Originally Posted by
corporate-wage-slave
Beijing is indeed the best way, and I've done LHR-PEK-ULN, with an overnight stay. It is cheaper but incredibly slow to take a long distance coach from Beijing, or the train (30 hours), not that I've done either. Ulan Bator is pretty fascinating, if a little cold in the winter. You need some patience when dealing with transport there, they check passports and paperwork every hour, on the hour.
Thanks - I also just had a peek for reward availability for LHR-PEK (for 2014, as a benchmark for next year) and it is suprisingly good, compared to the routes for LHR - HKG. What airline did you fly from PEK-ULN if you don't mind me asking? £400pp seems quite a lot, but I definitely would opt for flying rather than any form of transport which is going to take a long time, and I am hoping to be able to use my 241 voucher for it which I suppose is a big saving in itself.
Thanks for the tip on the transport. I have always been an independent traveller rather than tours, but Mongolia seems to be one of those places where it's not really traveller friendly so probably best opt for a tour with a small group. How did you find it? Do let me know if you have any tour recommendations.