It took owner Jalsa Urubshurow three years of deliberations with local nomads to find the perfect place to create this remarkable, sustainable hotel.
Near Mongolia’s spectacular, fossil-rich Bayanzag (known as The Flaming Cliffs) and backed by the Altai Mountains, it opened in 2002 and immediately brought radical new ideas about both comfort and conservation to the country.
Guests sleep in ‘gers’ – Mongolian round felt tents – which are decorated with gloriously hand-painted interiors and spaced around a stone property styled like a Buddhist temple, but equipped with a bar and snoozy armchairs.