What is your favourite place you've been to?

What is your favourite place you've been to?

Benedict Allen (Explorer) gives expert video advice on: Do you get nervous before an expedition?; How long does an expedition last?; How do you decide what expedition to do next? and more...

Maybe Mongolia. I love the open skies. Physically, Mongolia is the most extraordinary place. Huge skies. It's a very dry environment. Very high, actually, Mongolia. It's on a little plateau, almost. And it's a glorious place, and the fact that almost half the population is still nomadic is very exciting to me. You get a feeling as you ride or walk through that land that you're amongst friends, other people who are also moving around, just like you. So you have this sort of bond. And there's this wonderful open-hearted hospitality in Mongolia. You pass a ger, which is a felt tent, what some people call a yurt. They don't up there -- they hate the word -- they call it a ger. You're offered this hospitality, and it's like a super social security system, and the locals all rely on each other. They're spread very, very thinly over this vast country. It's the size of Western Europe. And it's wonderful to be introduced from one person to another over the course of, well in my case I suppose five or six months.