Meet our Local Team

About Sayat Travel

The Sayat Travel Company has officially operated in the tourism market since 2014 and focused on multi-day eco-friendly countryside tours in groups of 2-12 guests per trip. We are constantly evolving and getting better at refining our guest experience. Our team is made of local native people and we cooperate closely with the local nomadic communities that we visit such as the nomadic golden eagle hunters, Tsaatan tribe reindeer herders, and the camel herders of Gobi. This includes fair compensation which helps local communities’ livelihoods directly.

We also help them to produce and trade their traditional products such as souvenirs made of wool, skin and animal bones. We started exclusively in mountaineering tourism before expanding our offers 5 years ago to include more than 20 areas and outdoor activities all over the country, from fishing and climbing to photography and cultural exploration.

Sayat Travel is a team of like-minded people for whom travel is a lifestyle, as well as a way of meeting and understanding new friends.

Tourism in Mongolia is developed very unevenly – in some areas it is quite robust, in others it is almost non-existent. It is in those sub-areas that are not yet covered by visitors, which we direct our efforts towards.

Our work is our way of life, we cannot imagine ourselves without regular fresh air in the open Mongolian countryside. We treat guests of our tours not as buyers of the tour, but as real travelers, and together with them we are happy to discover the beauties of our land, always in a sustainable and eco-friendly way.

We help you understand everything we see and do – from natural and historical processes and phenomena, the animal world, to the nomadic way of life including people’s attitude to their environment and spirituality. We do not know how it could be otherwise, so all trips are enriching and interesting.

The Sayat Travel team based in Mongolia is 100% local and has spent years building personal relationships with the local nomadic families that we will visit.

Why Choose Us?

“Sayat-Travel” offers unique tours for all clients at an affordable cost. With us, you, the customer, are able to personalize each tour to meet your expectations. With our itineraries and detailed information about the tours, you have more options and can choose the best options for you.

Each tour crew consists of an English speaking guide, a driver and a cook.
The tour guides that we provide have great knowledge of the area and interact well with both customers and locals.
The tour guides can also speak Kazakh, Mongolian, and Russian.
We provide hot meals three times per day and have no problems providing food for vegetarians and vegans.
Our cooks are used to working with vegetarians so there are no concerns regarding special diets. Just let us know in advance.

We provide quality camping equipment and we choose the best hotels and restaurants.
Our tents are water proof and ready for any weather condition.
We provide matrasses with felt sheets underneath and our sleeping bags can be used for temperatures as low as -40 o C (- 40 o F).
Most of our tours use Russian vans. These sturdy cars have 4x4 drive and can fit a lot of gear and equipment. These cars are what Mongolia’s remotest places demand.
Our cooks are used to working with vegetarians so there are no concerns regarding special diets. Just let us know in advance.

For the last ten years, Erlan has gained experience working with filmmakers, photographers, and adventure throughout Mongolia.

Get to know our Local Team

We work closely with local nomadic people and our every tour is somehow connected with local nomadic families, who benefit from and are supported by this tour company.

“Welcome!” to all those who love travel, adventure and photography. It doesn’t matter how old you are, what your profession or political views are. The desire to study the planet, to be surprised and to know its beautiful corners is the decisive factor to join our routes. We are glad to every guest and do our best to become our friend!

- Erlan Shakhabai, founder of Sayat Travel

Mr. Erlan Shakhabai

Meet Our Founder

The founder of ‘Sayat Travel’, Erlan Shakhabai, is from a typical Kazakh nomadic family and has been working as a guide for the last ten years. He graduated university as an economist and English-Russian language teacher before he stepped into the Mongolian tourism market.

Since that period he has led hundreds of tours, helping filmmakers and guiding horse riding, hiking, climbing, boating and nomadic cultural visits for epic guest experiences from all around the globe.

Among these visitors have been photographers from National Geographic, Lonely Planet correspondents, and archeological researchers. During these years, Erlan has gained expertise in customizing eco-friendly tours all over Mongolia, working sustainably with locals, and building authentic relationships with his guests from abroad.