About Nurgajaiv
Born in Ölgii, Nurka was raised in a traditional nomadic Kazakh family, a heritage she is passionate about sharing with visitors from around the world. Throughout her childhood, she migrated seasonally with her family, moving between winter camps, spring and autumn pastures, and the summer highlands. Growing up surrounded by sheep, goats, cattle, and yaks, she gained first-hand knowledge of Mongolia's nomadic way of life, from herding livestock and milking animals to traditional dairy production and food preservation techniques that have been passed down through generations.
Driven by a genuine passion for cultural exchange, Nurka enjoys introducing travelers to the rich traditions, landscapes, and hospitality of western Mongolia. She specializes in creating authentic experiences, including visits with local Kazakh families and renowned eagle hunters, offering guests a unique insight into one of the world's oldest living traditions.
With extensive experience as a professional tour guide and translator, Nurka has successfully led both private and group tours for international travelers. Her deep local knowledge, excellent organizational skills, and warm, welcoming personality ensure that every journey is seamless, culturally enriching, and memorable. Whether guiding adventurous expeditions or immersive cultural experiences, she is committed to providing exceptional service and helping visitors create lasting memories of Mongolia.
Reviews
★★★★★
Nurgajaiv helped us organise a very short-notice trip to Baldan Bereeven Monastery in Khentii Province. She met us to discuss all details, helped us book the local accommodation which was impossible without knowing the language, found the loveliest driver who ripped through those off-road conditions with not a single grumble, even though we would despair at some stream crossings if we happened to be on our own. Munkhtur the driver provided extra camping gear, shared plenty of beautiful views with us we did not even know would be there, and generally kept us safe throughout our three-day journey through the steppe.
Nurgajaiv was highly honest with us about the prices of the gas at the time of our trip and helped us calculate the total cost, we did not have to stand in the very real and lengthy gas lines ourselves, everything was taken care of despite the fact that we only booked two days before the planned departure date.
Absolutely recommend if you want someone trustworthy, responsive, and bound to deliver without charging you an extra thousand.
P.s. don’t you mind our faces on the photo, everyone just woke up and the sun is oh-so-high, but I assure you everyone feels as happy as the driver looks.
thanks a lot
thanks for choosing our team
you are so beautiful
★★★★★
By and large the trip was fantastic. She understood the trip that I wanted to plan, and made a custom itinerary on the weekend of Naadam. She got my Naadam tickets, stay with a Nomadic family and other things that I wanted to do. The best highlight was my tour guide Bagii, he spoke English well enough and was knowledgable and enthusiastic which made my experience great. He was also accomodating to my own requests and did his best to do everything I wanted to despite some challenges of weather and event cancellation. Furthermore, the pictures Bagii clicked were fantastic and helped make the overall experience great.
The only reason I gave 4.5 stars instead of 5, is attributed to some miscommunication between her and the tour guide regarding who will be paying for what and how, and that everything was included already. It caused some confusion and wasted a little bit of time at the national parks and other places. Moreover, I was told we would get a whole day of horse riding whereas after coming there the family said that I couldnt go on for more than 2 hours. Bagii (my tour guide) managed to arrange more of it anyways and for that I am grateful, but I would expect better when I expressly wished for 6 hours of horse riding.
All in all, it was a great experience and I am happy I booked with Nurka.
Thank you so much for your thoughtful and detailed review! I’m very happy to hear that you enjoyed your trip and that Bagii made your experience special. I’ll definitely share your kind words with him — I’m sure they will mean a lot to him.
I’m also truly sorry for the confusion regarding the payments and the horse riding arrangements. I understand that you had specifically requested 6 hours of horse riding, and I appreciate your understanding and patience when the local arrangements turned out differently. We will take this as valuable feedback and work to communicate these details more clearly with our guides and local families in the future.
Thank you again for choosing to travel with us, and I’m very glad that despite these challenges, you had a great overall experience. It was a pleasure organizing your trip, and I hope to welcome you back to Mongolia someday!
★★★★★
Nurka helped us in organising our two week mongolia journey. It was an unforgettable travelling and we thank Nurka for her great work and effort. Mongolia is an amazing country and with Nurka‘s support we had the pleasure to experience it in an authentic and real way.
Thank you very much
Thanks for choosing us!
★
Booking a tour with Nurgajaiv, even if you pay a deposit, is risky as there's always the possibility of being charged extra or having your booking cancelled. It's not recommended.
I would like to clarify the facts.
The tour was canceled approximately two months before the scheduled departure because the actual operating costs in Mongolia—including fuel, accommodation, transportation, and other essential expenses—had increased significantly. After carefully reviewing the budget, it became clear that the agreed tour price would no longer cover the actual cost of operating the tour responsibly.
Rather than requesting additional payment from the client or delivering a tour that could not meet the expected standard, I made the difficult decision to cancel the tour.
I refunded 100% of all payments the client had made. As a result, the client did not suffer any financial loss, as every payment was returned in full.
After the refund was completed, I received no further communication regarding this matter. It is therefore disappointing to see these allegations being raised publicly after such a long period of time.
Everyone has the right to share their experience, but it is also important that the full context is presented. The tour was canceled approximately two months before the scheduled departure, and all payments were refunded in full. Given the circumstances, I believe that issuing a full refund was the most responsible and transparent course of action.
I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and disappointment caused by the cancellation. While I regret that the tour could not go ahead as planned, I took full responsibility by promptly refunding every payment the client had made.
★
Strongly warning against booking with Nurka - Highly unreliable and dishonest
I booked two 9-person tours with Nurka—one for October 2025 and another for June 2026. Right from the moment the first tour arrived, she started complaining that fuel and yurt prices had gone up, demanding extra money. Even though we had an agreed-upon price from the start, I ended up paying her an additional $200. I let it slide because I was hoping for a long-term partnership.
For the second tour, I double-checked and confirmed the price with her multiple times before quoting my clients and collecting their deposits. Yet, she went back on her word again. Since I had already taken deposits from my clients, I decided to absorb the extra cost myself because I didn’t want to ask them for more money. I repeatedly asked her for confirmation that there would be no more hidden fees, and she assured me that this was the final price and everything was fine. All I wanted was to ensure a smooth Mongolia trip for my clients.
However, just two months before departure, Nurka demanded more money yet again, using the exact same excuses: fuel hikes and yurt price increases. This is despite the fact that she had already accepted the deposit and explicitly promised not to raise the price again. This person’s integrity and credibility are completely unacceptable.
I told her that the price I charged my clients was based on her initial quote. Even after she kept asking for more, I paid it and got her written promise—multiple times—that there would be no further charges. And yet, she broke her word again. I still have all the emails, messages, and proof of deposit payments.
When I finally told her I couldn't pay any more because my income from the clients wouldn't even cover the costs, she canceled my tour—just two months before departure, and after already taking my deposit. She actually had the nerve to claim she is "a credible and responsible person" and would refund my deposit. I almost burst out laughing. Canceling a tour after taking a deposit is what she calls "responsible and credible"? She was the one who set the prices from the very beginning, only to repeatedly demand more money later. This behavior is completely dishonest and unethical.
To make matters worse, I just noticed that she is even using photos that I personally took to promote her business! Nurka, please take down all of my photos immediately. Thank you, Nurka, for teaching me the hard way that not everyone can be trusted.
I strongly do not recommend booking any tours with Nurka. I know she might try to deny or counter this, but I have saved all the text messages, emails, and chat history as evidence. Having traveled to Mongolia many times and collaborated with several local agencies, I can confidently say that Nurka is by far the most unreliable one.
★★★★★
We had a fantastic experience with our guide in Mongolia. Extremely knowledgeable and flexible, they accommodated all of our requests and made sure everything ran smoothly. Their insights added so much to the trip — highly recommend!
Thanks for choosing my team!
★★★★★
Nurka speaks wonderful English, she enjoys learning about you as much as she does teaching about her beautiful country. I had several special requests, I wanted to travel alone, I wanted to set up times to interview locals, I wanted to do everything in about 10 days- we packed it all in. From the moment she picked me up at the airport we maybe only spent a few waking hours apart, she was by my side supporting me and translating for me at every moment. We did so much there was barely time to sleep, but she did not ask for rest and it seemed to take no toll on her. I would describe her as willing to go hard for her guests, arranging special moments with the care of a family member. She bought us special naadam tickets, she brought me to nomads she knew like family- she grew up nomadic and the love for the culture permeated her tour and into my spirit. She had a chef available to us which made the sometimes difficult local cuisine more manageable. I would partner with Nurka for tourism, special photography projects, philanthropy, cultural study- we did everything in a short time. Call Nurka if you want to be led through this great country by a great Khan! She’ll tailor to your budget, dietary needs, activity level/comfort, and any special projects or events she will reshape her proposed itineraries to meet your desires. Use Nurka for any size trip to Mongolia, you will not regret it.
it was nice to meeting you. Thanks for everything.
★★★★★
She was helpful in creating a tour to lake Khusvgul that accommodated my limited time frame.
thanks for your rate and kind review
★★★★★
She planned everything and even if there was some kind of problem she solved it :)! Also she is very fun! Loved it.
★★★★★
Everything was perfect with my trip! Nurka has a special gift to combine professionalism with humanity! Se has perfect communication and understanding skills. Very adjustable and willing to help under all conditions. Whatever I needed she was there for me. I had a very tight schedule moving constantly from one place to another and Nurka and her partners were always there, outperforming! Thanks a lot for everything!
★★★★★
My friends and I spent 5 days in Ulaanbaatar in July 2024. We organized our flights and hotel ourselves and Nurka was very helpful in organizing our activities in Mongolia. She organized the airport transfer to and from the hotel and took us on a city tour in Ulaanbaatar. She organized a day trip to the Genghis Khan Statue Complex - Terelj National Park and we had lunch with a nomadic family. Another day we went to Hustai National Park and saw some Przewalski's wild horses.
The highlight of our trip was the opening ceremony of the Naadam Festival. Nurka was able to get us very good grandstand seats,
although it is very hard to get good tickets as they sell out very quickly. We had a very nice time in Mongolia and Nurka was very knowledgeable and helpful. We will certainly use her services again in the future. Thank you for a great time in Mongolia.
C
★★★★★
We had an unforgettable trip. The tour guide and the driver were two very friendly people who were always open to our needs and wishes and showed us the sights on the route,
showed from the most beautiful sides. Even small deviations from the tour schedule were made possible. We drove to the best places for photography and drone shots. A chance invitation to a nomadic family made us experience the great warmth of the Mongolians. I will remember what I experienced for a long time. Thank you Nurka.
R
★★★★★
I want to write a review for NurgaJaiv Khaivkhan. She was my guide on a tour I did in September 2017. The tour was in the western part of Mongolia. I would like to say that Nurka was amazing! She was very knowledgeable and professional. She was given a tour that was pretty crazy overall. The company did not give her the right information. There were two others that were part of the tour who were pretty hard hand to deal with. She was able to make everything happen and workaround the difficulties. She was yelled at and berated by other tourists but she was able to keep her composure and still give the best guide service to her ability. She loves her job and loves to show the amazing culture of Mongolia .
M
★
Dear fellow Travellers. I am here to let you know, visiting Mongolia is worth it. Unfortunately i had to experience this beautiful country with the worst guide i can imagine. In the beginning i was reading the existing reviews on this platform. I felt confident choosing Nurka as a Guide for my planned trip to Mongolia. I didn’t know what i had done… Please don’t book a tour with her, otherwise you will regret that decision. I am here to let you know that the most important thing for me is, to protect other travellers and let you know that Nurka is not capable of planning a tour in Mongolia. Your hard earn money is not worth spending with or for her. Greetings KO
I gave him Germany speaking guide. She was the worst guide I have ever seen. Than I do not work with her.
★★★★★
Very professional and easy going. Totally recommendable
Everything is going ok. The trip was great.
★★★★★
Going on this tour last summer was actually my first experience traveling internationally, and I could not have asked for a better guide. Throughout the tour, Nurka was extremely helpful, organized, and outgoing. She is one of the friendliest people I have ever met. If you have the opportunity to go on this tour, I would strongly recommend doing so.
T
★★★★★
I´m a photojournalist from Austria and do a lot of travelling.
I´ve been already 6 times to Mongolia and was very lucky that on the last 2 trips in the Altai Mountains Nurka was our Guide.
And she was the BEST GUIDE I´ve ever had on all of my journeys.
She was extrem good organized and I was also great fun to travel with her.
Hopefully I´ll come back soon to this beautiful country and meet Nurka for the next journey.
T
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