What is the best way to travel to Mongolia?

Whether as a volunteer or tourist/traveller, there are essentially two ways to organise a trip to Mongolia:

1. Do-it-yourself and use local services. Definitely the cheaper and more flexible option, but requires more time and effort. Getting easier to plan ahead as more Mongolian guest houses and tour operators go on-line.
2. Book an inclusive package from your home country. From outside Mongolia this can sometimes seem like the only way to do it, but tends to be much more costly. A good option if you don't mind paying to save time and hassle, but still don't expect everything to go perfectly to plan!

Obviously this website is aimed at helping people to go with option 1, but that might not suit everyone. If you want to go independently but feel you might need some support, some of the organisations advertising here may offer to help you in some respects, such as finding accommodation or picking up from the airport. There are more and more sources of information becoming available to help you decide what is right for you, and this website will try to point you in the right direction.