikivoyage article on Ulaanbaatar, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; the full article has far more. The numbers above are measured; this is experience.

Around Ulaanbaatar

Nearby

Kind of place

Ulaanbaatar is in Mongolia, East Asia. Distances are great-circle, so a short one can still be a long way round.

Links marked Ad pay us a commission if you book through one, at no extra cost to you. That does not affect the scores on this page, which are computed from climate and fare data before any link is built.