21 Day Itinerary to Myanmar - Looking for Suggestions
 

Hello Fellow Travelers,

I'm in the beginning stage of planning a trip to Myanmar in December 2017. I've come up with a rough itinerary and would love some input. This is my first trip to Asia. I'd like to do a 2D3N trek. I also want to see temples and the beach. I love history and nature. Let me know your thoughts on the itinerary below. Thanks!

Day 0 Fly there
Day 1 Yangoon
Day 2 Yangoon
Day 3 Mandalay
Day 4 Mandalay
Day 5 Kalaw
Day 6 Kalaw
Day 7 Kalaw
Day 8 Kalaw
Day 9 Ingle lake
Day 10 Inle lake
Day 11 Inle lake
Day 12 Bagan
Day 13 Bagan
Day 14 Bagan
Day 15 Bagan
Day 16 Ngapali
Day 17 Ngapali
Day 18 Ngapali
Day 19 Ngapali
Day 20 Yangon
Day 21 Fly home

Here is the itinerary of almost the same length we had in Jan. Feb. this year. Our interests are quite similar to yours.

--2 nights Yangon (we had just arrived in Myanmar from the US and were tired after the trip)

--1 night overnight at Golden Rock (highly recommended)

--1 night Yangon

--flight to Mandalay and 3 nights Mandalay

--all day boat trip to Bagan and 4 nights in Bagan

--drive to Kalaw and 2 nights Kalaw

--drive to Nyaunggshwe and take the 3.5 hour boat trip south to Inle Sanctuary http://www.inlesanctuary.com/ where we had 3 nights (highly recommended)

--boat back up to Nyaungshwe for 2 nights

--flight to Ngapali for 3 nights

--flight to Yangon to connect to a departure flight. We were lucky that we could get a flight in and out of Yangon the same day so we didn't have to spend another night there.

If we had it to do over again, we'd add one more night at Inle Sanctuary and at Ngapali.

We just did a day trek out of Kalaw and it turns out that, while lovely, it is kind of a defined circuit that all day trekkers do.

I think your proposed itinerary is fine. I would recommend that you consolidate all of your Yangon time to the end of your trip, flying onward to Mandalay as soon as you arrive.

I would suggest you look into going to Mrauk U rather than Kalaw. It is much less touristed. If you do that, put it near the end, just before Ngapali.

Thanks Julies! That's a very helpful itinerary. I have a few follow-up questions. I'm curious whether you found the Inle Sanctuary more of a place or relaxation or a place of activities/sightseeing (or maybe both!). I'm also curious how you booked the flight from Heho to Thadwe. I'm having a hard time finding it online. Was it pretty punctual? Finally, what type of transportation did you use to get to golden rock?

Thanks again! Your itinerary is super helpful!

Kathie,

Thanks so much! I'll look into Mrauk U as an option. I apppreciate your suggestions!

Inle Sanctuary--

We arrived mid-afternoon, and my husband was quite sick so we just relaxed that day. The next day we had a boat driver take us all round to the places to visit in the area (an interesting day all around). We ended this at perhaps 3:00. The next day the rotating five day market was literally right next door, so we walked there and visited for a while. We then took a self-guided hike (the owner drew us a map) of the local area for perhaps three hours--very interesting again. Late that afternoon/evening we took about a two hour walk around the local village and into the orphanage/school that is located in the village. We wished we would have had time to go out in the dugout canoe that is available for guests. The people in the room/cabin next to ours had another night than we had so they spent much more time just reading and relaxing than we did, and they went out in the canoe.

Golden Rock--We had a driver and a guide take us here. The journey up to the rock and spending the time overnight is definitely a unique part of the experience. We normally don't hire guides, but in this situation were so glad we had one to help us out and show us things we never would have experienced on our own.

I also am not one who normally uses travel agencies, but in this case we did and used Santa Maria. They arranged the guide and driver and also the flights you are asking about. We flew in and out of Thadwe. Flights were pretty close to being on time. The day of departure we then had perhaps 3 or 4 hours in the Yangon airport after our arrival from Ngapali and before flying out of the country.

Hello,

We had a very similar trip to you earlier in November last year, absolutely loved Myanmar and now is a great time to go.

My thoughts are that you have a lot of time in Yangon, we just had 2 nights and it was enough for us. I would suggest including Mwalamine if you can and a day trip to Ogur Island, the temple in the city at sunset was pretty special and we almost preferred it to Mandalay as that was just so busy. I don't want to confuse you but we did the following :

Yangon 1 night Be warned Shwedagon will spoil you for every other temple :-)

Mwalamine 2 nights
I would take a boat from here to HpAn, the temples in this area were wonderful, we didn't have time to to do the boat but my friend loved it. If so you could include a night i HpAn. We drove and the area still didn't disappoint.

We drove via Napitydaw ( worth seeing for its silliness but don't stay) to Inle

Inle, we had 3 nights. Include a trip out to the temples at Kaku if you can

Kalaw, 2 nights we didn't do the trek but really enjoyed Green Hill Elephant
Sanctuary

Mandalay (Via Pindaya) 2 nights

Bagan 3 nights

Ngapali 4 nights

We flew with Air KBZ from Bagan to Ngapali and then back to Yangon and booked via their web site, I certainly wouldn't cut it fine with booking flights, we were delayed 90mins into Yangon, no reason was given and I believe it is quite common. Not sure how you are planning to travel around, we had a fabulous driver who really looked after us and made the whole thing so much easier. Its not our normal way of traveling but it was definitely the right decision.