Myanmar is one of those countries you can perfectly travel solo. There was not even one situation I felt inconvenient or unsafe. In this post, I’m sharing with you some Myanmar travel tips, how to travel Myanmar and I’m showing you a perfect first-timers itinerary covering all the highlights of this wonderful country.

How to book a trip to Myanmar?

If you decide to go to Myanmar, plan your itinerary according to the time you have. I had two weeks and wanted to see as much as possible. While researching I found Luminous Journeys, a local travel agency, which I can strongly recommend. Soe Soe, the owner, was super professional and very fast in her response. After sending her an email with my requests I had a complete tour plan including hotel proposals in my inbox the next morning. She booked all hotels, domestic flights and transfers from airports to hotels. In the end, I didn’t have to take care of any organizational details while I was in Myanmar. Time was short and precious and the last thing I wanted to do was checking flights or searching hotels while travelling.

In each region I arrived, a guide with a driver was waiting for me to take me to my hotel. They were all very nice, friendly and totally reliable. I never had to wait even one minute, no matter what time my pick up was. The guides tell you some stories about the place, gives you some suggestions on sights and teaches you some Burmese so that you can at least say Hello and Thank you 😉

How to pay in Myanmar?

Payment is still a bit outdated in Myanmar. When you book with an agency, I recommend you to pay the deposit via PayPal, even if you will be charged a commission. Don’t use bank transfer, because the foreign bank charges the hell of a lot. You can pay the rest in US Dollars upon arrival. But be aware that the bills have to be pretty much new. Don’t fold them! They may not be crinkled or slightly torn, not even half a millimetre. So pay attention when you withdraw the money from the bank. For everyday life in Myanmar use the local ATMs and get local money, called Kyat (pronounced Chat). Most of the hotels take credit cards by the way. When you research travel guides on how to pay, you get different information. Some tell you to bring enough dollars and some say credit cards are not accepted.

I arrived with my big bundle of Dollars to pay the travel agency, half of them useless because I didn’t pay enough attention to how the bills looked like…

Here’s another Myanmar guide by fellow travel blogger colleague Johansson.

Tipping in Myanmar

I usually need a few days until I feel comfortable with the amounts I tip. Every country is different and speaking of Myanmar the people do not earn a lot of money. The ones working in tourism are happy to get a tip. But how much is appropriate? 1000 Kyat is 0,65 Euro. A guide who picked me up at the airport brought me to the hotel and explained some sights, some must-sees and dos and don’ts usually gets between 5000 and 10000 Kyat – depending on how much time you spend with him. The bellhop gets 1000 Kyat. These are only some indications I can give you according to my experience and chats with the locals.