Definitely the best trip / tour of my life up to date. This was back in 2023 when there are very few tourists in Mongolia. I believe this was around August which is around the best time to go there.
I had a nine day tour which explores the Gobi desert, Flaming Cliffs, Yol Valley, Orkhon Valley, Singing Dunes, Kharkhorin alongside staying at different ger (yurts) every night and meeting Mongolian families. Then I spent a full day exploring Ulanbataar + Terelj National Park. Their museum is huge and immersive despite being very difficult to navigate in terms of translations.
I went with Sunpath Mongolia. It was short of a thousand bucks back then for 9 day tour, inclusive of everything (except gratuities of course). Quite "intimate" since we have a small group of 4 (and another group of 3 we were with for the first five days).
The toilet situation back then was the usual "hole-on-the-ground-you-need-to-squat" type of toilet. You will get used to it. Just bring a portable bidet and a jacket because it gets really cold at night and during the morning. It might have improved currently with a few Western toilets here and there but the families we went to are "real nomads" who would move around 3-4x a year from what I recall. So, unless you go to the touristy "nomad camps" and selected those specifically, you wouldn't get Western toilets. But this is one of the reasons I loved it so much because of how adventurous and raw it felt. It just felt like a summer camp with strangers in the middle of nowhere.
The food is so-so. It's the usual Central Asia / Mongolia type of food which are basically mutton or beef. It was fine. Not my cup of tea but you'll get used to it. Has little to no spices due to geography and way-of-living so our guide brought some liquid seasoning lol. You should try their "milk tea" which is literally a mixture of fresh milk and some tea. Not sure if you want to try the airag or kumis which is fermented horse milk. Never liked it here and never liked it in Kyrgyzstan as well.
I feel like the experience here is much more intimate than my Kyrgyzstan tour. Maybe because it is three years apart and Mongolia wasn't as touristy (still not that much) compared to today. But probably also because our tour operator is pretty good for a good value. Every night, we were able to interact with the families where we stay (we move around and only stayed twice on the same place once). We had to experience a Mongolian BBQ party and played some games and drank vodka til 3AM in the morning with a Mongolian family. You get to milk some goats, ride camels and horses, climb sand dunes, and play volleyball (all the local love this)! It's lovely to see the night sky (without clouds) and just the stars.
I think these are the kind of trips I will always hold close to my heart and will tell my grandkids that I get to ride a camel and a horse across the Mongolian steppes once in my life.