UB has a host of souvenir shops aimed at Western and East Asian tourists. While the quality of the goods varies, the price is always high.
What
Traditional clothes, boots and hats, cashmere garments, jewelery, leather wall hangings, miniature gers, bow and arrow sets and paintings.
Where
Peace Avenue and the Circus area are the main shopping areas.
The 5th floor of the State Department Store has a section with souvenirs, but prices are higher than in some of the smaller stores.
The Naran Tuul (AKA Black Market), known to locals simply as zach (зах), is the place to haggle over cheap clothes, toys, swords or soviet propaganda pins. Only take a minimum of cash with you in a money belt or inner jacket pocket and leave all valuables at your accommodation, as pickpockets are common here. It's a 10 minute bus or taxi ride from the city center.
How to get cash
Tellers at the Golomt Bank can give up to USD500 per day cash advance on Mastercard and Visa.
The only ATM machine to accept CIRRUS cards is the one at the airport.
It is relatively easy to find an ATM with a VISA logo to withdraw cash. As long as your ATM, debit or credit card has the VISA logo, you can withdraw tögrög, the local currency. Other card types are also accepted, simply not as widely, for example, the machines in the central Post Office and main street will not accept foreign MasterCards although they bear the logo. The machines in Golomt Bank branches are more reliable. Also on the 2nd floor of the State Department Store you can find on ATM accepting foreign cards. The more expensive shops take credit cards, but almost everywhere else runs strictly on cash. Note that most credit card companies will pass on the 3% "foreign currency conversion fee" to you.
There are many exchange offices in the center along Peace Avenue to change your currency into tugrugs. One is on the ground floor of the State Department Store. Better rates are at the Exchange Center on the second floor of the Flower Center. The Flower Center is located on Peace Ave. one block west of the Post Office. At the corner with traffic lights between the Post Office and State Department Store. Large Hotels like the Ulaanbaatar Hotel one block east of Sükhbaatar Square will exchange money 24/7 at the reception, which may be your only option if you arrive very late in the day.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Ulaanbaatar
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Ulaanbaatar - updated Apr 2024
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