Best things to do in Myanmar (Burma)

Wherever your itinerary takes you, travel in Myanmar (Burma) is sure to provide a wealth of new exotic experiences – whether you’re air-kissing at your waiter in a city teahouse or witnessing your first nat ceremony. To mark the release of our first guide to the country, we've picked the best things to do in Myanmar.

The information in this article is inspired by The Rough Guide to Myanmar (Burma), your essential guide for visiting Myanmar.

1. Eat breakfast in a Burmese teahouse

Patrons air kiss loudly to attract the staff’s attention, their eyes on the football match on TV and their minds on teashop gossip. Stop for a bowl of mohinga – the nation’s favourite noodle soup, or refuel with a char kway (a Chinese-style doughnut) dunked in a delicious cup of sweet, milky tea.

A visit to Myanmar is a magical experience. Take this tailor-made Myanmar Highlights trip and explore Yangon, with its busy harbour bustling markets and glistening pagodas. Encounter meditating Buddhas and traditional villages, and be awestruck by mystical Mandalay’s hidden gems.

2. Float down the Irrawaddy

Climb aboard your vessel of choice and float downstream to see a slice of riverside life – and remember to keep an eye out for rare Irrawaddy dolphins. See our tailor-made trip to the Famous Waterways of Myanmar and you will experience Myanmar as never before. Cruise along the Irrawaddy River, take a boat trip around Inle Lake and Sagar and fly over Bagan and its many temples in a hot-air balloon.

3. Relive the Raj

Nowhere are these echoes louder than in Pyin Oo Lwin, a former hill station. Here horse-drawn carriages trundle past mouldering teakwood mansions and a bell cast for George V’s Silver Jubilee still chimes from the town’s Purcell Tower.

4. Enjoy local food and drink culture

Enthusiastic tea drinkers, the Burmese are one of the few cultures to eat tea as well, in the form of lahpet thouq or tealeaf salad. Irregular, caramel-coloured lumps of jaggery are one of the great pleasures of a Burmese meal. Made from boiled toddy palm sap and jokingly called “Burmese chocolate”, jaggery is exceedingly addictive. Try it plain or flavoured with coconut shreds and sesame seeds.

All over Myanmar, you’ll see spindly bamboo ladders disappearing into spiky Palmyra palm trees – a sure sign that a toddy tapper is at work nearby. The palm’s sweet, white sap ferments naturally into toddy, a cloudy, lightly alcoholic beverage also called palm wine or tan-ye.

Myanmar’s only home-grown alcoholic drink toddy is only available from low-key village bars close to where it’s made. Tasting it one of the unique things to do in Myanmar.

Jaggery in Myanmar @ Image by Jo James

5. Explore Buddhism’s quirky side

Climb to the Golden Rock, a precarious gold-crusted boulder held in place for centuries by a few strands of Buddha’s hair. Meet alchemist monks searching for the secret to eternal life at Hpa-An’s crag-top pagoda and clamber through the insides of a vast concrete Buddha outside Mawlamyine.

6. Join a nat ceremony

Myanmar’s native belief system – that the world is suffused by a collection of unruly nats who require frequent mollification with alcohol, music and money – contrasts sharply with Buddhism. However, many Burmese people happily believe in both. Catch the country’s largest nat ceremony in Taungbyone each August, or head to Mount Popa, Myanmar’s most important centre of nat worship.

7. Take your time on a Burmese train

However, in exchange for risking a bruised bum and late arrival, train travellers are rewarded with one of the best things to do in Myanmar - a fantastic chance to interact with local people. From friendly fellow passengers and holidaying monks to the poised ladies who sway down the aisle selling snacks from trays balanced precariously on their heads.

8. Try thanaka

9. Rock famous Burmese items

Pick out your favourite design and take it to a tailor, who will sew it up for you and you’re all set. Just ensure that it’s tied tightly enough to avoid any inadvertent flashing. Also, note other famous Burmese handicrafts, for example, the elegant Shan paper umbrellas, which can be both an accessory and a great gift from a trip.

10. Sample village life

Whichever hike you choose, you’ll have the opportunity to stay overnight in Shan and Palaung villages along each trail which something that isn’t yet possible elsewhere in Myanmar. It offers the opportunity to experience rural life first-hand, with roosters for alarm clocks and water buffalo for trail mates.

11. Shop at Bogyoke Aung San (Scott Market)

The modern market is an attractive and atmospheric place, albeit a million miles away from the ramshackle chaos of your average Myanmar bazaar. It also hosts the best collection of craft and souvenir shops under a single roof in the country. The most upmarket and touristy shops are the streetside places under the arcade fronting Bogyoke Aung San Road, many of them stuffed with huge quantities of Myanmar jade.

12. Get wet during Thingyan

As temperatures soar each April, everyday life grinds to a halt and children and teenagers take to the streets to soak each other and passers-by (foreigners are singled out with particular relish) with buckets and out-sized water pistols. Festivities reach fever pitch in Mandalay, where streets are lined with makeshift stages from which revellers hose down passing motorists to a booming soundtrack of local hits.

13. Watch the sunset over the ancient temples of Bagan

While visiting Bagan, you'll be amazed by the Ananda Paya one of the largest and most stunning of all the Bagan temples, its landmark spire rising 52m high above the surrounding plains. The Ananda is generally considered the culminating masterpiece of early-period Bagan architecture.

Where to stay in Bagan

• For price and quality: Bagan View Hotel
• For couples: The Hotel @ Tharabar Gate

Find more accommodation options to stay in Bagan.

14. Exploring Inle Lake - one of the best things to do in Myanmar

To the east is the delightful town of Nyaungshwe, which functions as the main base for Inle Lake. This is the most popular attraction in Shan State by far, and one of the best things to do in Myanmar. The overwhelming majority of those who visit go on a boat tour of some description, but other drawcards include a charming winery, a soothing hot spring resort and scores of great restaurants.

This exciting, active tailor-made Off the Beaten Track trip is split into two parts: the first takes in the best that Southern Myanmar has to offer, including Yangon and Inle Lake; whilst the second ventures off the beaten track, exploring ancient pagodas, rivers, mountains and caves.

15. Be amazed by Mandalay Royal Palace

The whole area is still a functional part of town, though one controlled by the military and, as such, mostly off-limits to foreigners. You’re free to visit the shops and teahouses just off the main road heading in from the east, but precious little else bar the reconstructed palace at the centre.

Where to stay in Mandalay

• For budget stays: Ostello Bello Mandalay
• For families: Dragon Phoenix Hotel

Find more accommodation options to stay in Mandalay.

16. Pay respect at the Shwedagon Pagoda

The pagoda is the most revered in Myanmar, said to enshrine eight strands of hair of the historical Buddha, Gautama, along with further relics of his three predecessors. The pagoda remains not only the holiest shrine in Myanmar but also a potent symbol of national identity and a major rallying point for the pro-democracy movement since colonial times.

Visiting the pagoda remains one of the magical things to do in Myanmar at any time of the day or night. It is particularly beautiful around sunset when locals come to pray and the great gilded stupa seems almost to catch fire in the last of the day’s light.

17. Walk across U Bein Bridge

A visit to the bridge can complicate some day-trip itineraries – most visitors like to walk the length of the bridge, so unless you want to walk it twice, ask your driver to pick you up from the other end. It’s also possible to rent paddle boats here; these are usually only available at the western end, where most of the tour buses drop off.

Ready for a trip to Myanmar? Check out the snapshot of The Rough Guide to Myanmar (Burma).

If you prefer to plan and book your trip to Myanmar without any effort and hassle, use the expertise of our local travel experts to make sure your trip will be just like you dream it to be.

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