Myanmar, on request and subject to conditions
We take Myanmar enquiries, we assess each one against the situation at the time and for your specific dates, and then we either build a trip or we tell you we will not. We decline regularly. If the conditions do not add up to something we would be comfortable running, we will say so and we will not
Plan my Myanmar trip Read the complete guide
- Is it available
- On request, and often the answer is no
- Best time to go
- November to February
- Where we go
- Yangon, Bagan, Inle, Mandalay and the central corridor
- How many days
- 9 to 12 for a first trip
Read this first. Myanmar is not a destination we sell from a shelf. Since 2021 the country has been in a state of internal armed conflict and emergency rule. Parts of it are open and functioning. Parts of it are not. Flight networks, road access and hotel operations have all been reduced from what they were, and they change without notice.
Some regions are not available to us at all. Rakhine State, Chin State, Kachin State, large parts of Shan State outside the central lake area, Sagaing Region, Kayah and Kayin States and parts of Magway have been affected by fighting, displacement or access restrictions, and we do not route through them.
What is described on this site
The itineraries below are the routes we would run when conditions allow, in the central corridor that has remained accessible: Yangon, Bagan, Inle Lake, Mandalay and the towns between them. They are published so you can see the shape of a trip and decide whether to ask. They are not an inventory, and publishing them is not a statement that any of them can run on your dates. Every one is quoted only after an assessment, and the assessment happens each time, not once.
How we run Myanmar, plainly
Myanmar is not one of our own offices. Our own offices are in Japan, Vietnam, India and the Philippines. Myanmar is coordinated from our Hanoi office and run through long-standing local partners, guides and drivers we have worked with for years and know by name. We would rather say that than imply a presence we do not have.
Those partners are also the reason we can make an assessment at all. What we know about road access, checkpoints, hotel operations and flight reliability comes from people who live there, updated close to the time.
The short answers
| Question | Short answer | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Is it available | On request, and often the answer is no | We assess your dates and route before quoting. We decline regularly. |
| Best time to go | November to February | Dry and cooler. March to May is very hot. June to October is the monsoon. |
| Where we go | Yangon, Bagan, Inle, Mandalay and the central corridor | Several regions are closed to us and we do not route through them. |
| How many days | 9 to 12 for a first trip | Under 9 does not justify the flying time. |
| Entry | An e-visa, applied for online in advance | Rules and processing times have changed more than once. We confirm the current requirement for your passport and your dates. |
| Getting around | Domestic flights and private car | Flight schedules and reliability are not what they were. We build in buffer days. |
| Money | Effectively a cash economy | Foreign cards mostly do not work. We brief you fully before you travel. |
| Typical budget | $110 to $520 per person per day | Land only, excluding international flights. |
The full explanation is in our complete guide →
Eight routes we would run when conditions allow
- Classic Myanmar, 10 days: Yangon, Bagan, Inle and Mandalay
- Myanmar with children, 10 days: shorter legs, fewer temples, more river
- Kalaw to Inle on foot, 12 days: a two-day walk through Shan and Pa-O villages
- Romantic Myanmar, 9 days: three places, good rooms, very little moving
- Food and culture, 11 days: markets, monasteries, Shan and Burmese kitchens
- Boutique Myanmar, 10 days: the small number of properties that are genuinely good
- Myanmar in 14 days: the river, Mount Popa and the south to the Golden Rock
- Myanmar in 21 days: the same corridor, slowly, with the towns most people skip
Myanmar itineraries
Every one of these is a starting point, not a fixed departure. We change the length, the pace and the hotels to fit you.
Classic Myanmar: 10 days, Yangon, Bagan, Inle and Mandalay
Ten days along the central corridor is the standard first trip, and it works because the four places are genuinely different from each other:…
Myanmar with children: 10 days, shorter legs and more river
If the assessment comes back positive, Myanmar is a good country to travel with children for reasons that have nothing to do with attractions.…
Kalaw to Inle on foot: 12 days, two of them walking
The walk from Kalaw down to Inle Lake is, in our opinion, the best thing we can put into a Myanmar itinerary. Two days…
Romantic Myanmar: 9 days, three places, very little moving
We should say plainly that Myanmar is not an obvious honeymoon. The infrastructure is not what it was, the good hotels are few, and…
Myanmar food and culture: 11 days of markets and monasteries
Burmese food is the least known of the major Southeast Asian cuisines and it is a genuine one: fermented tea leaves, a family of…
Boutique Myanmar: 10 days and a very short hotel list
There is a version of this page on other websites that lists a dozen luxury hotels. We are not going to do that, because…
Myanmar in 14 days: the river, Mount Popa and the south
Fourteen days is where Myanmar starts to make sense. The four main places take ten, and the extra four days buy the river day…
Myanmar in 21 days: the same corridor, taken slowly
We should be direct about what a three-week Myanmar trip is now and what it is not. It is not the trip it would…
What is in every Myanmar trip we build
- A written assessment of the situation on your route and your dates, before any quote
- A route that stays inside the areas we consider workable, with the excluded regions named
- Domestic flights booked with buffer days, because schedules change and cancellations happen
- Local guides who are employed directly by our partners rather than sourced on the day
- Hotels and restaurants that are privately owned, chosen deliberately
- A full cash briefing, because foreign cards mostly do not work and the notes you carry have to be right
- Our Hanoi office and our partners in Yangon on WhatsApp for the whole trip
Planning Myanmar, in detail
What we would skip in Myanmar
This is the article that decides whether you should work with us, so we will write it the way we would say…
What to eat in Myanmar, and where
Burmese food is the least known of the major Southeast Asian cuisines and it is nothing like the one next door. If…
Myanmar for the first time
Most first-time articles on this site are about what to pack and how the trains work. This one has to start somewhere…
Myanmar month by month
Myanmar has three seasons and they are unusually clear cut. Cool and dry from November to February, hot and dry from March…
What a trip to Myanmar costs
Two things make Myanmar unlike anywhere else we price. The first is that it is genuinely cheap on the ground and genuinely…
Myanmar with children
The first thing to say is the thing that comes before the packing lists.
Frequently asked questions
Can we go to Myanmar right now?
Will you tell us if you think we should not go?
Is it ethical to travel there?
Which parts are closed?
How reliable are the domestic flights?
Can we combine Myanmar with another country?
Tell us roughly what you want. We will tell you honestly what works.
A named consultant in Tel Aviv, our own people on the ground, and a written plan you can argue with before you commit to anything.