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 have been ten years ago, because the country that route would have crossed is not open. Mrauk U in Rakhine, the far north, the eastern Shan hills and the Kayah villages are all off the map
- Duration
- 21 days
- Pace
- Slow
- Hotel changes
- 8
- Best months
- Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb
- From
- $3,780 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 specific dates before we quote, and we decline regularly. Several regions are not available to us.
What three weeks does buy is depth in the corridor that is open. The four main places at a genuinely slow pace, the river taken twice, the towns between them that ten-day routes drive past, the walk from Kalaw, and enough slack for two flight cancellations rather than one.
Who it suits: travellers with three weeks, second or third visits, walkers, and anyone who prefers one country slowly to three quickly.
Day by day
Yangon and the south, days 1 to 6
Day 1: Arrive Yangon. Met and driven to the hotel. Evening at the Shwedagon Pagoda.
Day 2: Yangon. Downtown on foot, the circular railway, the markets, the reclining Buddha.
Day 3: Yangon, free. A second city day with nothing scheduled: the wet market at dawn, a cooking session, or a day off after the flight.
Day 4: Yangon to Bago and Kyaiktiyo. Bago’s pagodas and reclining Buddha, then the open truck up the mountain to the Golden Rock. Night on the mountain.
Day 5: Kyaiktiyo at dawn, to the delta or back to Yangon. The rock at first light with the pilgrims, then down. Depending on conditions, either a night in the Ayeyarwady delta or back to Yangon.
Day 6: Return to Yangon. A slow day, a last dinner in the city.
Bagan, days 7 to 11
Day 7: Fly Yangon to Bagan. Afternoon among the temples, sunset from a viewing mound.
Day 8: Bagan. The main temples at first light, the lacquerware workshops, and the small tracks in the late afternoon.
Day 9: Bagan, the villages. Beyond the archaeological zone: toddy, palm sugar, peanut oil, a village lunch, and Salay’s monasteries and old timber houses if they are accessible.
Day 10: Mount Popa, or a spare day. The volcano and the monastery on the rock plug if it is workable on your dates, which we confirm rather than assume. Otherwise a third temple day or nothing.
Day 11: Bagan, free. Nothing scheduled. Five nights at Bagan sounds like too many and is not.
Mandalay and the river, days 12 to 15
Day 12: Bagan to Mandalay by river. The day boat up the Irrawaddy, nine or ten hours, where the service is running. Where it is not, the four to five hour drive over about 110 miles (180 km).
Day 13: Mandalay and the old capitals. The Mahamuni at four in the morning for the face-washing ceremony. Sagaing, Inwa by horse cart, and U Bein bridge at dusk.
Day 14: Mingun and the workshops. A morning boat upriver to Mingun. Afternoon among the gold leaf beaters, stone carvers and marionette makers.
Day 15: Mandalay to Pyin Oo Lwin, or a free day. The old hill station two hours east and about 3,500 feet (1,070 m) up, with its botanical gardens and its market, if it is accessible on your dates. Otherwise a free Mandalay day.
Kalaw, the walk, and Inle, days 16 to 21
Day 16: Fly Mandalay to Heho, drive to Kalaw. Up into the Shan hills. Afternoon walk on the ridge above the town.
Day 17: Kalaw, walking day one. About 13 miles (21 km) through Danu and Pa-O villages and tea terraces. Night in a village house or a monastery, simple in both cases, with dinner cooked by the family.
Day 18: Walking day two, arriving at the lake. About 12 miles (19 km), gentler, finishing at a canal at the southern end of Inle and the last hour by boat.
Day 19: Inle Lake. A full boat day: Indein, the workshops, the rotating market if the five-day cycle falls near you.
Day 20: Inle, free. A cycling loop at the northern end, the vineyard on the eastern hills, or nothing.
Day 21: Fly Heho to Yangon, connect home. With a long buffer, and a Yangon night added instead if the timings do not work.
What is included
Twenty nights including one in a village house or monastery and one on the mountain at Kyaiktiyo, all domestic flights with buffer, the Irrawaddy river day or the drive where the boat is not operating, private car and driver throughout, English-speaking local guides on the days that need them and not on the free days, a local trekking guide and a porter for the walk, all boat days, entry and zone fees, a full written cash briefing before departure, and a WhatsApp group with your consultant here, our Hanoi office and our partners in Yangon.
What is not in this route, and will not be
Mrauk U, in Rakhine State, is not available and we do not offer it. Ngapali beach, also in Rakhine, is not available. Chin State, Kachin State, the northern and eastern Shan hills, Sagaing Region, Kayah and Kayin States and parts of Magway are all outside what we will run.
The Gokteik viaduct train and Hsipaw, which used to be a standard part of a three-week route, sit beyond what we consider workable at present. If that changes we will say so.
We list these because a three-week itinerary that does not mention them looks like an oversight, and it is not one.
Honest notes
Eight hotel changes over twenty-one days is a slow pace by our standards. Six of the twenty-one days have nothing scheduled. That is deliberate: with four internal flights and a river service that is not guaranteed, slack is the thing that makes a long Myanmar trip work.
Three weeks in Myanmar is a lot of one country under current conditions, and it is a country where the infrastructure, the connectivity and the medical facilities are all below what most travellers are used to. If a fortnight here and a week in Thailand would suit you better, we will say so.
Everything is cash for the full three weeks. That is a substantial sum to carry and the briefing we send covers exactly how much, in what denominations and in what condition the notes need to be.
Related
Shape this trip around us All Myanmar, on request and subject to conditions trips