Mongolia

The world's coldest capital city (winter lows −40°C) holds roughly 45% of Mongolia's population on the steppe between Russia and China. Gandan Monastery with its 26m Buddha, Sükhbaatar Square, the Chinggis Khaan Equestrian Statue (40m stainless steel) an hour east, and Gorkhi-Terelj National Park 2 hours northeast for ger camps and Turtle Rock. Naadam Festival (July 11–13) is the peak cultural window — wrestling, horse racing, archery. Gateway to the Gobi Desert by train or flight. Best June–September.

The Gobi is one of the world's last great empty wildernesses — 1.3 million km of arid steppe, rocky outcrops, and gravel pans straddling southern Mongolia and northern China, ranked the fifth-largest desert on Earth. Only about 5 percent is true sand sea, but the dunes that do exist are spectacular: Khongoryn Els (the Singing Sands) climbs to 200 metres along 100 kilometres of the Gurvan Saikhan range. The Mongolian Gobi delivers three flagship sights — the Singing Sands, ice-filled Yolyn Am canyon, and the rust-coloured Bayanzag Flaming Cliffs where Roy Chapman Andrews unearthed the first dinosaur eggs in 1923. Bactrian camels, ger-camp nights under a black sky, and 4WD steppe drives define the trip.

Khövsgöl Nuur is northern Mongolia's Dark Blue Pearl — a 136 km long, 262 m deep alpine lake near the Russian border that holds roughly 1 percent of the planet's surface fresh water and is over two million years old. It sits at 1,645 m in a basin of larch-and-cedar taiga, ringed by 3,000 m peaks of the Khoridol Saridag range. The Tsaatan reindeer herders camp in the surrounding forest, reached only by multi-day horse trek from the gateway village of Hatgal. Summer means horse trekking, kayaking, and bird-watching; from January the lake freezes a metre solid and the March Ice Festival fills the surface with horse races and shaman ceremonies.