Mongolia Ice Festival group trip, February 2027

One day out of the city before we head north. We drive to Gorkhi-Terelj National Park, which in summer is full of tour buses and in late February is just you. Rock formations wearing snow, valleys so quiet you can hear the cold. We stop at the Aryapala Meditation Temple, then stand under the Chinggis Khaan Equestrian Statue, 40 metres of stainless steel staring east across an empty white steppe. There is a dressing room there with full traditional Mongolian kit, and yes, everybody does it. Back to the city for dinner. Night in an Ulaanbaatar hotel.

A midday flight north to Mörön, then about two hours on the road to Khatgal on Lake Khuvsgul, Asia's second largest freshwater lake. In late February it is a frozen sheet you can walk straight out onto. Gers look beautiful out here but cannot be kept warm at minus 30, so we stay in a heated lakeside lodge, with the whole white expanse out the front door. Night in the heated lodge.

The whole day happens on the ice. A horse-drawn sleigh across the frozen lake, the way people here have always crossed it in winter, then skating on a surface that runs to the horizon. When your face has had enough, the campfire. Night in the heated lodge.

An afternoon with a herding family near Khatgal. Salted milk tea inside their ger with the stove going, their horses and yaks outside, and the real answer to how a family gets through a Khuvsgul winter. On the way back we stop where the sculptors are finishing the festival's ice city, the day before it opens. Then look up. There is no town for a hundred kilometres and air at minus 25 holds almost no moisture, so the stars over Khuvsgul are the clearest most people will ever stand under. Night in the heated lodge.

The day the whole trip is built around. The festival opens out on the lake: the opening ceremony, the horse sled race, skating races, ice archery, musicians from the provincial theatre, and an ice city carved from blocks pulled out of the lake. There is an ice bar too, drinks on you. The province sets the programme each year, so the running order can change. After dark the sculptures light up, and the lake cracks and booms under everybody's feet. Night in the heated lodge.

An early drive to Mörön and the morning flight back to Ulaanbaatar, in the city before lunch. After lunch, cashmere shopping in the centre, because Mongolian cashmere is what most people take home. You get a hotel day room to shower, pack and rest. Then the farewell dinner, where the whole group tells the week back to each other, and the late-night transfer to the airport for the 03:35 flight.

Your direct flight leaves Ulaanbaatar at 03:35 and lands in Delhi at 07:05 the same morning, so you are home before the day has really started. We check you in at Chinggis Khaan International, and that is the trip. You will be cold for about a week afterwards and you will miss it immediately.