Three Camel Lodge

In the South Gobi Desert of Mongolia near the Nemegt Mountains, Three Camel Lodge occupies a position in one of the world’s most remote and ecologically intact desert landscapes, where the fossilised dinosaur beds of the Gobi’s badlands coexist with the traditional nomadic culture of the Mongolian herding communities whose relationship with this landscape has remained relatively unchanged for centuries. The 40 traditional ger accommodations are authentic in form — the round felt tent of the Mongolian nomad, heated by a central iron stove and furnished with the carved wooden beds and painted chests of the Mongolian domestic tradition — while providing the level of comfort and service appropriate to a lodging that has been recognised internationally as a model of cultural and environmental tourism. The Mongolian sky above the Gobi, its stars undiminished by any light pollution for hundreds of kilometres, provides the most immediately memorable natural experience of a Three Camel Lodge stay.

Camel trekking across the Gobi’s sand and gravel plains, guided fossil hunting in the Nemegt Formation’s dinosaur beds where palaeontologists have found some of the world’s most significant Cretaceous specimens, visiting the nomadic herding families whose gers are scattered across the desert’s vast pastures, and eagle hunting demonstrations with Kazakh falconers from the western provinces constitute the primary activities. The kitchen prepares traditional Mongolian cuisine — tsuivan noodles, buuz dumplings, and the roasted mutton preparations of the nomadic cooking tradition — alongside more international options appropriate to the lodge’s diverse international clientele. The Naadam festival programme in July gives guests access to the Mongolian traditional sports of horse racing, archery, and wrestling that define the cultural calendar of the steppe.

Three Camel Lodge’s community and conservation relationships with the South Gobi’s nomadic herding families and the Mongolian government’s conservation agencies reflect the lodge’s understanding that the Gobi’s fragile desert ecosystem and its human culture are inseparably connected, and that luxury tourism in this landscape has an obligation to contribute to both dimensions of the environment’s sustainability.