Stay in gers (yurts) specially built for you alongside those of a local nomadic family in the Gobi grasslands. Counterintuitively, the Gobi Desert is actually less than 10% sand – it is mostly treeless steppe.  Go horseback riding with the herdsmen to experience the Mongolian landscape as it has been for millennia, and help your host family with their quotidian tasks – from tending to their animals to making such staples of the local diet as buuz, (lamb or beef dumplings) airag (fermented mare’s milk) and hearty meat and vegetable stews. 

In Mongolia’s northernmost reaches, near the Siberian border, lies the gigantic, pristine 2 million-year-old Lake Hövsgöl, evocatively nicknamed “the Dark Blue Pearl.” Hike along the shores of this gorgeous natural wonder, which holds 70 percent of the nation’s fresh water, and feels far removed from the capital of Ulaanbaatar, just a 90-minute flight away. Explore Lake Hövsgöl National Park, home to such exotic wildlife as the rare musk deer, while nearby is the imposing Ikh Uul mountain, whose peak is nearly 10,000 feet.

Experience world-class fishing on the Onon River, one of an astounding 3,800 rivers in Mongolia. The Onon is home to schools of taimen, the world’s largest salmon, making it a destination for anglers from around the planet. The taimen may live to be over 30 years old and grow to over 50 inches, and thrive in part due to the huge numbers of 20-inch Mongolian trout – which alone would make for destination fishing – that populate the river. Fly-fishing here adheres to a strict catch-and-release policy, using only single, barbless hooks.

Helicopter or fly by charter plane to the Flaming Cliffs in the Southern Gobi, a famed archaeological site. So named because of their vibrant glowing orange appearance in the sunlight, the cliffs are a dramatic landscape of jagged red rocks that is rich in fossil finds – the first fossilized dinosaur eggs were unearthed here in the 1920s by the expedition of Roy Chapman Andrews, while fossils of velociraptor have also been uncovered nearby. Go for a trek through the desert atop a Mongolian two-humped camel, which are simple to ride regardless of experience.