Mongolia may be the planet’s most sparsely populated nation but it’s not a destination of total dearth. The world’s second-largest landlocked country has the world’s only free-roaming herds of takhi — the last living species of truly wild horse — and even the world’s former tallest man. Now, this vast land of nomads is getting the Small Luxury Hotels treatment. Set on the borders of Gorkhi-Terelj National Park, near the birthplace of Genghis Kan, the Terelj Hotel Resort & Spa was once a summer camp for the Soviets. A multimillion-dollar makeover has transformed it into an 18th century-style “country palace,” that opens this month with an indoor pool pavilion, spa services and a shopping galleria.

Said pool, by the way, is heated. Terelj is, after all, located just 30 miles north of Ulaanbaatar — the coldest capital on earth, and, incidentally, the finish line of the 10,000-mile Mongol Rally. The jalopified answer to the Gumball Rally started simultaneously from London, Madrid and Milan, July 19, with teams put-putting toward the Mongolian capital in one-liter vehicles. (Half of them should arrive sometime next week — that’s how many usually make it to the finish line.) For more traditional contests, though, you’ve got plenty of time to practice for next July’s Naadam Festival of Manly Sports. The event hosts horse-racing, wrestling, archery and Shagaa — a manifestly masculine sheep bone-flicking contest.