Myanmar with children
The first thing to say is the thing that comes before the packing lists.
Myanmar is available from us on request and subject to conditions on the ground, and the assessment we make before quoting a family trip is a stricter one than the assessment we make for two adults. Medical facilities outside Yangon are limited. Domestic flights are less reliable than they were. Conditions change without notice and some regions are not available to us at all. All of that is manageable for adults with time and flexibility, and all of it is heavier when a seven-year-old is involved.
So we will tell you plainly whether we think your dates and your route work with children, and sometimes the answer is that they do not, or that they would work far better in Thailand this year. That is a conversation we have often. The general position is set out in our complete Myanmar guide.
If the answer is yes, this is what a family trip here actually looks like.
What Myanmar does well with children
The people. This is not a small thing and it is the reason families who come here talk about it afterwards. Children are welcomed, approached, spoken to and looked after in Myanmar in a way that is unusual even by Asian standards. Your children will be the most interesting thing in a village, a market or a monastery courtyard, and the interaction is warm rather than transactional. Older children notice this and it changes how they travel.
Boats. Every good family day in Myanmar has a boat in it. The long boats at Inle, the day boat on the Irrawaddy, the short ferry to Inwa, the canal to Indein. Children who will not walk around one more temple will sit on a boat for three hours quite happily.
E-bikes at Bagan. Electric scooters are how everybody gets around the temple plain. A teenager can ride one, and a younger child rides behind a parent. It converts the hardest sell of the trip, a day of ancient brick buildings, into a day of going somewhere on a vehicle.
Markets and street food. Cheap, quick, full of things to look at, and the food is not spicy by default, so ordering is easy. Fritters, noodle bowls, fried things on sticks, and the sweet milky tea in the tea shops, which most children like immediately.
Horse carts and small ferries. Inwa by horse cart is a genuinely good hour and children love it.
Workshops you can put your hands in. The lacquerware workshops around Bagan, the silversmiths and the lotus-fibre weavers at Inle, the umbrella and paper makers at Pindaya when it is running. Twenty minutes of watching and being allowed to try something beats an hour of being told about a temple.
Space to be a child. Almost nowhere in Myanmar is crowded at the moment. Monastery courtyards, temple platforms and lakeside villages have room in them.
What does not work
The heat. This is the single biggest factor and it is not close. The central plain around Bagan and Mandalay regularly exceeds 104F (40C) from March to May, and even in the good season it sits around 84F to 90F (29C to 32C) by day. Children overheat faster than adults, complain later than they should, and recover slower. A family trip outside November to February is a hard trip and we will say so.
Bare feet on hot stone. Shoes and socks off at every pagoda, including the outer platforms and the long stairways. On a temple platform at midday that surface is genuinely painful and children will not tolerate it, correctly. This alone dictates the daily rhythm.
Road time. The workable route is spread out and the roads are slow. Mandalay to Bagan is about 110 miles (180 km) and takes four to five hours. Heho to the lake, Yangon to Bago, the run to Kyaiktiyo, all of them are hours in a car with nothing much to break them. Adults read. Children do not.
Temple fatigue. Four temples in a day is too many for an adult and is a disaster with a nine-year-old. Two, chosen for a specific reason, with a boat or a workshop between them.
The Kalaw walk, under about ten. Six to eight hours a day, two days running, in the sun, on farm tracks. Older children who walk regularly do it well and enjoy it, and the three-day version with a lighter middle day is the one to take. Younger children we would rather talk you out of. The detail is in the Kalaw to Inle trek.
Kyaiktiyo, the Golden Rock, with young children. An open truck up a mountain packed shoulder to shoulder, a climb at the top, and it is best in the evening, which means a night up there. It is a superb experience and it is not a young family’s day.
Internal flights stacked together. Each one is an early start, an unreliable schedule and a departure lounge. Two in ten days is fine. Three is too many with children.
What we change on a family route
| We change | From | To |
|---|---|---|
| Nights per base | Two | Three, so there is a day that is not a travel day |
| Number of places | Four in ten days | Three in ten days, usually dropping Mandalay |
| Internal flights | Two or three | Two at most, never on an arrival or departure day |
| The daily shape | Full days out | Out by seven, back by eleven, pool until four, out again |
| The hotel | Chosen for character | Chosen for a pool and a garden, in that order |
| Guiding | Every day, all day | Every day, half day, with the guide chosen for how they are with children |
| Sunrise | Every morning | Once, and it is worth the fight that one time |
The pool is not an indulgence and it is not a compromise on the itinerary. In this climate it is the mechanism that makes the itinerary possible, because the four hours in the middle of the day have to go somewhere and a hotel room does not work.
The guide matters more than anything else on the list. Our partners have specific guides we ask for on family files, because a guide who tells a nine-year-old the story of the nats and lets them ring a bell is worth more than any hotel.
The route built this way is Myanmar with children, 10 days.
Ages, and what changes
Under five. We would generally advise against it, and not because a toddler cannot cope. It is the combination of heat, road time and limited medical facilities outside Yangon. There are countries in this region that do this well and Myanmar is not currently one of them.
Five to nine. Workable in the cool season with the changes above, and the best of it is the boats, the markets, the e-bikes and the people. Three places, ten days, a pool, and no attempt at the walk.
Ten to fourteen. This is the sweet spot. Old enough for the Kalaw walk in its three-day form, for the four in the morning start at the Mahamuni, for the history to mean something. Old enough to notice that they are somewhere very few of their classmates have been, which is not a small part of it.
Fifteen and up. Travel the standard adult route with one extra night per base. Give them an e-bike at Bagan and a morning to themselves.
The practical briefing
Season. November to February, and we would not build a family trip outside it unless your dates are genuinely fixed. See Myanmar month by month.
Cash. Bring what we tell you to bring, in clean unmarked US dollars, and bring more than you would elsewhere. Cards work in very few places and you cannot solve a problem with a card here.
Medicines. Bring everything you might need, including children’s paracetamol and rehydration salts, in your own bag. Do not plan to buy it locally outside Yangon.
Water and heat. More water than you think, hats, high factor sun cream, and a genuine break at midday.
Food. Not spicy by default and chilli is usually served alongside. Rice, noodles, fried things and fruit are everywhere, and fussy eaters do fine. The Shan food around Inle is the mildest and the best.
The rules. Do not photograph soldiers, police or checkpoints, and make sure your children know that too. Do not raise politics with anyone who has not raised it first. Cover shoulders and knees at religious sites, children included.
Clothing. A longyi, the wrapped cloth worn by everybody, costs a few dollars in any market, solves the temple dress code, and is cooler than trousers. Children think they are excellent.
Related
- Myanmar: the complete guide to planning your trip
- Myanmar with children, 10 days
- Bagan in three days
- Myanmar month by month
- All our Myanmar trips
Frequently asked questions
Is it safe to take children to Myanmar at the moment?
Would you rather we went somewhere else?
Is ten days enough with children?
Can teenagers ride e-bikes at Bagan?
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