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 on foot, roughly 30 miles (50 km), through Danu, Pa-O and Palaung villages, across ridges of tea and chilli and sesame, sleeping one night in a village house or a monastery, and arr
- Duration
- 12 days
- Pace
- Active
- Hotel changes
- 5
- Best months
- Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb
- From
- $2,160 per person
Available on request and subject to conditions on the ground. We assess each Myanmar enquiry against the situation at the time and for your specific dates before we quote, and we decline regularly. Large parts of Shan State are not available to us. The Kalaw to Inle corridor sits in the central part of the state that has remained accessible, and whether it is workable on your dates is a question we answer at the time rather than in advance.
Who it suits: walkers, anyone who wants at least one day of a trip earned on foot, and travellers who have done the standard route before.
Day by day
Day 1: Arrive Yangon. Met and driven to the hotel. Late afternoon at the Shwedagon Pagoda.
Day 2: Yangon. Downtown on foot with a guide, the circular railway, the markets. Street food in the evening.
Day 3: Fly Yangon to Heho, drive to Kalaw. An hour and a half up into the Shan hills to a town at about 4,300 feet (1,300 m) that was a hill station and still feels like one. Afternoon walk on the ridge above the town to test the legs and the boots. Kalaw is cold at night in December and January and people are consistently unprepared for it.
Day 4: Kalaw to the first night, walking. About 13 miles (21 km), most of it on tracks and field paths, with a total climb that is real but not hard. Danu and Pa-O villages, tea plantations, and a long descent in the afternoon. Night in a village house or a monastery, depending on availability and on what your group would prefer. Basic in both cases: a mattress on a floor, a shared bathroom, and a dinner cooked by the family.
Day 5: The second day, and the lake. About 12 miles (19 km), gentler, dropping steadily towards the plain. Lunch in a village. The walk finishes at a canal at the southern end of the lake and the last hour is by boat into Inle, which is the right way to arrive. Night at the lake.
Day 6: Inle Lake. A full boat day, and a deliberately easy one after two days of walking. Indein’s stupa field, the workshops, and the rotating market if the five-day cycle falls near you.
Day 7: Inle, free or by bicycle. A flat cycling loop around the northern end of the lake, or nothing at all.
Day 8: Fly Heho to Bagan. Afternoon among the temples, and sunset from a viewing mound.
Day 9: Bagan. A full day: the big temples early, the workshops in the middle of the day, and the small tracks in the late afternoon on foot or by e-bike.
Day 10: Bagan, river or Mount Popa. A morning on the Irrawaddy, or the half day out to Mount Popa if it is accessible on your dates, which we confirm rather than assume.
Day 11: Fly Bagan to Mandalay. Afternoon at Amarapura for the U Bein bridge at dusk, and Sagaing if there is time.
Day 12: Fly Mandalay to Yangon, connect home. Built with a long buffer, and with a Yangon night added instead if the timings do not work.
What is included
Eleven nights, one of them in a village house or monastery, all domestic flights with buffer, private car and driver, a local trekking guide who lives in the area and speaks the village languages, a porter for the overnight bags so you walk with a day pack, all meals on the walking days, the boat into Inle, all Inle boat days, entry and zone fees, a full written cash briefing, and a WhatsApp group with your consultant here, our Hanoi office and our partners in Yangon.
What the walk is actually like
It is not hard. Two days, roughly 25 miles (40 km) total, on tracks and paths with no technical ground and no altitude problem. Anyone who walks regularly will find it comfortable. The distance is the only demand.
What it is, is hot in the middle of the day and cold at night. The village night is simple: no hot water in most houses, a squat toilet, and a shared room. That is the trade and most people come back saying it was the best night of the trip.
The route passes through working villages rather than displays. We use one guide and one family network we have used for years, we pay village accommodation directly, and we ask you not to hand out sweets or money to children, which does more harm than people realise.
A three-day version exists and is a better walk, with a second village night and a quieter route. Say so if you want it and we will build the twelve days around it by taking a Bagan night out.
Honest notes
November to February is the window. From March the walking days are genuinely hot. In the monsoon the paths are mud and leeches and we would not run it.
This is the itinerary in our Myanmar library that depends most on the situation at the time, because it involves two nights outside the main towns. If our partners are not comfortable with the corridor on your dates, we will not run it, and we will say that rather than substituting something and hoping.
Five hotel changes and four domestic flights in twelve days is a lot of moving. It is the price of putting the walk and the four main places in one trip.
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