Free Things to Do in Ulaanbaatar
The best experiences that won't cost a thing
Free Attractions
Must-see spots that don't cost a penny.
Sukhbaatar Square (Chinggis Square) Free
Genghis Khan still rules Ulaanbaatar, his bronze statue towers over the plaza, flanked by generals and backed by Government Palace. Wedding parties pose. Schoolchildren swarm. Old men toss seed to pigeons. Surprisingly human, this Soviet-era space. Summer evenings turn it into the city's largest neighborhood park.
Gandan Monastery (Gandantegchinlen Khiid) Free
Free entry. Mongolia's largest functioning Buddhist monastery has buzzed with Tibetan Buddhist practice since 1835. The main courtyard costs nothing. The centerpiece is a 26-meter golden statue of Janraisig (Avalokitesvara) inside the Migjid Janraisig temple, which does charge a small entry fee. Yet the surrounding temples, prayer wheel corridors, and morning chanting sessions in the open-air courtyards are entirely free. Monks in burgundy robes glide between temples while pilgrims spin brass prayer wheels along the outer wall.
National History Museum Exterior and Museum District Free
Sambuu Street, from the National History Museum past the Fine Arts Museum to the Children's Park, forms a loose museum district. The outdoor spaces are free. Bronze monuments. Soviet-era sculptures. A small park. All accessible without paying. Walking this corridor shows how Ulaanbaatar frames its identity. Even if you skip the museums. The outdoor exhibits near the Natural History Museum hold reconstructed dinosaur replicas. Families love them.
Narantuul Market (The Black Market) Free
One hour. Zero tögrög. That is all you need at Narantuul, Ulaanbaatar's large outdoor bazaar that most foreigners skip because the name sounds odd. Don't. Inside, stalls overflow with traditional deels, hand-stitched boots, horse saddles, Soviet military surplus, and cashmere sweaters stacked like bricks. You won't pay a thing to wander. The scent of leather and damp wool punches the air. Vendors shout across aisles. Entire zones sell nothing but ger components, wooden doors, felt liners, collapsible roof rings. Nothing else in Ulaanbaatar matches this sensory overload. Free, memorable, and brutally alive.
Zaisan Memorial Free
The Soviet-era monument rises above southern Ulaanbaatar, honoring Soviet and Mongolian soldiers who died in World War II. The circular mosaic frieze at the top, socialist realist art at its most vivid, commands attention. From the summit, the entire Ulaanbaatar basin rolls back toward distant mountains. Ten to fifteen minutes up a staircase. No charge. Winter transforms it: smog blankets the city. Yet the memorial cuts through like a relic from another age.
State Department Store (НОМИН) and Peace Avenue Strolling Free
Peace Avenue (Enkh Taivny Urgun Chölöö) is Ulaanbaatar's commercial spine, east-west, nonstop action. The street pulls you in. Buses, walkers, hawkers, all moving. You can't look away. At the western end sits the State Department Store. Free entertainment. Five floors of Mongolian everything, cashmere scarves, knock-off headphones, felt slippers. The basement grocery smells of sour milk and dill. The top-floor food court hands you a window seat over the avenue. Nobody hustles you.
Free Cultural Experiences
Immerse yourself in local culture without spending.
Morning Prayers at Gandan Monastery Free
From 9am to 11am sharp, Gandan's monks launch into prayer ceremonies you can watch from just inside the temple entrances. You're not excluded, just observe respectfully. Horns blast. Cymbals crash. Deep-throat chanting rolls across the courtyard until the monastery feels alive, not museumified. This isn't a scheduled cultural show. It's active, unperformed religion, and that makes it matter.
Naadam Festival (Core Events) Free
Mid-July in Ulaanbaatar means one thing: the three 'manly games', wrestling, archery, and horse racing, take over the city for Mongolia's national festival. The main stadium events require tickets. Skip them. The real action happens outside, along the horse racing route at Hui Doloon Khudag meadow, about 40km outside the city, where the spectacle costs nothing. Traditional dress, food stalls, and national pride spill far beyond the ticketed zones. Total chaos. Worth it. Even outside Naadam, you'll catch smaller local events in ger districts and outer districts throughout July.
Choijin Lama Temple Museum Surroundings Free
The Choijin Lama Temple Museum squats behind a low brick wall, two minutes south of Sukhbaatar Square. You can walk the courtyard for nothing. They only make you pay once you step inside. That first sight, green and gold rooflines elbowing up between Soviet apartment slabs, hits harder than any museum label. It is Ulaanbaatar in one frame: Buddhist splendor grafted onto socialist concrete, still standing, still odd, still free if you stay outside.
Free Outdoor Activities
Get outside and explore without spending a dime.
Bogd Khan Mountain (Lower Trails) Free
Protected since 1778, the mountain range forming Ulaanbaatar's southern boundary predates most national parks by over a century. It is one of the world's oldest nature reserves. The lower slopes sit within walking distance from the city's edge. Hiking into the pine and birch forest costs nothing, though the core protected zone deeper in charges a formal entrance fee. Even a one or two hour walk up the lower flanks lifts you above the city's notorious air pollution. The forest is clean. Surprisingly quiet, too.
Tuul River Parkway Free
Most visitors never hear about it. But the Tuul River runs along Ulaanbaatar's southern edge and the informal parkway that follows parts of it has a rare bit of riverside green space in an otherwise densely built city. Summer brings families picnicking, teenagers fishing, the occasional person doing Tai Chi facing the water, a slice of local leisure life that most visitors miss entirely. The views south toward the Bogd Khan massif are decent from the riverbank.
Naran Tuul Area and Outer Ger Districts Free
Half of Ulaanbaatar still lives in the ger districts, those tent-and-timber hoods that ring the capital, and walking in costs nothing. Wooden fences box family plots into tight grids. Coal smoke claws your throat in winter; a goat eyes you from a fence post. This is the city they don't print on postcards, and it's magnetic. Nobody hassles you. They just watch, mildly curious, as you pass.
Budget-Friendly Extras
Not free, but absolutely worth the small cost.
National Museum of Mongolia $5, 7 for adults (foreigners pay slightly more than locals, which is standard)
This is honestly one of the better national history museums in Asia, the collection traces Mongolian culture from the Bronze Age through the Xiongnu empire, the Mongol empire at its vast peak, and into modern nationhood, with artifacts including original imperial-era armor, ancient deer stones, and extraordinary traditional clothing. It takes a good two to three hours to do it properly. The English-language signage is decent, and the permanent collection is well-curated.
Tsuivan or Khuushuur from a Local Guanz $2, 4 for a full meal with tea
Walk past any door in Ulaanbaatar and you might miss them, hundreds of guanz, the city's canteen-style restaurants, sit unmarked and anonymous. Inside, the menu rotates through Mongolian staples: tsuivan (stir-fried noodles with meat), khuushuur (deep-fried meat pastries), buuz (steamed dumplings), and rice dishes. The food is filling, unpretentious, and comes from kitchens that have been making the same dishes for decades. This is lunch as locals eat it, not as it is packaged for tourists.
Choijin Lama Temple Museum (Interior) Around $5 for foreign visitors
The Stalinist purges missed this place, only because Moscow turned the 1908 temple complex into an anti-religion museum, locking every thangka, mask, and golden statue behind glass. Inside you'll find the country's finest traditional Mongolian Buddhist art: intricate thangka paintings, elaborate Tsam dance masks, and golden statues that should have vanished. Five separate temple buildings cram the small compound. Each one feels different.
Riding Public Bus Routes Across the City 500, 700 MNT per ride (roughly $0.15, 0.20)
Hop on a creaky Ulaanbaatar bus and you'll cross the city for pocket change. A ride from the State Department Store east toward Bayanzürkh district costs essentially nothing and throws open a window, smudged, cracked, perfect, onto the real city. Soviet slabs slide into neon shop rows, then melt into ger district fringes. The buses are old, often crowded, and the windows are usually smudged, which somehow makes it more authentic rather than less.
Tips for Free Activities
Make the most of your budget-friendly adventures.
Our guide covers the best areas to stay in Ulaanbaatar for every budget.
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