Information needed for Mrauk U
 

We are planning a trip to Burma and are interested in the new Princess Hotel in Mrauk U. Having seen that several people on the board have stayed there, we hoped that somebody might have a website address for the hotel itself. We have found an email address, but have not received a reply. We can't seem to find a website for the hotel. Some have indicated that it is affliated with the Princess at Inle Lake, but there is no link on their website (or any mention). Any help would be great. Many thanks!

I don't know of anyone who has stayed there yet, but we have reservations for November.

Remember that Burma exists in a parallel universe in which the internet is mostly worthless. Many hotels and most businesses have no online presence. Even in Yangon, the internet is iffy. Off in Mrauk U it is likely non-existant.

The resort is owned by the same person who owns the Princess resort at Inle. The only way to reserve is through a travel agent. Indeed, you'll find that you ned an agent to make your air and hotel reservations.

I've been blogging about the process of planning our trip to Burma, so you might find this helpful: www.travelindependently.com

BTW, there are lots of reliable travel agents in Yangon. We use Santa Maria. While they have pretty good internet access, even they recommend you re-send any email to them if you haven't heard back within 48 hours. Travel agents usually maintain a number of email addresses in case one or more get shut down. They also recommend that when you email them, you cc another of their addresses.

Thanks so much for the helpful information. If we don't get a reply to our emails, we will go the travel agent route (we had been planning to use an agent only for flights, since most hotels we could book online direct). Has anyone had good experience with Good News Travels in Yangon?

Booking online and paying with a credit card is convenient, but agents in Yangon will get you better hotel prices than the booking sites.

I've not used Good News, but I've seen it recommended over on Thorntree.

Many on this forum like Santa Maria and we loved Goldenrock Travel. Lucky for us, they had US counterparts (Burmese-Americans) who lived near our home, so we even met them in person before going. Felt VERY reassured. All went exceptionally well, as planned.

Many thanks again. One question regarding the lower rates that local travel agents can get for Burma hotels - could you directly compare rates on a per hotel basis?

Yes, that's what I did. When we went two years ago, I didn't know that a travel agent could get lower rates for me. I booked one hotel through an internet booking site in Thailand, another I booked directly with the hotel and the third through LHW (small luxury hotels of the world, of which the Strand is a member). I later checked with the agent and he could have saved me a little money on all except the Strand (because I got an automatic upgrade with my lhw membership, but without the upgrade he would have saved me money).

So before this trip, I checked rates again via various booking sites, and in each case Santa Maria could get a better price for me. It's not a huge amount - maybe $10 - $20 a night. I was ready to book any I could do myself for less, but ended up have Santa Maria book them.

landatravels, thanks for the heads up on the hacking. It wasn't the website itself that was hacked, our hosting provider's servers were hacked! They are aware of the problem and are in the process of figuring out how the hacker got in and are working on fixing it.

The website www.travelindependently.com is back up as is Cheryl's photo site, www.marlandc.com

Glad to hear your website is back up. It is a good read.

Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Kathie - thanks so much for the confirmation about better pricing using a travel agent. Very helpful to know. Appreciate your help!

I'm glad to be of assistance. Planning a trip to Burma isn't like planning a trip to anywhere else!

Kathie - sorry to post again on this, but we have been having challenges planning Mrauk U trip and hoped you might share more about your experience. Unless we misunderstood, we thought that the Princess Resort had its OWN (fast) boat that could be booked for pick-up/drop-off of its guests in Sittwe, allowing guests to arrive/depart via plane without having to overnight in Sittwe. We are being told we'd need to overnight in Sittwe when arriving from Yangon and nobody seems to know about the Princess Resort boat. Did we misunderstand what was possible? Many thanks!

Well, I'm scheduled to fly to Sittwe from Yangon, board the Princess boat, and get to Mrauk U by evening. Note that it is not a "fast boat " - i.e., speedboat, but it is faster than many of the small boats plying this route. The trick to getting to Mrauk U without staying a night in Sittwe is getting the earliest flight into SIttwe. We are flying on Mandalay Air.

Flylight, are you working with a travel agent? Our agent, Zaw at Santa Maria has made all of our arrangements.

When are you headed to Burma?

Kathie-I don't know if you are interested in getting to Sittwe earlier than the Air Bagan flight gets you there. If so, I am taking a 7am Air Kanbawza flight that arrives in Sittwe at 9am. That should get me to Mirauk U in the afternoon, before it gets dark.

Thanmks, Shelly, the Air Kanbawza is the earliest flight, the Air Bagan is the latest. We're happy with the time of the Air Mandalay flight