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 the country is not in a settled state. What it does have, for two people who want something other than a beach, is a set of places that are genuinely quiet, early morni
- Duration
- 9 days
- Pace
- Slow
- Hotel changes
- 3
- Best months
- Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb
- From
- $2,700 per person
Available on request and subject to conditions on the ground. We assess every Myanmar enquiry against the situation at the time and for your dates before we quote, and we decline regularly. Several regions are not available to us and none of them are in this route.
This is a nine-day route with three bases, one internal flight fewer than the classic, and long stretches with nothing scheduled.
Who it suits: couples who have travelled in Asia before, anniversaries, and anyone who would rather have three quiet places than five busy ones.
Day by day
Day 1: Arrive Yangon. Met and driven to the hotel. Nothing scheduled. Late afternoon and into the evening at the Shwedagon Pagoda, which is the right first hour of any Myanmar trip and which after dark is quieter and better than at any other time.
Day 2: Yangon. A slow morning. Downtown on foot with a guide for two hours rather than a full day, then lunch, then the afternoon free. Dinner at a Burmese kitchen we use rather than at the hotel.
Day 3: Fly Yangon to Bagan. Afternoon among the temples. One or two, chosen for quiet rather than for size, and sunset from a viewing mound away from the main one.
Day 4: Bagan. Out at first light with a guide, when the plain is at its best and the mist sits between the stupas. Back to the hotel by mid-morning. The middle of the day is deliberately empty. Late afternoon on the sandy tracks between the smaller temples, on foot, which is when Bagan stops feeling like a site and starts feeling like a place.
Day 5: Bagan, river. A private boat on the Irrawaddy in the late afternoon, with a table on deck and the light going down over the temples from the water. This is the best two hours we can arrange for two people in Myanmar and it costs a fraction of what its equivalent would anywhere else.
Day 6: Fly Bagan to Heho, drive to Inle. An hour on the road to the lake. Afternoon on the water in a private boat, slowly, out to the far southern villages where the day boats do not go.
Day 7: Inle Lake. A full free day. Indein in the early morning before the boats arrive, then nothing. A hotel over the water rather than in the town, which on this lake is worth the difference.
Day 8: Inle. Second free day. A vineyard on the eastern hills above the lake for the afternoon, which is a genuine working estate and an unlikely and pleasant place to spend three hours, or a cycling loop at the northern end, or neither.
Day 9: Fly Heho to Yangon, connect home. With a long buffer between the domestic and international legs, and a Yangon night added instead if the timings do not work.
What is included
Eight nights across three hotels chosen for the room rather than the brand, all domestic flights with buffer, private car and driver, English-speaking guides on the mornings that need one and not on the days that do not, a private boat at Bagan and a private boat at Inle for the whole stay rather than shared day boats, entry and zone fees, restaurant bookings, a full written cash briefing, and a WhatsApp group with your consultant here, our Hanoi office and our partners in Yangon.
Where the money goes
The good hotels in Myanmar are a short list and it got shorter after 2021. In Bagan there are perhaps four we would put a couple in, and at Inle three, and the difference between those and the next tier down is larger than it would be in Thailand or Vietnam. On a romantic trip that is where we spend the budget, and it is why this route is quoted at the boutique day rate rather than the comfortable one.
The private boat at Inle is the second thing worth paying for. A shared day boat runs the standard circuit at the standard times. A private one lets you be at Indein at seven in the morning and on the water at six in the evening, which is a different lake.
Honest notes
Myanmar has no beach in this itinerary. Ngapali, which would have been the answer, is in Rakhine State and is not available to us. If a honeymoon needs a beach at the end, we would put Thailand after this rather than pretend otherwise.
The country is not in a settled state and we do not think that should be glossed over in a page about a honeymoon. If the idea of travelling somewhere under emergency rule does not sit right, that is a reasonable position and we would rather you reached it before booking than during.
Everything is cash. On a trip at this level that is a meaningful sum to carry, and the briefing we send covers exactly how much and in what notes.
Related
Shape this trip around us All Myanmar, on request and subject to conditions trips