Unleash your adventure spirit, explore Mongolia on your own terms

GOLDEN EAGLE FESTIVAL PHOTOGRAPHY TOUR (2024)

8 DAYS – 7 NIGHTS (FROM $2300 )

Duration: 8 days 7 nights
Price from: 2300 USD
Tour type: Cultural, Festival
Group size: 1-8
Destination: Western Mongolia
Difficulty: Moderate, Easy
Suitable age: 15-80

See Our TripAdvisor +97 Reviews

Top highlights:

Visit the family of a nomadic eagle hunter
Experience their ancient culture and traditions
Take part in a real eagle hunt
Attend to Annual Golden Eagle Festival 2024
And even more hidden moments…

OVERVIEW

This year, the 25th annual Golden Eagle Festival will take place in the Shar Nuur 15 km from Olgii town on October 5th-6th

The Bayan-Ulgiy province is well known as the home of nomadic eagle hunters and the heart of the Altai Mountains. About 100 eagle hunters come to take part in competitions and traditional horse games of nomads.

Come and enjoy the stunning landscape that is covered with ancient mountains, rivers, and Mongolian history. Join us to watch a great festival with truly great hunters!

WHY CHOOSE US?

8+ years Experience

We are local experts who are based in Bayan-Olgii province.

Reasonable Price

Price effective. Best trips with the reasonable price

97+ Reviews

We offer only the best-planned tours. So see our beautiful average 5.0 point reviews on Tripadvisor

Support Team

Local experienced guides will support you during your visit.

Flexible

Please feel free to choose our scheduled group departure or create your own

Please join our scheduled group departure from September 30th to October 7th or create your own perfect tour of the Golden Eagle Festival 2024.

DAY 1: Arrive in Bayan-Ulgii Province

Take a domestic flight to western Mongolia.

The Golden Eagle Festival is one of the biggest events in western Mongolia. Local airlines sell tickets for more expensive than usual.

Therefore, we strongly recommend that you BOOK your seats as early as possible.

At Olgii airport you will be met by a local support team which includes an English-speaking guide, driver, and expedition chef. Off-road driving and the arrival at a nomadic eagle hunter’s place in the remote Altai Mountains.

During that period of the season, the Kazakh eagle hunters live in their autumn place.

Enjoy the hospitality of nomadic people. Our guide will introduce you to our Mongolian culture and, traditions.

Please feel free to communicate with nomads and take photos. The nomadic way of living is an important part of human history and it is still continuous in this remote corner of the world.

DAY 2: Real Eagle hunting

Be part of a real eagle hunt with a specially trained golden eagle. Today you will take a horse ride in the mountains. A local horseman will take care of your safety.

Enjoy the stunning nature of the Altai Mountains. Feel free to take pictures and shoot.

In addition, you have the opportunity to take a memorable photo of the riding and the eagle landing on your hand. The eagle hunter will demonstrate how he trains his eagle in real conditions.

DAY 3: Visit another eagle hunters Family

Today we will drive to the another eagle hunter’s place an meet new people in that region. Enjoy hospitality of nomadic Kazakhs

DAY 4: Real eagle hunting

Be a part of real eagle hunting in the remore Altai Mountains. Please feel free to photoshooting and have memorable picture on the horseback and eagle landed on your arm. Also you have an opportunity to explore nomadic traditions and experience their way of living such as milking a yak, making a milky product and herding the animals

DAY 5: Arrive in Ulgii Town

In the afternoon we will go to Olgii. You will be transferred to your hotel. Visit the main sights of the city. Enjoy the Traditional Kazakh Museum and dinner at the local restaurant

DAY 6: Attend the Golden Eagle Festival

Welcome to the annual Golden Eagle Festival. The festival will begin with an opening ceremony. There are over 250 eagle hunters in western Mongolia and this is the biggest event for them.

More than 100 eagle hunters take part in this competition. Our Discover Altai team will make a kitchen tent where you can drink hot tea and keep warm at any time of the day. At the end of the festival program, we will attend a concert in the theater.

DAY 7: Attend the Golden Eagle Festival

There are many nomadic horse games in the program and each of them has a deep meaning. Our team will introduce you to the traditional games and keep you informed about the competition.

Eagle hunters will also show their hunting skills. During the festival, our team will arrange a time for a photo session.

We work with many Kazakh eagle hunters and today we will invite some of them and ask for time to photograph them. Feel free to have a big picture of the eagle hunters. We also invite a famous throat singer to our yurt and ask him to sing traditional songs for our group.

The festival ends with an awards ceremony. Farewell dinner with the whole team in the restaurant.

DAY 8: Fly back to Ulaanbaatar

Thank you for coming!

Take a flight back to Ulaanbaatar.

Everything You Need To Know

Tour information

Book Now

We are a local travel agency that offers a variety of tours to western Mongolia. We are not just an experienced team, these are our traditions and we are part of this culture. There are many hidden highlights to miss while visiting nomadic families and learning about their cultures. With our “Discover Altai” team, we are honored to organize a unique expedition to this remote corner of the world.

We are equipped with sleeping bags and mattresses. During the tour, you will stay in the nomadic family’s wooden houses. And in Olgii you can choose optionally to stay in a hotel or homestay in a typical Kazakh family.

The hotels are quite comfortable with the local standards, but not the international ones. Here you can have your own privacy and private shower. But due to the festival days, the hotels will be full and might be noisy.

And alternatively, you can stay with the local family and be their guest. Their homes are quite comfortable and people are very hospitable.

The weather in this area changes really fast. In the daytime, it can be sunny and warm, but when the sunset it gets cold. We recommend you pack more extra clothes and be ready for all types of weather.

We highly recommend you join our group tour where you will be supported by the experienced team, and group tour is more enjoyable where you can meet new friends. And it is price effective.

During the trip, you will be supported by local experienced guides. The team consists of an English-speaking tour guide, experienced driver, and expedition cook. Discover Altai team has representatives in all positions of the tour. We take excellent care of our guests.

Backpack, headlight, warm clothes, hat and gloves, waterproof jacket and pants, towel, personal medicine, cream, power bank.

As you know the Golden Eagle Festival is one of the biggest festivals in Mongolia. And we highly recommend you book your tour ASAP. The main problem can be getting domestic flight tickets. They are limited in this period of the year. So, please hurry up!

Our experienced chefs will serve you three times meals a day including international as well as traditional receipts. Fresh water and snacks are included too

Tour Price includes

All accommodation: traditional yurt
All transportation /+Fuel/
Domestic flight round trip
English-speaking tour guide
Expedition cook Eat & Drink (Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner Bottled water and snacks)
All Camping & Cooking equipment
Golden Eagle Festival tickets
Stay at eagle hunter’s family
Invitation Letter for Visa
Pick-up and drop-off services
National Park permits and all fees during the trip.

Tour price excludes

International airfare
Personal needs
Alcohol drinks
Excess baggage fee (15 kg domestic flights )
Travel Insurance
Gratitude

Please Come & Enjoy the Best-planned Mongolian Adventure

Book Now

Tour Price & Scheduled dates:

Tour Price

2PAX – 3200 USD p/p
3PAX – 2800 USD p/p
Join the group – 2300 USD p/p

Cancellation Policy:

·        Cancellation more than two months fee would be 400 USD
·        Cancellation more than 45 days fee would be 500 USD
·        Cancellation less than a month before departure will 600 USD
·        And rest of the payments will be return back.

How to BOOK?

Confirm with our tour itinerary
Agree with terms and conditions
Set the tour departure date
Deposit 600 USD per person
Send us a copy of your passports

Please join us for the Annual Golden Eagle Festival Tour 2024. We are a tour agency that has based in Bayan-Ulgii province and we have a close relationship with the local eagle hunter community.

Only with us, you can experience the true taste of nomadic traditions. The tour will start on 30th September and finish on 7th October. It is an all-included package tour with an experienced support team.

Come and enjoy the unforgettable Golden Eagle Festival with the Discover Altai team. See you at the Festival!

If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact us!

Get Booking Now

TOUR INFO

What to expect from the Golden Eagle festival?

At the Golden Eagle Festival, Eagle Hunters will be exhibiting the traditional Kazakh arts of eagle hunting and participating in a number of traditional nomadic horse games, camel races, and archery competitions.

The Eagle Hunters show off their traditional Kazakh clothes called “shapans“, which display a number of beautiful Kazakh designs and styles. The games being played are called “Kokpar“, where two men on horseback wrestle over the skin of a goat, racing through the steppe. “Tyin ilu“, or coin taking, is where the participants race through the steppe, picking up coins along their path.

Specially trained golden eagles will be competing in the two-day festival. For the first day, the eagle will fly from the hillside and land on its master’s arm. On the second day, the eagle will descend and grab hold of a fox skin being held by the professional golden eagle hunter.

For the competition, awards and prizes are given to those eagle hunters and their magnificent golden eagles based on speed and skill. Come and enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime experience with the Discover Altai Team!

Hunting with eagle

The art of eagle hunting has been practiced for centuries in Eurasia. It is traditionally passed down from father to son, and today it can be visited in the remote corners of the Altai Mountains.

The Bayan-Ulgii province of Mongolia is the westernmost part of the country, where lives nomadic Kazakhs who are famous for their hospitality and traditional hunting with the golden eagles. There are currently over 250 eagle hunters. And the biggest golden eagle festival takes place in this province every first weekend of October.

Nomadic Kazakhs treat the eagle like a member of the family and they believe that when you have an eagle, evil will stay away from the family. The boys learn to hunt with eagles at the age of 10-13 and in the beginning, they will watch how their father or uncle trains his eagles.

The best time to visit an eagle hunter’s family

The best time to visit an eagle hunter’s family is from mid-September to March. Discover Altai team offers you a variety of eagle hunting tours in western Mongolia. Hunting with an eagle is an honor for men and a majestic connection between birds and people. It used to be a way to get meat and skin, but nowadays it’s more of a traditional sport.

The eagle hunters capture the eagle from their nest which is located on a high and steep rock. On average, eagles live 30 to 40 years. And hunters release their eagles after 5-8 years. It’s always an emotional moment when the eagle hunter releases his eagle. Therefore, for this, they choose a new and distant place to set themselves free in wild.

Eagle hunters only use female eagles because they are much larger and more aggressive. Their main prey is mammals such as foxes, hares, and marmots. The wingspan of the eagle reaches two meters, and the weight is about 6 kilograms. It is not easy to train an eagle, in the summer it needs to be fed daily, and they really eat a lot. This helps them change their feathers yearly and get ready for hunting season in mid-September.

In western Mongolia, you can also meet falconers who hunt with their specially trained falcons. Falcons are faster and are the best option when you are going to hunt small animals like hares.

Golden Eagle Festival

More than a hundred eagle hunters compete in the annual competition of Golden Eagle Festival and demonstrate their hunting skills. The competition consists of two stages, in which the eagle hunters call the eagle from the hillside. Prizes will be awarded based on several factors such as flight speed, prey detection accuracy, dive technique, and destination.

How to become an eagle hunter?

First of all, you need passion and learn more about magical creatures like the golden eagle. It is also important to be a shepherd who lives in a large area and will hunt with his eagle in the mountains on horseback. But you always can visit western Mongolia and our Discover Altai team will guide you to the remotely located eagle hunter’s family where you can be a part of real eagle hunting.

This is a package tour with a local support team. Also, the tour itinerary includes trekking on horses and visiting a nomadic eagle hunter’s family. Come and Enjoy the gorgeous Mongolian Altai!