How many days to allocate in Bagan
 

We are planning a trip to Myanmar (Jan 2012), and trying to decide how many days/nights to allocate for Bagan. For reference we spent 3 days in Angkot Wat a couple of years ago, and found 3 days absolutely necessary (4 would be nice).

We spent a week at Angkor, but could only allocate 3 full days to Bagan on our first trip. We'll stop for another day and a half on our upcoming trip.

I'd say that three full days is good for a first visit. There are a couple of thousand temples - no way to see them all - so just consider that no matter how long you are there, you'll just see a sample.

How much time total will you have in Burma? Where else are you going?

There are a number of detailed trip reports on Burma here. Use the drop down menu above and choose Burma to see all posts about Burma. I have a report from Nov 2009 you can find by clicking on my name.

Thanks for the feedback. We will have roughly 1 week. Bagan is the place we really want to see, and we want to make sure we have adequate time for bagan before moving on to planning the rest of the week.

With a week, I'd divide my time between Bagan and Inle. For us, those were the two highlights.

I think three full days is a great amount of time to allocate for Bagan! At least it was for us and I think if I wanted to spend more time there, I would return for a visit. You can only take in so much each visit!

Unrelated to the OP's question but here is a link to an article in last weekend's Sunday Telegraph:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/de...ers-guide.html

Our initial (rough) plan is to visit Yangon, fly to Mandalay, boat to Bagan before flying back to Yangon. We will do more research on Inle, although it will probably require us to stay more than 1 week in Myanmar. We do have some flexibility as we can cut Thailand portion of the trip shorter.

On our first trip, we spent most of our time at Bagan and Inle, and a couple of days in Yangon. We saved Mandalay for our second trip (coming up). Inle is really fascinating and unique.

Thanks for that article Crellston, very interesting

We spent 3 days in Bagan last year and could have stayed 4 or 5 days. But 3 full days didn't feel rushed.

Well we spent 6 days in Angkor and loved it and we spent 3 days in Bagan and could have stayed longer, even though it was my second trip to Bagan.

Angkor and Bagan are quite different in their impact on you. Something about Bagan haunts me to return. But its horses for courses and what I like you may not.