I was in Ulaanbaatar for skiing and caving, but of course I also had to visit the local saunas and pools. I stayed at the Best Western Tuushin hotel and their spa had a sauna. And possibly the best hotel in town, the Shangri-La, has an entire sports club with 25 meter pool, saunas, etc.
The Best Western home page is here. The view from the upper floors of the 25-story Best Western is shown above.
The Best Western sauna visit cost 80 000 local (about 25€) for one hour private session, though for a group you could could get two hours including massage and sauna for two hours for 224 000 local. The sauna is nice but a bit small and with quite high steps. There's nice room to change clothes, but the room outside the sauna with saunas is a bit barren, for instance, no easy way to sit anywhere except a massage bed to cool off. The staff is friendly and there's usually times available for a sauna. They have actually two similar saunas.
The sauna was hot, very hot! Set to 111 degrees... you may wish to adjust/ask it to be adjusted a bit.
The home page for the Shangri-La is here and here.
The Shangri-La hotel has both saunas and pools, as part of the extensive Sports Club in the adjoining Shangri-La Centre. It is a typical gym, high-end though and popular among the westerners and local alike. There's membership options, but if you're in Ulaanbaatar just for a visit like I was, a one-time entry ticket is just 80 000 local, same price as the Best Western sauna but this time offering free use of the gym facilities, saunas, and everything they have.
The sports club has a 25-meter pool on the fifth floor along with dressing rooms. There's nice views from the pool to the adjoining amusement park, particularly at night. There's also a hot pool on one end of the big pool. Then the gym facilities are on floors 3 and 4, also with their own dressing rooms. The saunas and the jacuzzis are on those levels, so you may be better off putting your clothes in those levels (level 3 has men's, level 4 women's) and walk to the big pool.
Best Western pictures:
Shangri-La Sports Club pictures, first the setting:
Then the pools:
Entrance to the Shangri-La Centre and the Sports Club:
Entrance to the Shangri-La hotel itself, though it is connected via a tunnel to the Centre as well:
City pictures, first the main department store, the "State Department Store":
Then the really clever pedestrian traffic lights:
Some Ger (Yurt) tents made of ice, in the main town square:
I liked these lamb meet breads quite a lot. Ate them couple of times:
For more sauna and swimming stories, check out planetswimmer.com and saunablogger.cool websites! And of course the Planetcaver, and
This article was originally published in the Planetskier Blogspot article series.
"Mongolia is kind of close, right? Story about an attempt to ski everywhere in the world where there's snow. And in some places where there isn't. On and off-piste skiing on all continents, skiing into craters of live volcanoes, climbing, photography, and travel." The Planetskier blog focuses on skiing, caving, climbing, biking, flying, sauna, and swimming adventures around the world. See the other Planetskier blog articles about skiing, caving, urban exploration, climbing, cycling, flying, swimming, and saunas.