Inner Mongolia is a province shaped like a long scarf draped across the top of northern China, and most first-timers make the same mistake: trying to see both ends in a week. You cannot. The Hohhot grassland desert route in the center-west is the only realistic loop for seven days, and it is a good one — temperate grassland, a real yurt night, and the Kubuqi desert all sit within a few hours of the regional capital. This Inner Mongolia 7 day itinerary keeps you in that western pocket and uses Hohhot as the hub for every leg.
In our experience sending travelers out here, the grassland is the part people remember and the desert is the part they did not expect. We usually advise clients to open with the grassland (it sets the tone) and close near Ordos, where the rail network is good enough to get you back to a major airport without a long bus slog.
Day 1 — Arrive in Hohhot
Fly into Hohhot Baita International Airport (HET), 30 minutes from the center by airport bus (15 RMB / $2) or taxi (50 RMB / $7). Settle in the Xincheng district near the Inner Mongolia Museum, which has the best single display of the region’s history anywhere — the dinosaur fossils and the Mongolian cavalry exhibits are worth two hours. Walk the Dazhao Temple in the old town that evening; the silver Buddha and the incense smoke are pure steppe Buddhism. For hotel zones and the museum plan, the Hohhot travel guide is the place to start.
Day 2 — Xilamuren grassland and the yurt night
A two-hour drive north (charter a car for 400–500 RMB / $56–70, or join a tour bus from the tourism square) brings you to the Xilamuren grassland. This is the Inner Mongolia yurt night plan at its simplest: you sleep in a felt yurt, eat a whole lamb roasted over coals (split between four, about 60–80 RMB / $8–11 each), and watch a horseback or wrestling show put on by the herders. Mornings on the open steppe are cold even in July, so pack the layer you think you will not need. The genuinely good operators cap the yurts at a few dozen; avoid the ones with bus-loads of karaoke tents if you want silence and stars.
Day 3 — Grassland to the Kubuqi desert
Drive west toward Ordos and the Kubuqi desert, China’s seventh-largest and the closest sand sea to a major city. The transfer from the grassland is long (4–5 hrs) so we usually book it as a private car rather than a bus. Check into a desert camp on the southern edge of Kubuqi; the better ones have proper beds, not just tents, and a dining room that serves the region’s lamb hotpot. The Kubuqi desert guide explains which camp zones have the cleanest facilities and the best dune access.
Day 4 — Kubuqi dunes
Spend the day on the sand: a camel ride along the ridge (80 RMB / $11 for 30 min), a sand-sled run, and the cable car that lifts you to the highest dune for the sunset. Xiangshawan (Resonant Sand Bay) is the developed core, with a theme-park edge, while the wilder western Kubuqi is for self-drivers. Bring sunglasses and a scarf — the wind pulls fine sand into everything. This is the day the Inner Mongolia itinerary one week plan earns its “desert” half.
Day 5 — Ordos and the Mausoleum
Move into Ordos city (1 hr) and visit the Genghis Khan Mausoleum at Ejin Horo (70 RMB / $10, 40 min out of town). It is a ceremonial site rather than a tomb, but the blue-tiled halls and the guard regiments in period dress make it the most photo-friendly stop on the route. Ordos itself is weirdly modern — a wealthy coal-boom city with empty squares — and worth a wander for the contrast alone. Pair the day with the Ordos travel guide if you want to add the desert park at Xiangshawan properly.
Day 6 — Back to Hohhot, slow day
Return to Hohhot (2 hrs by high-speed train, 90–120 RMB / $12.50–17). Use the afternoon for the Five-Tower Temple and a proper Mongolian hotpot dinner — the Inner Mongolia lamb guide breaks down the cuts and the dipping sauces, and the local way is mutton boiled in plain water with scallion, then dipped in sesame paste. It tastes far better than it sounds. Save one evening for the Zhaojun Tomb light show if the season is right.
Day 7 — Depart, or plan the far east
Fly out of Hohhot, or take the train east if you are extending. A note for the ambitious: the far eastern end of the province — Hulunbuir grassland near the Russian border and the border town of Manzhouli — is a separate two-week trip and not reachable inside this week. The Site of Xanadu, the Yuan-dynasty upper capital and a UNESCO World Heritage site, sits between Hohhot and the northeast and is a good add-on day if your rail timing allows.
Want the Hohhot grassland desert route with camp contacts and train times? Build your booking list early, because the summer yurts fill by midday.
Inner Mongolia travel distances and buses
The thing that surprises visitors is the scale: Inner Mongolia travel distances and buses are the real constraint, because the scenic legs have no rail. Hohhot to Xilamuren is 2 hrs by road, to Kubuqi 4–5 hrs, to Ordos 2 hrs by train. The grassland and desert camps are reached by charter car or tour bus only — there is no public bus that drops you at a yurt. We tell clients to budget 400–600 RMB ($56–84) a day for a private car on the grassland and desert legs, and to treat the Hohhot–Ordos train as the one fast, bookable link. In summer the camps fill by midday, so confirm the yurt the night before; in shoulder season you can often walk up.
Best time for an Inner Mongolia itinerary
The best time for an Inner Mongolia itinerary is late June to early September, when the grassland is green and the daytime desert heat is bearable. July and August are the peak (Naadam festival season, school holidays, full camps); late June and early September are greener and quieter. The grassland goes brown after the first frost in September, and winters here are brutal — 25 below zero and a wind that cuts — so we do not send the grassland-desert loop in the cold months. If you specifically want snow, that is the far-north route, not this one.
Eating and packing
Food on this route is meat-heavy by design. Beyond the lamb, try the milk tea (salty, not sweet), the fried millet cakes, and the hand-pulled noodles at any roadside stop — a filling bowl is 15–25 RMB ($2–3.50). A typical day’s food runs 80–120 RMB ($11–17) if you mix camps with town restaurants. Pack for two climates: a windproof shell and a warm mid-layer for the steppe nights, a sun hat and a sand scarf for the desert days, plus solid shoes — yurt floors are dirt and dune walks eat cheap sneakers. The Inner Mongolia lamb guide is the one food read I hand to every client before they go.
Costs and practical notes
A realistic mid-range budget per person for seven days: transport 1,400–1,900 RMB ($196–266, dominated by private cars), hotels and yurts 1,800–2,400 RMB ($252–336), food 700 RMB ($98), tickets and camp activities 800 RMB ($112) — roughly 4,700–5,800 RMB ($658–812) excluding flights. The single biggest cost is the grassland and desert transfers, which is why we group them into one private car rather than two. Foreign visitors need their passport for the airport and for some camp registrations, and should carry a paper copy of the hotel booking — the steppe towns are not yet fully on the international booking apps, so a screenshot saves arguments at the gate.
My take
This loop is the Inner Mongolia most people actually have time for, and it delivers both halves of the province’s reputation: the open grass and the open sand. Keep it west, keep Hohhot as your hub, and resist the urge to chase Hulunbuir — that is a different trip, for a different year.
Lock the western loop? Book the dune day before you arrive so the camp is confirmed and the transfer is set.
Save this Inner Mongolia 7 day itinerary and add the Ordos and Hohhot guides to round out the week.